Martyn Bell has confirmed that he is to join forces with fellow Independent driver Erkut Kizilirmak in a two-car assault on the 50th anniversary season of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.
Bell, who has spent the past two seasons campaigning an ex-World Touring Car Championship
BMW 320i E46, will join Erkut's Arkas Racing team for the new season with the pair running a brace of BTC-spec Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatches.
The move to Arkas Racing run by leading outfit Tech-Speed will see Bell run with a team-mate for the first time since making his BTCC debut at the start of 2006 as two of the most popular Independent runners in the series team up for the new campaign.
I was approached back at
Snetterton last year by Erkut and he said we needed to get together and see if we could progress in the championship, he explained. My initial plan had been to switch to the new BMW E90 for this season, which would have been a good route to take. However, I fancy a change and with the Astra I can go to front-wheel drive.
If you want the truth, I've never raced front-wheel drive in anger, but the transition isn't something I think will be a big issue. We just need a couple of rounds to find out feet and then work with Erkut to bring each other on.
While TechSpeed will prepare the car, Bell's own team will run the Astra Sport Hatch on race weekends with assistance from an engineer from Triple Eight.
Looking to the season ahead, Bell said he was keen to forge a strong relationship with Erkut to try and secure the best possible result in the championship standings.
It would be nice to climb up the teams' championship and if we can work well as team-mates, then there is nothing to say that we can't both be fighting for places in the top ten on a regular basis, he said. The car is fast enough and while it isn't used by the factory team anymore, the set-up we can get out of it will gel well for the Independent side of things.
Brian Ashwood, technical director with Arkas, was quick to welcome Bell into the team.
We're delighted Martyn has chosen to join Arkas Racing, he said. Our chief aim ahead of the new season was to attract a second driver to the team and with two years of touring car experience under his belt, Martyn is an ideal team-mate for Erkut to learn from.
We're all confident our second season in the BTCC will be successful and, as always, a lot of fun. Having achieved a couple of overall top ten race results last year, I think we can rightfully hope for more top ten finishes from both Erkut and Martyn during 2008.
