The newly-renamed Special Tuning Racing outfit could run as many as four SEAT Leon’s in this year’s BTCC it has been revealed. The team, which ran a single car for Tom Boardman last year, has acquired a fourth Leon S2000 chassis to add to the three that it already owns.
Team principal John Boardman explains where the car came from and why they have bought it: “This new Leon chassis was previously raced very successfully by Adam Jones and is the latest specification Leon S2000 chassis.
“Due to the high level of interest in our 2011 BTCC programme, using the Leon and our new SEAT TFSI NGTC engine combination, we felt it necessary to obtain this additional chassis as we believe this is going to be a very competitive package. This now gives Special Tuning Racing the capability of running up to four cars.”
STR have opted to develop their own NGTC engine based on SEAT’s 2.0 litre unit. For 2011 the team will therefore run a hybrid of an S2000 chassis with an NGTC engine and are setting their sights high with the new programme. “We are taking the 2011 season very seriously, the team firmly has its sights set on winning the Independents title next year,” added Boardman Snr. “With the highly experienced engineering team we have behind us combined with the Leon chassis and NGTC engine, we think this is a very achievable target.”
Currently the team have not signed any drivers although it is expected that Tom Boardman will continue with the squad.