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A View From The Driver's Seat: British Touring Car Championship driver John Thorne

By John Thorne / MJP Media | 2 March 2012

Thorney Motorsport team owner and driver John Thorne prepares his Mirror Online-sponsored team for the 2012 British Touring Car Championship

To the Batmobile!: The new BTCC Vauxhall Insignia - before the paint job

This season Mirror Online are proudly sponsoring the Thorney Motorsport team in the 2012 British Touring Car Championship. Throughout the season we'll bring you news and insight from the team as Thorney Motorsport, led by team owner and driver John Thorne, keep us up to date with their progress, both on and off the track. Here's John's first update as they prepare for the start of the new BTCC season.

When we first put this deal together through MJP Media and the Mirror, I agreed that we needed to offer something different to the usual driver columns that others have in that we wanted to give readers a little more than the "ooh I almost got first but I didn't" that seem to populate the news feeds every Monday morning. Of course I'll do that as well, although I hope it will be more of the "I was second but snatched first" variety but we both wanted to offer an insight into the whole world of British Touring Cars rather than just what happens from lights to the chequered flag.

Over the next few weeks and months we intend to write about the entire gamut of the Touring Car industry from the technology involved, the people in, under and behind the car to the people who essentially make it happen - the fans. With a bit of luck you'll enjoy what I write, I very much doubt you'll agree with all of it but at the very least I hope to offer an insight to what in some regards is quite a secretive sport.

First off, who the hell is John Thorne and who is Thorney Motorsport? Well rather than extend this first article too far, we have done a special 'all about us' question and answers article following this one! As for me, well I'm the typical story of turning a hobby into a business and into a career. I founded Thorney Motorsport in 2000 after working in the City (I wasn't a banker I promise) and we started off tuning and racing Vauxhall VX220s and BMW M3s, models we continue to specialise in to this day. Vauxhall appointed us an Approved Repairer (a dealer that doesn't sell cars basically) so we widened the business to include all Vauxhall models and all BMW models.

Not coming from a wealthy family meant that racing for me started late and after spending some time on track in a Caterham and a procession of sports bikes (which did their best to kill me) my first race was in the Production BMW Championship; I qualified last and finished second to last (someone else fell off) but I was hooked. End of that first season I won my first race. After that some racing in VX220s then BMW M3s lead to our endurance racing in an E92 M3 and now finally the BTCC, a boyhood dream for me.

This year in the BTCC it is going to be a real eye opener, not because it's suddenly a huge learning curve in racing, even with 10 years racing you're always on a learning curve regardless of the series, but more due to the huge interest the BTCC generates. Go to a Britcar race or GT Cup and the crowd is 3 people and a dachshund called Colin. Compare that to a BTCC race and its chalk and cheese. At Silverstone last we couldn't move for the interest from the crowd and the cheer we got when we actually got out onto the track I could hear from inside the car which is no mean feat with a side exhaust under your left ear. The commitment, enthusiasm and interest from you the fans takes your breath away.

As for this season we are pretty much good to go, the first car is ready for its next test at Silverstone next week and Ricky and Matt (Chief Engineer and No1 Tech) are keen to get it out there again. The Mirror will bring you that test. Last week's test went brilliantly so we are growing in confidence in what we hope to achieve from the first race. Signing Rob Hedley for the second car is a huge boost and he gets into the seat next week for his first run so having data from two drivers will accelerate our progress. The second car is in build now which either I or Rob will run from Oulton Park with one car running from the first race at Brands Hatch.

As for what the car will look like at the moment we don't know. We get no direct support from Vauxhall and we still don't have a title sponsor so at the moment it's looking a bit stealthy and moody in plain black. We don't have any plans to run it as the Batmobile again. That was fun but this year we have bills to pay so unless Warner Brothers want to pay for it, it won't be gaining any caped crusader livery I'm afraid. I can't say I'm that bothered, even Derek Trotter looks better than me in a Batman outfit.

See you soon.

John #66

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