Date: 21.02.2012
James Thompson helped Speedworks Motorsport ‘move on in lots of ways’ with its Toyota Avensis in a test at Donington Park on Thursday 15th December 2011.
Former double BTCC Champion Thompson completed around 60 laps in damp conditions at the wheel of the Next Generation Touring Car-spec machine – raced by rookie Tony Hughes in the 2011 Dunlop-backed series.
Speedworks team principal Christian Dick reported a productive test that has given his Stockport-based outfit plenty of ‘food for thought’ before it returns to the track in the New Year.
He told btcc.net: “The weather wasn’t ideal, but it could have been much worse and it didn’t hamper our progress too much. We moved on in lots of ways and have plenty of ideas as to where we want to go with the Avensis over the winter period.
“It was great to work with James (Thompson). He’s a consummate professional and he settled into the car inside of three or four laps – it’s not totally new territory for him at all, having been involved in the development of the NGTC prototype. He has such a lot of experience and driving front-wheel-drive touring cars is his speciality. Tony (Hughes) was on hand, but didn’t get to drive in the end because the weather didn’t permit us to start as early as we’d hoped and darkness falls so early at this time of year.”
He added: “Now we’ll get the car back to the workshop. We have plenty of food for thought, but we’ll strip the car down and rebuild it ready for next year with the view of having it back up and running at the end of January. We want to get plenty of testing miles under our belt, hopefully with Thompson, because we’ve got a lot more development work to do to get the car running properly before the start of the new season.”
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