Team Halfords battles on with 307.

Team Halfords tried a radical new set-up on its Peugeot 307 hot hatches at Silverstone for rounds seven and eight of the Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship, but things still didn't go the team's way.

More than 10,000 Halfords free ticket competition winners doubled the crowd attendance at the Northamptonshire venue - where thousands of fans cheered the drivers on with specially produced orange hands - and both testing and qualifying on Saturday saw marked improvements in the handling of the distinctive cars.

Carl Breeze was able to run consistently, and managed to gather plenty of data for the team's further development plans. Team-mate Dan Eaves, despite a delayed entrance to the qualifying session, came out and produced some flying laps, but time was not on his side and he qualified outside his desired top ten. Eaves would start race one from row seven, directly ahead of his Team Halfords colleague.

The opening race saw a marked improvement in Eaves' performance, as he improved his position to eleventh overall. He set upon chasing Independent rival Gareth Howell's tenth position in the closing stages, out-manoeuvring manufacture-backed entries from Honda and Proton in the process, before a broken drive shaft put him out of the race.

Breeze also retired, and the engine problems behind his exit meant that he was unable to start the day's second race.

Race two saw another great start for Eaves, but a lap three mistake from Proton veteran David Leslie sent him crashing into the circuit wall and out of the event.

'Dan's car has taken a serious shunt and, with all the developments and changes we had made, this is a real knock back for us," team boss Vic Lee commented, "However, it's nothing we can't pick ourselves up from.

"We will now be working round the clock to get that car ready for Rockingham in two weeks' time. It was disappointing not to give Team Halfords fans a better result at Silverstone, but the data shows our times are improving dramatically."