British Touring Car Championship 2008

Rockingham next for Motorbase

The amazing Rockingham Motor Speedway near Corby in Northamptonshire is the next stop for Motorbase Performance in the 2008 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship (12/13 April).

On the back of a highly encouraging weekend at Brands Hatch when the season opened on 29/30 March, the Motorbase team is gearing up to challenge for podium finishes with its pair of BMW 320s for Steven Kane and Rob Collard.

Kane was one of the stars of Brands Hatch on his BTCC debut and showed that he already had the pace to run with the big guns. It was unfortunate that his race day ended mid-way through the second race after contact spun him into the pit wall, but by then Steven has made his mark.

"Motorbase has got a great package with the BMW," said Steven at Brands. "It's probably one of the best cars on the grid. The team is growing in stature and it’s just getting better and better."

Collard, meanwhile, was one of the stars of the third race at Brands when he charged through from the back of the grid. Rob had been sent into the Paddock Hill Bend gravel trap in the second race, but turned in a fighting drive in race three to show that he is rapidly getting to grips with his Motorbase BMW.

Now the focus of the BTCC switches to Rockingham, the purpose-built speedway with seating for over 50,000 fans and tremendous views of virtually the whole circuit from any of those grandstand seats.

More good news for Motorbase is that pre-season testing suggests that the BMWs will be very strong at Rockingham, which features the 140mph charge through the banked turn one as one of the fastest corners on the BTCC calendar.

"Our pace was good; the speed was there," said team boss David Bartrum after the Brands weekend. "We need to do a bit more work with the car, but we've got a very good car and two good drivers in Steven and Rob."

While thousands of fans will pack into the Northamptonshire track, hundreds of thousands more will be tuning in to extensive live coverage of all the race action on ITV4. The first of Sunday's three races starts at 11.20am, while live coverage of the afternoon's action will run from 12.30pm to 5.30pm on ITV4.

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