Support Our Paras Racing pulls out of BTCC

Support Our Paras Racing has withdrawn its entry to the 2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship after failing to secure a budget substantial enough to carry them through the whole campaign.

Team principal Derek Palmer Snr has been forced to pull the plug on the ground-breaking team, which had been made up of seven injured Paratroopers who prepared and ran the BTCC cars led by ex-Colour Sergeant Darren Fuller.

The team lost factory backing from Infiniti after just three rounds into the 2015 season and despite various driver rotations, which resulted in it losing its second TOCA racing licence at Croft, the team fought on to finish 17th out of 19 squads in the teams' championship.

However, Palmer Snr has been unable to secure enough financial backing for 2016 and as a result has been forced to bin the BTCC project.

"Naturally it's a huge disappointment to the team, and the injured guys from the Parachute Regiment who prepared the race car," Palmer Snr said. "We appreciate these are tough times financially for companies across the country, but that doesn't make our disappointment any less. I would like to thank our principal sponsor of last year, TENA Men, for all their support.

"We will now focus on returning to motorsport in a different series."