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GT racer Hunter Abbott to join Rob Austin Racing

By MJP Media | 12 March 2014

In a major announcement today, Rob Austin Racing has revealed that GT star Hunter Abbott will race the team's second Audi A4 in the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Rob Austin welcomes Hunter Abbott (right) to the team

Abbott, from Maidenhead in Berkshire, will enter his first season in the BTCC as number 2 to charismatic movie star and race-winner Rob Austin. Major sponsorship for the 33-year-old will come from the motoring alcohol breathalyser manufacturer AlcoSense. Abbott is an experienced GT driver racer with numerous podium results in British and international racing. He also comes with the advantage of a good knowledge of the circuits on the BTCC calendar after a successful season in Ginetta GT Supercup in 2012.

Abbott was out in the Audi at Rockingham (the home of team boss Rob Austin's famous victory) and he'll now join the rest of the record BTCC entry for next week's series launch at Donington Park which is also the only official pre-season test. "Watching the BTCC in the Nineties is what made me want to race in the first place. Racing in the BTCC is the realisation of part of a childhood dream and finally I've got an opportunity to do it - and with a team that's clearly on the up." said Abbott.

Fabrizio Giovanardi testing his Airwaves Racing Ford Focus

Elsewhere this week, we have seen a large part of the BTCC grid out testing at Brands Hatch. Fourteen of this year's cars were out on track at the Kent circuit, whilst MG and Power Maxed Racing ran at Oulton Park and Team BMR continued its three day programme at Croft. All of the teams were in test mode, running a combination of short data collecting runs, quick qualifying simulations and some more representative race distances.

As with earlier tests, reigning BTCC champion Andrew Jordan looked fast, but then so were the eBay Motors BMWs and the United Autosports Toyota Avensis'. At the moment it is truly impossible to draw any conclusions from the tests as some teams have been running on the quicker 2014 tyres, whilst others are using up the remaining 2013 ones they have left.

Five champions at Brands Hatch: Shedden, Jordan, Turkington, Giovanardi and Neal

Adam Morgan's brand new WIX Racing Mercedes A-Class looked to be on the pace almost straight out of the box, but again we are looking at approximate timings. Next Tuesday's official test at Donington Park will be the first time that we will see useable timing comparisons for the same teams under the same conditions, but if there is one thing we can be certain of at this stage, it is that anyone finishing in the top 10 in any race will have done a fantastic job!

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