The official BTCC website caught up with Stephen Jelley to discuss how Team Parker Racing is hoping to use its experiences from 2019 to come back stronger for the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
See below for the full interview…
Reigning Independents’ Trophy Champion Rory Butcher will return to the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship grid this season at the wheel of a Motorbase Performance Ford Focus.
The 32-year-old Scot made a huge impact in last season’s competition, taking fifth in the overall standings. He claimed three outright wins and six podiums on his way to the privateers’ trophy.
The rising BTCC star said the decision to rejoin Motorbase, the team where he made his tin-top debut in 2017, was a dream come true.
“David Bartrum and Motorbase launched me on my British touring car journey,” said Butcher. “It feels like ‘coming home’ to go back to the team.
“There are some very exciting plans for the 2020 season and to be on the ground floor of those developments really motivates me. I have tasted glory in the Independents’ Trophy, which was a huge achievement, but my sights are set higher. I want more wins, and the overall championship is my aim.
“I know that I might not have the touring car experience of some of the guys out there but I am working relentlessly to absorb all the information I can and push myself, and Motorbase, forward to go for the biggest prizes we can reach.”
Motorbase will enter its ninth season with the Ford Focus and Butcher’s signing, alongside that of returning driver Ollie Jackson, puts the Kent-based team on a firm footing for the 2020 campaign.
“I’m delighted to welcome Rory back for 2020,” said Team Principal David Bartrum. “We have worked with Rory in GTs in the past and saw his abilities then, which lead to us giving him his BTCC debut in 2017.
“We’ve obviously kept a very close eye on his progression since then. Over the last two seasons, he’s learnt a lot and has matured into a driver capable of a championship challenge.
“With Ollie and Rory, we have a great pairing to work with and we’re confident going into the new season. I have quoted on a couple of occasions that Rory was only ever ‘on loan’ and would be back with us one day.
“This year that has proven to be the case and we’re all ready to put the hard work in to make 2020 a great season for Motorbase.”
Both drivers will kick off their campaign in the opening meeting of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season at Donington Park on March 28-29.
The official BTCC website caught up with Honda man Dan Cammish to discuss that fateful finals day at Brands Hatch and how he aims to bounce back in the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship...
“The final day was such a rollercoaster and if you look at finals day in the BTCC over the past few years it always is, this time I was in it though! We went from such massive elation in the morning winning the race, with Matt [Neal] second. it was a great moment for the team, finding ourselves back in the heart of the championship.
“I went to bed on Saturday night thinking if I finish on the podium this year I’d done a really good job against the newly built BMW [3 Series] and there are some really good drivers in the championship, some of the best touring car drivers in the world without question. In only my second year in a touring car, in a front-wheel drive car, I thought ‘you’ve done well to get to this point, so a podium place is what you want to secure now.’
"By the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, I was thinking if I don’t win this has been a disaster: it’s amazing how fast your mindset can change. After that first good race and what happened in race two for Colin [Turkington], suddenly I’m the championship leader with it all to lose. And lost it I did. Even now, I’m not over it. I don’t think I will get over it – not for a long time. Someone said the other day, even if I win in 2020, I guarantee I’ll turn around and say I should be a two-time champion.
"You work all year – not just me, my family, my friends, the team – everyone is so consumed by motorsport, especially at this level. You put your heart and soul into it and you’re denied with 14 corners to go.”
See below for the full interview…
Hitting the #WinItWednesday top spot this week is Jake Hill, whose Round 24 win at Knockhill marked his first win in the British Touring Car Championship.
Alongside achieving his first accolade, 2019 was particularly successful for Hill as he accumulated more points-scoring finishes than ever before in his six-year BTCC career.
The 25-year-old’s victory at Knockhill had increased significance following his post-race penalty at Oulton Park earlier in the season which saw his on-track triumph inherited by Stephen Jelley.
The official BTCC website caught up with Trade Price Cars Racing’s Bobby Thompson to discuss how he feels approaching the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, his third campaign in the series.
“I can’t wait,” said Thompson. “There are a lot of changes within the series in terms of drivers and cars. So I’m looking forward to a new start, wearing blue and giving it a great go. I met Dan [Kirby], who owns Trade Price Cars, back in 2018 and kept in touch with him since – it’s a great step.”
When asked about the process of moving to join the Essex-based team, Thompson explained how talks with Kirby began at Brands Hatch, and the steps which followed:
“The biggest part for me was around the last round of 2019. We speak to a lot of teams to keep your options open and to keep doors open; you want to keep a good relationship with every team because you never know what’s happening in the future. But around the last round at Brands last year we really started talking to Dan. It goes quiet for a couple of weeks, so we had some time off enjoying ourselves and then came back to the drawing board. We approached sponsors to see whether they’re happy, whether they enjoyed 2019, if they want to go again, and then we got down to the nitty-gritty with Dan.”
Thompson went on to discuss his preparation for the year ahead, including his plans to build on both his own experience and the data gathered from 2019.
“I plan on doing the same as Jake [Hill] did, if not moving it on. We’ve got Jake’s data and Mark [Blundell’s] data, there’s no getting away from it. Mark had some flashes of good driving last year, you can’t rule that out, so the car can do it. I just want to build on what Jake’s done; it’s great to have him in the AmD Hondas so he’s just across the road if I want to go and talk to him about anything.
“We’re going to do a couple of days [testing] before media day. It’s a different wheelbase to the [Volkswagen] CC – I was talking to Jake because he’s also driven both the CC and the Audi, and he said it feels a lot different. I’m happy to get in and get on the pace straight away, of course, but I think it's going to take a day of learning. It’s still left-hand drive so I don’t have that aspect of worry. I’m looking forward to getting in and getting going.
“I’ve said a couple of times now, I’m more proud going into my third year than my first, taking all that knowledge from two years going into your third year in the BTCC is saying something. That top step’s not too far away. Especially not within a race scenario this year. I think for the championship top step we’ve got a lot of work to do to get there – especially with the manufacturer boys doing so well – but from where we are to them it’s not that far away.
“It was said on ITV last year that Andrew Jordan does a lot of mental stuff [to prepare] and it seems to help him so I wouldn’t mind doing a bit of that myself,” added the 23-year-old.
See below for the full interview…
Starting the two-month countdown to the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship opening rounds at Donington Park in style, it has today been confirmed that Ollie Jackson will return to the BTCC at the wheel of a newly-built Motorbase Performance Ford Focus RS.
Jackson, who has his sights set firmly on glory in the Independents’ Championship, will return with the Kent-based team for a second successive campaign after scoring more points over the 30 races in 2019 than he’d done before in any of his previous six seasons in Britain’s premier motorsport series.
The 35-year-old enters the new season full of confidence and is delighted to maintain his consistency with the title-winning independent team.
“I was thrilled to make the step up to Motorbase Performance last season, and it helped me to get better results than I have ever had in my BTCC career,” said Jackson. “I worked really hard with the team behind the scenes and it has improved me as a driver.
“We focused on making sure I was more consistent over the race weekends, rather than just gunning for individual results, which is maybe what I had been guilty of in previous seasons. That really helped me step up and I was confident going into each race weekend.”
Jackson’s performances helped him to eighth spot in the Independents' Trophy competition in 2019 and he took victory in the class in race two at Snetterton in August. He scored points in half of the races and had a remarkable sequence of nine point-scoring finishes in a row in the middle of the campaign.
“The Independents’ Trophy title has to be my aim for the season,” added Jackson, who had previously raced for Motorbase Performance in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.
Team principal David Bartrum said that he was thrilled that Jackson was remaining with the team, which will field three cars in the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
“Ollie got to know the team well last season and he put in some really head-turning races – including finishing on a high with a sixth place at the finale at Brands Hatch,” said Bartrum.
“He spent a lot of time working with our data guys pushing himself to get even better in 2019, and that showed in his performance on-track. There were some tough weekends, but he is improving and having the consistency of the same guys around him going into 2020 will only continue in that upwards trajectory.”
“We’re looking forward to making some more announcements in the next few weeks, 2020 is building up to be a very positive year for Motorbase.”
Jackson's announcement marks two months until the BTCC season opener at Donington Park, on 28/29 March.
Ahead of the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, btcc.net caught up with ITV's David Addison to discuss the 2019 campaign and how things are looking for the upcoming season.
See below for the full interview…
Still need your BTCC fix in the run-up to the 2020 season opener at Donington Park? Head to itv.com/btcc/races for all the 2019 race action!
The official BTCC website caught up with reigning Champion Colin Turkington to discuss his aims for the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
“I’m just hungry to get out and get driving again," said the Northern-Irishman. "That’s the bit that we all love. Obviously last year was the first season with the new [BMW 3 Series] so I’m looking forward to having some testing pre-season and seeing if we can understand the car a bit more; trying to fine-tune it, trying to make it faster and better.
"Obviously the competition will rise again, I won last season but only by the skin of my teeth. I finished two points ahead of both Dan Cammish and Andrew Jordan so it was so so close at the end; the margins between winning and losing are very fine. I know how hard I’ll have to work to do it all again. And it was so important for us to have some time off to get a break and build up the energy to go and do it again.”
See below for the full interview…
The official BTCC website caught up with Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat to discuss how his upcoming season is looking ahead of the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
“This is the most excited I’ve been for a race season before,” said Moffat. “Working with Ash (Sutton) and the knowledge and experience he has is going to be massive for bringing me on. Obviously I’ve still got some learning to do in a rear-wheel drive touring car but I’m confident in myself and working as a team – I know how beneficial that can be. It will be the first time having a proper team-mate in the BTCC which will be a massive aid and on top of that we’ve got two brand new Infiniti Q50s. With the car I brought out [in 2019] we were getting there by the end of the year, but it was a 2014 shell I was in, it had a lot of issues which is natural because things have moved on. The cars you build today are superior, so I think with the package we’ve got it’s going to be a special year for us.
“We’ve got testing planned, both the cars are still being built just now, but they shouldn’t be too long. The nice thing is, with the work we’ve done in the latter part of last season in the old spec car, we’ve still learnt a lot, so it’s given us a little head start. We’ve managed to skip a lot of waiting time that we would have had if it weren’t for the way we went about things which is why we made that decision last year. We had to take it on the chin and drop down the order but that’s given us a big head start to build something special for 2020 and that’s what we’re aiming to achieve.
“It reminds me of my early days. First getting into racing, as a young kid you couldn’t wait to go racing and you were desperate for the season to arrive and to get back in the driving seat – it’s given me that feeling again this year. I know we’ve got something quite special to build on and it’s got my love and hunger for BTCC back again which I lost at points last year. It was frustrating turning up knowing that if you have an excellent weekend with reverse grids you might get into the top ten in race three... it’s not really something that excites you. But having a project that could be a race-winning car and who knows what else that makes you very excited to get going.
“In having a team-mate, you half the time you need for development. You can back-to-back things, you can have two setups on the track at the same time meaning you’re avoiding trying a new setup when the track has actually changed conditions, so you can sometimes chase your tail a bit. I know Snetterton test days are hard work, the track changes that much throughout the day that just looking at the times isn’t enough because is the car better or is the track better. You can overlay data, so it takes a lot of the doubt out. You can work together in terms of driving and car development and I think a couple of heads going towards it is always going to be beneficial.
“I’ll always be myself and I’ll always race for me, if there’s a sniff of a win I’ll do everything I can to get it, regardless of who’s around me and what the situation is, I’m always going to do everything I can. But at the same time, with me and Ash together, I’m very confident of how well we can work as team-mates and hopefully make this a very exciting project for Laser Tools Racing, but again I’ll be out there to try and make sure I’m winning races.
“[With the addition of the Silverstone International layout] there’s a new track layout so the concern is figuring out which way to go – I should really look into that for a start! It’s always exciting to do something different; change is nice. The BTCC is never repetitive as anything can happen at any given point, but it’s always nice to change it up a bit; a slightly different calendar, a new track, it’ll make things interesting.
“My main aim is to be consistently at the front and up there in the championship, meaning there will be points where I’ll perhaps need to look at the situation rather than doing anything daft. For argument's sake, there’s Turkington who won the championship with one win when Ash had six wins. The points and consistency are always going to be my aim. Obviously you want to win but I wouldn’t go doing something daft to achieve that, I want to make sure I’m up there in the championship for myself and to get Laser Tools Racing up there in the Teams’ Championship with Ash.
“It’s very exciting times for us, I can’t wait to get going.”
See below to hear the interview…
This week the #WinItWednesday spotlight falls upon Halfords Yuasa Racing's Dan Cammish.
The Yorkshireman's first victory of 2019 saw him take the top spot in Round 21, at Thruxton.
Cammish may have achieved the fewest first-place finishes of the top five drivers but, through achieving rostrums in almost half of all races during the campaign, he rocketed himself into contention – concluding the season on equal points to runner-up driver Andrew Jordan.
