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Robb Holland looking at partial BTCC & WTCC programme in 2015

American driver Robb Holland will not race full-time in the 2015 British Touring Car Championship, after selling their self-prepared Audi S3 saloon to another team, but the 47-year-old is hoping to compete at a few races this season in the UK, and is also working on a one-off appearance in the FIA World Touring Car Championship at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in May.

“We’re out but not for the reasons people would expect,” said Holland to TouringCarTimes. “They’re kind of financial, but it’s not about not having the money. Though as an American owned German team, with the team being Rotek Racing Gmbh, we have yet to see any money back from Her Majesty’s Government, nor have any idea if we’ll ever see it,” explained Holland, indicating that it’s not sustainable continuing a programme that costs them 20% more than their competitors.

“The only real solution would be to set-up a team in the UK, but at the moment that’s not something we’re able to do…so we’re going to sit it out and work towards coming back in 2016. I still believe the British Touring Car Championship is the best platform for us, it’s one of the most competitive championships in the world,” he added.

Holland is also targeting a WTCC return, racing at the latest addition to the WTCC calendar at the Nordschleife in May, a track which the US driver now calls his home circuit, after competing in recent years in the German VLN series with Rotek Racing and their Audi TT-RS.

“We’re 90% of the way there. There are about three options we’re working on, but the plan is to do a double-header and compete in the WTCC (on the Saturday morning) as well the Nürburgring 24 Hours,” explains Holland.

Holland’s only appearance in the WTCC came in 2012 at the Sonoma Raceway, competing with bamboo-engineering in their Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T as a late stand-in for the departed Pasquale Di Sabatino.

The American driver had planned to return the following year with the new Rotek Racing squad later in the season, after acquiring the assets of the now defunct Arena Motorsport, including their their Super 2000 specification Ford Focus S2000 TCs, but were forced to abandon the programme when the introduction of the new generation of S2000 TC1 cars were brought forward, rendering the Focus obsolete.

The team instead switched their attention to the BTCC in 2014, developing the Audi S3 along with bamboo-engineering (now Craft-Bamboo), with Holland taking part in the first nine rounds of the championship, scoring points at Croft and Rockingham.