Keen and Edenbridge pull out of BTCC.

Justin Keen and Edenbridge Racing have pulled out of the 2004 British Touring Car Championship, taking the sole BMW series out of the championship in the process.

The decision comes after a recent one-day development test at Snetterton where Justin was joined by Duncan Huisman it became apparent that due to lack of testing time now available they would struggle to reach the required performance level that is necessary in such a highly competitive championship.

"We are disappointed that we have had to come to this decision, but we were struggling from the off," team boss Peter Briggs said, explaining the decision, "It's down to a number of key issues - the weight disadvantage, which is currently 55kgs heavier than the SEAT, the five-speed gearbox compared to six-speed sequential, and lack of adequate test time to adapt the rear-wheel-drive BMW to the Dunlop control tyre.

"So, taking all these factors into consideration, we have sadly decided to pull out of the championship whilst we evaluate our options. It is very sad to leave such a well-organised, professional and highly competitive series".

For Keen, it was a short 2004 campaign.

"I am very disappointed, but we all recognised that we were up against it from the start," he said.

"We had hoped that we could have made more progress, but it has proved to be impossible to reach the level of performance that we need at this point in the season. We gave it our best shot. I would like to thank Peter and the team for all their hard work and effort and Alan Gow and everyone at TOCA for their support."