After a fine start to his Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship campaign at Brands Hatch, Barrow-upon-Humber race ace Martyn Bell is ready to take further steps forward as the series heads to Rockingham this coming weekend for the second round of the year.

The Team AllAboutProperty.com driver may have failed to open his points account in the season opener earlier this month, but the first visit of the year to the Kent circuit saw Martyn and his BMW 320i E46 produce arguably its strongest performance to date in the BTCC, with Martyn finishing all three races within touching distance of a points finish.

Martyn now heads to Rockingham looking to build not only on that performance, but also on his past success at the Northamptonshire venue, which includes being the first person to sit on pole position when the circuit held its first race meeting back in 2001.

With the high-speed layout set to be well suited to his ex-WTCC BMW, Martyn is confident of a successful weekend and said he was looking to head back home after the meeting with his first points of the season in the bag.

“It’s nice to go back to a circuit where I have won in the past and where I’ve been successful,” he said. “I’ve also had a car catch fire at Rockingham before but that’s a different story! It’s a circuit that should suit the BMW and if we can dial the car in around the in-field then we stand a good chance of some strong results as the car will be quick around the banking. I’ve not had the chance to push with this car at the circuit yet as we were only doing a shakedown at the media day, so we will treat Saturday morning as a bit of a test to get the set-up right and then go for it in qualifying.

“I want to head home with some points this weekend, and I don’t just mean Independent points – I want to be scoring some proper championship points. That is our real objective for the weekend and if we can keep ourselves in with the leading pack then it is something I feel we can achieve. I want to try and qualify inside the top 15 and go from there, but we know that the BMW can easily make up two places off the line.”

Martyn also heads to Rockingham buoyed by the reaction of BTCC fans to his results in the opening rounds of the season, with a number of fans having commented on his performance at Brands Hatch as being one of the most improved compared to the opening race meeting twelve months earlier.

“It’s very flattering as it shows that people are paying attention to how we are getting on and want us to do well,” he said. “It really lifts me and makes me want to do even better, it’s like I’m being given a pat on the back and now I just want to get a bigger one!

“Strong support from the fans is almost worth another half a second a lap. When people are cheering you on and want you to do well, you are driving for them as well as driving for yourself. It makes you want to succeed even more and you don’t want to let anyone down. As you get more successful, you get more support and hopefully our support will continue to grow as the season goes on.”