The British Touring Car Championship returns this weekend at Snetterton and Airwaves Racing are back and ready to go full throttle in the second half of the season.
It’s been a long five week break in the racing with the championship taking its annual mid-season summer hiatus, and the Motorbase-run squad is fired up and ready for battle as it looks to keep its championship challenge alive.
Although things have been quiet in the BTCC, away from the track the Airwaves Racing squad has been kept busy during the break with intense development work taking place on the Ford Focus ST’s at the squad’s Kent workshops.
Last time out at Croft produced a mixed bag of results for the team. Mat Jackson enjoyed a successful weekend with a top three and two top ten results that saw him move up in the driver standings, whilst his Airwaves team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi found himself at the rough end of the on-track action and the Italian was cruelly taken out of the lead during the weekend’s final race.
Away from the touring cars, the Motorbase Performance GT squad has had a demanding timetable with two overseas visits to Belgium’s iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit where the squad celebrated a fantastic double podium in the British GT Championship before contesting its first 24 hour race in the Blancpain GT endurance series last weekend.
Snetterton has been a good circuit for Airwaves Racing in the past with an array of race wins and podiums in recent years. Both Mat and Fabrizio have taken multiple wins at the circuit during their BTCC careers, however this weekend will be Fabrizio’s first time racing on the new 300 layout and the double BTCC champion is hoping for a change of luck this weekend and a return to winning ways in the Focus ST.
Sunday’s second race marks Mat Jackson’s 250th appearance in the BTCC and the squad is optimistic that its hard work will be rewarded with a return to rostrum for the Airwaves man as he commemorates this impressive milestone. The circuit has a special place in the team’s history with this weekend also marking the 2nd anniversary of the unveiling of the first Motorbase designed and built touring car and the Ford Focus next generation touring car’s debut in the BTCC.
Speaking ahead of the weekend, Mat Jackson said: “I’m really looking forward to getting back out there after the summer break. Hopefully the car is on the button from the word go in FP1. I think that the Snetterton layout will suit the Focus and we can keep ourselves in the race for the championship.
“We’ve had some great results here in the past; the Focus made its debut here in 2012 which was the first time that Motorbase became a constructor and it was fantastic to be part of that. Hopefully we can add to those successes on Sunday. Points, points and more points is the plan for this weekend. We need to be consistently at the front in order to keep the championship in sight and that is what I will be pushing for as the second half of the season commences.”
The weekend’s racing gets underway at Snetterton circuit on August 2/3. Live coverage of Sunday’s events will be shown on ITV4, itv.com and also in HD from 11.00am, with itv.com featuring live streaming online of Saturday’s qualifying session between 3.15 and 3.50pm.
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