Giovanardi confident ahead of Oulton

The Vauxhall driver heads the standings by 34 points from teammate Matt Neal with just four rounds of the championship to go, and is confident of repeating his two second places at Oulton last year.

"On paper, Oulton should be a better circuit for us than Snetterton, so I can't wait to see how we perform there," said the Italian. "It's my favourite circuit, so I'm very excited to be there for the next race weekend."

SEAT driver Jason Plato was the top points-scorer last time out at Snetterton, using the power advantage of his Leon TDI to his advantage to win two of the three races and reduce his own deficit to Giovanardi to 39 points.

The superior handling of Vauxhall's Vectra, though, ought to see the Triple Eight-run cars fly, despite Giovanardi and Neal having to carry 45 and 36 kilos of success ballast to Plato's 27.

Neal, the champion in 2005 and 2006, said: "It will be a challenging circuit for us but similar to Snetterton. The track has lots of fast corners, which should give the Vectra an advantage."