Michael Epps made a promising start to his Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship career at the series opener last weekend [2nd-3rd April], with the Team.HARD driver securing a brace of top twenty finishes on his debut in the series.
Epps, who has made the step up to the UK’s premier tin-top series to pilot a Toyota Avensis under the banner of RCIB Insurance Racing, claimed 20th in the opening race of the season before doubling up with 17th in the second contest, just two positions shy of his maiden championship point. He rounded out his weekend with a 21st place finish in the final race.
The former Volkswagen Cup driver was left with mixed feelings after his first foray into the BTCC, in which he spent time trading paint with some of the series’ most established names.
“I’m a real mixture of feelings after this weekend, mainly relieved and somewhat chilled out.” he explained.
“I had so many anticipations of what it would be like in BTCC, I didn’t know if I would feel comfortable at all but in that first session I really felt like I could get stuck in. By Race 1, my third ever BTCC session on track, I was putting aggressive passes on previous championships like Turkington and Plato!”
He also paid tribute to the hard work of his mechanics and engineering team, and highlighted the reliability of Team.HARD’s trio of Avensis models as a strong point to take from the weekend.
“It’s very interesting to see how the field has been shaken up a bit this year, with new cars, parts, etc. It’s made it a little bit more of a lottery. I have to take my hat off to the Team Hard guys at RCIB Insurance Racing, essentially still building the car on the night and morning before Qualifying, yet all of our cars remained strong and didn’t break apart from a fuel pressure regulator on Jake Hill’s car, which is out of our control anyway! So, given that, I’m more than happy with a 17th place finish and looking forward to pushing towards that top 10 area.”
Epps is now looking forward to getting more seat time when the series reconvenes at Donington Park over the weekend of 16th-17th April.
“I have to give a massive thank you to RCIB Insurance Racing for providing a backbone in my BTCC debut, and the rest of my partners too! These are the biggest moments of my career and I can’t wait to rock up at Donington in two weeks for even more!”