Both Toyota teams in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) are headed into their home event at Oulton Park, after a month off following the previous round at Thruxton.
The break has been even longer from Stockport-based Tony Hughes, who was forced to miss the Thruxton races after his Speedworks Motorsport car sustained damage at Donington Park in mid-April.
During that time Hughes, and the NGTC-spec car have still been on the promotion trail, the car being displayed on the Hughes Safety Showers stand at a trade fair at Brimingham NEC.
“The exhibition was a great opportunity to discuss requirements with our key customers in the health and safety industry,” said Tony Hughes, who is the MD of the company that adorns his BTCC machine. “Having the Toyota on stand was something new which generated interest in the products that we manufacture. With Oulton Park on the horizon, Speedworks are working hard to have everything prepared as the BTCC moves up north.”
Frank Wrathall has also been on the promotion trail, the 24-year-old's Dynojet Avensis making an appearance at Preston North End's Deepdale football ground before their final home game of the season.
As has been the case since the new cars first appeared at the start of April both cars will have new, improved parts for the three races this weekend, with a revised steering system on both cars, as well as benefitting from set-up work to improve handling.
Wrathall's Dynojet team will also run a with engine enhancements aimed at improving reliability.
“Our priority now is reliability,” said Frank. “We need to get some race finishes under our belt, and we have been doing a lot of dyno testing with the engine to try to trace the problems which afflicted us at Thruxton last month. Hopefully at Oulton Park we can pace ourselves and put in a solid showing.”
“We have done a tremendous amount to the Toyota since Thruxton; in fact, it's been like building a whole new car again.”
