Thursday, March 29 2018

Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race winners Adam Morgan and Aiden Moffat spearhead an expanded line-up of Mercedes A-Classes this season, which gets underway at Brands Hatch next weekend (7/8 April).

Three of the Ciceley Motorsport-built A-Class cars will take part in next weekend's rounds at the Kent circuit, with Tom Oliphant joining Adam Morgan in the Ciceley garage and Aiden Moffat in the Laser Tools car.

"It's nice to see our little family business expanding to three cars now," Adam said. "We've got three quick drivers and three quick cars, so hopefully this year we can have all three at the front, and gain some silverware and podiums."

Adam is pleased with the progress of Porsche Carrera Cup GB graduate Oliphant. "Just fine," he said. "If you look at the timesheets he's already up there on times, he's a very committed driver, very focussed. He's good to work with, we'll sit down and go through all the data after each session and hopefully between us all we can work forward and pull the car on and make it go even quicker."

Adam won at the Brands Hatch opener two years ago, but endured a winless 2017, so is aiming to emulate his earlier performance. "We showed some good pace early in the season last year, but we had a run of four races where we had no luck whatsoever, so eliminating those we were up there in the top five. Hopefully if we can eliminate the bad luck and issues, we can be up there and back in the fight."

Meanwhile Aiden claimed his maiden race victory at Donington, and won again in the opening encounter at the Brands Hatch finale last October. He's full of confidence for the new season.

"The Mercedes A-Class is a brilliant car," Aiden said. "We've got a good team around us, we've developed it a bit further over the winter. The car's always been great at all the quick circuits, it's the technical circuits we were affected by. The development should cure that issue, and ought to make us more consistent, which gives us a bit of a chance to do well in the championship.

"Adam's a fantastic driver, as is Tom, so having three of the cars out means more data. It doesn't matter who is quicker on the day, and that's what really drives us all forward. Having two great teammates and all working together will bring us on leaps and bounds."

Aiden's bullish about his chances at the Brands Hatch opener, but will be wary heading into Paddock Hill bend, after he was punted out of the race lead by BMW's title challenger Colin Turkington in the second race last October.

"A tap plus some, wasn't it," Aiden quipped. "I'd like to think that's not what people do, most people try to be fair rather than ram into you, so I don't think there's any reason to do it based on that but if I'm around Colin I'm sure I will know how to treat him!

"It is what it is, but at the end of the day he was going for a championship and he was giving it his all. I'm sure he would have got past me, but I still think I would have got a podium, so that's where the frustration is. These things happen, we move on."

Tickets for the BTCC at Brands Hatch on 7/8 April available from £28, with free entry for under-13s. For more information call 0843 453 9000 or click here.