Robertshaw Racing team manager Joe Bradley says his team is hoping to show it can take the challenge to the likes of West Surrey Racing on the back of a solid debut with its Chevrolet Lacetti at
Brands Hatch.
The team heads into its first full season in the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship having elected to take on the challenge of running a car new to the series, with second-year driver Matt Allison joined at the wheel by BTCC newcomer Harry Vaulkhard.
Both drivers were able to secure a trio of finishes from the opening rounds of the season at the Kent circuit while Allison gave the team its first points finish of the campaign in race three with a solid drive to eighth place leaving Bradley happy with the weekend.
We are very pleased, he said. We seem to have gone forward in every session and where we have needed improvements, we have engineered the car and found them the results have proved that. I am happy with how the drivers have gone and we have scored with Matt in the final race. Harry produced three excellent drives although he fluffed his start in the third race and has been kicking himself since. I had to remind him it was only his third BTCC start.
We didn't come into this thinking we would be winning straightaway as we are in good company with some of the best teams in the touring car world. We are where we thought we would be and our intentions are to improve as we want to make this work. We have learned a lot and if we can take that forward then we will get better and better.
Bradley added that the team will now aim to try and make progress as the series heads to Rockingham next weekend for the second round of the season, with the target being to gradually close the gap to the leading teams.
The term competition breeds excellence is what we are all about, he said, and we want to develop so that by the middle of the season we are competing with the West Surrey Racing's of this world.
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