Rob Collard൩ enjoyed what he classed as 'one of the best drives of his career' at Oulton Park after falling just short of a podium finish from the bac🐽k of the field in race three.

Collard headed to Oulton on the back of his second win of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car C𓃲hampionship season at Donington Park and he qualified ninth on the grid for the opening race.

Having battled for position for long periods with the Vauxhall of Andrew Jordan, he eventu🐷ally finished the race in ninth place but race two was over before𝓰 it began after he suffered a broken propshaft on his way to the grid and was forced back into the pits.

That left Collard to start the final race of the day from down in 20th on the grid but by the end of th𝔉e opening lap, he had already climbed up to eleventh, and the picked his rivals off at will to climb up 🐼to fourth.

Despite his b🍌est efforts, Collard was unable to find a way past the Vectra of Matt Neal and had to settle for fourth, although he was still delighted with his result at the end of a day which had looked like ending in disappointment a matter of hours earlier.

"The Airwaves BMW was absolutely fantastic race three, it just felt fast in every corner all the way through. I got a blinding start and after that I just found it quite easy because there was no weight on the car and the guys in front seemed to make mistakes and come back to me. I have to rate that as one of the best drives of my career. I had a similar race through from the back here last year, but to do it against the quality opposition I was up against today was very satisfying. It was disappointing not to pick up more points🌸 in the fi𒉰rst two races from a championship point of view, but I enjoyed the last race so much it almost made up for it."

With team-mate Jonathan Adam having earlier finished the opening race on the podi🦂um, team bo♌ss David Bartrum was a happy man and admitted that a strong result at Croft next time out would now set the team up well for the second half of the season.

"What can I say about that last race?" he said. "Rob's drive was incredible, he was the star man without a shadow of a doubt. It was such a good drive it almost felt like we had won at the end, it was a sensational fightback from where he was on the grid. With Jonny showing what he can do by taking another podium we can be pretty pleased with our performance he♑re at Oulton this weekend.

"If we ♛can put in another really good showing✱ at the next round at Croft we can go into the summer break on a high and be nicely setup for the second half of the season."