Photo: PSP Images

Barry Horne delighted with performance after last minute call-up

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Barry Horne “surprised himself” as he scored points on his first appearance in the BTCC, stepping in for Alex Martin at Team Parker Racing at the last minute.

Horne’s points-scoring result came in the incident-filled race two, which saw no fewer than nine cars fail to make it to the finish. Horne capitalised on the depleted field, working his way up to thirteenth by the finish line, good enough for three points in the championship standings.

“I’m delighted for everybody,” Horne told TouringCarTimes after taking the team’s first points of the season. “I’ve surprised myself really because I’m not the fittest chap in the world and I got told yesterday morning at about 7:30 that I had to be in the car. I had to rise to the challenge and dust off Stuart [Parker, Team Parker Racing managing director]’s racing suit and just get on with it really.”

It didn’t take long for Horne to be initiated in to the rough nature of the BTCC. After a well behaved first race saw Horne take 20th, race two was the polar opposite, with Horne taking contact from the start. However, with no major damage, Horne then set about working his way up the field, ending as high as thirteenth at the line.

“The start was pretty reasonable really but I got hit off,” Horne said. “I gave more than a car’s width at the inside knowing there’d be some shenanigans but I just got smacked in the side, got put wide went on to the grass. I got back on and there was a big gap in front of me and started to reel Derek [Palmer] in really. I sat behind him for a bit made a move to get past him on the last lap, I think it was. I managed to do him round the outside down the back straight under the bridge into the chicane.”

Race three was not as successful for the Ford Focus driver, retiring after just five laps, but that was not enough to put a dampener on the day which saw the first points results for Team Parker Racing.

“To manage to get the first points for the team, I’m delighted,” concluded Horne. “Considering I’ve never driven front-wheel drive before is great, and we just keep making progress. The lads in the team have done a great job looking after me and feeding me.”