SWINDON’S DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing team is aiming to shine as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to its ‘home’ track of Thruxton in Hampshire this weekend.

The team’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta, driven by Rob Austin, will be in action in rounds seven, right and nine of the season, having been limited to one day of practice at the track last month.

Austin stood on the podium on the opening weekend of the season at Brands Hatch and then followed up with a pair of points finishes at Donington Park last time out.

“We’re a little bit into the unknown going into the weekend”, said Austin.

“We’ve only had limited running with our Alfa full stop, but hardly any running at Thruxton. It’s such a unique track and is so much faster than anywhere else, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. We did test last week at Snetterton and we certainly understand now where we went wrong at Donington.”

He added: “We’re obviously on the hard tyre all weekend at Thruxton, which requires certain settings to make it work properly. At the point we’re at now, still developing the car and with lots of work to do each weekend, not having to think about running another tyre choice will be beneficial.

“Our aim is to stay in the top 10 all weekend, we just want points and a solid run after the relative disappointment of Donington. If we get it right at the weekend, though, we can be near the front and that’s what we’ll be working to achieve.”

After practice at Thruxton today, racing begins from 12.15pm on Sunday.

Meanwhile, team principal Simon Belcher was back in competitive action himself last weekend, although on water in the British Jet Sport Championship at Wyboston Lakes in Bedfordshire.

Belcher, a multiple title winner in Jet Sport racing, made a welcome return to the sport as a one-off for charity in 2016 after 16 years away.

Reigniting the spark, he participated again in British Jet Sport last year and last weekend, the Swindon ace finished an impressive third overall in a field comprising a number of World Championship winning racers, battling through the pain barrier after pulling a muscle in his groin during practice on Saturday.

“I had to dig deep and ride through the pain, especially in the last race to come home in second place and move me onto the overall podium for the weekend”, said Belcher, who races for the Dean’s Team Yamaha squad.