Handy Motorsport’s Simon Belcher concluded the second race meeting of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season at Donington Park over the weekend, 19th/20th April, more than happy with his progress having broken into the top 20 for the first time in rounds five and six.
Despite a series of setbacks on Saturday through practice and qualifying, losing vital track time during the former, the Toyota Avensis driver made consistently strong steps forward from his BTCC debut at Brands Hatch three weeks ago and, importantly, bagged three more race finishes.
Rainfall arrived at the Leicestershire venue earlier than expected on Sunday, leading to difficult track conditions for round four, and Belcher had a tough challenge on his hands by starting lower down the grid than expected in 28th position – a result of being baulked on his fastest lap in qualifying.
Gaining two places at the Old Hairpin with a pair of rivals coming to grief, the Swindon racer was up into 23rd position within three laps and although shuffled back a couple of spots late on he moved back into 23rd by the finish.
Determined to break into the top 20 for the first time in his rookie BTCC season in race two, round five, Belcher produced his most competitive performance of the weekend – even though the start of the race didn’t go according to plan.
Although earlier rain had ceased, the track surface remained very wet and so conditions were particularly difficult. Unfortunately for the KÄRCHER-backed racer, a stall on the grid meant he didn’t get away with the rest of the pack but an early Safety Car period helped close up the field.
Within the space of two laps, another incident triggered the re-deployment of the Safety Car and at the second restart Belcher held 24th position. No sooner had the action recommenced than Belcher gained another place and he continued to plug away, working his way into the top 20 on lap 17 where he stayed to the flag. Notably, his best race lap was just 0.1 seconds shy of top 15 pace.
The final encounter took place on a fully dry track and although he slipped back a couple of spots early on prior to the appearance of the Safety Car, the Wiltshire driver made his way back into the top 20 – where he started the race – by lap six.
Switching places a couple of times during the second half of the race, Belcher ultimately took the flag in 20th position once again to cap a strong weekend. Post-race, however, former BTCC Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi and Tom Ingram both received penalties so Belcher was elevated into 18th place for his best result yet.
“We had turbo problems in the first practice session on Saturday morning which really put us on the back foot all the way into qualifying, with my lack of experience driving a touring car we need all the track time we can get so that was costly”, he reflected, “We had some bad luck in qualifying too when I was blocked by [Rob] Collard, it cost us six tenths so we started further back than we should.
“Race one went quite well and then to break into the top 20 in races two and three was the sort of progress we wanted to make. On the final lap of race three I had the sixth fastest time on the soft tyres on that lap, which showed looking after that compound of tyre can pay dividends.”
He added: “As long as we’re moving forward each weekend and posting better results, as we have at Donington even though we missed a chunk of time in free practice one, we’re happy. Although it didn’t start well for us, we’re feeling buoyant after three strong races.”
Next on the BTCC schedule will be perhaps the biggest race meeting of the year for Belcher and the Handy Motorsport crew, his ‘home’ event at Thruxton Circuit near Andover on 3rd/4th May.
