Thorney Motorsport to enter Vauxhall Insignia

Milton Keynes based team Thorney Motorsport have announced their intention to enter the BTCC at the 2011 season finale with a pair of NGTC-specification Vauxhall Insignias.

The team have been close to entering the series before, most recently they were planning to enter the 2010 championship with a pair of BTC-specification Astra Sport Hatches.

“Its been a dream of mine for many years to run in the BTCC,” said Team Principal John Thorne.

“We’ve come close in the last two years but for a variety of reasons we didn’t make it, this time we are definite!”

The team have regularly run Vauxhalls in the Dunlop Sport Maxx production car championship, as well as a BMW M3 under the banner of Tesco Momentum 99 Racing in the Britcar Endurance Championship.

Thorne’s company runs a tuning business for Lotus, Ford, Vauxhall and BMW owners as well as a successful racing business, and is now ready to join the big league with the BTCC entry late this season.

“The Insignia is going to be a challenge, it’s a big chassis and we know that weight will be an issue initially but the size is also to our benefit. The width of the shell is such that we won’t need to resort to huge wheel arch extensions which whilst looking good don’t do you any favours in terms of aerodynamics”

The team’s realistic goal is to appear at the final round of the season at the Silverstone National circuit, but Thorne says the team might appear earlier.

The team plan to show the development of the car in a blog on the team’s official website which you can visit here: www.thorneymotorsport.co.uk