British Touring Car Championship 2007

Motorbase confirms Thruxton return

Motorbase Performance has restored its pair of SEAT Toledos - badly damaged at Brands Hatch - back to pristine condition and team boss David Bartrum hopes to see them achieve a long-awaited podium result in Thruxton's season finale.

Bartrum's squad was forced to sit out Knockhill's most recent Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds because of the heavy knocks to both cars at Brands. Ferrier's suffered heavy front-end damage in a multiple pile-up in race one, while the rear-end of Allison's was demolished when he crashed on his own in race two.

But Bartrum told BTCC.net: "What was it Arnold Schwarzenegger said? 'I'll be back…' Well, here we are, all ready to go, which I suppose some people might find hard to believe when they saw how many bits of scrap metal we had piled up behind our garage at Brands.

"Missing Knockhill hurt us but we've used the time very wisely and the cars now are back in mint condition - as good as when we first took hold of them back in the winter. It is true that we are hoping to move to the newer SEAT Leon for 2008, but these Toledos would be ideal for single car entrants looking to come into the BTCC next season. They are fast, strong, good to work on and teach you lots about running Super 2000-spec machinery.

"They also remain really competitive cars as we've proved with a couple of top six finishes this season and hopefully we can emphasise that point again at Thruxton. We've still got three test days owed to us - we've not been able to go testing because of the high levels of accident damage we've suffered this season - but we'll take them now and hopefully be at our strongest ever at Thruxton."

In Thruxton's May meeting, both Motorbase cars were in the hunt for an outright podium position - their longer, 'three-box' bodyshop helping them to generate tremendous straight-line speed around what is the calendar's fast circuit. They could just play a part in deciding who - factory SEAT driver Jason Plato or Vauxhall's Fabrizio Giovanardi - becomes the new Champion by again getting in among the top runners and stealing away vital points.

Bartrum added: "We were very strong at Thruxton back in May, with Matt pushing for our first podium finish against Darren Turner's factory Leon. Unfortunately, that ended in a big accident for Matt but that only enabled us to show what a determined bunch we are by repairing a very badly damaged car inside two hours for race three. Adam Jones has done very well in his (Team Air Cool) Toledo and that is the same performance level we are capable of as well - we've just had a few unlucky breaks, that's all.

"But the whole team is raring to go for Thruxton. We wanted to establish ourselves as a two-car team in the BTCC in 2007 and when the cars have not been sidelined we've always either been inside or on the fringes of the top ten. Strong finishes in all three races is something I'd like to see for all the people in the team as I think they deserve it…

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