Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell will aim to reward his Arkas Racing with Sunshine.co.uk team for the hard work put in over the past fortnight as the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to Thruxton this weekend (17/18 May) for the fourth round of the year.

The Tech-Speed run team was left with work to do following the last round at Donington Park after both Martyn and team-mate Erkut Kizilirmak were involved in accidents on race day that left two damaged Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatches returning to the team’s base in Leamington Spa.

Despite being forced to miss the second and third races in the East Midlands, Martyn heads to Thruxton – the fastest circuit on the BTCC calendar – buoyed by his strongest run of the year so far in the opening race at Donington, where he ran just outside the points scoring positions for long periods before eventually finishing in 14th place.

Having come to terms with the move to front-wheel drive after spending his entire four-wheeled career in rear-wheel drive, Martyn goes into the weekend confident of another good run in the ex-works Astra and will be chasing his first top ten finish of the 2008 campaign as he looks to reward the team for its hard work preparing for the event.

“I’m so confident in the Astra now in the dry, so I’m hoping that there won’t be any rain this weekend,” he said. “The drivers deserve some fine weather and the crowds who come along to watch certainly do, so hopefully the rain will stay away. We showed at Donington that we can be competitive in the dry and I want to continue that this weekend.

“I’ve now got to grips with front-wheel drive a lot more and I feel that Thruxton will be more rewarding for me to drive in the Astra than it was in the BMW. I had to balance the throttle through Church in the BMW so it didn’t get out of shape, so I’m looking forward to being able to take it flat out! The only thing that is a bit of an unknown quantity for me is that the circuit is hard on tyres and I’m not sure how the Astra will manage its tyres over the race distance – so that is something I’ll work on during practice. I’ll also work with Erkut during practice on slip-streaming as it’s vital at Thruxton. Hopefully we can perfect that, and then work together in qualifying to help each other start as far up the grid as possible.

“Erkut and I are both aware of the hard work the team has had to put in since Donington to get the cars ready for the weekend after the incidents we both had. Credit has to go to them for the work they have done, as it is hard on the teams when there is only a short break between races. There is only one way we can really reward them for their efforts – by going out there and bringing home some results.”