Motorbase Performance returned to the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship and they did it with a good points haul.

Snetterton was the venue for the Wrotham based team to make their return following a half season hiatus, and three points finish for Mat Jackson underlined their potential. There was also a best result in the BTCC for James Cole making his debut in the Mountune Ford Focus.

Following a positive start to the weekend during Saturday’s early free practice session, qualifying proved a challenge for the Wrotham-base outfit with extremely close times seeing Mat Jackson and James Cole struggling with the late entry ballast and the pair settled in P14 and P20 places respectively for Sunday’s opening race.

A tough first race for the Motorbase duo delivered the first result of the weekend, with Mat Jackson battling his way through to cross the line in twelfth to open the squad’s points tally for the season.  Meanwhile James Cole had a somewhat baptism of fire on his return to the BTCC grid, ending the race in twenty first place.

Set-up changes for both Motorbase cars paid dividends for the team during an incident-packed race two. Both Jackson and Cole found their race pace early on, challenging for top ten positions as the race unfolded and the teams’ efforts were justly rewarded with a P8 finish for Jackson in the #4 Focus and a BTCC career-best P11 finish for Cole in the #44 car.  

Race three started well with Cole immediately challenging for the top ten before contact from Bushell’s Focus and Abbott’s Audi forced the 27-year old into the pits with rear suspension damage. Jackson continued his fine form into the closing laps of the weekend, piloting the #4 Focus to a weekend-best P6 finish to claim his third points finish of the weekend.

The Motorbase Performance squad now has a quick turnaround before heading North for the championship’s annual visit to Scotland as Knockhill plays host to round seven of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship on August 22/23.

Speaking after the weekend, a pleased Team Manager Oly Collins, said:  “It’s been an interesting return to the paddock for us this weekend. I think the team has done a great job considering we’ve been away for the first half of the season. There’s no substitute for racing so the results are probably not what we hoped for but it’s a good start especially as we’ve been carrying ballast all weekend. We’ve moved forward in all three races and both Mat and James drove well; it’s just a shame for James that he was forced out of race three as a result of some dubious driving standards.

“Overall we’ve enjoyed our return to the BTCC; compliments to the team and to mountune for great reliability in all the testing sessions and also during all three races this weekend. We can now focus our efforts on claiming some silverware at Knockhill.”

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