BTCC: Motorbase Performance confirmed Snetterton return


July 14, 2015
News
Marijan Malcevic


  • Motorbase Performance

Motorbase Performance will return to the BTCC grid, as per its previous  plans, in the next round at Snetterton on August 8/9.  The team will compete in all other races till the end of the season with James Cole and Mat Jackson in the cockpit of Ford Focus ST.

The Wrotham-based team skipped the first half of the 2015 season to develop the recently unveiled new 2-litre mountune-powered EcoBoost engine. The squad is now in the final stages of preparation for its return to the grid. It had a test with a new car and will have its first rondezvous  with its rivals for two days at the official Dunlop tyre test at Snetterton this Thursday (July 16).

BTCC-Motorbase-FordFocus1

“We’re all really looking forward to coming back to the championship at Snetterton. It’s been a long winter for us but we’ve been far from resting on our laurels. The development work with the new mountune engine has gone really well and it’s exciting to be re-joining the BTCC and to see where we are compared to the rest of the grid. It will be an exciting challenge for Mat, James and the whole team. A lot of hard work has gone into this project and l hope we can go out there and get some decent results as a reward. Obviously we can’t win the championship in the second half of the season, but we can go out there to win races and podiums and we’re up for the challenge,”said Motorbase Team Principal David Bartrum.

“The car has performed well in testing so it will be interesting to see how we compare against the Hondas, VW’s and BMW’s at the Dunlop test later this week. That aside, it’s great to be finally preparing for our come back next month. Everyone in the team has worked really hard behind the scenes to make this happen, and with new mountune engine and the chassis improvements I feel sure we have a very competitive package on our hands. We’re not here to make up the numbers, we’ll definitely up for the challenge and we’ll be going all out for race wins come Snetterton”, said Mat Jackson, driver of #4 Ford Focus.

“We’re all really looking forward to getting back to the BTCC grid. It’s been interesting watching from the side-lines this year and some would argue that we may have learnt more than if we’d been racing, but we’ll see! We had a great test at Brands recentlymine and Mat’s driving style is very similar so we’ve been able to share data and set ups between us which should help us move forward quickly once we get back out on track. Even with the small amount of time that I’ve had in the Focus, everything is already there for me. There’s good data and it’s great to be in the team with Mat who knows the car inside out. I’ve just got to grab what’s already there and put it into practice,” said James Cole, driver of #44 Ford Focus.

Motorbase-Cole-Jackson-1

Related Posts