Former double British Touring Car Championship Champion James Thompson has joined the Motorbase Performance-run Airwaves Racing for this weekend’s season finale at Silverstone.
The team has drafted in Thompson to assist the Championship challenge of Mat Jackson, who currently sits fourth overall, thirty six points behind series leader Matt Neal while the team sit fifteen points off the Independents Teams’ Championship lead.
“We’ve got to support Mat and give him the best chance in the last three races,” said team boss David Bartrum. “It’s not over for us in the overall points as the top three drivers are sure to battle with each other. We hope that James can jump in the car and get straight onto the pace of the front runners.”
Stepping down from the line up for Silverstone is Michael Caine, who competed for the team at Rockingham and Brands Hatch, scoring a point on his BTCC debut at Rockingham and Airwaves Racing Team Boss David Bartrum acknowledged the work Caine had put in during the two events he did with the team.
“Michael has had a taster of the BTCC to help him with his plans for next year,” said Bartrum. “I’m delighted with the progress he made; he had a mountain to climb in a very short time with no testing.”
Thompson last raced in the BTCC back in 2009, when he was drafted into the Team Dynamics line up for six race weekends. Since securing his last BTCC crown in 2004, he has spent last few seasons competing at World level in the World Touring Car Championship as well as some sporadic outings in the Danish and Scandinavian Touring Car Championship.
“I’m genuinely excited to be coming back to compete in the finale of the Championship. I’m here to lend support to Mat and the Airwaves team in their quest for the title and try not to cause too much mischief out on the track!” said Thompson about his return to the BTCC.
He was due to test the Ford Focus ST for the first time yesterday, 11 October and he added: “The test tomorrow will be my first time in the Airwaves Focus and although it’s never easy to step straight into a new car, it’s still got four wheels and steering wheel like the rest of them so I should hope that all my years’ racing will deliver a great result for the team at Silverstone.”