BTCC

Returning Nick Foster Expects Rockingham BMW Fightback On Sunday

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Nick Foster admitted to TCF he had been “missing” life in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, but insists that West Surrey Racing will improve from a quiet Saturday at Rockingham.

A former podium finisher with the BMW 125i squad, Foster this weekend stands in for Andy Priaulx in the IHG Rewards Club machine under the #8 while the latter partakes in European Le Mans Series duties with the German manufacturer over the weekend.

In his place, the returning Foster bagged 20th place on the grid in qualifying for the latest event of the season at Rockingham, albeit just 1.1s off the pace of pole-sitter, Mat Jackson, following the 30-minute session.

Foster admits his return has already been thoroughly enjoyable, focusing now on achieving a solid trio of results on Sunday in Corby for Dick Bennetts‘ squad.

Photo: BTCC Media

Photo: BTCC Media

“I’m chuffed with how it’d going so far, so now I’m looking forward to tomorrow”, Foster told The Checkered Flag after his first day behind the wheel of a BTCC car since last October.

“It’s a great series to be involved in and of course great to do it again with a great team like WSR for the IHG Rewards Team.

“We’ve just got to try and get out there and do the business tomorrow. It looks like we’ve got our work cut out, but we’ll just get on with the job in hand.”

BMW endured a somewhat off-colour qualifying session on Saturday, Sam Tordoff the best of the outfit in 11th while Rob Collard and Foster finished 17th and 20th respectively, Foster adding: “We seemed to struggle in qualifying for whatever reason, but it is what it is.

“The car feels good. The team have definitely made an improvement with the car compared to last year. Now we’ve got to set the car up tomorrow well to fight back. The rest of it, I wouldn’t worry! We’ll be pushing, no problem at all.”

A long-time stalwart for BMW in both one-make national motorsport and since 2011 in the BTCC with WSR, Foster admits that he did feel withdrawal symptoms since his last visit to the series.

“It’s a great series”, added Foster. “If you didn’t miss it then it wouldn’t have been that good would it? It is the pinnacle of motorsport and when you stop doing something like it you miss it even more.”

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