Qualifying on the Saturday had been a frustrating affair and typified the first half of the season. "After free practice
I thought I'd be in the top five or six as that's where I'd been all morning. We changed the brake pads as I had a
problem with locking fronts going into a few of the corners and afterwards the first half of the brake pedal worked
but as I pushed it down further it didn't, so in effect I didn't have any brakes. Then both sets started locking and by
the end of the session I'd only managed one flying lap. It's really frustrating as I know the speed's there but I just
couldn't show it.” commented Pickford of the day.

The three BTCC races at Croft were extremely tough with hot and humid conditions making it all the more difficult for the drivers as in-car temperatures soared. James had understeer problems all day, but having finished 10th and 8th in the first two races he ran in 2nd place for much of Round 15 before equalling his best BTCC finish with 4th .

James said : "I'm happy to have finished fourth in the final race although I would have been happier with third. I had a mega start and tried to stay with Dan Eaves. I let Matt Neal through as he was obviously so much quicker and there seemed little point in me defending as I would have slowed myself down in the process and allowed everyone else to catch up. A couple of laps before the end of the race I suffered some understeer again and I was locking up all over the place.

I saw a SEAT coming up behind me and soon realised it was Jason. I made a mistake on the last lap and ran wide allowing him through, but I've got no complaints about that as we work as a team. I'm really pleased with the result and we really needed it to happen here. It's been a tough weekend because if you don't qualify well it makes your whole weekend difficult and we had some problems with the brakes during Saturday's session but I feel like we've made some progress here and a podium's not too far away."

2005 BTCC points (after Round 15)

Drivers
1. Matt Neal….179pts
2. Dan Eaves….152pts
3. Yvan Muller….151pts
4. Jason Plato….122pts
5. Rob Collard….98pts
6. Tom Chilton….63pts
7. James Pickford….55pts
8. Luke Hines….42pts
9. Gavin Smith….34pts
10. James Kaye….25pts

Manufacturers
1. Vauxhall….406pts
2. SEAT….366pts

Teams
1. Team Halfords….316pts
2. VX Racing….253pts
3. SEAT Sport UK….184pts
4. WSR….83pts
5. Arena Motorsports….61pts

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