TOURING CARS: Speedworks happy with Thompson test (From Northwich Guardian)

Former British Touring Car Championship winner James Thompson helps Speedworks

3:25pm Friday 16th December 2011 in Motorsport By Andrew Simpson

SPEEDWORKS plan to call again on ex-British Touring Car Championships title winner James Thompson following a successful test this week.

The two times former champion spent a day with the Northwich outfit at Donington Park to help make their Toyota Avensis go faster on track.

“We’re over the moon [with how it went],” said team boss Christian Dick.

“So much so that we’re looking to do something similar in the New Year.”

Thompson completed more than 50 laps in Speedworks’ car, which made history as the first of its type to finish a race during last season’s curtain-raiser at Brands Hatch.

The Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) machine, built to new lower-cost specifications, is not new to the 37-year-old either for he worked on a prototype last winter.

Dick said: “It didn’t take him long to get up to speed.

“James is a driver I hold in the highest regard for what he has achieved, so it was great for us to take a forward step every time he went out onto the circuit.

“It’s always to difficult to quantify progress on days like this because lap times aren’t necessarily a reliable indicator of where we are or where we would have been had it been a race meeting.

“But what we do have is plenty to think about before the car goes out again.”

The Avensis, piloted by Cheshire driver Tony Hughes last term, will be back on track for testing at the beginning of next year following a complete rebuild.

Dick said he hoped Thompson would return then too.

“That’s our aim,” he added.

“Before that the car will be dismantled while we wait for a number of development parts.

“There’s a bit more power to find too, but once we’ve done that then we’ll move forward again.”