Shaun Holllamby will return to the driving seat this weekend in the AmD Milltek Racing.com Volkswagen Golf at Croft for the fifth round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Following the announcement that Tom Onslow-Cole would leave the team to join as the third driver at Team Aon, a decision was made by the team for team principal, Shaun Hollamby, to drive in this weekends race after his full season in the championship in 2010 where he took the Fans Driver of the Year award.

Speaking about the decision Hollamby said, “I’m quite excited about the prospect of getting back behind the wheel this weekend.”

“We’ve had a lot of interest in the drive since the announcement at Oulton Park, but it is important that we make the right decision when it comes to finding a new driver and I was the best option to step in this weekend.”

AmD Milltek Racing.com currently lies in 8th place in the Independents Team Championship on 32 points behind Special Tuning Racing on 58 and Hollamby has every intentions on adding to that this weekend.

“The target for Croft is to beat our average qualifying and finishing positions so far this season and to bring home points in all three races,” he said. “The car is more reliable and more competitive than it was last year and the opportunity to get back on track is an unexpected one that I have to take with both hands. Hopefully I can add my name to the list of drivers in contention to race the Golf for the rest of the season!”

Shaun has recently completed a test ahead of this weekends race when he took to his local Brands Hatch circuit to get a feel for the car which has drastically improved since the last time he drove the car at the back end of 2010.

“Compared to when I drove the Golf last year in its previous specification, the car has a lot more torque and more straight line-speed thanks to the turbo engine.”

Hollamby added, “You really have to feed the power in to get the best out of the engine but with those improvements, and steering which is much sharper and more consistent than last year, the Golf feels much more like a race car than it did last season. All round, it is a much better package and I’m looking forward to racing it.”

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.