BTC Racing skip Snetterton round

The team, who have run Chris Stockton, Stuart Oliver and Gareth Howell so far this season, took the decision just 24 hours before they were due to arrive in the paddock at the Norfolk circuit.

Howell, who was scheduled to be driving one of the team's SEAT Toledos at Snetterton, told autosport.com: "The decision was taken very late, Thursday lunchtime in fact. Chris (Stockton) was not going to be here anyway because of work commitments.

"The team tried to scrape together the money to get me out here, but it didn't happen. Ultimately, we have a number of prospective sponsors coming to Oulton Park, so we have to be there, so the team decided that rather than come here and risk damaging the car, we have to make sure we will be at Oulton."

Howell is hopeful that development work done by the team during the BTCC's summer break will pay dividends when they do return to the series.

"It's disappointing not to be racing," Howell, a former BTCC race-winner, added. "The team have done loads of good work on the weight distribution to get the car much better, so I was looking forward to see what difference it made. I think we'll be quite a bit quicker."

BTC lie tenth in the teams' championship and ninth in the Independent teams' standings.