British Touring Car race-winner Kelvin Burt will return to the Green Flag-backed championship with the Team Sureterm squad at Silverstone this coming weekend, 8/9 May, and believes he can instantly fight for podium finishes.

Burt was a winner in the BTCC with BMW, Ford and Volvo during the Nineties and is also a former British Formula Three champion. At Silverstone, he will partner Charlie Butler-Henderson and Carl Breeze in Sureterm’s line-up.

“There is no reason to believe I won’t be at the sharp end,” said Burt. “I’ll be in a Vauxhall Astra - the BTCC’s dominant car for the past three years - and I’m going into the meeting without any success ballast.

“This is only a one-off at the moment, but it’s great to be back in the BTCC and I’d love to return to it full-time. The championship is definitely building again to what it was in the Nineties.”

Burt, aged 36, boasts an excellent racing CV. He was the only driver to challenge David Coulthard in Formula Ford 1600s in the late Eighties and in 1991 became Formula Vauxhall Lotus champion. He had already been selected by BMW to be part of its junior BTCC squad and also went on to lift the British F3 crown.

A spell as Jordan’s Formula One test driver followed before he joined Ford in 1995 to replace retiring BTCC legend Andy Rouse. Two more seasons of BTCC followed with Volvo before he pursued his touring car career in Japan.

Burt last raced in the BTCC in 2002 when he won a Production class round at Silverstone in one of Sureterm team principal Gary Ayles’ Alfa Romeos. He has recently raced in the FIA GT series and endurance sportscar races, including the Le Mans 24 Hours with Ferrari.