Sam Tordoff was left to wonder what might have been after a day of misfortune prevented him from pushing for a first win of his BTCC return at Rockingham.

The Motorbase driver qualified on the front row of the grid for the third time this season but saw his hopes of a strong result in race one ended at the Deene Hairpin on lap one when contact from Dan Cammish tipped him into a spin – where he was then collected by three cars behind.

From the back of the grid in race two, Tordoff battled to 18th spot before he avoided the chaos of a chaotic start in race three to quickly vault into the top ten.

Although he fought his way to fourth spot and came within a tenth of a second of a podium in a drag race to the line, the former series runner-up was left frustrated by another weekend that promised but that ultimately failed to deliver.

“It’s getting ridiculous,” he said. “I felt we were doing everything right this weekend and then we got to turn two and I got collected by Dan Cammish which has ruined our day – there are no two ways about it.

“We got some consolation in race three with a fourth place finish but we shouldn’t be messing about trying to come from the back of the grid, we should be winning races and then worrying about what we will do with success ballast on the car.

“The results are embarrassing and for us, it is baffling because we have a car that is so fast but we just can’t catch a break. If I was making mistakes then I would hold my hands up but I keep getting collected by other people or we have failures that we’ve never had before. If it could go wrong, then it has done.”

Tordoff has now failed to score on nine occasions this season with six DNFs and he admitted that things have to improve before the end of the year.

“To have six DNFs is shocking regardless of fault, and you can’t win the championship when it’s like that,” he said. “I don’t think I have done anything wrong today but we have little to show for it, and it is frustrating for the whole team as we are working so hard. We have been out testing to find things to improve the car and are putting in the hours, but even when you feel you have got a break, it gets taken from you.

“It gets a bit depressing and you wonder why you invest the time and the effort, but the only way it up for us from here. There are nine races left, and that means nine chances to fight for the victories that we deserved.”