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Team entries confirmed for 2017 BTCC

By MJP Media | 6 December 2016

The teams entered for the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship have been published with both Motorbase Performance and AmDTuning.com expanding their presence in the UK's premier motorsport series.

Motorbase Performance will run 3 cars in the 2017 BTCC season

Series organiser TOCA has confirmed the allocation of all TBLs for next season and that entries have now closed. Teams are required to be in possession of a TBL (TOCA BTCC Licence) for each car entered.

There are a maximum of 32 TBLs - 30 of which are currently held by the teams and two permanently held by TOCA. The list of teams and the 32 allocated TBLs for 2017 is as follows:

* One TBL on loan from Welch Motorsport
** TBLs on loan from TOCA

Motorbase Performance have taken the decision to run an expanded 3 car team for 2017. Following the Kent-based outfit's most successful season to date - which saw David Bartrum's team commemorate its 10th anniversary in the championship by taking top honours in both the Independent Teams and Drivers' standings - the team boss confirmed that 2017 preparations are already well underway.

"The 2016 season was a great year for Motorbase Performance taking both the Independent Teams and Drivers trophies, but we're ready to step it up a gear in 2017." commented Bartrum. "These are really exciting times for Motorbase. We have a fantastic new title sponsor behind us as well as the backing of some of our long-standing partners and this has enabled us to push forward our plans to bring the third Focus out on track for our 2017 campaign. We've shown that we have one of the best packages on the grid this year and with some tweaks over the winter we expect the Focus to be back up there competing at the front again in 2017. We're talking to some great drivers at the moment and we're working hard on putting together a title-winning squad for the new season."

Ollie Jackson will have a team-mate at AmDTuning.com in 2017

The AmDTuning.com team will also expand - into a two-car team for the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season after being granted an additional TBL for next year. Work has now started on the build of a second Audi S3 that will be entered into the championship alongside the car of Ollie Jackson, who was confirmed in the first seat last month. Both cars will be fitted with the latest specification of RML control parts. Talks with potential drivers are already well underway and include previous winners in the championship, with an announcement on who will partner Ollie to be made in due course.

"We made no secret of our desire to run a second car next year and are delighted that we've been able to conclude a deal to acquire the TBL that we needed." team boss Shaun Hollamby said. "As ever at this time of year, there was a lot of interest in people who wanted to run additional cars and the fact that there will be a second Audi for the full season is an indication of our desire to take our BTCC programme to the next level. Having already agreed a deal to re-sign Ollie last month, we've had a lot of interest in the second seat and are in talks with several drivers about joining us for 2017. Given the calibre of those drivers and the fact that we have a very competitive package in the Audi, we are confident that we'll be able to field a driver pairing that will give us the best possible opportunity to build on the progress we made throughout 2016."

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