James Pickford ended the 2005 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch on a high by coming 2nd in the final race of the season. He would have taken a win had it not been for a coming together with Rob Collard on lap 13. Once again, James had looked strong all weekend and but for a number of mechanical problems during the weekend, could have ended on the Podium in all three races

A driveshaft problem meant that James qualifying was ruined. Having spent half of the session in the pits whilst the team frantically replaced his driveshaft, he was forced to qualify a car not fully set up. He was then forced to start the opening race from the pit lane as the SEAT Sport UK team identified and then had to rectify a clutch problem, just before the start.

Joining the field at the back of the grid James raced hard to finish 9th . He then drove a great race in Round 29 to come from 8th position through to 4th. A kamikaze move by Gareth Howell, who lunged up the inside of him at Graham Hill Bend, sent him spinning. He managed to rejoin and finish in 6th .

James had an awesome start from 5th on the grid in the final race to climb to 3rd by the first corner. He overtook Jason Hughes to climb to 2nd where he stayed for 13 laps hounding leader Rob Collard before he took the lead coming out of Stirling Bend. Although clearly in front, Collard decided to use James’ car to brake for the corner, the two touching at Clearways. A great save by James saw him maintain his position and he went on to take 2nd place.

James said : "It's been a strange weekend and because of the circumstances I was only really able to show my true pace in the last race. In the second Gareth Howell lunged up the inside of me down at Graham Hill Bend and punted me off. He did come and apologise afterwards saying that it was his fault, which I thought was very big of him really, as there's not many people in the pit lane that would do that. It's annoying because my car was mint and we had some decent pace, it was a great race it's just a shame about some of the dirty tactics that went on."

"The lads did a cracking job getting the car together for the final race and the car was spot on. Rob Collard made a mistake coming out of Stirling Bend and I got up the inside of him on the exit which put me on the outside for Clark Curve. I was pulling away from him and I looked over and I couldn't see him and I knew I had the line. There's no way at that speed, on the line that he was on, that he would have made it around the corner, so he had to use me as a brake. It's unfortunate because I had the pace to win the race and I go punted off the track but these things happen and you've got to make the most of it. I'm happy though to have gained another podium for SEAT and myself.

"There's been a lot of up and downs for me this weekend but I'm over the moon to end the weekend like that. It's been a great year and I feel really sad that the season's now come to an end. One thing's for certain - you can be sure I'll be working hard over the winter and I'll come back even stronger next year. "

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