Duo Motorsport with HMS Racing’s Rob Austin says he will be “absolutely gutted” if he doesn’t score his second British Touring Car Championship podium of 2018 at Brands Hatch this weekend.
Austin, who scored HMS Racing’s maiden victory in the final race of last year, is keen to build on recent form to reward his team with what would be a second podium of the season.
“I’m going to be absolutely gutted if we can’t end this season with another podium,” said Austin.
“The boys have had such a tough year but have done a great job developing the DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing Alfa Romeo and, through no fault of our own, they haven’t been rewarded with more results through the season.”
Last time out at Silverstone, the Evesham racer almost secured a podium in race three, but lost out after a late-race battle with Josh Cook and Tom Chilton and was forced to settle for fifth.
After scoring the maiden podium of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta earlier this year in race three on the Indy layout, Austin hopes his outings on the GP loop this weekend will be equally as successful.
“Brands Hatch is where we had our last podium and our last win, it’s a good track for us and represents the last opportunity of the year to reward everyone – the team, our sponsors and our loyal fans,” he said.
“We took a step forward with our development at Silverstone and we will try to take that one step further this weekend.
“I hope we can maintain and improve the great pace that saw us rise from the back of the grid all the way up to fighting for the win at Silverstone, and put it to good use!”
HMS Racing boss Simon Belcher believes his squad have proven the Alfa Romeo to be a quick package, but have lacked the luck to transfer that pace into solid results.
“The first year with a brand new car is always tough, but we know we’ve produced a quick touring car in the Alfa Romeo and we’ve demonstrated that time and again in practice,” said Belcher.
“The majority of disappointments have come through on-track incidents, which have been no fault of Rob’s and just a result of poor driving standards from the same few drivers. We’re aiming high for Brands.
“Silverstone was obviously a good weekend, we deserved a podium and should have had one, and if the reverse grid had worked in our favour for the last race Rob and the car had the pace to win without a doubt.
“We obviously won the final race of the season last year at Brands GP with the Toyota and I think there’s every possibility we could do it again this time with the Alfa.”