Eurotech Racing have confirmed they will compete in this years Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship as a two-car entry, rather than with a third entry as originally planned.
The team purchased both the TBL (TOCA BTCC Licence) and Toyota Avensis of Houseman Racing following their withdrawal at the end of last season, before confirming that the outfit would upgrade from the older NGTC-model of Honda Civic to the Type-R machinery that secured Gordon Shedden his second drivers crown at Brands Hatch in October.
Alongside this, the team expanded its infrastructure in order to meet the demands of the increased number of entries, including a move to a larger premises that could also facilitate support package teams in the future should the team elect to expand into the junior categories.
Despite lengthy negotiations with a number of drivers, funding for the third seat was unable to be provided in time for the team to secure it’s entry for this season, with a full entry list due to be published at the official Season Launch on 22nd March at Donington Park. As a result, Eurotech Racing has loaned it’s TBL to another team for this season, believed by TouringCars.net to be Team. HARD, in order to enable them to run an additional entry in this years championship.
Commenting on the alteration, Team Principal and driver Jeff Smith explained the reasoning behind the team’s lack of announcements regarding the third car, but underlined his optimism at the team’s position heading into the new campaign.
“We haven’t made any public comments regarding the third driver speculation as we have been keeping our heads down and working hard, confident that it would all come together.”
“I would like to say a heartfelt personal thank you to the team for their hard work, late nights and diligence with all the Type R and RML updates. The result of this focus is that we are in a very good place for the start of the season, albeit with two cars rather than the planned three.”
“It’s extremely disappointing having put everything in place including buying a licence, building a third car, restructuring the team and additional premises for it then not go ahead so close to the start of the season.”