Sport   Other Sports   Touring Cars

BTCC teams turn out in force for Donington Park test

By MJP Media | 30 May 2013

British Touring Car Championship teams were heavily represented at today's test session at Donington Park with 8 cars from 5 teams in action.

Gordon Shedden testing with a new front end on his Honda Civic

Donington Park was the home of an open test session today, Thursday. Several major teams from the British Touring Car Championship took this as an opportunity to test again before the return to competitive action at Oulton Park next weekend on June 8th and 9th.

Both the Honda Yuasa Racing team Civics of defending BTCC champion Gordon Shedden and former champion Matt Neal put in plenty of laps as they sought to build on the successes of Thruxton. As Thruxton is such a unique circuit, the cars have to have a very different set up for Oulton Park and today provided the ideal opportunity. Honda Yuasa Racing Team Principal Steve Neal commented: "It was a bit difficult due to some of the slower traffic that you encounter on a general test day, but overall we were pleased with what we have found".

Ollie Jackson with a full wet setup on his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis

Speedworks Motorsport were another team to have both of their cars present with Dave Newsham and Ollie Jackson returning to the track after a successful test at Pembury last week. Despite the torrential early morning rain, both their Toyota Avensis' had great wet grip according to the drivers. Ollie in particular was very impressed. "The level of wet grip is amazing" he said, "but the car got better again in the dry session after lunch. I think we have found a thing or two in these two tests".

Three garages away, Airwaves Racing had both of their NGTC Ford Focus' on track in the hands of Mat Jackson and Aron Smith. After several hours of testing various combinations, they too found it a bit exasperating to be trying to run on the same piece of track as other cars being tested, but as the team readily admitted later, it had been a reasonable test with some good results. Airwaves Racing now have a handling test session at Donington Park next Monday.

Adam Morgan in the afternoon session

Adam Morgan was all smiles in the Ciceley Racing Toyota Avensis as he continued his development of the car. He described the day as good progress in understanding the new Toyota and is hopeful of good things at Oulton Park.

The final BTCC car present was the eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport of Nick Foster who put in more laps than any of the others. Nick and the team were pleasantly surprised at some of the progress they made and are really looking forward to the trip to the fabulous Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire on June 8th and 9th.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media