TEAM principal Simon Belcher will make his return to the Handy Motorsport driver’s seat for the British Touring Car Championship event at Silverstone this weekend.
Belcher has not been behind the wheel of the team’s Toyota Avensis for three meetings, having stepped aside due to budgetary reasons at the midpoint of the campaign following an expensive rebuild of the car – required after a high-speed collision during qualifying at Thruxton.
American Robb Holland filled in for Belcher for races at Snetterton, Knockhill and Rockingham, but the team leader is now ready for a return.
He said: “Silverstone can’t come soon enough. It’s been a great experience focusing on the team management for the last few events, and really good working with Robb [Holland], but I’ve missed the racing so can’t wait to be back behind the wheel.
“We definitely made some good steps forward with the car over the last couple of events, having a different perspective from another driver with BTCC experience was definitely a positive thing and we’re now hoping to build further on that at Silverstone and then at Brands Hatch next month.”
During last season’s visit to Silverstone National in his debut BTCC campaign, the Wiltshire driver’s weekend was set back by race one contact but he still achieved three important finishes. One year on, Belcher is targeting a hat-trick of Independents Trophy points scores and will also be bidding to break back into the overall top 15 for the first time since the opening race meeting of the season.
“Even though I’ve been on the sidelines for nine races, we’re still in a pretty tight battle in the Independents Trophy standings so I’m hoping to make up some ground there,” said Belcher.
“I think we should be in pretty good shape really, the car has been working well and there’s determination in the whole team to end the season with a bit of a flourish.”