Frank Wrathall voted best rookie of 2011

TouringCarTimes readers voted Frank Wrathall as the best rookie driver in touring car racing last season. The 25-year-old Prestonian won the award against tough competition including Edoardo Mortara, Javier Villa and Colin Turkington.

Wrathall, three times a winner in the BTCC’s independent category in 2011, collected his trophy at the Championship’s media day, where his new look Toyota Avensis was revealed for this season.

Wrathall took the majority share of 40% of the vote, with Colin Turkington recognised for his achievements in his rookie season in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship with 25%, with WTCC rookie Javier Villa next on 19%.

“I was quite surprised to win best rookie overall,” said Wrathall to TouringCarTimes. “I’m really pleased to get recognition for what we achieved last year really.”

Wrathall heads into his second year in the BTCC with the family-run Dynojet Racing team, with a full Next Generation Touring Car specification Toyota Avensis, powered by a Toyota-based 2.0 litre turbo engine.

“I think with what we’ve learned from the past year and the upgrades we’re doing to the car, from a machinery point of view we should be in a much better condition. It’s difficult to say how we’ll get on because we don’t know what everyone else is up to till the first round,” said Wrathall.