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 After
a solid debut for his new Arkas Racing with Sunshine.co.uk team at Brands Hatch,
Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell will hope to make further progress this
weekend [12/13 April] as the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to
Rockingham for the second round of the year.
The
season opener marked the first time that Martyn has raced with front-wheel
drive, and after being forced to retire from race one after contact from one his
rivals, he secured two solid finishes at the wheel of his Tech-Speed run
Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch as he continued to come to terms with the move from
rear-wheel drive.
Having performed well in his first meeting with the
Astra, Martyn will now aim to make further progress at Rockingham this weekend,
although he will be keen to avoid the disappointment he suffered at the
Northamptonshire venue last season.
Then,
he was caught up in a multi-car accident in the second race of the weekend and
was forced out of race three by a mechanical issue, but the popular Independent
runner is confident of an upturn in fortune this time
around.
“I
had back luck at Rockingham last year, so I feel we are due some good luck this
time around,” he said. “Having been a bit under the weather at Brands Hatch, I’m
also feeling a bit better in myself now as well, so I hope we can pick up three
solid finishes during the weekend.
 “Rockingham is quite a tricky circuit to set the car up
for as you need to make sure you are competitive on the long run round the
banking to the first corner but are also competitive when you get into the
twisty stuff on the in-field. We’ll work on getting the set-up right during
practice and qualifying and get some good data that we can use to help us
progress on race day.”
Martyn added that he was enjoying working alongside new
team-mate Erkut Kizilirmak, with the two drivers focused on pushing the team
towards its goal of points finishes as the season goes
on.
“At
Brands Hatch, I enjoyed my racing more than I’ve enjoyed it for a while and when
you are enjoying it, you start to go faster,” he continued. “I’m enjoying
working with the team and working with Erkut and I feel there is more to come
from us both. Hopefully we can push each other on and work together to move
forwards.
“I’m
confident that we will continue to get quicker and I have my targets for who I
want to beat this weekend.”
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