Toyota racers Frank Wrathall and Tony Hughes head to Oulton Park looking to secure race finishes after a number of changes were made to the Toyota Avensis’.
Following a difficult start to the season, in which Wrathall and Hughes have taken just five race finishes out of 15 starts, more is expected at Oulton Park. Both teams – Dynojet and Speedworks Motorsport – have performed major rebuilds of their chassis ahead of the three races this weekend. Amongst the changes are changes to the steering systems and extensive work on the chassis aimed at improving the overall handling of the cars.
For Wrathall there are also some engine enhancements that have been made to his Toyota-based NGTC powerplant. Hughes does not have an upgraded engine as he is running the TOCA engine supplied by Swindon Engines.
Oulton Park is effectively a ‘local’ race for Wrathall, who is based in Lancashire. Cheshire’s Oulton Park is also the local race for Speedworks Motorsport and Tony Hughes, who are based in the county.
“Our priority now is reliability,” said Wrathall. “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.”
After suffering heavy damage at the second meeting of the year at Donington Park, and subsequently missing the Thruxton meeting, Tony Hughes will be back in action at Oulton Park where he will be joined by a gathering of ‘Miss Manchester’s’ from the past and present to cheer him on.