Honda Racing’s assault on the British Touring Car Championship begins

The 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship blasts into life at Brands Hatch this weekend and Honda Racing drivers Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden can’t wait to launch their campaign for glory.

Both racers will strap themselves in to the Honda Civic fitted with a new two-litre turbocharged engine for the new 30-race campaign. They are aiming to defend the teams’ and manufacturers’ titles that they scooped last season and claim the drivers’ trophy which they both narrowly missed out on last year.

Ford’s UK tech centre helps new Ford Focus global touring car prepare for action

The all-new Team Aon Ford Focus BTCC car has undergone its final shakedown tests ahead of this weekend’s opening race at Brands Hatch.

The fine-tuning took place at Ford’s Dunton Engineering Centre, in Essex – the home of Ford Team RS – as Ford continued its global support to independent touring car race teams running the all-new Ford Focus.

Developed by Arena Motorsport with technical support from Ford, the new Focus is the first product of this global initiative, which will see development of a common race car to S2000 specification, to compete in major touring car categories worldwide.