Chris Smiley happy with front row start

Chris Smiley declared himself pleased with a front row starting position after matching his best qualifying result of the BTCC season at Silverstone.

The BTC Racing man headed into the home weekend for the Honda team looking to build on a solid showing last time out at Knockhill, where he picked up three strong points finishes in his Honda Civic Type R.

Having lapped inside the top five in practice, Smiley then found himself firmly in the mix for pole position before eventually ending up second to Jason Plato on the grid for Sunday’s opening race.

“I’m happy with second although I would have been happier with first!” he said. “If you look at my ultimate lap time, it was a tenth of a second quicker than the others so I know that was left in the car.

“Qualifying was so close that if you missed your braking point by a few metres, it was the difference between the front row and 15th place. A little bit of traffic cost me that little extra time I needed but we’re on the front row and that is what matters.”

Smiley has yet to secure victory this season, and the Northern Irishman insisted that putting that right was his goal for race day.

“We haven’t won yet this season, so that has to be the aim,” he said. “Me, Matt [Neal], Tom [Ingram] and Jason aren’t in the title fight and we’re all hungry to try and secure that victory tomorrow.

“It won’t be easy but then it never is in the BTCC. We know we have good race pace so it’s down to me to get the car off the line and then see what happens.”