Donington Park National Circuit in Leicestershire will host the second event of the 2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship next weekend, 18th/19th April, where Simon Belcher is aiming to build on the great start he made to the season at Brands Hatch just a few days ago.Posting a career-best top 15 result in the third of last weekend’s races, the Swindon driver heads into rounds four, five and six a week from now with boosted confidence and a desire to climb the pecking order yet further at the 1.98-mile East Midlands track.
Having made excellent strides with the performance and handling of his Handy Motorsport Toyota Avensis during the pre-season, including a positive run at Donington during the ‘Media Day’ test last month, the second year BTCC racer says bigger steps are possible when racing resumes next Sunday.
“Donington is a great track, I love racing there and I’m really looking forward to being back in the car so soon after Brands”, said Belcher, “Aside from any unforeseen problems I’m sure we’re going to be competitive and able to continue the good start we made to the season last weekend.
“We didn’t hit our aim in qualifying at Brands, I wanted to be in the top 20 but we know we made a bit of a mistake with a judgment on the weather which didn’t work out. I’m confident the pace was there to achieve it though. The races were great, especially race three, and now we’ve taken that top 15 the target has to be to try and repeat that at Donington and keep moving forward.”
Going into the second event of the season, Belcher is in the great position of having already scored his first outright championship point of the season and in terms of the Independents Trophy battle he is currently in 13th place. Handy Motorsport, meanwhile, is eighth in the Independents Team Trophy and 13th in the overall HiQ Teams Championship.
While the challenge provided by Donington’s famous sweeps, such as Craner Curves, the Old Hairpin and Schwantz Curve, is an altogether different one to that of Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, Belcher is quietly confident his great start to the year can gather momentum next weekend.
“We can’t get carried away, everyone will be looking to improve at Donington, but there’s a great atmosphere in the team after last weekend”, commented the Webb Garden Power Equipment, KÄRCHER, The Handy, Q Garden, Rocwood, TH White and Corbeau-supported racer, “Donington is an altogether different challenge to Brands but I think the Toyota will go well there.”
Following the usual pair of free practice sessions for the BTCC at Donington Park next Saturday, 18th April, qualifying is provisionally scheduled to get underway at 15.35. On Sunday, 19th April, round four is set to start at 11.30, round five will begin just before 14.30 and round six is timetabled to conclude the day’s track action at around 17.15.
Live coverage of all three races will, as ever, be screened on ITV4 with online streaming carried at the www.itv.com/btcc website.
2015 Dunlop MSA BTCC Drivers Championship (after Rd3):21st Simon Belcher, 1pt
2015 Dunlop MSA BTCC Independents Trophy (after Rd3):13th Simon Belcher, 12pts
2015 Dunlop MSA BTCC HiQ Teams Championship (after Rd3):13th Handy Motorsport, 1pt
2015 Dunlop MSA BTCC Independents Team Trophy (after Rd3):8th Handy Motorsport, 23pts
