VX Racing crosses the Irish Sea for rounds 16, 17 and 18 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Mondello Park, County Kildare, this weekend, 23 and 24 July. The team embarks on the long trip fresh from a successful race meeting at Croft and is confident it can transfer the dominant performance to the similar twisty Mondello Park circuit.

The Irish circuit is lucky for VX Racing, in 2004 the team picked up one win, two second places and one third. This year, with the new VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch, the team is aiming for a repeat of previous successes.

For VX Racing driver Colin Turkington, the event is something of a 'home' race. Turkington lives in Portadown, Northern Ireland, and many of his friends and family will be making the short hop down to see the Ulsterman in action. But there are further reasons for Turkington, 23, to relish the championship's only visit to the Emerald Isle - in 2004, he scored his only win of the season at Mondello.

Turkington is confident going into the weekend; "Mondello is probably my favourite event of the year as I have lots of people I know at the track. The VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch worked well at the last event and hopefully we can transfer this over to Mondello. Both circuits are quite twisty and very technical, so I'll be hoping for a repeat of the podium finishes at the very least. I came to VX Racing to win, now I've got one under my belt I want more!"

VX Racing's third driver, Dubliner Gavin Smith, relishes the thought of participating in Britain's premier motor racing series in front of his home crowd at the wheel of the race-winning VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch; "Mondello is a great track and only about 40 minutes from where I live, so I hope to have a lot of local support! I've had good results there, in fact my first ever car race was on the old circuit in 1998. With every race and practice session, we understand the new VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch more, and it's now only small adjustments we need to make to the balance. At Mondello we'll be looking to get some strong finishes and add to the VX Racing points tally."

Yvan Muller, currently third in the drivers' championship, has considerable experience at the Irish track, and last year claimed pole position and one race win. In 2003 he notched up two second places on his way to the drivers' title. His recent win and second place finish at Croft closed the gap to the top of the drivers' championship, and he is now less than 30 points adrift of leader Matt Neal.

With 15 points for a win, the championship is far from over for Muller, "The strong results helped in the championship," commented the Frenchman, "And we still have half the season left. Morale is good and I hope we can keep it going. We're strong, but you don't know about the others and whether their developments will come in to play. Mondello is a good track for me, and I will focus on my race plan and continue to develop the VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch, not what the other teams are doing."

Mondello Park will host the sixth race weekend of the 2005 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship on 23 and 24 July 2005. VX Racing is aiming to extend its lead in the manufacturers' championship and improve its standings in the drivers' and team championships. The team is currently second in the team championship, with Muller third in the drivers' championship, Turkington fifth and Smith in tenth place.

Hot Facts

Yvan Muller - Mondello maestro! The Frenchman has won four times in the last four years at the track and also holds the lap records for both qualifying and racing. In 2003, he set a 1 min 45.651 seconds lap for qualifying, and in 2002 lapped in 1 min 46.607 seconds during the race

Gavin Smith made his BTCC debut at Mondello in 2004 driving a Vauxhall Astra Coupe for GA Motorsports. He holds the lap record for the Fiat Uno championship on both the old and the new circuit configurations

Smith will be playing host to around 80 friends and relatives at Mondello this weekend - thankfully, not all of them are staying in his house!

Colin Turkington had never even been to Mondello Park until his first season of racing in 2002, and due to illness then and two engine blow-ups in 2003, he didn't actually complete a racing lap until 2004!