Rob Collard fears the true spirit of the Independents Cup has been lost as he surveys the strength of the opposition in this year's Green Flag British Touring Car Championship.

The hard-charging driver from Hook in Hampshire began his defence of the privateers' trophy at Thruxton on Easter Sunday - and the best he could manage was third place in the new three-race touring car format.

His rivals in the Independents Cup include two semi- works teams from Honda and MG and, in the next round at Brands Hatch on April 25, it will get even tougher when New Forest's Justin Keen drives out in one of the European Touring Car Championship's BMW 320i's.

"It's going to be a big ask retaining the trophy, but not an impossible one," said Collard, who admitted the arrival of factory-supported teams has made it a lot harder for the privately-entered drivers.

He revealed that his two-year-old Vauxhall Astra Coupe was down on pace at Thruxton and promised better at Brands in two weeks' time.

The new format of reversing the grid from the first to second races produced exciting racing on Sunday. Tenth place in the first race took pole position on the grid for the second and Collard had a tremendous battle with Honda's young Tom Chilton before having to settle for 11th in the opening round.

It meant he was back on the fifth row of the grid for the second race but, with two expected front-runners James Thompson and Matt Neal crashing out in the early stages, Collard quickly moved up to fifth place. Although he closed up on Michael Bentwood and Dan Eaves, he couldn't push on past.

"I didn't have the pace to get by," said Collard. "I tried new dampers and they just didn't work in qualifying or in the races themselves. We'll have to strip everything down and make sure we don't have the same suspension problems at Brands."

At the front of the pack the 2001 touring car champion Jason Plato was creating a sensation by out- muscling defending champion Yvan Muller to bring the Seat Toledo Cupra victory in its BTCC debut.

He sandwiched two Vauxhall Astra wins, from James Thompson and then Muller, who was a comfortable winner in the third and last race in which Collard finished eighth overall.

The Hampshire ace got badly baulked early in the race and lost three places so it was another old Hampshire favourite, James Kaye, who kept the home fires burning with fighting seventh place in a Honda Civic Type R. Last year's Independents Cup runner-up spent a good deal of the race locked in battle with Colin Turkington in the MG ZS.

It's from the West Surrey Racing team's brace of MGs and Team Dynamics, who are running Matt Neal and Dan Eaves in a pair of ex-works Honda Civics, that Collard's biggest challenge is going to come. While Collard could only manage third, fourth and fifth places in the Independents' section, Neal followed Thompson home in race one and Antony Reid, in the other MG, was runner-up to Muller.

Salisbury 16-year-old Ross Curnow was Rookie Cup winner in the first round of the Formula BMW Championship and Matt Harris from Curdridge brought the Team Virgin Mobile Barwell car home in ninth place second time out. He retired after being forced wide on to the grass in the early stages of the first race.