Honda drivers Dan Cammish and Matt Neal are eager to get back behind the wheel of their Halfords Yuasa Racing cars as the 2020 British Touring Car Championship finally gets underway.
Delayed four months by the Covid-19 pandemic, the series will begin on Sunday 2 August at Donington Park in Leicestershire, with the drivers racing again just one week later at Brands Hatch in Kent.
Teams will twice-more face the challenge of racing on successive weekends over the revamped nine-event championship, before the series reaches its climax on 15 November. The finale, again at Brands Hatch, notably more than a month later than teams are used to, will present new challenges racing in the colder conditions of late Autumn.
During the delay, the Halfords Yuasa Racing squad has been working hard to further develop its Honda Civic Type R FK8 race cars. Everyone in the team is aiming to improve on a highly competitive 2019 season, in which Cammish took two race victories and came within a lap of winning the BTCC drivers' title at the final round.
Cammish set competitive times at the BTCC's first official test post lockdown on 7/8 July, despite wet weather affecting much of the track time at Snetterton in Norfolk. Team-mate Neal concentrated on development work – one advantage of the delayed start has been the extra recovery time the three-time BTCC champion has enjoyed following an off-season mountain biking accident that briefly hospitalised him.
Now both Neal and Cammish are raring to go and hunt race wins at Donington.
"It is a weird scenario we find ourselves in," said Neal. "I haven't raced in anger since October but the delay has obviously helped me with my recuperation from my mountain bike accident, and I'm glad to say I'm now fighting fit and can't wait to go racing.
"It is going to be pretty frenetic this season with a number of back-to-back weekends, so the guys have been working really hard on spares packages and fully liveried panels as we'll have limited time to make those changes. But I have to praise BTCC organiser TOCA in managing to pull together a near-full calendar of racing. Mind you it will be a bit chilly come the final rounds in November!"
"With the season delayed I, like a number of other drivers, have turned my attention to the virtual racing world, and boy is that tough and highly competitive, but it's been a great way of keeping my eye in," said Cammish. "I've been doing a lot of training whilst I've been off and really got into my e-biking.
"Our Honda Civic Type R FK8 felt sharp at the official test at Snetterton and we hope to hit the ground running. It's going to be a demanding few months both physically and mentally with the condensed season. But I'm just glad to go racing, it's what I live for, so I'm raring to go..."
Rounds 1-3 of the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship are due to take place at Donington Park, Leicestershire on 1/2 August.
