Rob Austin “playing down” pre-season form

Rob Austin says he is “keen to play down” his encouraging pre-season form after two successful tests this week.

Austin has spent three days testing at Oulton Park and Donington Park in his Audi A4, and has reported a notable increase in performance from the car, which is about to embark on its fourth season in the BTCC.

Austin managed plenty of trouble-free laps on Tuesday in wet and dry conditions on the full Oulton layout, but a waterlogged track surface forced the Rob Austin Racing squad to cut short its Wednesday programme.

The team moved on to Leicestershire for 60 laps of dry running at Donington Park today.

Austin said: “The raw pace we seem to be getting – even in very cold conditions – is awesome. We’ve been able to compare ourselves against the factory MG and Honda cars as well as reigning champ Andrew Jordan’s Honda and all I’ll say is I’m pretty chuffed with our lap times.

“It is always impossible to know what the others are up to in testing and you know they’ve probably got something up their sleeves with the extra resources they have, but we’re heading back to base tonight in a very good mood.

“The car hasn’t missed a beat and we’ve been able to get through a lot of set-up changes, plus really work a lot on the suspension side of things which is crucial. Every time we make even a small tweak it makes a difference which is always a good sign. All my team have done a phenomenal job.”

Austin has at least two more tests planned before media day at Donington on March 18.

Oulton Park picture gallery courtesy of Sam Goff/SG Motorsport Photography