The waiting is almost over for British Touring Car fans as the season finally gets underway at Brands Hatch this weekend.

It is the culmination of a closed season and months of hard work to get their new Ford Focus ST ready to race on the opening weekend of the season.

Mat Jackson who is in his fourth season with the Wrotham based Motorbase team will lead the newly titled Airwaves racing teams charge towards the title, with promising young racing driver Aron Smith once again as his team mate.

Speaking ahead of the weekend racing Team Principal David Bartrum said: ““It’s always great to start the season at your home circuit. It’s seems that it’s been a very, very long winter and this weekend will be the underlining point of all the hard work we’ve done as a team in the past few months. It’s great to finally get underway and see what all the other teams have got to offer. Obviously we go testing; but there’s been some bad weather so none of us have really had a clear run of it, so it’ll be interesting to finally get to see what the other teams have been working on and how they perform on track.

“To have built and presented our own new NGTC cars; keeping Mat and Aron in the seat and then to have Liam out there in his old car again with another NGTC car waiting in the wings feels extra special, and even more so to kick it all off at our local track, Brands Hatch. I can’t wait to get going!”

Jackson has been racing in BTCC since 2007 and has a vast amount of experience, which will make him one of the frontrunners in a highly competitive field this season.

Giving his thoughts on racing at the team’s home track, Mat said: ““I always look forward to going racing at Brands; obviously it’s the team’s local track and we always get a lot of support whenever we race there. With the NGTC programme we’re now up to two cars so hopefully we can get the set up in the right direction to challenge for race wins from the off, and everybody at Airwaves Racing is working immensely hard to achieve this.

“We’re learning throughout the testing. We’re learning the good and the bad you can always take the positive out of each test and I think hopefully we’re in a good position to go forward into this weekend with some cars that we challenge the boys at the front with.”

For Jackson’s teammate Aron Smith it is back to the scene of where he won his first BTCC race, there is no doubt at such a young age that he will be on the podium for many years and races to come.

Discussing the momentum the team has heading towards the start of the season, the 23-year-old said: ““I’m so excited ahead of the first round. To be back on the grid and to have Airwaves back on board so strongly with the team is literally a dream come true for me. We’ve stepped up once again with the cars and the team have worked so hard over the winter to develop the NGTC into something a lot stronger than what they finished last year; even then to think that Mat possibly could have won three races in the NGTC last year; I think that’s a really good starting point!

“The last time I was at Brands I won my first ever BTCC race so I have really fond memories of it as you can imagine; so fingers crossed we can go back there and do the same again!”

As David mentioned the team will also have Liam Griffin racing in his Ford Focus ST2000 competing in the Jack Sears Trophy, with five other drivers.

Talking about the season ahead, Liam said: “It’s great to be back! I thought last year was going to be my retirement but having looked at what else is out there and just missing the BTCC over the winter period you end up thinking that there’s nothing else that you want to do; it’s just like a drug and you just have to come back for another dose!”

It really does look like a promising season for all three drivers at the Motorbase team, and we will be following their progress throughout the season right here at Kent Sports News.