Mike Bushell pleased with BTCC debut at Knockhill

24-year-old Mike Bushell was pleased with his progress on his first weekend in the British Touring Car Championship, driving the Chevrolet Cruze of the IP Tech Race Engineering team on only its second race, which will be driven by team owner Andy Neate for the remainder of the season.

With the Renault UK Clio Cup not on the support package as the BTCC went to Knockhill, Bushell was able to take over the reins of the new Next Generation Touring Car specification Chevrolet at the Scottish circuit in a deal which was just announced on the Friday before the weekend.

Qualifying in 17th position, just seven-tenths of a second off the pace, a mistake in the first race saw Bushell fall to the back of the field but he was able to drive through and up into 18th position. This was followed up with a 17th place finish in race two, and looked set for a points finish in the third and final race of the day until he was eliminated on lap 12 after contact from Aron Smith’s Motorbase Performance Ford.

“It’s a big jump up from being in a Clio, and I’ve had the added difficulty at not having been to this circuit before, so I was jumping in at the deep end, and I’ve only driven this car for an hour or so on Tuesday,” said Bushell to TouringCarTimes.

“The pace has been good from the off, I was in the top 15 in both free practices but in qualifying I didn’t really know how to make the best of the tyres so that was a bit of a struggle. (During the) first race…unfortunately I dropped off a bit and went off on my own trying to make up ground, but the safety car came out and managed to get back and set the eighth fastest time, so that was a good sign.

“In the second race I kept having an overheating issue, every time I got behind another car the temperature came up and I lost all my engine power, so we just had to live with where we were for that, then in the last race I had a perfect start and flew off the line…that got me up four places at the start and I was in 13th when unfortunately I was knocked off by Aron Smith. He’d tapped me off and then he’d come across the front of me and that snapped my steering arm and that finished me off. So it’s been an eventful weekend.”

After his first taste of the BTCC, Bushell is targeting joining the grid full-time in 2014, with his eyes currently set on the team’s second car which is presently in build.

“Andy (Neate)’s built a great car, it’s easy to get to grips with. I don’t have much experience with driving big cars like this but knowing from how I’d like a car to handle, I know it’s within that window. Hopefully I can work with Andy in the future, that’s what our intention is.”

BTCC driver turned Team Principal Andy Neate praised Bushell’s performance, but admits he’s looking forward to getting back in the driver’s seat for the last three races of the season.

“I think Mike’s done a brilliant job, he hasn’t put a foot wrong all weekend. His pace has been there, I think he’s showed that, and from the team’s perspective we’re absolutely delighted. We’ve had consistent, reliable running all weekend. Obviously we had a DNF in the third race but at least that was down to a racing incident rather than a mechanical failure, so I think that’s a massive achievement.

“I’m back in the car now for the rest of the season and I’m really looking forward to Rockingham. We’ve got the chassis where we want it and I think there’s going to be an element of boost equivalency coming in as we’ve been on base boost here and at Snetterton…but going to Rockingham with the chassis that we’ve got I don’t see why we can’t do what we came to do and get some decent points on the board.”