SIMON Belcher will make a welcome return to the driving seat of his Toyota Avensis at Silverstone this weekend after spending the past three events on the sidelines.

The Handy Motorsport team principle has sat out recent rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship for budgetary reasons after being forced to go through an expensive rebuild of his car following a high-speed collision during qualifying at Thruxton.

However, the Swindon businessman is now raring to go for the final six races of the BTCC campaign – starting with the visit to the home of the British Grand Prix.

During the interim period, which included visits to Snetterton, Knockhill and Rockingham, American racer Robb Holland stood in for Belcher and achieved a best result of 14th position and the team made good progress with overall competitiveness.

Belcher, himself a top-15 finisher in only his second season of touring car action, is now determined to conclude the campaign with a flourish.

“Silverstone can’t come soon enough,” said the Webb Garden Power Equipment and KÄRCHER backed driver.

“It’s been a great experience focusing on the team management for the last few events, and really good working with Robb (Holland), but I’ve missed the racing so can’t wait to be back behind the wheel.

“We definitely made some good steps forward with the car over the last couple of events.

“Having a different perspective from another driver with BTCC experience was definitely a positive thing and we’re now hoping to build further on that at Silverstone and then at Brands Hatch next month.”

During last season’s visit to Silverstone in his debut campaign, the Wiltshire driver’s weekend was set back by contact in race one but he still achieved three important finishes.

One year on, Belcher is targeting a hat-trick of Independents Trophy points scores and will also be bidding to break back into the overall top 15 for the first time since the opening meeting of the season.

“Even though I’ve been on the sidelines for nine races, we’re still in a pretty tight battle in the Independents Trophy standings, so I’m hoping to make up some ground there,” said Belcher.

“I think we should be in pretty good shape really. The car has been working well and there’s determination in the whole team to end the season with a bit of a flourish.”