Paul O’Neill to make BTCC return at Croft for Speedworks

Paul O’Neill will hang up the microphone for a race and get back behind the wheel of the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis at next weekend’s round at Croft.

O’Neill will be taking the place of Tony Hughes as he has other commitments that weekend. It’ll be the first time O’Neill’s raced since the 2011 season finale with Tech-Speed in the Chevrolet Cruze.

“I spoke to Tony at one of the events earlier in the year and he asked if I’d like to drive the car at Croft as he wasn’t able to be there,” said O’Neill.

“It’s a chance for me to return to the grid, but I don’t want to just jump in the car for a weekend of racing, I want to do a good job. Speedworks is a good team, Carlube is going to be playing a big part in the event and I’ll be keeping a video diary for ITV, so hopefully we can have a strong weekend.”

“There are more unknowns than knowns for me, as I haven’t driven the Toyota, I haven’t driven an NGTC car and there is the turbo engine, so it will be difficult to start with but I’ll get quicker as the weekend goes on. I’ll be aiming to start steady and then maybe we could push to get into the top 10 in the second race.”