Sport   Other Sports   Touring Cars

'Lucky boxers' and a great BTCC competition for Oulton Park

By MJP Media | 28 May 2013

Sam Tordoff says 'Pirtek better than works team', Aron Smith's 'lucky boxers', a major competition for Oulton Park and other BTCC news!

Sam Tordoff in the MG KX Momentum Racing MG6

In an insightful interview with the new boy on the BTCC block, works MG driver Sam Tordoff told of his surprise at his first meeting podium at Brands Hatch and his delight at scoring solid points at Thruxton. "The plan was to score top tens in the first half of the year before targeting podiums later on. I blew that out of the water by scoring a podium in the first round, which was a nice surprise". On Thruxton, Tordoff was more than happy. "I had three top eight finishes at Thruxton, so to pick up solid points at a circuit that we knew wouldn't suit our car wasn't too bad". When asked about his rivals, his answer is interestingly honest: "Of our rivals you'd have to say Andrew Jordan is the best of the three Honda drivers currently. Pirtek Racing looks better than the works teams at the moment and it seems to have found something in the car. He'd probably be leading the championship if it weren't for his bad luck at Thruxton".

Elsewhere, we should see Andy Neate return to the fray at Oulton Park on the 8th and 9th June in the totally new Team Club 44 NGTC Chevrolet Cruze. Neate and the team are undergoing final preparations with the car and it will be interesting to see how it runs after the success of the other new build cars from Team HARD. Neate said "For sure the likes of Team HARD. are doing a really good job at the moment and Tom Onslow-Cole especially is getting some fantastic results. Tom and I are good friends and I sat down with him at the start of the year and tried to point him in the right direction in terms of development. I hope that my input was helpful and went some way to giving the team a good grasp on their car - if so it bodes really well for us".

Aron Smith feared for his boxers in the 2nd race at Thruxton!

Also hoping for big things at Oulton Park are Airwaves Racing who have been strangely under-performing in the early part of the season. According to Aron Smith "Thruxton was a big step forward from where we have been all year. To be fair we've been absolutely nowhere up to now so to be towards the front is definitely a positive. My lucky boxers were nearly written off in the second race! It was one of those times where I tried just a little too hard and the car let go. Both Mat and I were trying something different with the set-up and clearly neither was very good through the high-speed corners. We found the problem and went forward after that rather than backwards across the grass again!" After finishing Thruxton race 3 in 5th, their best finish of the season, the whole Airwaves team are looking forward to Oulton Park.

There is one team however for whom Oulton Park is a big event. Speedworks Motorsport are based just down the road and as this is their home race, will have the added pressure of a full complement of sponsors watching every move very closely! As part of this they have a massive competition for fans which includes VIP race access with the team and hotel accommodation at a fantastic country house venue near the circuit courtesy of Dave Newsham's sponsors. To be in with a chance of winning this prize, just visit Dave Newsham's website www.davenewshamracing.com and follow the link on the home page.

Dave Newsham meeting some of his fans

Check these pages for the latest British Touring Car Championship stories, continuing with a preview of Oulton Park meeting on June 8th and 9th and news of testing at Donington Park this Thursday.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media