Motorbase sure Brands issues conquered for BTCC round two

Motorbase drivers Mat Jackson and Aron Smith suffered a troubled weekend at the Brands Hatch season opener, scoring a best finish of seventh amid reliability issues.

The team has tested and worked since Brands to improve the NGTC machines and believes it has made progress.

Team manager Oly Collins said: "We feel confident we've bottomed out the teething troubles and have improved the NGTC's pace and reliability.

"Basically, we're now where we hoped we'd be with the cars for the first round!"

Jackson added: "We've made some big improvements and Donington is a track that we've done well at in the past; we picked up our first race win there last season, so hopefully with the progress we've made we can bounce back and get our 2013 campaign off to a proper start this weekend."

Smith, who raced Motorbase's S2000 Focus last season, believes the changes will help him unlock the car's potential.

"We're heading to Donington with a completely different car and one that does what we want it to do," he said.

"We've definitely made a big breakthrough with the set-up so that should transpire into better results and I'm confident that we'll be in a much stronger position."

Motorbase's third NGTC Focus, originally entered for Michael Caine, will not appear at Donington, but is set to race later in the year.