Brands Hatch: James Nash event summary

Fun in the sun for Nash at season finale

James Nash rounded off his first full season in the Dunlop MSA British touring car championship with 3 solid top ten finishes in the glorious autumn sunshine of a packed Brands Hatch. James even had the satisfaction of pulling off a stunning overtaking manoeuvre on newly crowned champion Jason Plato in the final race of the day in front of a crowd of over 42,000 at the scenic Kent Venue.

Nash was disappointed to qualify seventh, with all the times being so close the positions in the top ten were decided by luck in finding a clear run on the crowded short track as much as anything else.

A superb start and first few corners saw the young Newport Pagnell driver jump up to 4th in race one and then hold that place against stiff opposition for much of the race, finally dropping back to 8th after a couple of "muscular" moves from the competition. Another good start in race two put James in contention for a top 6 finish but he dropped to 9th by the end. Returning to the pits the whole right hand side of his Vectra seemed to be wearing paint from one of the Airwaves BMW's, explaining the loss of 3 places.

The season ending race 3 saw James put in a feisty drive from 9th through to 7th, on the way making his clean and spectacular pass on Plato. Nash summed up his day "the sun shone, there was some fantastic racing a big crowd and lots of overtaking, this is what touring cars is about! I think we've had a good year, I feel I've learnt a lot and I'm set for racing at the front and challenging for race wins and titles in 2011.

-source: james nash