Lea Wood will start his season when the teams travel to Oulton Park in just over two weeks for the fourth round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Lea, who had to sit out the first three rounds of the season because of funding and moving work premises, is raring to go in his Central Group Racing Honda Integra at the Cheshire circuit which saw the Hereford racer narrowly miss out on a top ten finish last year.

Over the winter months Lea and the team have done major work on the Integra in a bid to make it more competitive this season. “We’ve taken a lot of weight out of the car since last year,” said Wood. “We had quite a bit of weight in the back end from repairs from previous owners of the car so we’ve replaced all those panels in a bid to keep the weight of the car down. We’ve totally rebuilt the car.”

However in electing to go with the BTC-spec Honda Integra, the BTCC have handed the car a weight penalty. Last year it was announced that BTC-cars would be ineligible from 2011 but following a meeting with team bosses of the BTCC and the MSA it was agreed that BTC-spec cars would be allowed but would have to carry a 50kgs penalty for the duration of the season.

“The only problem is that we’ve got the added 50kgs of weight from using a BTC-spec car. However we can put the weight wherever we want which we can use to balance out the car.”

Wood looks set to test the car before he and the team start the season and he’s hopeful that the work they’ve put in on the car will pay dividends when they hit the track but Lea knows it’s going to be tough.

“We learnt a lot last year but we’re always learning each time we go out and this year won’t be any different,” said the 26-year old driver. “Obviously this is going to be my first meeting back this season so as long as I’m on the pace with the pack then I’ll be happy.”

“The guys at the front are going to be quick and race away but as long as I can hold my own at Oulton Park I’ll be satisfied. I’m going out there to have a good race and hopefully I can do that.”

Photo Credit: Pete Mainey (www.psmmotorsportimages.co.uk)

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.