Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship team Handy Motorsport almost secured its third outright top 15 finish of the season at Rockingham International Super Sportscar Circuit on Sunday, 6th September, on Robb Holland’s final weekend with the Swindon squad.

With rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the campaign marking the American’s final outing with the Webb Garden Power Equipment and KÄRCHER-backed outfit, as team principal Simon Belcher prepares to make his return to race action later this month at Silverstone, Holland produced another series of strong performances on his season swansong.

Qualifying didn’t go to plan, unfortunately, when an excursion out of Turn One during the opening minutes compromised the session somewhat. Holland was, though, able to hit back with a lap of 1m24.354 seconds right at the end of the run to secure 24th on the grid in the Toyota Avensis for the opening encounter.

Making a good start to round 22, Holland held 21st position initially before moving into the top 20 shortly after. Although held out wide at Tarzan mid-lap, he maintained a top 20 placing into lap two after Jason Plato pitted with suspension damage.

Climbing into 19th place the next time around, Holland then closed up behind the Ford Focus of Mike Bushell with just 0.3 seconds separating the pair. Particularly close to Bushell through the infield section, Holland’s pressure told on lap six at Deene and he happily grabbed 18th place.

With 2.7 seconds to make up to the next quintet, Holland set about trying to close the gap but also had to be mindful of the recovering Bushell with all of the cars running very similar times. By lap 11, Bushell had closed to within 0.5 seconds of the rear of the Toyota but the American held firm and on lap 12 he moved up into 16th position as a result of problems for a couple of rivals.

Breaking into the top 15 a lap later, Holland continued to fend off Bushell as the race entered its closing stages but at Deene on the final lap the Ford was able to edge past the Toyota and the move also enabled Nick Foster to pounce in his BMW – demoting Holland to a still strong 17th place finish.

“Robb had a reasonably good weekend from the beginning, he was sixth fastest in the wet in free practice one and 16th on slicks so it was a good start”, said team boss Belcher, “We made some changes to the car, made some progress with it, but didn’t really have time to fully test the changes in FP2 so went into qualifying a bit blind really.

“The little moment he had early in qualifying did knock the confidence, so we spent the rest of the session making some adjustments again. Race one was strong though, Robb’s lap times were good and he battled his way through to P15 very well. It’s just unfortunate he was held out wide on the last lap and we missed out on the car being back in the overall points again.”

Beginning round 23 from 22nd position, Holland – running on the Soft compound Dunlop tyres for the second race – got away well from the line and after placing the Toyota in the right position at Deene Hairpin, he grabbed 21st place and then took 20th at Yentwood.

Following a big slide at Tarzan, Holland smartly managed to get the car pointing in the right direction but it did compromise him and he was edged back again to 21st place. Struggling with grip more and more as the race progressed, Holland eventually took the chequered flag in 22nd position.

Frustratingly, his final race with the Wiltshire team – round 24 – didn’t deliver the grandstand finish everyone hoped for after being put wide on the opening lap. Having made a good start, Holland was elbowed out on the run into Steel Straight and after a couple of pit visits he eventually had to retire on lap four.

“It’s a real shame we couldn’t sign off with a good race three for Robb, but it’s been great working with him the last three events and everyone at Handy Motorsport wishes him well for whatever he does next”, added Belcher, “I obviously can’t wait to be back in the car at Silverstone in a few weeks, it’s been good focusing on the management side but now I’m ready to be back behind the wheel!”

The annual visit of the BTCC to Silverstone National Circuit, the penultimate event of the 2015 season, will take place over the weekend 26th/27th September.

2015 Dunlop MSA BTCC HiQ Teams Championship (after Rd24):

14th Handy Motorsport, 5pts

2015 Dunlop MSA BTCC Independents Team Trophy (after Rd24):

9th Handy Motorsport, 125pts