Sibsports debutes with Honda Integra

Leading club level racer Simon Blanckley will make his Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship debut in 2007 in last year’s ex-Team Halfords/Gareth Howell Honda Integra under the ‘sibsports’ banner, run by the experienced Graham Hathaway.

Blanckley set the standard in last year’s Euro Saloons championship, winning six of eight races in an ex-David Leslie Honda Accord BTCC car from the Nineties, having already been a class champion in the Northern Sports and Saloons series.

For Hathway, a chance to fettle Blanckley’s Honda means a welcome return to the BTCC since his last involvement in the championship in 1997 when he ran Robb Gravett to the independents title.

Sibsports is scheduled to first run the Integra – winner of two of last year’s final three BTCC rounds – next Wednesday 28 February at Brands Hatch. Sponsorship will come from AWD Chase de Vere, Europe’s biggest pensions and investment group.

Blanckley, a 39-year-old tax adviser from Durham and also nephew of distinguished Seventies sports car racer John Blanckley, told BTCC.net: “I’ve watched the BTCC since the early Nineties and it’s just something I’ve always wanted to do.

“I’ve been around motor sport since I was a kid and it’s always appealed to me. I’ve followed Matt Neal’s progress since he first came into the BTCC and I actually became a bit of an anorak before I took up racing five years ago.

“From the outside in as a spectator it just looks like a very, very well run and slick operation. It’s everything F1 tries to be and can’t be – you can relate to the cars and the drivers because they’ve all come from somewhere and it’s also more achievable for someone from club level racing wanting to come into it. It’s going to be a bit nerve-wracking, but I want to be among professional drivers with proper teams and proper cars to see if I can mix it with them.”