Team Sunshine.co.uk back to full strength

Fri 28th August 2009 Team sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed Motor Sport will be back at full strength this weekend as the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to Silverstone for the eighth round of the season.

Having been forced to miss the events at Snetterton and Knockhill due to an injury sustained during the summer break, Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell will make his return to the grid at the Northamptonshire circuit, where he will look to support Widnes ace Paul O’Neill as he chases a second podium finish of the season.

Martyn will be seeking to break into the points for the first time since the season opener at Brands Hatch, where he secured a brace of top ten finishes.

Despite not being in the car since Croft in mid-June as a result of his summer injury, Martyn heads into the weekend confident of adding to his and the teams points tally, although he admits there may be some rustiness when he first hits the track.

“I’m ecstatic to be back in the car and will do my best to score some good team points,” he said. “I might be a little rusty at first after missing a few events, but I’m raring to go and hopefully I’ll soon be back up to speed. My aim is to try and back Paul up as best I can and break into the top ten, which would be good for the team and also for myself on a personal level. The Integra should be strong at Silverstone, so hopefully we can have a good weekend.”

Team-mate Paul heads to Silverstone following another strong weekend at Knockhill, where he secured three more top ten finishes. Those results helped Team sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed move up a place in the teams standings, with the focus at Silverstone being to maintain the current seventh place overall.

The last time Paul competed in the BTCC at Silverstone back in 2006, he led the final race of the weekend at the wheel of a bio-ethanol fuelled Vauxhall Astra run by the Tech-Speed team, and his aim for this time around will be to again take the challenge to the bigger teams and fight for the podium places.

“With Anthony Reid coming back to the series, there is a real buzz going into the weekend and I think it’s going to be a great spectacle for the fans watching on at the circuit and at home,” Paul said. “From our point of view, we need to try and get the car into the top eight in qualifying and then work on the strengths of the car, and Silverstone is a circuit where it should go well with five corners and two long straights.

“In the last two meetings, we’ve been one of the top three teams and we want to keep that going this weekend. The Chevrolets will be hard to beat, but if we can mix it with the Vauxhalls then we’ll be doing a good job and that is where I feel we should be. If we can get ourselves into the top six on race day, then we have a good chance of being on the podium if we play our cards right. Tech-Speed always provide a good car and its reliable, so we’re going for the podium again and hopefully Martyn can also get himself into the top ten.”