Ford Team Mondeo continued its run of form with a strong third and fourth place finish in the Auto Trader British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park on Bank Holiday Monday.

The Ford duo of Alain Menu and Anthony Reid qualified alongside each other on the second row of the grid for the Sprint race and pushed the works Nissans Primera's hard in the early part of the race until Alain Menu lost sixth gear which slowed his progress significantly.

After the race Menu said: "I got a flying start to the race and was pushing really hard. I kept on pushing on the straights end and in the corners after losing top gear.

''I managed to retain third place which proves the Ford Mondeo is going very well. We still need to make progress on the chassis and the engine, but we are getting there."

Team mate Anthony Reid added: "We were right with the Nissans to begin with, but towards the end of the race, they were able to pull away a bit."

Alain Menu began the Feature race from fourth place but his good grid position came to nothing after he was forced off the track onto the grass on the first corner, while team mate Reid, who qualified in eighth place, took full advantage of a number of retirements to finish fifth.

Reid said: "The car was again running well in the early part of the race, but my tyres faded in the latter part and I lost two places to finish fifth.

''We know there is a lot of work to be done, but we have made great strides forward in a very short space of time."

The next rounds of the BTCC are on June 19/20 at Donington Park.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.