Team HARD will return to Volkswagen CC machinery in the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship after purchasing three of the former race-winning machines.
The deal sees the Kent-based squad secure the trio of CCs that they originally built, prepared and ran back in 2013, which have since been victorious in the hands of Team BMR and Team BKR thanks to Aron Smith, Jason Plato and Colin Turkington.
All three cars will be updated to run RML-spec parts over the winter and replace the Toyota Avensis used in 2016, Team HARD having first introduced the car to the BTCC.
“Bringing the VWs to the BTCC was our brainchild back in 2011, so it feels like we have some unfinished business with them,” said team principal, Tony Gilham.
“It was a good car out of the box then and was still winning races last season with the older kit onboard. Now we plan to update all three VWs to the RML-spec over the winter and believe we’ll have a really strong package.
“We’re coming off the back of a solid year with three older cars, but now we feel we’re ready to step up and become extremely competitive.
“A number of our staff were also part of the original build project so of course there is a strong bond too. We looked at many options, however, and made this call because we believe they’ll be race-winning machines in our hands. To potentially build and develop new cars at the same time as carrying out the RML upgrades would have been a massive task.
“We’ve already signed one driver, which will be announced in due course, and we’re speaking to further interested parties over the coming weeks in relation to the two vacant seats. It’s great for Team HARD to have secured this deal so early in the winter as it gives us the time required to prepare properly for what I’m sure will be another exciting and successful season ahead for us.”
