Scots veteran and Knockhill favourite Anthony Reid will return to British Touring Car Championship action this weekend at Silverstone when he pilots a BMW in a bid to help West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington win the title.
Former Knockhill race instructor Turkington leads the Vauxhall of double BTCC champ Fabrizio Giovanardi by just nine points with three rounds remaining and Reid’s job is simply to steal points from the Italian.
“Our hand’s been forced by Vauxhall instituting team orders at Knockhill with Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan giving positions and points to Fabrizio,” WSR boss Dick Bennetts explained today.
“There’s nothing wrong in them doing that; in fact it shows what good team-players they both are. However three against two isn’t a fair fight, so that’s why we’ve brought in Anthony to assist Colin and our other driver Stephen Jelley.”
And Reid, who raced with Bennetts and WSR between 2001 and 2004 in an MG, is eager to go racing again in a new BMW 320si.
“It’s great being re-united with the crew at WSR again,” Glasgow-born Reid, a 15-time winner in BTCC, said, “and I already feel right at home. It’s especially good for me having Colin as a team-mate. I’ll do all I can to help him and the team to win the championship.
“But it’s not going to be easy because I’ve never driven the car before and I’ll have to carry maximum ballast of 45kg as a late entry penalty, but hopefully I can get quickly up to speed and be right up there in the races.”
JM