AFTER POSITIVE START TO 2016 SEASON
Donington Park National Circuit in Leicestershire will host the second event of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season this weekend, 16th/17th April, where Handy Motorsport’s Rob Austin is targeting big gains after an eventful start to the 2016 campaign just over a week ago.
Despite difficulties in qualifying last time out at Brands Hatch due to an erroneous set-up choice, compounded by retirement from the championship curtain-raiser as a result of contact from two rivals, Austin bounced back superbly in rounds two and three with some excellent racing.
Carving his way through the order from 30th on the grid into 14th position in the weekend’s second contest, the multiple BTCC race winner went on to mount a strong challenge for the overall top 10 in round three before taking the Swindon team’s best ever result in touring cars with 11th position.
Not only that, Austin’s pace at the wheel of the striking No.11 Toyota Avensis was a match for that delivered by the podium finishers in race two, just 0.1 seconds shy, even though he was in the thick of traffic slicing his way through the order throughout the 26 lapper.
Additionally, his hard-charging performances were acknowledged and rewarded by BTCC tyre supplier Dunlop through its new-for-2016 #ForeverForward contest. Awarding a point for every overtaking manoeuvre a driver successfully achieves, Austin goes into the Donington event three points clear on the #ForeverForward leaderboard.
“Rob did a great job on his first race weekend with the team and we’re all feeling very confident of much more at Donington”, said Simon Belcher, team principal, “Everyone worked incredibly well together at Brands and it’s just unfortunate the way things went in qualifying. We know a lot more was possible, the car is fast and so is Rob. We aim to get it right from the start this weekend.”
Knowing where things went awry with qualifying set-up at Brands Hatch, confidence is high of a return to the sort of performance achieved during the pre-season ‘Media Day’ test run at the East Midlands track last month where the 34-year-old was a superb third quickest.
Adding to Handy’s buoyant mood ahead of rounds four, five and six of the season is the pole position qualifying performance and stunning race victory achieved by partner team Speedworks Motorsport a week ago.
In the sister Toyota to the one piloted by Austin, BTCC regular Tom Ingram was able to secure his maiden win in touring cars – albeit with an alternative set-up to the one utilised by Austin. The result certainly confirmed the capability of the latest specification Avensis.
Austin commented: “We have to get qualifying right at Donington, that’s where everything went wrong at Brands – I thought there was more time in me after practice but we should have gone the same direction as Tom [Ingram] and Speedworks with the set-up. They showed what the car is capable of.
“Everyone at the team is doing a great job, though, we’re all gelling well and making good steps forward. I’m still learning the front-wheel drive but confidence is high for Donington and Media Day there obviously went well for us. Nobody wants to look bad on Media Day but you never want to show your full hand either so we’re feeling pretty confident…”
Following the usual pair of free practice sessions on Saturday, 16th April, qualifying at Donington Park will get underway at 15.35 and will be streamed online at www.itv.com/btcc
On Sunday, 17th April, round four of the BTCC season is scheduled to begin at 11.30, round five will get underway at 14.25 and round six will conclude the day’s track action at around 17.15. All three races will be streamed live online and screened on ITV4.
2016 BTCC Drivers Championship Standings:15th Rob Austin, 7pts
2016 Independents Trophy Standings:10th Rob Austin, 18pts
2016 HiQ Teams Championship Standings:12th Handy Motorsport, 7pts
2016 Independents Team Trophy Standings:8th Handy Motorsport, 10pts
