Thorney Motorsport have withdrawn their entry for this weekend’s Thruxton round of the British Touring Car Championship, citing budgetary and performance issues as the reason.
Following a difficult start to the season, in which the team’s owner-driver John Thorne has only finished two races, the team have taken the decision not to enter for Thruxton so that they can be better prepared for the meetings to follow.
“It is with a heavy heart we have taken this decision but with limited budget we cant afford to both test and race and the car has some fundamental issues that we need to address before competing again,” said Thorne.
Despite being at Donington Park last time out, Thorne failed to qualify or race the team’s NGTC Vauxhall Insignia due to a number of issues. Thorne, 43, has also expressed his frustration at continuing engine problems with the car’s Swindon Engines NGTC power-plant.
“The handling issues are really just down to time in the car to properly create a full set up,” added Thorne. “That needs testing and that needs budget. However the engine issues are really annoying as they date back right to last year and Silverstone and thus far Swindon appear utterly unwilling or unable to cure them. It doesn’t make it easy when after each race Swindon come along and take the engine map out of the car preventing from running over 4000rpm stopping you testing until you pay them another £2k fee!”
Although Thorney Motorsport will not be present at Thruxton, Thorne reiterated that the team’s commitment to the BTCC is a long one and that either himself or second driver Rob Hedley are hoping to be out on track later in the season with some more testing behind them.
“The BTCC for us a long term commitment so we are looking at this as a re-group and come back out fighting,” concluded Thorne. “Some of the issues are just down to lack of development budget and some are just frustrating as they are outside of our control but no-one said racing was easy so we are a long way from giving up yet.”
its a shame that Thorney has not been able to secure more funds ,this car has a lot of potential and it could well be in the thick of the races . i have a lot of respect for the team as they are working hard to get the car running right ,with budget shortages its one or the other ,but i hope to see the car out soon getting up the pack and giving everyone else on the track a run for the money