Photo: PSP Images

Hunter Abbott was in line for second Handy Motorsport seat

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Hunter Abbott was in line to drive alongside Rob Austin at Handy Motorsport for 2016 but was unable to secure enough funds for the season, the former Rob Austin Racing driver has announced.

In a post on his Facebook page, Abbott revealed that Rob and Richard Austin, Simon Belcher and himself had been trying to make a deal work for Abbott to follow Austin to Handy Motorsport and drive the potential second Toyota Avensis. However, having been unable to get the budget together for the upcoming season, the deal never came to fruition.

The statement read: “Dear All, I’m really sorry to say I won’t be joining Rob Austin Racing at Handy Motorsport this season. Rob, Richard, Simon and I all worked very hard to try and make it work but in the end we just couldn’t quite raise enough money to get the deal together. I had a great 2 years at RAR and I can’t thank Rob, Richard and Panzer enough for the opportunity. I’m sure it won’t be the last time we’ll work together but we’ll see what the future holds.”

While Abbott was unable to secure a drive with Handy Motorsport, there remains a number of options for the Maidenhead-based racer, with seven unutilised TOCA BTCC Licenses (TBLs) in the possession of Triple Eight Racing, Power Maxed Racing, AmD Tuning, Eurotech Racing, Welch Motorsport and Support our Paras Racing.

Provisional BTCC Entry List 2016

Driver – Team – Car
Gordon Shedden – Honda Yuasa Racing – Honda Civic Type-R
Matt Neal – Honda Yuasa Racing – Honda Civic Type-R
Andy Neate – Honda Yuasa Racing – Honda Civic Type-R
Warren Scott – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg Sports Tourer
James Cole – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg Sports Tourer
Jason Plato – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg Sports Tourer
Colin Turkington – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg Sports Tourer
Rob Collard – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M-Sport
Sam Tordoff – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M-Sport
Jack Goff – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M-Sport
Mat Jackson – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST
Andrew Jordan – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST
Alex Martin – Team Parker Racing – Ford Focus ST
Aiden Moffatt – Aiden Moffatt Racing – Mercedes-Benz A-Class
Adam Morgan – Ciceley Motorsport – Mercedes-Benz A-Class
Martin Depper – Eurotech Racing – Honda Civic Type-R
Jeff Smith – Eurotech Racing – Honda Civic Type-R
Tom Ingram – Speedworks Motorsport – Toyota Avensis
Matt Simpson – Speedworks Motorsport – Honda Civic Type-R
Stewart Lines – Maximum Motorsport – Ford Focus ST
Rob Austin – Handy Motorsport – Toyota Avensis
Chris Smiley – Tony Gilham Racing – Toyota Avensis
TBA – Triple Eight Racing – MG6
TBA – Triple Eight Racing – MG6
TBA – Eurotech Racing – Honda Civic Type-R
TBA – AmD Tuning – Audi S3
TBA – Power Maxed Racing – Chevrolet Cruze
TBA – Power Maxed Racing – Chevrolet Cruze
TBA – Welch Motorsport – Proton Gen-2
TBA – Support our Paras Racing – Infiniti Q50