Dan Rowbottom eager to make front row count

Dan Rowbottom says he hopes that race day at Croft will be the moment his 2022 BTCC campaign kicks into gear after qualifying on the front row of the grid.

The Team Dynamics driver headed to North Yorkshire sitting outside the top ten in the standings after a difficult start to the campaign yielded just three top six finishes from the opening twelve races.

Rowbottom however was on the pace in practice, where he was second quickest to team-mate Gordon Shedden in FP2, and then emerged as the closest rival to Colin Turkington in an action-packed qualifying session.

Second on the grid marks his best qualifying result of the campaign to date, with Rowbottom now hoping to convert it into a solid haul of points on race day.

“It feels like it has been a long time coming, as we’ve had our moments this season but today is when it finally came together,” he said. “Of course, qualifying and the races are two different things, but I think we have seen this year with the new hybrid cars that it is easier to race from the front than it is to try and come through.

“Qualifying was tricky as the red flags ruined the flow and meant we had to change our tyre plan a bit, so the lap probably should have come a bit earlier, although we got it in the end which is what matters.

“I feel we’ll have a good race car tomorrow and hopefully from the front, that will be when 2022 starts for me.”