With the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season now at an end, one of the newest teams to the grid, Handy Motorsport, has set its sights on major progression in 2015 as it seeks to build a long term future in the UK’s biggest and best motor racing series.

During the Swindon team’s maiden season in the top flight championship, team owner and rookie BTCC driver Simon Belcher finished 28 out of the 30 races contested with a string of top 20 results and an 11th place finish in the Jack Sears Trophy battle.

Acquiring an ex-Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis at the end of last year, after graduating from the Renault UK Clio Cup where it clinched back-to-back ‘Masters Cup’ titles, Handy Motorsport forged a technical partnership with Speedworks for its BTCC debut and the two parties are now in the midst of negotiations linked to how the relationship could form part of Handy’s future plans.

“We have had great support from Speedworks this year in our first season in the BTCC”, commented Handy team principal Belcher, “It’s an experienced team, a great group of people to work with, and I hope we can work together again in the future.”

For the 2015 campaign, Handy Motorsport’s aim is to make consistent progression and the team is currently considering a number of options to achieve that goal – the preferred one being for Belcher to continue at the wheel of his KÄRCHER-liveried Toyota.

Although the team is in the fortunate position of already having considerable funding from its current sponsors committed for 2015, Handy needs to bring in additional commercial support and financial backing to secure Belcher’s position in the driving seat.

With that in mind, the team’s other option is to consider the possibility of bringing a proven and successful BTCC racer, with some budget in place, into the fold to help develop the competitiveness of the Avensis at the quickest possible rate.

“I really want to stay behind the wheel of the car as we made some good progress towards the end of the 2014 season, but we need more funding to make that possible so this has led us to look at a couple of options”, added Belcher, “One of those is to bring a proven BTCC race winner into the team who can help us develop quicker.

“There is a huge demand from people to obtain a licence to race in the BTCC at the moment and, towards the end of last season, many of the smaller teams were approach by numerous other teams to buy a TBL [TOCA BTCC Licence]. Ours is not for sale, we are here for the long term, but if the right deal came along to lease out the licence and car for one year, and this in turn secured Handy’s long term future in the championship, we’d be foolish not to consider it.”

The coming weeks will be key with regard to the direction Handy Motorsport chooses to take for 2015 but the team’s commitment to the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship is clear, as is the desire to progress up the grid and to develop for the future.