HANDY Motorsport are hoping for a triumphant farewell to their Toyota Avenis at the finals day of the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch tomorrow.

The Swindon-based team are changing to a new Alfa Romeo next season, driver Rob Austin will keen to secure a place on the podium.

During the corresponding fixture last year, the Worcestershire-based driver made history for Handy by securing its first ever front row starting slot in qualifying and he went on to finish an excellent second overall – the team’s best BTCC result – and achieve the squad’s second Independents win.

“I really am looking forward to Brands GP, last year we had a really good car there and I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t have that again this time round”, said Austin.

“I love the track, it’s a fantastic place to drive, and we’re going there aiming to end the season on a bit of a high. We were back on form at Silverstone and we’re determined to carry that forward to this weekend.

“Last year at Brands I put the Toyota on the front row so it’d be fantastic to try and do that again, especially on our last weekend with the car before we switch to Alfa next year.

“We know the Avensis is back where it was earlier in the season, so we’re going there with a confident mindset. Hopefully we can make a push for the podium to really end the season strongly.”

Handy has run with the Toyota brand since entering the BTCC in 2014 with team principal Simon Belcher behind the wheel.

After two years as a competitor in the championship, he turned his full focus to the management of the team ahead of the 2016 season when the squad made a huge leap forward by enlisting the services of experienced race winner Austin.

Over the past two seasons, Handy Motorsport has built impressively on the foundations laid in the previous couple of years and is now ready to sign-off the current chapter with a serious push for silverware during the season finale.

“We’ve had four fantastic years with the Toyota Avensis, the team has grown hugely in stature in the BTCC during that time and we’re all hoping to end this chapter on a high”, said Belcher, “Rob was very competitive last year at the GP track and after such a strong run at Silverstone last time out, we’re all feeling confident of a good weekend.”

Following two practice sessions at Brands Hatch today, qualifying will get underway at 3.05pm. Tomrrow, round 28 will commence at around 11.35am, round 29 starts at 2.20pm and round 30 is scheduled for 5.15pm.

Qualifying and raceday will be carried live online at the www.itv.com/btcc website with the races also screened live across the UK on ITV4.