Yesterday was the first round of the Touring Car Masters, which was the debut race of the SBR/Mercedes race car. After a shaky start due to the new signing in procedure and missing qualifying, Sam Billing put up a fight for the whole night to take a midfield finish of 4-4-3, meaning 13th overall.

Starting at the back in race 1 swift progress was made for all of one lap, before catching the aftermath of an unwarned 2 car crash at the first chicane, resulting in a safety car period. The #220 car pitted and got off to a decent re-entry to the race, fighting hard to take 4th in the first round.

In race 2 Sam held 4th with a minor bump in chicane 3 being the only downer on the race.

Race 3 did not favour the SBR driver, after getting bumped in the formation lap the rear aero was slightly damaged, but nothing too bad. A good start and pushing hard allowed Sam to take 2nd place after WWR aero and AJZeroe made mistakes and crashed out. The driver in first place was Chucky 1982, and at times it looked like he might be passed, only for the #220 car to have to back off to avoid an incident. Halfway around the roundabout Chucky got out of shape, causing Sam to brake sharply so as not to rear end him, this allowed Davey Jones to catch up even further and eventually take the lobby win. The first disaster came just before the pit exit, where jenson09, about to be lapped, moved to the left hand side of the track which was about to be occupied by the now storming Mercedes of Sam. After a brief barrage of expletives at the SBR mascot (Gromit the hedgehog) that cannot be published.
Sam returned to the track, now on a mission to keep distance between himself and AJZero, the 4th place driver itching for a lobby A 3rd. It was going well until the penultimate lap, when an unauthorized radio transmission momentarily distracted Sam, causing him to clip the tyre wall in the first chicane. More expletives were issued at the offending wall, before the race course was resumed. With AJ closing fast and barely 300bhp left, the #220 gave everything it had to fend off the impending overtake.With AJ just over 400ft away the last lap was a nervous time, but in the end it was just enough to allow Sam to take 3rd, a a series best for the SBR driver.

We caught up with Sam shortly after the race, where he had this to say;

'Race 3 was a mixture of emotions, I was disappointed that I didn't get the chance to give Chucky a good race after the incident with jenson. Talking of that I hold nothing against him, it was a racing incident, which happens. jenson apologised there and then, which is very sportsmanlike of him. The was working well for me, while not the fastest in the field, it was holding it's own, and a number of times I was right on Chucky's back bumper, if only the straights were longer and the track wider in the corners! Hopefully the next round will see an improvement, testing will begin as soon as the car comes off the transport plane this evening.'