Photo: PSP Images

Maximum Motorsport acquire AmD’s Focus with Stewart Lines to drive

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Maximum Motorsport will step up from the Renault Clio Cup UK to the British Touring Car Championship next season, after acquiring AmD Tuning’s Ford Focus ST and one of the team’s two TOCA BTCC Licences (TBLs), with the team’s managing director Stewart Lines switching across from JWT Performance to race for his own outfit.

52-year-old Lines scored two best placed finishes of 16th in the 2015 season, just outside of the points, while driving JWT Performance’s Toyota Avensis. After putting his toe in the water with the team which is run by former BTCC driver Lea Woods and brother Greg last year, Lines will now become one of the latest team owner-driver combinations in the championship.

“It was the right time for Maximum Motorsport to be in charge of its own destiny. I run other businesses and this new enterprise is a great new opportunity to be active in something we love doing,” said Lines.

“Last year I quickly realised I was never going to be competitive in the equipment I had…I used this a learning curve to gain experience for 2016 but better results are our aim straight away.

“We will try out hardest to be the most competitive we possibly can be for 2016. This is the hardest race series in the UK. It’s a challenge, but a very exciting one.”

The team have acquired one of the TBLs from AmD Tuning, which leaves the Kent-based team with its Audi S3 saloon to campaign with in 2016.

Maximum Motorsport have confirmed they will run the car as-is with the GPRM kit, rather than the new RML chassis during pre-season testing. The team are also evaluating switching from the Mountune developed Duratec engine to the EcoBoost unit which dominated the last half of the 2015 season at the hands of Mat Jackson and Motorbase Performance.

“We would like to upgrade to the new RML parts, but initially we will keep the car as it is for pre-season and make that decision further down the line,” added Lines. “We need to get our feet under the table first with the new machinery. I can not rule out upgrading to the new Mountune EcoBoost engine but time will tell.”