Triple Eight launched their new look VXR Astra’s at the official media day at Brands Hatch last week and Tom was upbeat about his chances in this weekend’s opening event following an encouraging result at the final pre-season test

The new Holiday Inn colours appeared on the works Vauxhall Astras for the first time last week as Tom, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Gavin Smith put more test mileage together at Brands Hatch ahead of the first rounds this coming weekend.

Tom was particularly happy with his performance, topping the time sheets for most of the afternoon’s session. He was eventually second fastest overall after reigning BTCC Champion Matt Neal just beat Tom’s lap time by 8 hundredths of a second in the final moments of the test. Tom was encouraged by the test, but experience has taught him not to get too excited just yet;

“ Of course it’s great to be quick but these tests rarely tell the whole picture. We know what we were doing in terms of set up and ballast and the types of runs we were doing, but we have no idea about everyone else. Our true performance will only be apparent next weekend in qualifying. Having said that I’m very pleased with the work we got through in the test and where the car is now. I wouldn’t say we are at the limit yet of the Astra’s performance, we still have some areas to improve and we will be able to try some more things in the official practice sessions next Saturday.”

Tom was the quickest of the three works Triple Eight cars in an extremely close session. Very little separated the top ten cars and drivers and it points towards a very competitive year for the BTCC;

“ The times at Brands show how close it will be this year. It will be very important to have a good set up for races as well as qualifying and the new format this year will throw up some surprises. My job, along with Fabrizio and Gavin is to win the Manufacturer’s title for Vauxhall. Obviously I want to win the Driver’s Championship as well. I don’t think any one person will dominate this year and we will need to get consistent, good results to achieve our aims.”

The stage is set for a fantastic 2006 Championship and the action starts this weekend at Brands Hatch with practice and qualifying on Saturday, followed by the three races on Sunday. Live TV coverage is again a feature with Motors TV covering all the action on Sky and ITV1 showing highlights of the first two races and the third race live on Sunday afternoon.