ROB Austin bettered Handy Motorsport’s best-ever finish in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship for the third event in succession at Thruxton on Sunday.

Austin fought his way back from a qualifying session that did not go to plan to clinch a standout seventh position in round nine for the Swindon-based team.

Elevating the Toyota Avensis driver into the top five of the Independents Trophy championship, his consistently strong scoring across the weekend’s three races also enabled Handy Motorsport to climb into sixth in the Independents Team Trophy and the top 10 of the HiQ Teams Championship.

“We’re all really pleased to see the team move forward again with another best result,” said team principal Simon Belcher.

“It wasn’t a straightforward weekend, with qualifying giving Rob a lot to do in the races, but he did a great job and the final race was a real highlight.

“We’ve got a bit of a break now to the next round so will spend that time working hard to ensure we’re in a position to nail qualifying at Oulton (June 4-5), and put ourselves in the best position possible for the races. The race pace was good this weekend, it’s qualifying which is our Achilles heel at the minute.”

Austin lapped eighth fastest in the second of the two practice sessions but he had a qualifying time disallowed after he was adjudged to have exceeded track limits and started round seven from 24th on the grid Making his way through the field, Austin finished 14th and started on the seventh row for the second race, which was reduced to 12 laps from 16 on the grounds of safety after a number of punctures in race one.

Again making progress, the Handy driver got himself inside the top 10 by the chequered flag before delivering his best performance yet in the final outing.

“It’s been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster again this weekend, the same as last time at Donington really," said Austin.

“We’ve been making some mistakes but we know what we need to work on before Oulton to get it sorted out. We still need to find a bit more pace too.’’