Aron Taylor-Smith paid tribute to his Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing team after achieving his best qualifying result with the team in the British Touring Car Championship to-date, and feels confident he can go on the attack in race trim tomorrow.
Having ended the first half of the campaign on a high with an overall podium at Oulton Park, Taylor-Smith widely impressed with a storming run to fourth in qualifying around the 2.1-mile Yorkshire circuit this afternoon.
Clearing the first two knockout rounds with ease to reach the Quick Six Shootout for the first time in 2024, the Dubliner ended up with a best effort just a couple of tenths shy of Colin Turkington’s benchmark, landing him a second row starting spot.
“I’m over the moon to achieve my best qualifying to-date with Power Maxed Racing, and it’s a credit to what everybody at Evans Halshaw has enabled us to do with this programme, to get the car into a window that I, personally, feel can rival any car on the grid,” Taylor-Smith told TouringCars.net.
“It’s something I’m immensely proud of. The car, the team, even myself as a driver, it’s all gelling on a whole new level. We saw just before the summer break what the car’s potential was, but to come back even stronger to a track that is infamously hard, and to be in the mix is something to be very proud of.”
Taylor-Smith is no stranger to the podium, having stood on it 21 times throughout his career, four of those as the race winner.
With ten Independent race victories to his name already this season, Taylor-Smith firmly believes both the team and he are in the mix with the series’ leading names to fight for an outright win tomorrow [28 July].
“I’m feeling confident going into tomorrow, and I think we have every right to be,” he asserts.
“I know with this car I can go on the attack, I know what I can do with it, I can trust it, and that’s all a credit to the team for what they’ve given me, and the level that we’re operating at. A huge thanks to Martin [Broadhurst], Adam [Weaver], the entire team, and let’s see what we can achieve tomorrow.”