Toyota independent trio Frank Wrathall, Adam Morgan and BTCC race winner Paul O’Neill head to Croft looking for a weekend to remember before the seven week summer break.
With Speedworks Motorsport regular Tony Hughes unavailable for rounds 13, 14 and 15, the team have drafted in fans’ favourite O’Neill to drive the car at Croft and Hughes team-mate Morgan is looking forward to working with O’Neill.
“He is a really quick and experienced driver so it will good to work with him and look at the data to see what we can do together. I’m really excited by it,” explained Morgan, who will head to North Yorkshire looking to bounce back from a disappointing weekend last time out at Oulton Park.
His weekend was one of contrasts: Saturday saw him flying in the #33 Avensis while race day saw a trio of retirements, after contact with others and a brake issue.
The 23 year old is looking forward to the challenge of Croft this weekend: “I quite like Croft and I have good memories of the circuit as I had my first win there in the Ginetta G50s. I proved at Oulton Park that I have the pace to run in the top 10 so we’ll go out there, put what happened on race day at Oulton Park behind us and start again.
“Three finishes and three solid results would be good going into the summer break and it would be great after the tough weekends we’ve had so far to get some results behind me.”
Having failed to secure his maiden BTCC victory at his home circuit, 25 year old Wrathall is looking to bounce back at Croft. His home race weekend saw him secure a best result of ninth after two grassy moments in the earlier races.
“To qualify in the top 10 and then to get consistent top 10 finishes across the three races is the aim for Croft, but anything can happen in the BTCC – it can be a fine line between having a brilliant weekend and having a disaster,” said Wrathall, who arrives at Croft ninth in the drivers’ Championship.
“We really turned a corner at Croft last year but the Avensis has changed so much since then. We still have a lot to learn to get the set-up right and Croft is a circuit of two halves: the first half is really quick, with flowing, high-speed corners but then the second section is really tight and twisty.
“It’s a balance between getting the car well set up for the quick stuff and making sure it is also set up well to be agile through the tricky bits. I’m confident we’ll have a good car,” concluded the Dynojet racer.