Speedworks Motorsport aiming high on home turf

Speedworks Motorsport is heading into this weekend’s latest instalment of the British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park with their sights firmly set on tallying a strong haul of points.

Based just ten miles from the circuit, the Cheshire venue is home turf for the Toyota squad and drivers Rob Huff and Andrew Watson will look to draw on that in their bid to sign off the first half of the season on a high.

Like many tracks he is visiting this year, the last time that Huff competed at Oulton Park was back in 2004. Despite it being two decades since his last appearance at the circuit, the Snetterton race winner believes he and the team need to hit the ground running in practice.

“I haven’t raced at Oulton Park that much – the last time was back in 2004, but it’s just the kind of challenge I relish,” he said. “It’s fast-and-furious with very limited run-off or margin for error, and with the speed of the touring cars now, it’s going to feel very quick indeed compared to when I was last there in Super 2000 machinery!

“As a team, we are still searching for consistency and one of my personal targets is to make it into Q3 for the first time. To do that, we need to start off on the front foot and quickly get the car into a place where I’m feeling comfortable.

“If we can secure a couple of solid top six results in the first two races, we can then see where we shake out on the reversed grid for race three and go from there…”

Team-mate Watson meanwhile showed promising speed last time out at Thruxton and the Northern Irishman is keen to build on that as he seeks to score his first podium of the season.

“Oulton Park is a totally different kind of circuit to Thruxton, and I’m confident we will be quicker there,” said Watson. “It’s really fun to drive – very fast and narrow with a lot of bumps and undulations, which gives you a great sense of speed and excitement. It’s pretty much got a bit of everything, and is definitely one of my favourite tracks on the calendar. It’s the kind of place where a good car-and-driver combination can scoop some serious points.

“The hybrid probably didn’t have as big an effect at Thruxton as we had been anticipating due to the high speeds around the lap; at Oulton, I think it will make a greater difference. We go there with a full allocation, and we’ve been very quick in qualifying this year so I’ll definitely be aiming for the front couple of rows on the grid and then to convert that into some silverware on race day.

“Ultimately, this is still only my second season in the championship, and I have a tendency sometimes to forget that. I’m learning and improving all the time, and while I clearly haven’t maximised all the results so far this year, everything we are putting in-place will ultimately pay off, I’m very sure about that.”