After two seasons acting as ‘super-sub' for Team Halfords, Gareth Howell is off to pastures new for 2007 after agreeing a deal to lead Motorbase Performance into its second season in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.
Howell will drive one of the two ex-works SEAT Toledos purchased by Dave Bartrums team towards the end of 2006 as he embarks on a full season in the BTCC and will aim to use the proven S2000 machine to try and fight for the title currently held by his now former team-mate
Matt Neal.
Crash.net took the chance to speak to Gareth at last weekends
Autosport International show ahead of the official confirmation of the deal, and can now reveal exactly what he had to say…
Q:
Gareth, exciting news for the season ahead, just bring us up to speed with the plans…
Gareth Howell:
Basically a deal has been done with Motorbase Performance and Dave Bartrum to drive one of the SEAT Toledos that ran in 2005 and were sat in Spain last year. They have very little mileage on them and haven't had any big accidents or anything – I won't be using the one that James Pickford had a big off in at Knockhill! It's a done deal and is amazing to be standing here so early in the year and know at the
Autosport show what I'm going to be doing. I've been coming here for 15 years and I'd have to go back to my Karting days to remember a time when I knew what I was doing in January.
Q:
It must be really nice as for the last few years with Halfords you've been ready and raring to go and had to wait until the end of the year to get a drive, so just how good does it feel to know you have a full season ahead of you?
Gareth Howell:
It's unbelievable, it's every drivers dream to be able to get properly focused. The fact I'm not a budgeted driver left me in the arms of the gods really with the guys at Dynamics. I wouldn't have been asked by Dave to take this drive if they hadn't put me where I am so I owe a hell of a lot to Steve Neal and the guys there. But it was a case of waiting until the budget was there to run a third car and nine times out of ten, that wouldn't be at the start of the year - it's always going to be when they see how the year goes, how much damage they picked up etcetera, and they claw a bit in to run at the end of the year.
![New Motorbase Performance driver Gareth Howell [Pic credit: Peter Still]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/285480.jpg)
