TOYOTA Avensis driver Simon Belcher made a terrific start to the new Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch on Easter Sunday, with a career-best top 15 finish during a highly entertaining third and final race of the weekend.

Saving the best for last at the 1.2-mile Indy Circuit, the Swindon-based Handy Motorsport racer underlined the gains made by the team during testing over the winter by delivering a great performance to chalk-up his first championship point of the season.

Having finished inside the top 20 in round one and then posting an improved 19th place in round two, for the afternoon’s final encounter Belcher made a significant step forward and pleasingly produced a best lap time within just 0.9 seconds of race winner Matt Neal’s fastest.

Making a good start to race three from the 10th row of the grid, Belcher gained two places by the time the field exited Druids on the opening lap but racing soon fell under Safety Car conditions after several cars further down the order tangled.

At the re-start on lap seven, the Wiltshire driver held 15th position – due to a couple of cars coming to grief when the Safety Car was circulating – and gained another place a lap later. Although losing ground shortly after, slipping to 18th, Belcher set out to mount a strong fightback.

Moving back into 16th into the final quarter of the race, he was able to celebrate a richly deserved top 15 overall points finish when double BTCC champion Jason Plato encountered a problem four laps from the end. In the Independents Trophy battle, Belcher was classified in 11th position.

“Race three was a lot of fun, a great way to end the weekend really,” said the second year touring car racer.

“We had a good start, the car worked well and there some good battles out on track which I enjoyed. The best bit is obviously getting into the top 15 for the first time, it’s something we were aiming for this weekend so to achieve it is fantastic and a big confidence boost.”

The whole weekend started very positively for the Webb Garden Power Equipment, KÄRCHER, The Handy, Q Garden, Rocwood, TH White and Corbeau-backed driver when he posted the 10th fastest time in opening practice on a challenging, damp track.

Although a qualifying gamble didn’t pay off, ending the grid-determining session 22nd overall, hopes were still high for round one on Sunday morning and Belcher made a great start to climb into the top 20 before gaining two more places before the end of the first lap.

Losing out badly at Paddock Hill Bend on lap three, with several cars streaming past on the inside, he fought back impressively to eventually climb back into 20th place. The highlights of the race were two superb passes, around the outside at Graham Hill Bend, on Warren Scott and Mike Bushell.

With drivers required to use the soft Dunlop tyre compound, rather than the regular medium compound, for one of the weekend’s three races, Belcher opted to run it in round two but the expected performance gains early in the encounter didn’t materialise. Even so, he delivered a spirited drive through to 19th position.

“Qualifying looked like it was going to rain, we tried to get a time in early on a full set of tyres instead of doing a cross reverse as normal,” he explained.

“The rain didn’t come though and we made the mistake of staying out on a long run. Still, we were only 1.2 seconds off pole so I was happy enough with that. We know we could have been a couple of tenths closer.

“We’re not sure why but the soft tyres never got going in race two, our worry was the drop off which would happen but the tyres just didn’t switch on for us. I don’t know if that was me or something else so we need to check that out and understand what happened.

“Overall it’s been a great start to the season, though, lots of positives to enjoy and to take with us to the next round at Donington.”