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Wednesday, 27 September 2006 |
BMW ace produces consistent display in penultimate round.
Martyn Bell was unable to add to his points tally as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship returned to Brands Hatch for the penultimate round of the season, although the Barrow-upon-Humber ace was happy with the way his team had improved compared to the season opener back in April.
That meeting was the Geoff Steel Racing teams first in the BTCC with the ex-Schnitzer BMW 320i and was something of a baptism of fire, although it did see Martyn claim his first points finish of the season.
Optimistic of a good result this time around after his strong showing at Knockhill in the previous round, Martyn was quickly up to speed as he soon dipped under his lap-times from the season opener – going on to post the 18th quickest time in qualifying.
In the opening race, Martyn took the chequered flag in 14th place
although there was disappointment at the start of race two when
driveshaft failure saw the BMW coast to a halt at the start of the
green flag lap. However there was another solid and consistent
performance from Martyn in race three, as he crossed the line in 13th –
only dropping back from the pack when he missed a gear at the end of a
Safety Car period.
“I think it has gone a lot better than the last time we were here for
sure, but we haven’t enjoyed the results that we did at Knockhill,”
Martyn said. “It took until the last race for the car to feel good and
we do struggle round Brands Hatch – we always have, even in the Kumho
days. In the first race, after lap ten, we had no tyres left and the
car was understeering all over the place. We made some changes for the
second race but broke a driveshaft on the green flag lap. I suppose
there is some consolation in that, because if we had broken it on the
actual race start, we would probably have had a shorter car because we
had quite a few people behind us. So we’ll take that as a stroke of
good luck.
“From the back in the third race, we got past some of the newcomers at
the start and then Chris Stockton caused a Safety Car. It was quite
enjoyable after that and I was catching Adam Jones for a while but then
the times stabilised.
“[Former WTCC racer] Emmet O’Brien was talking to me and he said ‘you
have a hell of a job with a BMW round here any day of the week’ so we
are happy with how it went considering that Brands Hatch doesn’t suit
us.”
Next up for Martyn and the team is BTCC Finals Day at Silverstone, which takes place over the weekend of 14/15 October.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 13 December 2006 )
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