Simon Belcher counting the cost of Thruxton damage

Speedworks Motorsport’s Simon Belcher has a struggle ahead to repair his Toyota Avensis before the next round of the Championship at Oulton Park, utilising a mass of spares as well as requiring a new engine and gearbox to be on the grid at the Cheshire circuit at the start of next month, following his high-speed crash at Thruxton last weekend.

The 40-year-old is competing in his first season in the BTCC, and had clocked up a steady run of finishes in the first two race weekends at Brands Hatch and Donington Park, but things started to go wrong at Thruxton, retiring with a handling issue after flat-spotting his tyres with an off at Noble, but then recovered from a poor start to finish 23rd in the second race, before his crash at the Church corner in Race 3 on lap 11, caused when his suspension failed heading into the fast right-hander.

“The shell is repairable,” said Belcher in a post on his Facebook page. “It needs a new roof, doors, both quarter panels and the rear panel and some jig work but Toyota have the parts, the bad news is the engine and gearbox are damaged which we did not allow for.

“The front subframe needs replacing and these are out of stock but luckily Speedworks Motorsport have a spare we can have. The Speedworks and Handy Motorsport crew are convinced they can get it done in time but we don’t know for sure.”