Renault UK Clio Cup racer Simon Belcher will be back on home soil for the third race meeting of the season next weekend, 4th/5th May, when the popular Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship support category makes its annual visit to Thruxton near Andover.

 For the Swindon-based driver, the 40-minute journey to the 2.35-mile Hampshire track is by far the shortest of the year and means he will have plenty of local support travelling down the A436 to cheer him on to, what he hopes will be, his first Masters Cup class victory of 2013.

 After an excellent debut season in Clio Cup last year, comfortably winning the Masters Cup title, the 39-year-old has experienced a troublesome campaign so far which began with a luckless opening round at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit when collected yards from the start and shunted into retirement.

 Responding with second in class in round two, he added two further runner-up finishes during the most recent event at Donington Park last weekend and is now just 16 points shy of the class lead going into rounds five and six.

 During last years visit to Thruxton, the Handy Motorsport with Pyro driver claimed one Masters win and a second place and a repeat of that this time around would be very welcome as he aims to really get his season motoring.

 While a big fan of the ultra-fast circuit though, Belcher did experience a heavy pre-season testing accident there which caused major damage to his KRCHER and No Fear Energy-sponsored car. With that in mind, two incident free races are also a priority.

 Weve got a lot of people coming along next weekend, its our home race and Im really looking forward to being back at Thruxton, he commented, Hopefully we can have some good results there and try and get the season back on track.

 I love Thruxton, have done ever since I started racing there. The big accident from winter testing is always in the back of your mind, but well get on with it and try and do a job. Its a fantastic track, you need to have balls of steel, and it really is a lot of fun to drive around. We wont know until we get out there in qualifying how its all going to pan out but we really need a strong weekend.

 With no pre-race test prior to the weekend, the first Thruxton action for the Clio Cup competitors will be the half-hour qualifying session on Saturday, 4th May, at 11.20. Round five will follow at 16.35 with round six, which will be screened live on ITV4 and ITV4 HD, taking place on Sunday, 5th May, at approximately 12.40.

 Provisional 2013 Renault UK Clio Cup Driver Standings (after Rd4):=20th Simon Belcher & Finlay Crocker, 13pts

 Provisional 2013 Renault UK Clio Cup Masters Cup Standings (after Rd4):3rd Simon Belcher, 84pts