Why a 2019 BTCC tail-ender is now a serious contender
It was at the back of the 2019 BTCC grid with its outdated MG6s, but this weekend Excelr8 Motorsport starts its second season by bringing Hyundai to the series. The all new i30 Fastback N has those involved in the project excited for an upturn in fortunes
"We didn't know what to expect and I thought we looked really good, like we were good at what we did, that we knew what we were doing. With how the team performed, we deserved to get better results. I was so proud it brought a tear to my eye."
The words belong to Justina Williams, whose team in 2019 became the newest addition to the British Touring Car Championship grid. Now the squad she owns, Excelr8 Motorsport, has traded in the venerable MG6 machinery with which it began its BTCC adventure and become a producer of its own weapon: the Hyundai i30 Fastback N.
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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.
Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.
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