The latest meeting of the MSA British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton, Hampshire didn’t go to plan for Martyn Bell. Contact with a rival driver saw him retire from round 8 with damage to his suspension.

Martyn was hoping for a better meeting at Thruxton – the fastest circuit in the BTCC calendar, after he was caught up in someone else accident in round 4 at Rockingham two weeks previously. This time he was shunted from behind by Eoin Murray causing heavy damage to the rear of the car and the suspension.

After qualifying 18th on the grid Martyn made a fine start in the first race of the day, taking 3 places before he had even reached the first turn. Further progression was halted as the set up of the BMW made it impossible to keep up with the main pack. Despite this Martyn managed to take 13th place while holding off Fiona Leggate for the last few laps.

Changes were made to the car for the following race and the team was confident of a top ten place, with the HW sponsored BMW starting 13th on the grid. Again another flying start saw the car move quickly up through the ranks. An eventful race saw the BMW damage after the aforementioned contact with Murray. The team chose to retire the car early in order to have more time for repairs before the final race of the day.

After a sterling effort by the team Martyn started 16th on the grid. Despite another steaming start, 15th place was the best Martyn could manage with the repair car still not handling to his liking.

“We were suffering with oversteer through the complex in the opening race and the car was a real handful,” Martyn reflected. “I had to settle for 13th which was a good place to start the second race and I made up some positions again at the start before Richard Marsh tried to make the BMW a compact going into the complex.
 
“The car was wrecked at the back and it’s quite annoying as it’s the second time it’s happened to me – he did the same last season at Knockhill. The boys got me out there for the last race and got the car as straight as it could be, but understeer was a problem and I also made a silly mistake out the back of the circuit and got on the grass – meaning I dropped off the back of the pack. You can’t get back onto the train again when that happens and I was praying for a Safety Car to help me catch up, but it never appeared.”

However, Martyn and the team remain upbeat going into a small break before the fourth round of the season at Croft next month, when he hopes for luck to finally be on his side.

“The end result doesn’t reflect our efforts and our best lap in the second race was only 0.2secs off Tom Onslow-Cole (in a newer-spec BMW 320si),” Martyn added. “It’s a tribute to the team to be able to do that.
 
“We know that we have made progress this season with the car and we know that that progress isn’t reflected by the championship standings. We aren’t feeling down, we are just getting our bad luck out of the way in one go!”