Ollie Jackson is to race alongside Dan Welch in the long-awaited second Welch Motorsport Proton Gen-2 in the 2014 British Touring Car Championship, it was announced at the Autosport International show.
Jackson, who moves into his third full season in the BTCC having previously raced for Triple Eight in 2011, AmD Tuning in 2012 and Speedworks Motorsport in 2013, will line-up in Welch’s 2013 car, whilst Dan Welch will race a brand-new second Proton.
“We’ve had some good meetings and we’re all getting on really well straight away so it’s definitely exciting,” said Jackson to TouringCars.Net. “Dan and Welch Motorsport are confident with the set up so it’s nice to be able to step into a car that’s proven.”
Jackson added that he expects to start 2014 on a much stronger footing, having lost weight during the winter months – something the 29 year-old feels held him back at times during 2012 and 2013.
“It’s a much lighter car,” added Jackson. “With me being a big guy – I’ve been losing weight over the winter – it’s going to be nice to be in a car that’s not 40 or 50 kilos overweight so I’m hoping for good things.
“The car is light enough now that with my weight we can actually put some ballast in it. That obviously helps and in terms of set-up we can run more aggressively for a raceas previously we would have to preserve the tyres more like people who run success do. It does kind of open things up a bit more.”
The former Porsche racer also admitted that he hoped his and Welch’s different racing backgrounds would prove to be of mutual benefit during the forthcoming season.
“Dan comes from a single-seater background and I come from a GT and Porsches background, so there are going to be differences,” said Jackson. “But generally speaking I’m finding it quite easy to adapt. He’ll probably learn some things from me and I’ll probably learn some things from him and hopefully we’ll move each other forwards.”
Welch Motorsport have previously only run one NGTC-sepcification Proton since joining the series mid-way through 2011, with the team adding a second car for S2000-runner David Nye for the 2013 season. The team have scored to-date a best result of fourth at Oulton Park in 2012.