RACES AFTER QUALIFYING SMASH

Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship racer Simon Belcher has been forced to withdraw from today’s three races at Thruxton in Hampshire as a result of his Toyota Avensis suffering extensive damage during a high-speed accident in qualifying on Saturday, 9th May.

Fortunate to be fit enough to compete at Thruxton this weekend after sustaining a wrist injury during a jet-skiing incident last Monday, the Swindon sportsman made strong progress in free practice yesterday and had high hopes going into qualifying.

Incredibly, those hopes were dashed in the opening minutes of the grid-determining session when, as he headed onto his first flying lap, Belcher’s car was tagged as he exited Allard at high speed by the Ford Focus of Mike Bushell – the latter joining the circuit from the pitlane at the time.

Pitching the right-hand side of Belcher’s Toyota into the air momentarily, the contact resulted in a heavy rearward collision with the barriers and substantial damage to both ends of the car. After a lengthy investigation of the damage into Saturday night by the Handy Motorsport mechanics, the repairs required are simply too great to rectify before today’s racing.

Naturally, Webb Garden Power Equipment and KÄRCHER-supported driver Belcher is very frustrated to be missing his ‘home’ races and especially so after the way last year’s visit to Thruxton ended, with an accident at the fastest corner on the track in the third race following a suspension breakage.

“We gave it a go last night, got a chunk of the back of the car pushed back out but there’s some of the integral stuff which the scrutineers weren’t happy with”, said the Wiltshire driver, “So, the car is being completely stripped and will be loaded onto a trailer today and taken to have the shell done.

“Everything was going well in second practice and we really did feel I could have been on for a career best in qualifying, probably P18 which would have put me only one place behind Tom [Ingram] in the Speedworks Toyota. We’ve been close to him all weekend, which isn’t normally the case, so it’s very frustrating for it to end how it has. The feeling of being at Thruxton and not racing is horrible!”

Belcher added: “I’d just started my first flying lap in qualifying and as I went through Allard I could see a car coming out of the pits but you don’t expect it to come across when you’re on the racing line. By the time you realise there’s going to be contact, there’s nothing you can do. I’m glad Mike [Bushell] seems to be OK, now we’ve got a huge amount of hard work ahead before Oulton.”

There is now a four week break in the BTCC calendar with rounds 10, 11 and 12 scheduled to take place at Oulton Park Island Circuit in Cheshire over the weekend 6th/7th June.