Volvo & Ford Share the Spoils

Volvo and Ford were the victors at Silverstone this afternoon (Sunday) 
in rounds seven and eight of the 1995 Auto Trader RAC British Touring 
Car Championship. Swede Rickard Rydell claiming his second win of the 
season and New Zealander Paul Radisich tasting the victor's champagne 
for the first time.

Round 7 went Volvo's way only in the closing stages, Rydell finally 
siezing his chance on the exit of Becketts Corner. Radisich, his tyres 
in worse shape than the Volvo man's, had no answer to the Swede but held 
on for second place.

Third was Vauxhall's John Cleland, taking part in his 100th touring 
car race. The Scot more than made up for his fifth place grid position 
with a masterly overtaking manoevre just before half distance, when he 
leapfrogged both his young team-mate James Thompson and Renault's Will 
Hoy at Luffield to snatch third.

Thompson also found his way past Hoy to follow his Vauxhall team leader 
home for fourth.

The new Honda team put in its best showing of the year so far, David 
Leslie's Accord holding sixth place for much of the race before slipping 
back to ninth at the flag, just ahead of team-mate James Kaye.

Radisich made certain of things in round 8 - again he assumed the lead on 
lap one, but this time around he worked harder to establish a useful lead 
over Rydell, who again started from the pole. Within three laps the Kiwi 
enjoyed a 1.7 second lead over the Swede and though Rydell whittled away 
at the gap, the closest he could get by the chequered flag was 0.4 seconds.

Behind the Radisich/Rydell duel there was a furious battle for third place. 
Kelvin Burt - an early casualty in the previous race - chased the leaders 
hard in his Ford despite pressure from Alain Menu's Renault. But both Burt 
and Menu were caught by surprise by the charging Volvo of Tim Harvey, who 
snatched third with five laps to run.

Menu held on for fourth ahead of Cleland, Tim Sugden (Toyota) and Burt. 
Rydell now regains the lead of the championship with 100 points, but only 
17 points cover the top five drivers.

-- 
Stephen M Baines

 "[The Autosport sticker] started to peel off in the middle of Eau Rouge
 and it distracted me. In fact it was the first thing to hit the barrier"
    Tiff Needell - Jaguar XJR-15 Challenge - Interview with Autosport

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