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The
curtain has fallen on Wrotham, Kent based Motorbase Performance’s
maiden season in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship with
the final round of the championship taking place at Thruxton, Hampshire
this weekend.
Matt Allison (Norwich) once again demonstrated the
pace that has been in evidence throughout the eight-month long season,
but was ultimately left unrewarded for his efforts.
Allison
said, “We didn’t finish the first race which straight away makes the
second one more difficult. We got caught up with Tom Chilton, who hit
me hard and that was the end of race two. The boys put it back together
again for race three and then a driveshaft broke with four or five laps
to go. Having started 24th, I think we were running 12th.
“It was a weekend of ‘what ifs’ really. I think if
I’d finished tenth in the first race then it could have been a
different story, but it’s not. It’s frustrating and everyone’s gutted,
but it happens and it’s one of those things. It’s been a hard year, but
I’ve enjoyed it and I hope to be back.”
Driving the second of Motorbase’s SEAT Toledos at
Thruxton was former Vauxhall works driver, Paul O’Neill. O’Neill was
drafted in as a late replacement for Tom Ferrier after testing at
Snetterton last week.
O’Neill had support at Thruxton from his Spice
Girl sister Melanie C and was able to bring the Toledo home safely in
all three races despite running right in the middle of the pack for
much of the day.
Paul O’Neill said, “I just struggled to get on top
of the car. I really wanted to perform for the team so it’s a bit
disappointing. It’s great to be racing with Motorbase Performance in
the BTCC, it’s just a shame the weekend couldn’t have gone a bit
better.”
At the end of the 30 race season, Motorbase
Performance claimed eighth position in the Teams’ championship and
fourth in the championship for those without factory support – an
impressive result with cars that first raced in the BTCC four years
ago. Matt Allison took 12th spot overall in the Drivers’ championship
and sixth in the Independents’ standings.
Motorbase Performance Team Principal David Bartrum
commented, “It’s been an interesting year! The SEATs have done us proud
– they’ve taken some knocks, but they’ve done ok. Now we want to move
on and come back next year with a couple of cars that will put us
further up the grid.
“Running two cars at this level is a real
challenge. We’ve run on a tight budget this year and a lot of people
have really gone out of their way to help us. I’m really grateful to
the whole team, to the drivers, Gareth , Tom , Paul [O’Neill] and
particularly Matt Allison. We’ve had a reasonable year, but we haven’t
really been able to show what we can do. Next year we will!”
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