Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell picked up two more solid results during the fourth of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton on what was a challenging weekend for the Arkas Racing with Sunshine.co.uk driver.

At the fastest circuit on the BTCC calendar, Martyn was able to produce his strongest lap times since joining the series back in 2006 but was left with 17th and 15th place finishes in the highly competitive championship.

Having qualified in 23rd place, Martyn enjoyed an encouraging run in the opening race of the weekend as he battled with the MG of Jason Hughes before an error at the final chicane saw him lose position to the Honda of Michael Doyle. Martyn took the flag in 18th place but was then promoted to 17th following the exclusion of podium finisher Jason Plato.

Race two ended in early disappointment when Martyn went off into the tyres on lap one with broken steering on his Tech-Speed run Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch but from the back of the field in race three, Martyn came home in 15th place – just missing out on adding to his Independents’ championship points tally.

“I struggled with the car in qualifying but was still able to lap quicker than I did in the BMW,” he said. “I got a good start in race one and was running quite well. I was lapping quicker than Jason as the race went on and if I’d got past him, I think I could have possibly caught Rob Collard. However, Jason threw me a dummy at the Chicane and I fell for it, which meant Michael Doyle was able to get past me.

“In the second race I had a good start again but then got caught up in someone else’s accident which damaged the steering and put me off into the tyre wall on the opening lap. The car didn’t feel as good as it had done earlier in the day in the final race and I was really struggling towards the end. It meant I had to settle for 15th place, but at least I won some tyres for making up the most places from 24th on the grid.

“We’d have liked more, but 17th and 15th place in this company is okay, especially when you consider that Stephen Jelley in the Team RAC BMW has only scored one point this season – that shows how tough it is. But we can run with the likes of Hughes and Harry Vaulkhard and now we just need some luck.

“It was a difficult weekend at Thruxton but we have to look to the positives and Croft should be better suited to the Astra. Things will improve as the season goes on and I owe it to the team for the work they have put in in the past few weeks. I have to pay tribute to them again for making sure both Erkut and I were able to race this weekend after what happened at Donington.”