Gareth Howell won the Independents Cup on his BTCC debut for Team Atomic Kitten. Despite stiff opposition from former World Superbike rider, Aaron Slight and BTCC champion Tim Harvey, Howell came home 4th overall and the first non-manufacturer backed driver across the line. Howell, 21, is racing this year in an MG ZS backed by Europe’s No.1 girl Band, Atomic Kitten.

A crowd of over 16000 that included the Kitten’s, who flew in from Switzerland to support their team, cheered Gareth on.

Gareth was ecstatic with the result. “ I came here hoping for two point scoring finishes and have achieved that. To come away with 27 points in the Independents Championship for the weekend and finish top scorer is a real bonus. We knew that the MG ZS was an awesome car, but to come here this weekend and do this well with the cars literally straight out of the box is amazing. Most of the other teams have been working on their cars all winter and have had hours and hours of testing. I have to give credit to the team for the way they set the cars up. They’ve worked for 19 –20 hours each day for the last 3 days and they deserve a lot of the praise. Team Atomic Kitten will really make people sit up and take notice this year, not just because of the drivers but because we have a great team behind us too”.

Gareth, along with teammate Colin Turkington, will be racing at the remaining 8 meetings of the BTCC this year.

The race can be seen on ITV this Saturday, 27th April at 2.15pm, after F1 qualifying and On the Ball.