Motorbase pleased with pre-season work

Motorbase Performance team manager Oly Collins says he feels the Ford team is heading into the new BTCC campaign in good shape after concluding a busy pre-season testing programme at Oulton Park.

The session in Cheshire saw Mat Jackson, Martin Depper and Luke Davenport put more miles on the striking, Shredded Wheat-backed Focus STs and came on the back of a number of solid tests both in the UK and overseas.

In total, the three cars have now completed an impressive 4,500km of off-season running as the team focused on learning as much as possible about the new-for-2017 Dunlop tyre – with Depper and Davenport also acclimatising to the car that they will race for the first time this year.

“The way that we’ve approached this testing programme this year has probably been the best for us whilst competing in the BTCC,” Collins said. “It’s been great having the benefit of all three cars running and we’ve averaged over 1,500km in each car, which collectively is around the same as a full season in the BTCC. The reliability of the cars throughout has been great as usual thanks to the guys in the team.

“The guys have yet again done an outstanding job of building the third car. It often gets overlooked as the Motorbase cars are so reliable, but it’s a real testament to the level of talent within the team and their meticulous work ethic that they always turn out a cracking car.

“A lot of work and development has gone into the cooling system this winter. We’ve been working very closely with Mountune and Pro Alloy, making improvements and trying to find any edge at all over the competition. We finished last year with a pretty good car at every circuit and everything we learnt has some relevance going into this year, but it’s all about tuning this into the new tyre. We’ve also got the hard compound tyre which is going to be used more frequently this year.”