Paul O’Neill will make his return to the British Touring Car Championship next time out at Croft, driving a Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis in place of regular driver Tony Hughes, who has prior commitments on race day.
The Croft rounds will mark O’Neill’s first experience of the NGTC Avensis and his first outing in the BTCC since the Silverstone finale last October.
“I spoke to Tony at one of the events earlier in the year and he asked if I’d like to drive the car at Croft as he wasn’t able to be there,” explained the two times race winner.
“It’s a chance for me to return to the grid, but I don’t want to just jump in the car for a weekend of racing, I want to do a good job. Speedworks is a good team, Carlube is going to be playing a big part in the event and I’ll be keeping a video diary for ITV, so hopefully we can have a strong weekend.”
The Widnes racer will head into the Croft weekend facing more unknowns than known’s as he has never raced the NGTC Avensis nor the turbo engine.
Despite the challenges, O’Neill has his targets set for rounds 13, 14 and 15.
“There are more unknowns than known’s for me, as I haven’t driven the Toyota, I haven’t driven an NGTC car and there is the turbo engine, so it will be difficult to start with but I’ll get quicker as the weekend goes on. I’ll be aiming to start steady and then maybe we could push to get into the top 10 in the second race,” added the 32 year old.
“My target is to run in the midfield but obviously the dream, as ever, is to finish on the podium. Although that is possible, I know it will be massive long shot. I’ve done a lot of things in this life that have been a long shot and sometimes they have come off, so I’ll go there to enjoy myself and see what we come away with,” fans favourite O’Neill concluded.
O’Neill will partner Adam Morgan at Croft, with Hughes in attendance on the Saturday. Christian Dick, Speedworks Motorsport team chief is confident that O’Neill is the ideal candidate to partner the 2011 Ginetta GT Supercup Champion.
“When we knew Tony wasn’t going to be able to race, we looked around at who was available who had recent experience of the BTCC,” he said. “Paul is the ideal driver and I have a good feeling about his chances for the weekend at Croft. If he can qualify the car inside the top 15 and then bring it home in the top 10, then it will be a good result. I’m also looking forward to seeing him work alongside Adam, as I’m sure that will help to push him on.”