Sunshine.co.uk heads for Croft

Thu 11th June 2009 Team sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed Motorsport will look to continue its solid campaign in the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship as the series reaches the half-way stage this weekend at Croft.

The team currently lies ninth in the teams’ standings and is seventh in the Independents’ standings going into one of the most popular events of the year.

Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell heads to his ‘home’ event in the North East on the back of a historic weekend last time out at Oulton Park, where he took part in his 100th race.

Although unable to celebrate the landmark with a top ten finish, Bell maintained his 100 per cent finishing record this season and will be keen to battle towards the points this weekend at the wheel of his Honda Integra.

“It was fantastic to complete 100 races in the BTCC at Oulton Park – it’s not bad for an old motor mechanic from Lincolnshire!” he said. “There were a couple of incidents on track there that stopped me from battling towards the top ten, but the encouraging thing was the pace that we showed and the team worked brilliantly again – they pulled out all the stops for us.

“Croft is the closest circuit to home and there is always a great following for the BTCC in the North East. I think we stand a good chance at Croft with its mix of high-speed and low-speed corners and I’m raring to go. I’ve been carrying a bit of a back injury since last season and my heavy shunt at Snetterton, but I’ve been getting it looked at to ensure I’m fully fit and I’m hopeful of a strong weekend.

“Hopefully the rain that we had last season will stay away, but if it doesn’t, there’ll be plenty of sunshine.co.uk in our garage!”

Team-mate Paul O’Neill has enjoyed an impressive return to the BTCC this season, and took his tally of top ten finishes to four with a brace of ninth places in his home event at Oulton last time out.

The ever popular Widnes driver will now target more points to add to his tally in what he admits is strong company.

“I had an issue with high-speed understeer in the car at Oulton Park, which we didn’t get on top of until the third race but we still picked up two top ten finishes and you live and learn from these things,” he said.

“Getting into the top ten in this company isn’t an easy task and if you do it, you are doing a good job. I’ll be giving it a good shot again at Croft to bring home some more points. I’m looking forward to the weekend and hopefully we should be on song.”