Photo: PSP Images

Hunter Abbott joins Power Maxed Racing for 2016 season

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Hunter Abbott will join Power Maxed Racing for his third season in the British Touring Car Championship, following his former team Rob Austin Racing’s withdrawal from the championship, and is the first signing for the Warwickshire squad this season.

The 35-year-old has 11 top ten finishes in his two year career with the Audi A4, but has higher expectations of the Chevrolet Cruze, which will run with the new RML components this season, which had a best result of third at Rockingham last season.

“I am very much looking forward to the new opportunities presented by PMR,” said Abbott. “I want to show the paddock what I can achieve and repay Adam (Weaver, team principal)’s faith in my abilities. I have had 2 good years in the BTCC and I can’t wait to get out in the Chevrolet with PMR. It will also be great to try my hand at front-wheel drive especially as the Chevrolet has enjoyed such a high level of development.”

Abbott confirmed he had been in talks to join former team-mate and team owner Rob Austin at Handy Motorsport in one of the team’s Toyota Avensises earlier this week before talks stalled.

Power Maxed Racing team principal Adam Weaver added:

“Hunter has a great track record and we believe that if we guide him through the switch to front-wheel drive, he will flourish in the team, turn a few heads and deliver some of his best results. We run a very ‘open book’ team approach, sharing data and set-ups as we believe that treating both drivers as equals moves the whole team forward, he will be no understudy.”

The team plan to announce their second driver in the coming weeks. It’s already been confirmed that Dave Newsham will not be returning to the championship this season, but will continue to race with Power Maxed Racing, switching to the British Rallycross Championship instead.

“We have a number of options for our final seat,” added Weaver. “We are talking to some familiar faces, a BTCC multi-champion and one or two new ones. All the drivers we are talking to will make a great pairing with Hunter, but you know what this part of the season is like for speculation and rumour, we will just have to wait and see.”

Provisional British Touring Car Championship Entry List

No – Driver – Team – Car
TBA – Jason Plato – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg
TBA – Colin Turkington – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg
TBA – Warren Scott – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg
TBA – James Cole – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg
52 – Gordon Shedden – Team Dynamics – Honda Civic Type-R
25 – Matt Neal – Team Dynamics – Honda Civic Type-R
TBA – Andy Neate – Team Dynamics – Honda Civic Type-R
TBA – TBA – Triple Eight Racing – MG MG6 GT
TBA – TBA – Triple Eight Racing – MG MG6 GT
6 – Rob Collard – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M-Sport
31 – Jack Goff – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M-Sport
600 – Sam Tordoff – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M-Sport
33 – Adam Morgan – Ciceley Racing – Mercedes A-Class
16 – Aiden Moffat – Aiden Moffat Racing – Mercedes A-Class
7 – Mat Jackson – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST
77 – Andrew Jordan – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST
TBA – Hunter Abbott – Power Maxed Racing – Chevrolet Cruze
TBA – TBA – Power Maxed Racing – Chevrolet Cruze
80 – Tom Ingram – Speedworks Motorsport – Toyota Avensis
303 – Matt Simpson – Speedworks Motorsport – Honda Civic Type-R
30 – Martin Depper – Eurotech Racing – Honda Civic Type-R
55 – Jeff Smith – Eurotech Racing – Honda Civic Type-R
TBA – TBA – Eurotech Racing – Honda Civic Type-R
TBA – TBA – AmD Tuning – Audi S3
14 – Alex Martin – Dextra Racing – Ford Focus ST
TBA – Rob Austin – Handy Motorsport – Toyota Avensis
TBA – TBA – Support Our Paras Racing – Infiniti Q50
TBA – Chris Smiley – Team HARD – Toyota Avensis
TBA – TBA – Welch Motorsport – Proton Gen-2
TBA – Stewart Lines – Maximum Motorsport – Ford Focus ST