Weather washes out Onslow-Cole's hopes (From Kingston Guardian)

Weather washes out Onslow-Cole's hopes

1:00pm Friday 4th May 2012 in Sport By Stuart Amos

New Malden’s Tom Onslow-Cole is hoping a spell of dry weather can reignite his British Touring Car Championship hopes this summer.

The 24-year-old endured a miserable third weekend of the season at a rain-swept Thruxton on Sunday, as the wet weather played havoc with the race set-up of his rear-wheel drive Team eBay Motors BMW.

Onslow-Cole finished eighth, 13th and 10th in the three rounds having been 10th fastest in qualifying – run in largely dry conditions on Saturday.

“We’ve been focused on finding an ideal set-up and the small changes we made to the car during qualifying at Thruxton made a real difference,” he said.

“Sadly, the wet conditions meant raceday was a bit of a write-off because, being rear-wheel drive, the BMW isn’t strong when there’s a lot of standing water.

“There was so much spray, you couldn’t see past the end of your bonnet and avoiding the puddles came down to luck.

“It became a complete lottery.

“I still believe we will win more races and we are definitely still in the championship fight.

“All we need is consistently warm weather conditions – something this country isn’t exactly famous for.”

Oulton Park is next on the schedule on June 10.