Mike Bushell delighted with second row starting slot

Mike Bushell admitted he was delighted with his performance in qualifying at Rockingham after securing a second row start for the latest rounds of the BTCC season.

The current Renault Clio Cup champion went into the weekend looking to end a rough run of form that has seen him fail to pick up any points from the last two meetings on the calendar.

Bushell was on the pace throughout practice at the wheel of his Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing-entered Volkswagen CC and then was able to run at the front in the 30 minute qualifying session to snare fourth spot on the grid for the opening race of the weekend.

“I’m delighted with the result, it’s great,” he said. “We knew we had a good car after practice but if you look at the times, both me and Dan [Cammish] have lost a little bit of time compared to practice with the change in conditions. It just happens that Adam [Morgan] and Sam [Tordoff] found a little bit of time to get ahead of us.

“It’s been a busy week as I’ve spent a lot of time setting up the car myself for this weekend and I have a new team of mechanics working on it, including some of the guys who were with me in Clios last year. We were a bit worried going into qualifying over whether we could maintain the practice pace, and it’s great that we were able to convert it into a good slot on the grid.

“Half the job is done now and I’m used to running near the front in Clios so I’m not worried about that going into race day – it’s just a shame we weren’t in this position earlier in the year. The aim has to be to finish inside the top five at least in the opening race and go from there.”