Britain’s four musketeers… plus one

Five British racers will take part in their home race meeting, this weekend at Brands Hatch. Four of them are WTCC regulars, while the fifth is a late addition for the event.

BMW Team RBM’s three times World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx is currently lying third in the Drivers’ standings; he is also WTCC’s only local hero who managed to claim victory at Brands so far, in 2007’s Race 2. In the two following seasons Priaulx obtained two third places, always in the second races.

Rob Huff, currently fourth in the points, is still chasing his first win on the home soil. The Chevrolet man saw his dream vanishing in 2008, when a puncture stopped him in the final moments of the first race while he had a comfortable lead. Huff’s best result in Brands so far is last year’s second position in Race 1, behind his teammate Alain Menu.

Independent competitor Colin Turkington, in his eBay Motors BMW 320si, faces his second appearance in the WTCC at Brands Hatch. In 2007 he was not eligible to score championship points because driving a BMW fitted with a sequential gearbox that was not homologated by the FIA. However Turkington made an impressive debut, finishing third and fourth in the two races.

On his first WTCC season, Harry Vaulkhard has shown consistent progress at the wheel of the bamboo-engineering’s Chevrolet Lacetti. After scoring his first Independents’ Trhopy win and overall championship point at Monza, he proved to be one of the fastest in the category clocking the best lap Portimão’s Race 1.

A late addition to the home patrol was Tom Boardman who re-joins the championship for a one-off participation. Last year, when he took part in the full WTCC season, he claimed his best result in Race 2 at Brands Hatch, winning the Independents’ Trophy and being classified 10th overall.