Rob Austin targets ‘deserved’ victory at Snetterton

Rob Austin says he is hopeful of challenging for a ‘deserved’ first victory for the Handy Motorsport team when the BTCC season roars back into life at Snetterton this weekend.

Austin sits in a solid eighth place in the championship standings at the half way stage of the campaign having just missed out on a second podium finish of the year at Croft prior to the summer break.

The 36-year-old heads into round six buoyed by a solid test at the Norfolk circuit earlier this month and said he was keen to maintain the progress that the team has made thus far in 2017.

“We’re hoping the second half of the season will bring more steps forward,” he said. “Some stuff we tried with the car at the Snetterton tyre test didn’t go exactly as we expected, but we learnt a lot and definitely made gains.

“”Snetterton will suit us better than some of the other tracks we’ve visited recently. We had our first podium there last year and that was, basically, from the back of the grid in the first race, working our way through in race two and then racing to the podium in the last one.

“We should have a strong car next weekend, I’m really looking forward to it. The target is still to win a race or two this season, I think we have the pace to do it. The team deserves one and I think it would be well earned.”

Austin’s last win came at Rockingham back in 2014 at the wheel of his Audi A4.