#55 David Pinkney
David Pinkney returns to his own team for the first time since 1999, when he won Vauxhall Vectra Sri Championship with 4 wins.
After a testing year in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic, Pinkney will be racing the ex Fabrizio Giovanardi works Vauxhall Vectra in the 2010 BTCC, with a new power plant in the car.
Pinkney's Vectra will be powered by the brand new NGTC Engine, which is part of a whole new set of regulations being introduced into the BTCC for 2011, the engine has been introduced a year early – it's a 300BHP, turbo charged petrol engine, which should reduce a team's engine budget by over 50%.
Pinkney has already said that he is enjoying the Vectra, and after the official media day, announced: “We've been running similar laps to Andy all day and were within a tenth of a second of each other on the times, but there is a bit of a gap to the front-runners, so we seem to be a bit under-powered at the moment. But the Vectra is a fantastic chassis – one of the best out there. It's a brilliant piece of kit and through the corners in particular, it's an awesome car.”
With a new, race winning car and a new engine – 2010 will provide the 57 year old Pinkney his best chance to claim an overall race win in his pink and black Vectra.
Season Prediction:
A new car for Pinkney, who has managed to take advantage of Vauxhall's withdrawal to secure some of the former VX Racing employees, who know the car… now to learn the engine.
TCF Driver Prediction:
Pinkney: 18th, will be higher if he secures a maiden BTCC Victory (and his own piece of history with it).
