Motorbase eyes new rear-wheel-drive BTCC racer

Three-time champion Ash Sutton leads the 2022 BTCC standings going into the final round in his first season with the Kent squad’s front-wheel-drive Ford Focus ST, but he and NAPA Racing team-mate Dan Cammish have won four races this year to the nine of the rear-driven BMW 330e M Sport.

The fourth-generation Focus ST, which made its debut in 2020, has taken one pole position this season – Cammish at the August Thruxton round – to the combined five of West Surrey Racing BMW pair Colin Turkington and Jake Hill.

Autosport understands that the prospect of a Motorbase project with an Audi model was raised at a recent BTCC teams’ meeting, but team principal Pete Osborne said that the net has been cast wider than just one marque.

“We’re looking at all sorts, to be fair,” Osborne told Autosport. “We don’t know whether to stick with front-wheel drive or go with rear-wheel.

“You get to the end of the season and think, ‘What do you do?’ We’re starting to get on top of the Focus, which is good – we might have to flip a coin!

“Certainly rear-wheel drive is showing that it’s much more steady, whereas one front-wheel drive wins one week, another wins another week.

“We’ve been looking at Mercedes, Alfa Romeos and Audis – there are three, and it could be any of those four cars [including the Ford] at the moment.

“We did look at the Jaguar as well, but it just looks as though it will be controversial.”

Ashley Sutton, NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The Jaguar is the XE project that Sutton’s former manager Warren Scott attempted to bring to the BTCC grid for 2022 under his BMR Racing banner, but the aluminium construction of its chassis was raising alarm bells with rival teams.

“You’ll end up opening yourself up to load of fuss and hassle,” continued Osborne. “We just want a normal car and shell – the same as everyone else.

“I can’t wait to get stuck into something for the winter – I love a challenge!”

The design on any new-build Motorbase project would likely be led by Sutton’s engineer Antonio Carrozza, who reworked the Infiniti Q50 in which he won the 2020 and 2021 titles and was spearheading the XE project, and Cammish’s technician James Mundy, who led the team that produced the fourth-generation Focus ST.

“They’re two totally different characters but they work so well together,” said Osborne.

Osborne added that Sutton and Cammish are secured at Motorbase until the end of 2024, and that the team has extended its relationship with backer NAPA, which he said is in full support of a new-build project, for three more years.

Motorbase formerly ran rear-wheel-drive cars in the BTCC in 2008-10, when it fielded a squad of Super 2000 BMW 320si E90s.