Brentwood to Edenbridge

[Le Mans]

(From CrashNet)
Experienced single-seater Michael Bentwood will return to the British racing arena this season, but with a roof over his head having signed to contest the British Touring Car Championship with Edenbridge Racing.

The former British F3 and F3000 regular will race for the Kent-based BMW team in the Production Class of the 2003 BTCC, having impressed the team in a series of tests over the winter.

The 25-year old, from Hale in Cheshire, enjoyed four seasons in F3, winning the Spencer Charington trophy as top-placed British driver in 2000 with Fortec. Having competed against the likes of Takuma Sato, Tomas Scheckter, Anthony Davidson, Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Alex Yoong and Antonio Pizzonia during that time, he narrowly missed on a Jordan testing role in 2001, before switching to the Euro 3000 series.

[cos]

Good news, he seems a competent driver, and Andy Priaulx has shown that if you can do well in F3 you can drive a touring car pretty quickly.
Any news on a 2nd driver for Edenbridge? I've heard Tom Ferrier is a strong candidate.

[thommo_fan]

i read something somewhere linking ferrier with a drive in the production class, i think he said he would move down a catagorie (referring to the btc-production class) to improve his chances in the future.

i reckon he's good enough to be in the touring class.

[Reynard]

Looks interesting - but there's guys other than Andy Priaulx that have made the step from single seaters to touring cars. Kelvin Burt, Tim Harvey, Paul Radisich, Anthony Reid, Alain Menu and Rickard Rydell have done the same...

Oh yeah, wasn't Michael the subject of Nicholas Minassian's wrath at Thruxton during an F3 race back in 1997? I seem to remember Nicholas throwing gravel at him after objecting to Michael's on-track behaviour...

[lauz]

so if tom ferrier gets the other edenbridge seat then what do you think norman simon will be doing this year?

[John]

Didnt he do Le Mans last year? Maybe a full season of GT? or another touring car championship, or BTCC in another team? Or none of these!?!

[Alfa Fan]

I reckon Simon will not be back. To big a name to hang about in BTCP in my opinion. Could see him in a late ETCC deal though.

[John]

Unfortunately I have to agree - think he deserves more than a BTC-P drive, and if he cant get a touring drive here then he will go elsewhere. Which is a shame because we need foreign drivers to give the championship a bigger name! (Think back to 1999 and who'd have thought we'd be saying we need more foreign drivers!!!)