Motorbase Performance heads to Donington Park this coming weekend with silverware firmly on the agenda as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship reconvenes at the Leicestershire circuit.

Fired-up by the pace shown during the season opener at Brands Hatch earlier this month and Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher's Tom Chilton and James Cole are looking to capitalise on their ballast-free advantage and work their way up the championship standings with a strong showing in the Ford Focus RS.

“Brands Hatch proved to be a bit of a topsy-turvy weekend throughout the grid,” said Team Manager Oly Collins. “Our performance was strong, but the results didn’t come our way. The weather played a big part in that but our qualifying performance shows the outright pace of the new RS.

“Having all the cars in the top 14 and less than two tenths off the front row, we know we are very much in the ball park and that gives us confidence going into this weekend.”

The Kent outfit has an excellent record on the world-renowned track and Donington Park has been the scene of success for the Kent-based squad in past seasons, with its former Ford Focus ST charge tasting victory here in 2011, 2012 and 2016.

“On paper, Donington should suit the RS better than the Brands Indy circuit,” added Collins. “It’s a little faster and the aero and chassis improvements that we’ve made to the Focus should make a big difference there.

“We went well at the Season Launch test last month and it’s been a happy hunting ground for us in the past, so we’re aiming to continue that trend this weekend and hopefully bag ourselves some new silverware to take home on Sunday night!”

“Donington Park is always a great circuit to race at," said Chilton. "I took my first race win there, way back in 2004 and I have a lot of happy memories of racing there over the years.

“I was second fastest there on media day and we showed at Brands Hatch that we have the pace to be challenging for wins. I can’t wait to shake off the run of bad luck we had at Brands Hatch and get our championship challenge off the ground this weekend.”

“I think the pace we’ve shown so far during pre-season and also at Brands demonstrates the potential of where we should be," added Cole. "We’ve reset after the bad luck we had during the opening rounds and it’s time to show what were capable of this weekend.

“I don’t think that the championship contenders have shown their hand yet, Brands Hatch was an odd weekend and I think the championship battle will really come to life at Donington. We should be in for some exciting battles!”

Tordoff: 'The car's clearly very quick'

Sam Tordoff in the Team GardX Racing with Motorbase Focus RS is similarly looking to make good on the promise he and his machinery showed back at Brands Hatch – promise enough for a front-row qualifying berth.

"I think the car's very good but regarding Brands we just needed to forget about it and move on," said Tordoff. "The car's clearly very quick, as qualifying showed, and we were quick in the dry and the wet.

"We just had a bit of bad luck and made a wrong tyre call in race one and unfortunately our weekend unravelled from there. I'm not going to worry about it though, nobody scored big points and there's a long way to go in this championship.

"I don't think Ash Sutton scored any points at the opener either but look where he ended up.

"Donington's a circuit I enjoy and go well at. We went well at Season Launch so I'm hoping we can go and get another front-row qualifying result and score some points."