Kerry chasing BTCC dream.

Kumho BMW champion Rick Kerry has admitted that a move into the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship for the 2007 season would be the realisation of a dream.

The 34-year-old won the BMW title for the second straight year in 2006 with his E36 M3 and will now hope to make his mark on the BTCC with a BMW 1 Series run by West Suffolk Racing, the team behind his Kumho success.

Should he conclude the deals required to enter the BTCC, Kerry will become the second driver in as many seasons to make the move from the Kumho championship - after Martyn Bell - with his car currently under construction at West Suffolk's base in Bury St Edmunds.

"If sponsorship permits we are looking to compete in the British Touring Cars this season and follow in Martyn's footsteps," Kerry told Crash.net. "We have a car under construction, the paintwork is now finished and it has gone to West Suffolk Racing to be put together. The parts are now available, or will be from Monday [today], in Munich to collect and put the car together in the hope that we can be out testing by the end of February or start of March."

Should his plans fall into place, Kerry will add his name to the long list of drivers and teams to have come into the BTCC in recent years although he admitted he hadn't believed a touring car switch would be possible.

"After I won the Kumho series for the second straight season, there was quite a bit about us in Autosport and a local businessman who knew from before, phoned me up and said that if I went up to the BTCC he would put something into the budget," he said. "We were looking at the new BARC/Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup in a newer BMW like an E90 but when the BTCC was mentioned, we spoke to some current sponsors who seemed keen and it took off from there. It wasn't something I planned at first, but I was led in that direction.

"Unless I had won the lottery, I wouldn't have thought I'd have the budget to do British Touring Cars. We were a bit taken aback with the interest from people who want to be involved with touring cars and speaking to sponsors who are aware of things like the TV figures, they were keener to talk about bigger numbers than we had done before. We tried the water after we got the initial phone call and suddenly we had a reasonable amount towards a budget.

"I'd always looked at the BTCC and thought that if someone asked me where I wanted to race, then it would be there, but I never thought I'd get the chance."

Kerry added that the decision to use the 1 Series, initially designed for long distance races rather than the sprint format found in the BTCC, was based on a belief that British circuits are better suited to more compact cars.

"Looking last year at several of the cars, we thought the smaller, more nimble cars, seemed to be doing better on most of the UK circuits," he said. "The WTCC cars tend to run on bigger circuits than they do here in Britain and we thought the 1 Series might be more nimble and better suited to the BTCC tracks. Knowing that BMW has developed a 1 Series for endurance racing, we looked at that and thought it would be something different and a current model that we can use for longer. So we fancied our chances with one of those.

"Talking to BMW Motorsport, in 24 hour spec, they think that the car is about a second a lap slower than the World Touring Cars. Knowing that we are going to bring it up to sprint specification, we are hoping that we can close that gap and I think the rest of it is down to whether or not I can peddle it fast enough. However, we do we think we have a car that, in the right hands and with enough time in the seat, we can get into the top ten regularly."