BURT BACK IN BTCC
British Touring Car race-winner Kelvin Burt will return to
the Green Flag-backed championship with the Team Sureterm
squad at Silverstone this coming weekend, 8/9 May, and believes
he can instantly fight for podium finishes.
Burt was a winner in the BTCC with BMW, Ford and Volvo during
the Nineties and is also a former British Formula Three champion.
At Silverstone, he will partner Charlie Butler-Henderson and
Carl Breeze in Sureterm’s line-up.
“There is no reason to believe I won’t be at
the sharp end,” said Burt. “I’ll be in a
Vauxhall Astra - the BTCC’s dominant car for the past
three years - and I’m going into the meeting without
any success ballast.
“This is only a one-off at the moment, but it’s
great to be back in the BTCC and I’d love to return
to it full-time. The championship is definitely building again
to what it was in the Nineties.”
Burt, aged 36, boasts an excellent racing CV. He was the
only driver to challenge David Coulthard in Formula Ford 1600s
in the late Eighties and in 1991 became Formula Vauxhall Lotus
champion. He had already been selected by BMW to be part of
its junior BTCC squad and also went on to lift the British
F3 crown.
A spell as Jordan’s Formula One test driver followed
before he joined Ford in 1995 to replace retiring BTCC legend
Andy Rouse. Two more seasons of BTCC followed with Volvo before
he pursued his touring car career in Japan.
Burt last raced in the BTCC in 2002 when he won a Production
class round at Silverstone in one of Sureterm team principal
Gary Ayles’ Alfa Romeos. He has recently raced in the
FIA GT series and endurance sportscar races, including the
Le Mans 24 Hours with Ferrari.
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