The Ciceley Motorsport-run WIX Racing team will seek to impress this coming weekend when it hits the track for the opening rounds of the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch.
The Lancashire-based team will create history when the race weekend gets underway at the iconic Kent circuit, with its all-new NGTC-specification Mercedes Benz A-Class being the first model from the German marque to appear in the series in the modern era.
Having announced plans to run the A-Class last autumn, the Ciceley Motorsport team has worked hard over the winter to create the new car, which appeared for the first time in its eye-catching WIX Racing livery during the official BTCC Media Day at Donington Park last week.
Having run strongly, and without major problems, during pre-season testing, driver Adam Morgan will hope to kick-start his assault on the championship with a strong showing around the short 1.22-mile Indy circuit.
Twelve months ago, the 25-year-old emerged as one of the stars of the opening meeting, taking what was then a career best fourth place overall finish and an Independents class victory, and he will now seek to impress again despite strong competition from a bumper field featuring no fewer than seven BTCC champions.
"I'm so excited about this weekend and I can't wait for the racing to start," he said. "A few months ago, I'd have said the opening rounds would be a case of 'Let's see how we get on', but pre-season testing has gone well and we've revised our aims as a result.
"The team has done a fantastic job with the WIX Racing Mercedes and in the running we have done so far, the car has run reliably and we've shown we have good pace. However, it's important for us to remember that this will be the first race weekend for the A-Class, so if we can bring home three top ten finishes against the competition there is then we'll be happy.
"We've already had chance to run the car at Brands Hatch during testing and have a good base set-up to take into the weekend as a result. While we don't know what the others have been doing during pre-season, I feel we've got a good package and I'm confident that we'll be in the ball park and challenging for some strong points."
