SWINDON’S Handy Motorsport team celebrated its best-ever finish in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship during the final race of the opening event of the season at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit.

A hard-charging performance from new driver Rob Austin helped the team overcome set-up issues in qualifying and heavy contact in round one, which forced him into retirement.

However, Austin scythed his way through in race two to gain no fewer than 16 places – expertly carving his way from 30th on the grid into 14th position at the flag.

With that result affording the 34-year-old an improved seventh row start for race three, Austin – using the soft-compound Dunlop tyres for the final contest – quickly climbed into the top 10 and enjoyed a great battle with the works Honda Civic of reigning champion Gordon Shedden and the works MG of Ashley Sutton before having to settle for 11th place on the last lap.

“Race two was obviously really good, from 30th to 14th wasn’t bad going and we had a bit of understeer to cope with too,” said Austin .

“I was hoping to go forward a bit more in race three, we changed the car to look after the softs but we didn’t quite go far enough. We showed we had the pace to fight with the works Hondas and MGs, though, which is obviously very good.

“I’m really happy with the car, the team has done a fantastic job all weekend and now we need to make sure we get qualifying right at Donington.”

Free practice went smoothly for the Handy Motorsport squad but hopes of a top-10 performance in qualifying didn’t materialise when the chosen set-up proved to be the wrong way to go, Austin ending the session 15th fastest.

Even so, Austin was only 0.5 seconds shy of pole position but his round one involvement came to an end just three laps in when his car was hit on two separate occasions.

A fully repaired Avensis lined-up 30th on the grid for round two and Austin picked his way through into 16th place and then climbed into 14th with three laps to go.

In round three, Austin made the move on the penultimate lap to grab 10th spot but Sutton went back past on the final lap.

Team principal Simon Belcher added: “It’s been a good weekend overall, races two and three were really good and Rob raced very well after the disappointment of the race one retirement.

“We’re all on a big learning curve, as a team we’re learning a lot and it’s Rob’s first season with the front-wheel drive. We’ll continue to just get better and better, this weekend has been a good start.”

Rounds four, five and six of the BTCC season are next weekend April 16-17 at Donington Park National Circuit in Leicestershire.