Tom Oliphant believes he is ‘ready to fight for the top prizes’ in the British Touring Car Championship as the Team BMW driver heads into his second season with BMW, and his third overall.
Oliphant made his BTCC début in 2018, before moving to WSR for the 201`9 season as a works-backed BMW driver.
The 29-year-old finished 11th overall in the drivers’ championship last year, while team-mate Colin Turkington went on to lift the overall title, recording a best finish of second at Oulton Park as he recorded two podium visits during the campaign.
Now Oliphant is ready to step up a level in the 2020 season, as he heads into a touring car campaign with the same team for the first time, as well as a year’s worth of data from 2019.
Last year, Oliphant picked up his first podium finish of the season in race one at Donington, as the 2015 Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion hit the ground running in the first year with the BMW 330i M Sport.
“I couldn’t be more excited to get back racing again,” said Oliphant. “It’s been a long wait to get going and I know it’s been a stressful time in lockdown for a lot of the BTCC community, so I can’t wait to get out there alongside the rest of the grid and put on a show for all the fans again.
“The Snetterton test was really important to dust off the cobwebs, but the Silverstone running – in the dry – allowed me to work with the team on some crucial set-up and tyre work so we can hit the ground running at Donington Park.
“Donington is one of my favourite circuits and the BMW was fantastic there last season, so I want to be challenging for silverware from the opening race of the season.
“With a year under my belt with Team BMW, I’m ready to fight for the top prizes!”
WSR Team Principal Dick Bennetts is predicting that Oliphant will score his first BTCC win in the coming campaign.
“Tom made very good progress across his first year in the BMW in 2019 and will certainly be a contender to get his first win,” said Bennetts.
“Donington gave us some excellent results last year but has traditionally favoured front-wheel-drive cars, so we know that we’ll have to dig deeper than ever to come away with a good points haul this weekend.”