DAN EAVES may have been the hero of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton on Sunday with a hat-trick of wins - but he was a villain in the eyes of Hampshire hopeful Rob Collard.

The man from Hook was setting himself up for his best result of a troubled day when Eaves forced him into a terrifying spin at the treacherous Club Chicane.

Collard skilfully avoided crashing into the barriers, but an excursion on to the grass cost him valuable seconds.

And worse, he thumped the high curb, damaged the radiator of his WSR MG ZS and eventually had to pull in with an overheating engine.

Collard was defending sixth place when Eaves "tapped" him off and he said, with a wry smile: "It just wasn't my day. We'd got the car going well after a poor second race, but first of all I got held up by James Kaye spinning in front of me then Eaves pushed me off."

The best Collard had to offer was fifth place in the first of the BTCC races.

"We came to Thruxton on a bit of a high after some good results (including second) at Donington, but I lost a wheel in qualifying and things didn't get much better after that."

A lack of power and a touch of understeer saw Collard slip back from fourth to 11th in the second of the races when Winchester-based Kaye took ninth placein the Sychro Honda Civic Type R, after he'd damaged his radiator in a first-race spin. Kaye improved to seventh last time out, but the day belonged to Eaves, the first driver to win all three races in a day.

The first two he won with ease in the Halford Team's Honda Integra, but he had a touch of good fortune in the third when SEAT's Jason Plato, who had a good lead, was given a drive through penalty for passing under a yellow flag.

Nevertheless, Eaves made an impressive charge through the field as Collard was left ruefully to testify after he had himself roared from the back of the grid into sixth place.

The Hampshire ace will need to find an extra sponsor to complete the season with the front-running West Surrey Racing team, but is looking for better fortune next time out at Brands Hatch - one of his favourite tracks.

It was a good day for other local drivers with Salisbury's Ross Curnow staying among the Formula BMW front-runners after sixth and seventh places. Botley's Matt Harris was also running in the top ten before slipping out late in the first race.

Another Salisbury driver, Alan Blencowe, picked up third and fourth finishes in the SEAT Cupra Championship and West End Caterham star Jon Barnes took advantage of a one-off drive in the Porsche Carrera Cup by taking a solid sixth place in a race won by championship leader Richard Westbrook.