Rob Austin missed out on a podium finish at British Touring Car Championship at Croft on Sunday by just 0.041 seconds.

After a fantastic battle with double champion Jason Plato during the second half of race three of the weekend, Austin looked to have just done enough to keep his rival at bay and secure third place. On the sprint to the chequered flag, though, the superior turbo boost of Plato’s Subaru Levorg told and he was able to steal the final spot on the outright podium by fractions.

Even so, fourth place for Austin in his front-wheel drive Toyota Avensis marked a terrific result at a track most suited to rear-wheel drive cars and he also finished in second place in the Independents Trophy battle for Swindon’s Handy Motorsport team.

Earlier in the day Austin finished 11th in round 13, having started 17th on the grid and in round 14 he was an improved eighth – second again in the Independents battle. Notably, Austin has closed to within just three points of the Independents championship lead.

“I would dearly have loved to get on that podium and reward the boys and everyone but, in the end, he [Plato] out-boosted me,” said Austin.

“To be fair, Jason drove really well and the nice thing about racing with him is you know he’s not going to try and fire you off the circuit and you can have a really strategic, hard-but-fair battle with him. So although I lost out, I really enjoyed the challenge.

“In the wet in free practice we had a really good car, and left a bit on the table as well, so we looked forward to qualifying but it didn’t go our way. After everything that happened in qualifying though, we were just happy to have a car in one piece but a shame not to have a representative grid slot.”

Team principal Simon Belcher added: “It was very nerve racking but Rob did a sterling job holding everyone off. Croft is a rear-wheel drive circuit, we came here knowing that and I think we did a really solid job.”

Championship leader Gordon Shedden, of Halfords Yuasa Racing, the works team of Swindon-based Honda UK, was fifth, fourth and ninth in the three races, teammate Matt Neal finishing fifth in the third race.

There is now a seven-week summer sojourn in the BTCC calendar with the second half of the season resuming at Snetteron at the end of July.