Eoin Murray put his British Touring Car Championship season firmly back on track at Snetterton on Sunday with two top ten finishes, as he kept up with the pace set by the front-running teams in his privately-entered Alfa 156.

The weekend got off to a difficult start with problems in both practice sessions leaving almost no track time before qualifying. Regardless of the problems Eoin managed to qualify the car in 13th position for the first 18 lap race. Murray showed good speed in race 1 climbing up to 9th position before a broken engine mount on lap 8 halted his progress. The Arguscarhire.com driver only lost 1 place to Jason Plato and almost got the car to the finish when on the penultimate lap another engine mount broke because of the strain and put an end to his race. The 2005 European Alfa Champion commented “I was comfortable in 9th position until the mount broke, after that it was a case of staying off the kerbs and try to nurse the car home. Unfortunately the other mount broke 2 laps from the finish, I was actually amazed it lasted that long.

The non finish in race 1 meant Eoin had to start from 20th position for race 2. Eoin made a good start and moved to 16th position after the 1st lap. By lap 10 Eoin had moved to 10th position setting the fastest Independent lap time of the race. Still setting competitive times in the remaining laps Eoin finished 7th which left him in a good position for race 3. Race 3 was a little more difficult for the Dublin driver as the track temperature increased the Alfa struggled in the latter stages of the race with overheating tyres. Once again Eoin set the fastest independent lap time and the second fastest time overall only .277 away from the BTCC lap record.
 

Eoin commented “This was our best race so far this season. We had trouble on Saturday which meant we were a little compromised for a perfect setup. Although the results were good I don’t think they really reflected our true race pace. Our race pace was really strong in all three races, It was only during the last five laps of the final race we struggled with the tyres overheating and a broken front splitter made matters worse. I am delighted to get my season back on track and I hope we can build on this for the remaining rounds this season.”

At the front Team Halfords’ Gordon Shedden, Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi and, for the first time in his career, Team RAC’s Tom Onslow-Cole shared the wins in today’s three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds at a hot and sunny Snetterton circuit in Norfolk. Onslow-Cole’s victory – which makes him the eighth different winner so far in 2007. Notably, though, Giovanardi’s victory, plus fifth and third place finishes have enabled him to reduce the gap to series leader, SEAT’s Jason Plato from 25 points to just 14 as the title race heads next to the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent on Sunday 19 August. After finishing behind Giovanardi in races one and two with eighth and third places, Plato looked to have his Italian rival beaten in race three, but their cars controversially collided and ran off the track with the Vauxhall driver rejoining a place ahead.