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Autosport.com wrote:Reid returns to BTCC with WSR

By Jaime O'Leary Monday, August 24th 2009, 10:49 GMT


Anthony Reid will make his British Touring Car Championship return at Silverstone this weekend with the WSR BMW squad.

The 52-year-old veteran has been brought in to the team, which he previously raced an MG for between 2001 and 2004, to race a third 320si alongside championship leader Colin Turkington and Stephen Jelley, and he is excited about his return.

"Driving for this team is a fantastic opportunity and one I just couldn't turn down," said the 15-time BTCC race-winner.

"It's great being re-united with the crew at WSR again and I already feel right at home. It's especially good for me having Colin as a team-mate again and I'll be doing all I can to help him and the team to win the Championship.

"It's also going to be fun locking horns with fellow 'old boys' Plato and Neal; we've had some great battles over the years and no doubt we'll have more this weekend."

WSR team boss Dick Bennetts said that he has recruited Reid in a bid take points off the Vauxhall of Fabrizio Giovanardi, which closed to within nine points of Turkington in the championship at Knockhill last time out.

"Our hand's been forced by Vauxhall instituting team orders at Knockhill with Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan giving positions and points to Fabrizio," Bennetts said.

"There's nothing wrong in them doing that; in fact it shows what good team-players they both are. However three against two isn't a fair fight, so that's why we've brought in Anthony to assist Colin and Stephen.

"It's going to be tough for him, never having driven the car before and having to carry maximum ballast of 45kg (as a late entry penalty), but we expect him to be quickly up to speed and right up there in the races."

Autosport.com wrote:Herbert targeting victory on debut

By Steven English Tuesday, August 25th 2009, 12:31 GMT


Johnny Herbert says he is targeting a race victory on his British Touring Car debut at Silverstone this weekend.

The former grand prix driver is replacing James Thompson in a Team Dynamics Honda Civic for the final three rounds of the season, and tested the car at Pembrey on Monday ahead of his first race event.

When asked about what result he'd be satisfied with at Silverstone, Herbert said: "A win is the only thing. I'd love to win. That would be my goal, and if I did that it would be brilliant and probably surprise a lot of people - myself included.

"If not, then a podium would still be a massive achievement. My main thing is that I want to be competitive, I don't want to be near the back end. I'm aware of how tight the grid will be but I hope after what we did in the test I can be competitive throughout the weekend."

Herbert is expecting the contact side of touring car racing to be an area he needs to learn quickly.

"There's obviously a lot of contact which makes the racing very exciting," he said. "I've not really been used to contact in the categories I've raced in and it's not something I was very good at when I was in karting, so I need to be very aware of where other drivers are and aren't on the track.

"You go into it like every other weekend and want to be competitive or you wouldn't bother, but you need to be very aware of what is happening and try to get yourself in a position where you're not going to fall victim to others around you."

He believes that he made significant strides with the car in the Pembrey test, following his first drive of the car at Rockingham, and believes he will start the Silverstone weekend in good shape.

"It gave me a chance to change the car, which I didn't get a chance to at Rockingham when I first tested it. Then the car felt nervous at the front, so the aim of this test was to calm it down.

"There's still a lot of work still to be done - I'm still learning it - but at end of the day the test has given me the chance to really start finding out about it.

"We tried things that didn't work and things that did. The main thing was trying to find changes with the set-up of the car so it will suit my style and I think we've managed that."

DoubleFault wrote:Clean?

Giovanardi's assault on Mat Jackson was a disgrace, I swear he was aiming to punt Jackson into Turkington to eliminate his nearest rival.