SPEEDWORKS Motorsport hopes its home round at Oulton Park this weekend will bring a change in fortune after a mixed start to their debut season.

The Northwich outfit’s Toyota Avensis, piloted by Tony Hughes, returns to race action for the first time since April after a major rebuild.

“It feels like a lifetime ago that we were at Donington [for the second round],” said team principal Christian Dick.

“I’m not expecting fantastic results but certainly an indication of progress “Three respectable finishes would be great.”

The car, built to a new specification introduced by series bosses this season, has been blighted by a problem with the power steering since its first outing at Brands Hatch.

Hughes has finished four of the six races he has started to date, scoring three points in the Independent Team Trophy along the way.

He sat out the last meeting at Thruxton to give technicians time search for a solution to the steering system’s ills.

“It remains without a cure,” said Dick.

“Our patience has been tested at times because we have to sit and wait for others. That’s not to say I have all the answers because I don’t.

“It leaves you wondering if your luck will ever change.”

He feels more optimistic though after three days of testing at the Little Budworth track in the past week.

Hughes is more confident too.

“It’s the first time the car has run since Donington, we were enormously frustrated to find out things were still not sorted,” added Dick.

“However we have changed the basic geometry of the [steering] rack to mitigate the problem and it has helped Tony to feel much happier.

“Last Friday was the first time we’ve focused attention solely on set-up and we made a lot of progress in that regard.

“Everybody is more comfortable and that means we can put our energy into learning about what the car can do.”

Hughes, 53, will target an improvement on a season-best finish of 16th in front of his home crowd.

He was on course to do exactly that in his last outing at Donington before rival Dave Newsham’s out-of-control BMW speared him off the tarmac.

Dick said: “There’s a bit of pressure on us at Oulton Park where there will be family, friends and potential clients or sponsors watching on.

“Not so much to achieve anything extraordinary in terms of winning a race, but more that you desperately want things to run smoothly.

“As the team boss I want everything in our environment to be just right so we can concentrate on what’s happening out on the track.”

TONY Hughes will be out on track for two free practice sessions on Saturday followed by a 40-minutes qualifying period later the same day.

Three races follow on Sunday, starting from 12.15pm.