Rob Collard an apology

[norwichsam1]

At the start of the season when motorbase announced Rob Collard as the driver of one of their BMW's I was seriously dissapointed. Having never been much of a fan of Collard (as a driver, as a man I've always found him extremely likeable) I thought it was a waste of time him having the seat when there were drivers such as Eoin Murray and others out there who I believed would do a much better job in a potential front runnning car. I started the season expecting Rob to be routinely miles of Kane's pace and just there to 'make up the numbers'. And in the words of James Thompson still thought of Collard as being a 'rock ape' when it came to driving a touring car.

How wrong was I?

Not just as a result of yesterdays podium but as this season has progressed Collard has just seemed to get better and better (and not forgetting this is his first season in a rear wheel drive car) and now I would say is one of the better drivers in the BTCC, and very much deserving of his seat. If the season was to start now I think he would have every chance of going for the independants title, ok Turkington and Jackson might have a bit of an edge but they have both been in the beemers for longer and have age on their side but on his day, as was proved yesterday Collard can take the fight to them. So he has duly got my vote for Hiq's champagne moment! Well done rob. You have won over another fan. Sorry for doubting you!

[VkmSpouge]

Rob Collard has certainly improved as the season has progressed. Either him or Steven Kane could perhaps snatch a victory for Motorbase with a good draw in the reverse grid.

[mattie007]

He has recaptured the form that he had in 03 in the Astra and 05 in the MG. The difference now is that he is racing against twice as many cars and twice as many top class drivers!
And he's driving cleanly aswell. Good on Rob!

[Eurotech]

I do agree with what Tim Harvey said and that was if Rob had been on pole, he would have won. Its great to see the old Rob collard back in touring cars rather than the shrinking violet that we saw earlier!

[PDS]

Just to prove that Rob and the team read these threads posted here...

Taken from Crash.net..

"I don't want to say anything bad to anyone as everyone has their own opinions, but sometimes people should keep their opinions to themselves rather than post things on websites," he said. "It's very hard and when you are out there in front of 30,000 people it can be easy for people to criticise when you make a mistake.

"2006 wasn't my best season and there were a lot of difficulties that people don't see on the track, things behind the scenes which wasn't good. But you can't take it away, I battled hard in 2006 and while I made some mistakes, I also got some good results.

"The start of this year, Steven and myself faced a big challenge. I had been out of it for a year, Steven was coming in for his first season and we had no data for the cars; we knew nothing on set-up and we have had to work hard. But the team put their faith in me and I'm glad I could repay it, especially to David and the sponsors who have supported me. Hopefully the people on the websites will look at me more favourably in the future!"

[BDunnell]

I'll second all of that, and take back (most of) the negative stuff I've said about him in the past. Collard's been really impressive of late.

[wedge]

Just to prove that Rob and the team read these threads posted here...

Taken from Crash.net..

"I don't want to say anything bad to anyone as everyone has their own opinions, but sometimes people should keep their opinions to themselves rather than post things on websites," he said.

Sorry but I disagree with that point.

You have to learn from past mistakes and if there's people pointing the finger then the only way is to take those criticisms onboard and better yourself.

I think Collard gets a lot of the blame is because he's an average driver/midfielder (IMO) whereas the Neals and Platos are more easily forgiven they're top drivers.

An analogy would be the Sutil/Kimi incident at Monaco this year. There was talk if it was Sutil crashing into Kimi then Sutil would more likely to have been penalised.

[MBailey06]

Yes but don't you think he might realise these mistakes by himself, and not need forum members constantly telling him what he is doing wrong? Anyway brilliant result by Collard, showing the performance was there all along.

[Mark]

So we should only say nice things about drivers on forums? I'm a fan of Collard myself, especially since he often advertised these forums . But if any driver is performing poorly then it's only right they get a slating on the forums.

[BTCC2]

Credit where dredit is due though, he has had a fantastic season so far. Especially since Croft.