HAMPSHIRE touring car driver Rob Collard showed he has courage as well as great driving skill with a superb start-to-finish win at Knockhill.

The Cove ace achieved only his second win of the season in the Vectra SRI V6 Challenge just days after walking away from a massive accident at Thruxton.

Collard destroyed his car when he wrapped it into the crash barriers when duelling for second place with Jason Yeomans on the one but last lap at Thruxton.

His win at Knockhill in Fife was achieved in a brand new car, hurriedly prepared in just a week after his Thruxton mishap.

Behind Collard, Championship leader Dave Pinkney had problems passing Londoner Graham Coomes. He managed to get by after a few hectic moments before deciding to settle for a safe second place.

Collard took advantage of their battle, explaining: "I got a great start and as we went into the sweep at Duffus, I saw Pinkney and Coomes tripping over each other.

"That gave me the break I needed. I pushed really hard for the first five laps to build up a good advantage and was then able to back off a little and look after the car without really having to worry about being caught."

Collard's win, his first since the opening race of the season, moves him up to third in the championship, just five points behind second-placed Alan Morrison, who qualified fourth but had to start from the back of the grid when his engine refused to fire up before the formation lap.

Championship positions after ten of 14 rounds: 1 D Pinkney 101 points, 2 A Morrison 81, 3 R Collard 76, 4 J Yeomans 68. Next race: Brands Hatch - August 30.

Nissan have already wrapped up the manufacturers' title in the Auto Trader British Touring Car Championship after a win for Laurent Aiello in the sprint race and a third for David Leslie in the feature race.

The shine was taken off Aiello's day when he was excluded from the points in the feature race for punt-ing Renault driver Jason Plato off the circuit.

Aiello went on to finish sixth but stewards later docked his five points which means the Frenchman, a BTCC rookie this year, had his championship lead over Leslie cut to 14 points with six rounds remaining.

There was no sentimental farewell to Knockhill circuit for Scottish veteran driver John Cleland who is retiring from touring car racing at the end of the season. The Vauxhall ace had to settle for eighth and ninth places on a day when Alain Menu gave the Ford Mondeo its first win of the season.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.