NORTH Hampshire drivers Rob Collard and Nick Foster had mixed fortunes in the latest round of the British Touring Championship at Rockingham last weekend.

Hook’s Collard collected two top 10 finishes, while Odiham’s Foster was knocked out of race two and the car could not be fixed for race three.

Collard, currently in fifth place in the overall championship, kept himself in with a chance of a top three finish with a solid haul of points after an 11th, ninth and sixth place finishes.

Collard had hoped to build on his victory in the previous round at Knockhill, but managed to only qualify 16th and from there on it was always going to be tough.

Collard said: “It is never easy to overtake at Rockingham, as it was at Knockhill where I came through the field.

“We closed up in the infield, but then lost ground on the straights. I am happy with what we achieved and it keeps me in touch with the leaders with six races to go.”

Odiham’s Foster started 15th in race one and finished 15th and then in race two was just in the top 10 when he was hit by Dave Newsham, whose tyre had blown and was out of control on the grass.

Foster said: “I never saw him coming as I went round the hairpin.

“Luckily it hit the car on the other side from where I sit, but it cracked the chassis and the team felt it was not safe for me to drive in race three.”

A very disappointed Foster added: “This is the seventh time this season I have been involved in other people’s accidents and it is beginning to get me down.”

Collard’s son Ricky Collard, racing in the Formula Ford Championship, one of the support races of the BTCC, looked set for a hat-trick of scholarship podium places, when his exhaust manifold snapped on the car, forcing him to come into the pits with three laps left in his final outing.

In his first two races he had finished fifth and fourth in the overall race, which was second both times in the scholarship class.

Basingstoke Skip Hire- backed Junior Ginetta driver Jack Rawles had an excellent first race of the weekend, as he came fifth, but in his second outing he could only finish 10th.

The next round of the championship is at Silverstone on the last weekend of September.