Redstone Racing finished the opening day of the sixth round of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship with a smile on their face after their brand new NGTC Ford Focus had a trouble free qualifying session at Snetterton, Norfolk.
The team caused the biggest surprise of the season when they unveiled their NGTC Ford Focus this morning to an unsuspecting pitlane and Snetterton crowd.
Despite a lack of testing prior to the sixth event of the 2012 campaign, the maiden appearance for the car exceeded all expectations and the team will now look for three strong results to get their Championship challenge back on track. Mat Jackson took the car to 16th fastest in qualifying.
Aron Smith in the S2000 spec Redstone Racing Ford Focus finished qualifying 11th overall, having been on course for a top 10 position before a red flag in qualifying.
“First and foremost reliability was the key for us as a team this weekend and in that regard, today has been faultless,” explained Redstone Racing Team Principal, David Bartrum.
“Aron had a good start to the session and was unlucky in his first run – being interrupted on a fast lap by the red flag. If that hadn’t have happened he was on for a solid top ten result, but he did well to pull it back to P11 on his final lap.
“I’m delighted with the new performance of the new car. It performed faultlessly and didn’t miss a beat – which, considering it was only finished at 3am this morning and saw daylight for the first time when it arrived here at 6am, is pretty damn good going!
“I can’t praise the guys enough for what they’ve put in over the past seven weeks, and it’s real testament to their talent and hard work that we’ve now got a car ready to go straight to work and develop. I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow,” concluded Bartrum.