The United Autosports team head to the fourth round of the 2014 British Touring Car Championship with a renewed sense of optimism, as the series moves to Oulton Park.
After enduring a difficult start to life in the championship – including a write-off of one of the team’s Toyota Avensis’ at Donington Park – the outfit are looking to establish their place on the grid, with drivers James Cole and Glynn Geddie having amassed six points between them.
Team Owner and Managing Director Richard Dean was confident that the mileage they were able to rack up in the five weeks between the last round at Thruxton and now will allow them to move up the pecking order.
“We head to Oulton Park for the next rounds of the BTCC after a productive five-week break,” said Dean. “The amount of testing we can do, and where we can do it, is limited by the championship regulations so we chose to go to Rockingham and Anglesey and have worked on trying to iron out some of the issues that affected our competitiveness in the opening rounds.
“We are hopeful of working our way up the grid and really need to focus on getting good qualifying positions that will automatically then help us in the races. James and Glynn are good at working their way through the field so we are looking forward to seeing what these next three races bring.”
Cole has suffered since scoring the team’s maiden points in the third race of the day at the season-opening event at Brands Hatch, but is hoping that a visit to the picturesque Cheshire circuit will spark a change in fortunes.
“I’m feeling more positive heading to Oulton,” said the 25-year-old. “The engineers on both cars have done a lot of development work since the last round at Thruxton so I’m feeling positive going into the Oulton Park weekend.
“I have some good memories of Oulton. It’s where I started racing and won my first championship there in 2007 so it’s a special place for me and I’m looking forward to the weekend.”
Geddie is also excited to get back on the track, and is looking forward to seeing how the changes his team have made will pan out on the track.
“I’m really happy with the testing we have done in the five-week break,” said Geddie. “We have definitely made progress and I think we have now found the right starting set-up. We won’t know for certain until we get to Oulton in terms of how much pace we have but I’m confident we will be further up the grid. Oulton is a great track and it should be a good weekend with the new set up we have.”