Rob Austin excited to be a part of Handy Motorsport plans

Rob Austin is excited ahead of his move to Handy Motorsport, believing that the combination of the two teams will provide a strong package for the 2016 season.

The former Rob Austin Racing driver will switch to a brand new Toyota Avensis at Handy Motorsport, believing that the Avensis’ performance in 2015, coupled with a intense winter testing regime will provide a very strong package for the coming year.

“It’s shorter, it’s lighter, it’s much more suited to the regulations,” Austin told TouringCarTimes at the Autosport International Show. “Tom [Ingram] showed it’s a very quick car last year. The winter development process has been fairly intense and it’s what you’d want to do if cashflow wasn’t an issue. For us we were sat there trying to get our thing off the ground and this just made a lot more sense. Talking to Simon [Belcher, Handy Motorsport team boss] about his plans for the future I think this could be a really good thing and it’s something I’m able to be a part of.

“It’s more of a merger really, I’m going to have the same mechanics, the same engineers as I’ve had for god knows how many years. We’ve got the same management team behind us in my old man, my wife running the hospitality and we’re just joining forces with both Speedworks’ experience in running the cars, Simon’s experience and bringing in the RAR experience as well. I think combined that could be a really, really strong package.”

The move marks a departure for Austin away from his family-run Rob Austin Racing team, but with his connections to Handy Motorsport through Speedworks Motorsport, the two-time BTCC race winner says it feels more like a growing family team.

“It’s the first time in about 12 years, I think [since Austin last raced away from the Rob Austin Racing banner] so a fair old time, but they’re familiar to me. I’m Christian Dick’s brother-in-law, I know him very, very well therefore we’ve known Simon quite well for the last couple of years so this is a very friendly transition for us. We’re growing a family team!”

As for Rob Austin Racing, there are still plans for the team to continue, although within the new B-Tec Development Series announced earlier in the week.

“We’re going to continue in the development series and we’ll see what happens in the future,” confirmed Austin. “Ian Harrison is the main mover and it’s something I’ve tried to have my input into and it’s something I’m very supportive of. I think if you ask every team on the grid they’ll be very supportive of it as it’s giving us somewhere for our old cars to go plus it’s £100,000 for a season in a touring car – it’s cheap!

“When you look at what other support series are our there they cost a lot more and the racing won’t be half as good, you’re not going to get the interaction with the teams and I think most of the promotion when this series gets off the ground will be through the teams.”