Motorbase Performance, with their ‘red devil’ Ford Focus STs, were voted by TouringCarTimes readers as the best independent team of the 2011 British Touring Car Championship season.
The Kent-based team, which with lead driver Mat Jackson (already voted as best independent driver) at one point lead the overall standings last season, and took four victories, was voted as the best independent team last season with 24.5% of the vote.
“I was genuinely thrilled to hear that we’d been voted as the top independent team in the BTCC for 2011,” said Motorbase Team Principal David Bartrum.
“It means a lot to us as a team that the fans recognise the hard work we all put in and that they think of the team in such a positive way. We’re very grateful to everyone that voted and the team at TouringCarTimes; thank you.”
It was very close for second place in the rankings, with new teams to the BTCC Dynojet Racing just losing out to Rob Austin Racing, even though the two new teams finished relatively down in the standings in eighth or ninth place. However, voters clearly recognised the stuggle the new teams had with the new Next Generation Touring Cars that they were running, and both driers Frank Wrathall and Rob Austin turned their season around in the second half and were challenging for overall race wins.
The independents’ champions Triple Eight Race Engineering were voted in fourth place, with 2010 winners Team Aon in fifth place, ahead of the rest.
