Simon Blanckley will hope for an upturn in fortunes this weekend as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to
Donington Park for the sixth round of the season.
The Sibsport driver has been in the wars in the last two meetings of the year at
Croft and
Oulton Park – with the Honda Integra failing to finish four of the last six races due to a run of misfortune that included being caught up in the four car shunt at the first corner of race two last time out in Cheshire.
However, despite the recent troubles, Blanckley said he was upbeat for the weekend ahead, although he will hope for more luck than he enjoyed last time he raced at the circuit back in 2002.
"As a team we are really upbeat because, despite the incidents we have had, we are contenders for points consistently based on lap times," he said. "The issues we have had have either been accidents or problems with the car that can be fixed quickly, so we have every reason to be positive.
"I last raced at Donington in 2002, but I ended up with a smashed Peugeot and several broken ribs! I do think the track is a classic though and it has bucket loads of history, so I'm looking forward to it."
Blanckley added that he wasn't concerned by the prospect of wet racing this weekend – with heavy rain falling at the East Midlands circuit today [Friday] – and said he was looking to try and add to his solitary point this season.
"I had a really good, clean battle with Martyn Bell last time out which we both enjoyed, so hopefully we can mix it up again cleanly with some other guys," he said. "After all, I am doing this because I love racing. Obviously, some of the lads on the grid have been driving here for many years, but I've shown at most of the tracks this year that I can get into a groove quickly. Normally, we get progressively quicker on Saturday's, but race pace really seems to be my strong point this year. Now, we just need to convert that into points.
