Touring car race debut just one week away for BTCC rookie Belcher
28-Apr-2014 
Six months since first formulating plans to compete in the UK’s biggest
motor racing category, Handy Motorsport’s Simon Belcher will realise his
dream of lining-up on the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship
grid next weekend, 29th/30th March, when the 2014 season gets underway.
Taking place at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent, the first three races
of the new BTCC campaign will feature a near-capacity grid of more than
30 cars with the Swindon driver’s eye-catching KÄRCHER liveried Toyota
Avensis certain to grab plenty of attention.
Since officially confirming his graduation from the Renault UK Clio Cup
feeder series, where he won back-to-back Masters Cup titles in 2012 and
2013, the 40-year-old has been working incredibly hard behind the
scenes, as well as behind the wheel, to prepare as well as possible for
his BTCC debut.
This week’s officially timed pre-season test and Media Day, which took
place at Donington Park in Leicestershire on Tuesday, 18th March, gave
Belcher an opportunity to run on track with the majority of his fellow
competitors for the first time.
The onset of wet weather early in the afternoon run, however, prevented
the Handy Motorsport crew from being able to gain a true picture of
progress made with no chance to run on fresh, slick Dunlop tyres after
off-track PR activities delayed participation in the test session.
Even so, Belcher completed a total of 51 laps – most on wet-weather
rubber – with a best time of 1m15.734 seconds (94.07mph) coming on his
eighth lap of the afternoon on old slick tyres. While the lack of dry
running wasn’t ideal, the experience in wet conditions was still
welcome.
“It was great to see such a huge media turnout at Donington and there
were also a lot of dedicated fans there in the afternoon – that’s the
power of the BTCC”, said Belcher, “After all of the media activity in
the morning, more commercial commitments meant we were slightly later
hitting the track in the afternoon than planned so we only got a short
run on used slicks before the rain came.
“We waited for the rain to stop but it kept coming, on and off, so we
decided to go out on wet tyres and showed some good pace, even lapping
quicker than some of the established BTCC runners. It is a lottery what
the weather will be like at Brands, so the laps at Donington could prove
useful.”
He added: “The hardest thing at Brands is going to be getting clear laps
in qualifying with 31 cars on the grid! It’s been an unbelievably busy
few months, and everyone involved in the project has been working so
hard, but to finally almost be there at the first round is a fantastic
feeling – I can’t wait.”
The first free practice session for the BTCC cars at Brands Hatch next
Saturday, 29th March, will get underway at 10.00 with the second run
following at 12.40 and qualifying – which will be broadcast online at
the
www.itv.com/btcc website - then taking place at 15.40.
On Sunday, 30th March, Belcher’s maiden BTCC race will begin at
approximately 11.45 with round two scheduled to start at around 14.20
and round three expected to commence at 17.00. All three races will be
screened live on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channels ITV4 and
ITV4 HD with the addition of online streaming at the ITV website.
