James Nash: “It’s about time really”

James Nash was delighted to win his first race in the British Touring Car Championship, and storm into the lead of the independent drivers’ standings, with Triple Eight also moving ahead of Motorbase Performance at the weekend, despite becoming a one car effort for the first time this year whilst their Ford Focus equipped rivals expanded to three.

“It’s getting harder and harder towards the end of the year as the car’s been getting slower and slower as the others have been developing,” said Nash to TouringCarTimes.

“Things played into our hands in that race with the rear-wheel drives in a way, being slow at the beginning allowed us to get a bit of a gap, and Rob obviously wanted to get up on the podium as well, I don’t think he was pushing too hard for the win so that could have been a positive on that front.”

Nash’s win in Round 24 is the first for the team since Fabrizio Giovanardi won at Round 2 of the championship last year at Thruxton, and the 108th for the team in the championship.

“It’s fantastic and it’s about time really as well. The team kept saying to me that ever since they’ve started they’ve always won a race each year and this year they’re relying on me solely to do,” said Nash, though the team had embellished slightly, as the team didn’t take a win in their debut season in 1997.

Nash’s lead was eaten away by the Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) specification Audi A4 of Rob Austin in the later stages of the race for an exciting climax, but Nash just managed to hold off Austin to take his first victory.

Nash now leads the independent drivers’ standings by 24 points over Mat Jackson, who had a tough weekend in the Motorbase Performance Ford, and Triple Eight have now taken a 20 point lead over Motorbase in the independent teams’ standings, as well as moving up to third overall behind the two manufacturer efforts of Honda and Chevrolet.

“In theory I shouldn’t be able to win the main championship being an independent entrant…it’d be nice to try and get up as high in that championship as we can but the independents’ is the one we should be aiming for to win, and we’re leading it again so that’s what we’re going for.”