HANDY Motorsport driver Rob Austin has his sights squarely set on a podium bid at the second meeting of the MSA British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park National Circuit this weekend.

Austin, who bagged a best finish of fifth at the wheel of the Swindon team’s Toyota Avensis during the Brands Hatch season opener at the beginning of the month, will arrive at Donington full of confidence after a strong pre-season at the Leicestershire circuit.

A penalty in round two at Brands linked to a yellow flag infringement, after Austin had earlier raced from eighth to fifth in the opener, slightly tarnished an encouraging opening round in Kent but Austin admits the team are in a good place heading into the second weekend.

“Brands was a strong weekend, so it’s such a shame the thing everyone remembers is the incident in race two”, said Austin.

“We were on for three top-five finishes which would’ve been a fantastic start to the season for us. Obviously we couldn’t predict what would’ve happened in race three if I hadn’t started at the back but we know we had the pace.

“We showed a lot of promise and proved we’ve got a good package.

“Having said that, though, it wasn’t a perfect weekend and there are things we learned which should make us stronger still for Donington.

“All along we’ve looked at Donington as a better track for us than Brands was, so I’m looking forward to it.

“We need a strong weekend with a lot of points to recover the lost ground.”

Opening practice at Donington Park was taking place this morning, with three rounds of the championship to take place tomorrow, each of them being screened on ITV4.