Rob Smith prepared for BTCC debut
British Touring Car Championship newcomer Rob Smith enjoyed a very productive first ‘official’ outing during the annual pre-season media day at Brands Hatch.
Smith put together a strong morning session at the wheel of his Excelr8 Motorsport MG6 to conclude the outing with a best lap of 48.883 seconds (88.95mph).
Placing 20th on the times, within 0.8 seconds of the outright pace, the Telford driver was also 14th in the Independents Trophy classification and ahead of ‘manufacturer’ entries like double BTCC Champion Jason Plato and 2017 champion Ashley Sutton.
He will make his BTCC race debut at the Kent track this weekend, with three rounds taking place on Sunday.
“I’m reasonably happy with how everything went in the morning session, to be just under 0.8 seconds off was good and I was only a tenth (of a second) away from what Rory Butcher did in qualifying at Brands in the MG6 last season”, said Smith.
“Considering how experienced he is at this level I was pleased to be there, and especially as we haven’t had very much testing at all so far.
“There’s still much more to come, making upgrades to the car has been time consuming and has meant we’re coming in on the back foot in terms of track time compared to the others.”
He added: “Importantly, I think we found in the data what we need to change to make the car more how I want it. As a baseline, the car is really good so it’s just a matter of fine tuning that and then I think we’ll be punching above our weight in the BTCC. As I expected from the Excelr8 guys, they’re doing a great job and we’re only going to get quicker.”
Smith graduates to the UK’s biggest and best motor racing championship with Excelr8 this year after learning his trade in the Renault UK Clio Cup and, over the last four seasons, the MINI Challenge.
