Team Halfords unveiled its new model touring car for the first time this weekend at Mondello Park in Ireland for the launch of the Green Flag backed British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), as the all new Peugeot 307’s debut earned its first points for the team.

Current Independent title holders ‘Team Halfords’, experienced the highs and lows synonymous with the BTCC for its start to the 2003 season.

Team Halfords who describe themselves as the ‘rock and rollers’ of the BTCC paddock, due to their ‘never say die’ attitude, were determined to produce two competitive ‘out of the box’ 307’s for the first race meeting.

Team Principal Vic Lee commented: ‘ We’ve worked flat out to get the cars ready, and here we are raring to go with two great looking cars. If they race as good as they look we should be in for a very exciting and competitive season. We’ve had no testing so Mondello really had to act as our shake down period.’

Race one saw a downpour at the start of the race, creating treacherous track conditions. Both Team Halfords cars fell foul of mechanical and electrical problems, which rendered Carl Breeze’s number ten 307 stranded on the start lane, and Dan Eaves out at Turn 3 on lap six.

Race two saw Dan Eaves start from 13th position, with team mate Carl Breeze close behind him in 16th. The number ‘0’ 307 of Dan Eaves performed competitively with Eaves running in first position in the Independents cup championship and seventh overall mid-race. After battling his way through to the chequered flag, Eaves crossed the line in a respectable third in the Independents cup and seventh overall.

Carl Breeze, who was running his car for the first time in Race two, completed the session in fifth place for the Independents cup and 11th place overall.

Eaves commented: ‘I’m really please with the result, to come here and get that kind of performance first time with terrible conditions on the track is truly amazing, this car has got some serious potential. We’ve got some really good data to work from now, so there will be plenty to do before Brands Hatch in two weeks time!’