Andy Wilmot makes his Dunlop MSA British Touring Car championship debut this weekend at his home track of Brands Hatch.

Wilmot is excited to get his rookie season in the BTCC underway over Easter but at the same time he is nervous for his first season in the pinnacle series of saloon car racing.

Speaking exclusively to Kent Sports News, Andy said: “When I first decided that I was doing the BTCC that was October when I was in talks with a team and ready to put a deposit down. We announced at the beginning of December that I was actually officially doing it, it has come round really quickly. I am obviously excited and nervous.

“Including media day we have done three days testing, the Brands Hatch test we didn’t get a lot of running in as we got taken out by Jeff Smith. That caused damage to the engine and we couldn’t get the part until the end of the day so we only got about an hour of track time.

“The next day we did at Donington and we managed to get a full day and then at Media day, I myself only managed to grab 12 laps tops and Dan did the rest. We had a small engine issue which we have now rectified after finding out what the problem was. It was one of those one in a million things, since then we have the engine rebuilt and have got spares.

“To be honest I would have liked a little bit more testing, we were going to go out this week but time has run away with us. Hopefully we will have a bit more test time after the first few races.”

Andy has had a few teething problems with the car in pre-season and he would rather get the issues out of the way before the season gets underway.

He added: “It is all about reliability and finishing the races, to be honest if someone gave me the choice of having loads of testing and an engine that was slightly underdeveloped and we don’t know what it is going to do.

“I will take what we are doing now, we have a nice reliable engine and a reliable car and we can go out there and run the car as best we can. It is a learning thing for me really throughout the whole year, I am not going out there to prove anything, and I would love to score some points this year that is what we are aiming at.

“We aren’t aiming for any top tens or podiums because to be honest it is unrealistic for me at the moment, I just want to concentrate on finishing all the races scoring some points and absorbing as much as I can and go into the 2016 season with a lot of experience under my belt and then start aiming for top tens and podiums.”

With the season getting started at Brands Hatch it is nice for Andy to be able to race in front of his friends and family it does bring its own pressures as well.

“I have got a lot of friends and family that are coming along and watching it on TV and they have all been saying because you have instructed at Brands you know the circuit well, and you are going to be right up there.

“I have had to beat around the bush a little bit and say that I am new to this, and I am driving with guys that are really experienced who have been doing it for so many years. I have just been trying to tell my friends and family that it is a learning curve and we are out there to do our best this year.

“This year I am piecing everything together and go out and have a really competitive season next season.”

When you look at the 29 other drivers taking to the grid it is ultra-competitive and Andy has been wheel to wheel with a few of them in the past.

He said: “I have raced against some of these guys before, and the rookies aren’t slow and some of them I think will show up some of the guys that have been in there for three, four, five years. Anything can happen, I could even surprise myself, I might have put myself down a bit but I haven’t got any expectations.

“As hard as I am going to push and as well as I want to do I am not going to go into the season with a cocky attitude because that is not the right mentality for touring cars. You have got to go in there with goals really and when you complete those goals you can set higher targets once you complete the first ones.”

The overall feeling for Andy for the weekend is one of excitement for the weekend and making his debut in the BTCC.

He added: “Without a doubt I am excited, I have been waiting a long time for this. I didn’t really race last season and the whole of last year was spent getting the money to do the full year in touring cars this year.

“I am a year behind in my practice so I haven’t really been on a track for a year, so I am really excited to get out on track and racing and to be in the British Touring Cars at my home circuit. It is big smiles all round at the moment.

“We are really actually here, it is going to happen and I have to make the best of it because it is a lot of money to spend on racing and I want to make the best of the opportunity.”

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