Harry Vaulkhard admits he is surprised at the early pace of the Robertshaw Racing Chevrolet Lacetti after the team kicked off its pre-season testing programme for the 50th anniversary HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season.
The team, which debuted in the series in the penultimate round of the 2007 season, will expand to run three cars this year, with Alan Taylor's Honda Integra being joined by two Super 2000 Lacettis - with the final driver in the team's line-up still to be revealed.
Vaulkhard hit the track in his new machine for the first time at
Donington Park yesterday [Thursday] before moving on to Snetterton for further running today, with the reigning SEAT Cupra Championship Leon R champion quickly getting up to speed at the wheel of the first Lacetti that will run in the BTCC.
Indeed the 22-year-old admitted he had been somewhat surprised with the speed shown 'out of the box' and was impressed with his first taste of the car he will use for his touring car debut.
"It's been going really well," he told
Crash.net during a break in running at
Snetterton. "At Donington yesterday we got to within about six tenths of a second of the pole position time, and we've got to about a second away at Snetterton, although we've got a few small problems we need to deal with.
"The aim at Donington had been to just go round in circles to help me get used to the car and help the team get used to the car. We planned to just use it as a bit of a shakedown and weren't doing any qualifying runs, so I expected to be a couple of seconds off the pace. I was a bit surprised to be as quick as I was, especially as it was cold and we were struggling to get heat into the tyres. When it's warm in the summer, we'll probably find some time there straightaway.
![Harry Vaulkhard - Robertshaw Racing Chevrolet Lacetti [Pic credit: Still Photography/Mark Lanyon]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/404127.jpg)
