Airwaves Racing head into the ninth round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship off the back of two difficult weekends at Knockhill and last time out at Rockingham.

By their own admission the teams recent performances out on track have been well below standard and have seen them slip down to second in the Independent Teams Championship behind Triple Eight Racing.

Mat Jackson will be looking to return the form which saw him take two podium places when the teams last took to the Brands Hatch circuit for the opening round of the season. This time around drivers will be gracing the Grand Prix circuit as Mat looks to add to his four race wins this season.

“After two shocking weekends we now have nothing to lose so we have to go to Brands with one thing in mind; winning,” said the Henley-in-Arden racer. “Unfortunately there’s no real advantage to Brands being our home track but the one thing we do get is huge support from the local fans and think that the Focus will fare better here than it did at Rockingham as the chassis works well through the high speed corners.”

Mat went on to say, “Let’s just hope that we can give the home crowd something to cheer come Sunday.”

Mat lies 24 points adrift in the Independent Drivers Championship however he says that that isn’t his priority this season. “It sounds bad but the Independent championship has never really featured on my radar, it’s the overall Championship that the team and I want and we have to keep fighting until the death and hope that the others luck changes and, if the Independent title comes home, then it’s a bonus.”

It was also announced that Michael Caine, who made his debut in the British Touring Car Championship last time out at Rockingham Motor Speedway, will continue to race the number six turbo-powered Ford Focus ST at Brands Hatch.

“I have to be honest and say that my BTCC debut was ok. I was disappointed that we didn’t get the opportunity to get three full races under our belts with the car on full form but we learnt a lot and I’m confident that we’ll progress well this weekend.” Michael went on to say, “I was a little apprehensive about making the change back to front wheel drive after so long, but the Airwaves Ford Focus is such a pleasure to drive it’s nowhere near as difficult as I expected as the car handles so well.”

It didn’t take long for Caine to open his account for the season as a tenth place finish during race one in his debut was enough to score the Suffolk-based racers first points of his BTCC career and he’ll be looking to add to that this weekend at Brands Hatch. “I can’t wait to get back out in the car this weekend, I love the Brands GP circuit, it’s fast and flowing; made for great racing and I fully expect the Focus to be tremendous around here.”

Photo Credit: Jon Hobley

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.