Matt Allison enjoyed a solid first run in the Chevrolet Lacetti he will use for his second season in the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship during the annual media day at Rockingham.
Allison, who will move to the Robertshaw Racing team for 2008, got behind the wheel of the Super 2000 car for his first test at the Northamptonshire circuit and ended the day in a highly respectable seventh place on the timesheets, seventh-tenths of a second off the quickest time by
Mat Jackson.
It's gone really well, he admitted to
Crash.net. The car ran perfectly all day, there were no issues and I got 40+ laps under my belt. It was all about mileage and doing as much as possible as we are thousands of kilometres behind the manufacturer teams in terms of mileage on the car.
I put some old rubber on for the first half of the day to get used to the car, it's a bit more twitchy at the rear that the Toledo and more similar to the Clio I raced before. We put one set of new tyres on at the end of the day and we got into the top six [before slipping back].
Allison added that he was confident going into the
Brands Hatch weekend at the end of the month and said his aim was to try and bring the car home in the points in each of the three races.
I've kept quiet but I have always felt deep down that this is a really good package, he said. The car is new to the team and new to the BTCC and it was all about how it would adapt to the Dunlop tyres. However, we have found a few things and it's been positive.
If you look at the history of the Chevy, it was on pole and has won races in the WTCC at Brands. That will be a bit out of our reach in the first weekend but if we and get into the top six and have three points finishes, then I'll be happy.
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