Mike Bushell will return to the British Touring Car Championship with Team HARD for this weekend’s races at Croft, after missing the previous two events.
Bushell had been set to contest the full 2020 season in one of Team HARD’s Volkswagen CC cars, but an illness during the winter left him focussed on recovery and unable to commit to the full campaign.
Bushell suffered from Myocarditis in the winter, which resulted in an inflammation of the heart muscle in a pre-season skiing trip.
Although the 31-year-old made a return to the BTCC at Oulton Park and Croft, the deal with Power Maxed Racing was only on a part-time basis.
Bushell will now return to the series with the team he was originally supposed to compete for the full year, taking over the car previously raced by Ollie Brown and Tom Onslow-Cole.
Onslow-Cole raced the car for the past two rounds, taking over from the injured Brown, but is unable to compete this weekend having recently raced GTs in Belgium and unable to get an exemption from the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
“It’s good to be back with Team HARD. Racing after testing the CC at the recent tyre test at Snetterton in July,” said Bushell.
“It’s been a rollercoaster year for me personally, both on and off track, but I’m happy to be back in the seat that I originally had nailed down before my illness and Coronavirus hit.
“I enjoyed my time in the Vauxhall at Oulton Park and Knockhill and, despite coming away from those weekends pointless, I proved to everyone including myself that my speed is still there despite everything which has happened to me recently.
“Having driven the VW CC at the tyre test, the team has improved the car since I last drove it prior to the 2019 season.
“I’m looking forward to teaming up with Jack and Nic to extract the maximum out of the car!”
Team HARD Managing Director Tony Gilham admitted that he was disappointed not to be able to keep working with Onslow-Cole for a third successive round a Croft.
“Firstly, I’m gutted for Tom who had a strong showing at Silverstone despite the results may be saying otherwise,” added Gilham. “He was on the pace of Jack and the pair worked together to fine tune the car’s setup.
“However, Mike is a great replacement for this weekend at Croft and I’m happy to see him back with the team after such an up and down year.
“It wasn’t nice to see Mike driving for a rival team but his speed out of the box was proven yet again and I’m confident he can have a strong showing in the VW CC this time, out and bring home his first points of the season.”