Fifer Adam eyeing BTCC returnposted in BTCC22 | 07 | 2011
FIFER JONNY ADAM has taken a significant step towards returning to the British Touring Car Championship, possibly at Knockhill in September, after successfully completing a test with Airwaves Racing at Brands Hatch.
The 26-year-old from Kirkcaldy, who piloted the Motorbase BMW in the 2009 season, drove the Airwaves-sponsored Ford Focus at the Kent circuit and admitted to being impressed by the package.
"It was nice to get back into front-wheel drive, because that's where I came from with Seats and Clios," Adam explained. "I jumped in and felt instantly comfortable in the car; and Fords have always had fantastic chassis. The engine's brilliant.
"We're trying to get the sponsorship to make it move forward. I'd say we're about 50:50 at the moment, which in this financial climate isn't a bad place to be. There's no question the fantastic live TV coverage on ITV definitely makes it very attractive from a sponsors' perspective."
And while the talented Scot would dearly love to contest the whole of the second half of the BTCC season, he admits the initial budget might not stretch to that.
"Any agreement might just be for selected races," Adam, who will join fellow Scot Gordon Shedden on the BTCC grid, continued. "But we're definitely exploring ways to get me back in the car.
See more photos of Jonny's BTCC test
"Obviously the big attraction would be getting back on the BTCC grid at Knockhill. It's a track I know really well, from all the driver-coaching and racing I've done, and it would be great to get back into a BTCC seat."
Airwaves Racing currently runs two cars, one for Liam Griffin and the other for Mat Jackson who currently lies second overall in the BTCC title race and is the leading Independent. Now though the team has just completed building a third Focus.
"It's just sitting there and the team would like to get it out on to the track as soon as possible," Adam explained. "Because the car was just rebuilt, my outing was both a shakedown and a test. But the day ended up going very well.
"There's a lot of the guys who worked with me in 2009 are still there, which really helped me. They've got some really good people on the engineering front and I was impressed by just how much they've moved on in two years.
"Now I'm working away tirelessly behind the scenes to try and get the budget in place to go racing in the BTCC again. Obviously I have commitments in the British GT Championship this year as well, but I'm sure we'll be able to combine the two projects if we get the green light to go racing in the BTCC."
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Jim McGill