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Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell enjoyed a solid
debut for his new Arkas Racing with Sunshine.co.uk team at Brands Hatch as the
2008 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season kicked off at the
Kent
circuit.
The
weekend marked the first time that Martyn has raced using front-wheel drive
after spending his entire car racing career running in rear-wheel drive BMWs and
he went into the season opener looking to continue his education with the
Tech-Speed run Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch.
Unfortunately for Martyn, qualifying didn’t go to plan
when he was caught out by tricky damp conditions at Paddock Hill Bend and went
off into the gravel trap, which left him 24th on the grid for the
opening race. His luck didn’t improve when the race got underway, when rival
Alan Taylor suffered a spin coming out of Graham Hill Bend and collected the
Astra, putting Martyn into retirement.
However, from the back of the field for race two, Martyn
came through to finish 17th, right behind team-mate Erkut Kizilirmak,
and then finished one place higher in race three, with his fastest race lap
being barely a second slower than defending champion Fabrizio
Giovanardi.
 “It’s
no secret that I’ve been ill and I’m still not feeling 100 per cent, but I’m
getting used to the car now and I’m happy with how it’s gone,” Martyn said
afterwards. “Practice on Saturday went ok for us, but we got it wrong in
qualifying. I didn’t come in when I should and we paid the price. In the first
race, Taylor
wiped me out but I don’t have a problem with it as there was nothing else he
could have done; it’s just one of those things and he apologised afterwards.
“In
race two, I got into the groove a bit and went formation flying with the boss
and then in the last race we made a change to the car and it took a second a lap
off my times. That is the first time I’ve made any real changes to the car so
it’s given me confidence going forward that I can make a change and it will do
something.
“The
object this weekend was to run close to Erkut and to get into the 50secs on the
lap-times, so I’m going back to Lincolnshire a happy man as we did that. Now we
can go to Rockingham looking to move forward and try to get towards the top ten,
as to get into the points for an Independent team like ours is almost as good as
a podium.”
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