Tom Onslow-Cole confident improvements to BTCC Ford will pay off at Snetterton

The 24-year-old Briton left the AmD Milltek Volkswagen squad in order to join Arena Ford in time for the last round at Croft, but could only qualify 15th and take a best finish of 10th in race two.

However, since then the team has tested at Pembrey, and Onslow-Cole believes that a number of new developments on the team's trio of Ford Focus machines will help him fight towards the front at Snetterton.

"I'm feeling much more up to speed with the car and the developments are good," Onslow-Cole, who finished fourth in last year's BTCC with Arena, said.

"I've been to the factory a few times since the last race so by the time I got to Pembrey I already felt really comfortable around the team and car. I know I have great people around and I feel good about our chances at Snetterton."

Arena's lead driver in the BTCC standings is Tom Chilton in eighth place. He said the new developments sampled at the Pembrey test have made the car faster.

"It went really well," he added. "We've made some positive changes to the car. We've learnt a lot, and the team have put in so much hard work - there's some great development going on.

"Most changes we made at Pembrey seemed to make the car faster - even though it was scorching hot which weren't the best conditions for the tyres. Overall I'm very happy with the car and especially how the test went."