Having been forced to sit out the opening three meetings of the 2003 season, former Team Atomic Kitten driver, Gareth Howell, made his return to the series in a Team Dynamcs sponsored Vauxhall Astra Coupe at Silverstone. In a one-off deal, which saw Howell drive the Astra Coupe for the first time in the Saturday morning practice sessions, the 22 year-old from Bromley, Kent, was hoping to score a couple of good finishes.

After qualifying in 11th position for the first race of the weekend, Howell made good progress at the start of round seven, moving up to 9th position, ahead of a number of works drivers. As the mandatory pitstops began, Howell stayed out on track to lead the race before making his stop. A problem with the front left tyre during the pitstop ended hopes of fighting it out at the front for the remainder of the race. “It was my fault – I didn’t keep my foot on the brake as the guys tried to change the wheel, which meant it was moving and they couldn’t get it back on properly.”

Despite the pitlane problems, Howell claimed 9th place in the race (and on the grid for the second race of the day) as well as third spot in the independents championship.

Round 8 was a similarly frustrating story, but provided some highly entertaining and extremely close racing. Howell moved up to 7th position from the start and was soon enjoying battles with GA Motorsports team-mate Gavin Pyper and MG’s Colin Turkington, amongst others.

By the time of the mandatory pitstops, Howell was up to fifth position and in hot pursuit of the works MGs of Anthony Reid and Warren Hughes. However hopes of challenging for outright race honours were once again ended in the pitlane: “In the second race we had a problem with the pitstop, which was my fault again. As I pulled up and was braking, the engine cut-out. So as the front was being lifted up, I was busy trying to re-start the engine. As I was trying to start the engine, the team were trying to change the wheels, and the wheels were moving round slightly! That lost us a few seconds, but I was just having a good race. The car was flying at the end, absolutely flying!”

Once out of the pits, Howell soon closed up on the back of Pyper, and put in a number of very tidy behind his team-mate, before playing rear-guard as the works Honda of Tom Chilton closed in. Howell fended off the youngster and allowed Pyper to continue in sixth position, until the Team Dynamics Astra developed a sudden fuel pressure problem on the exit from Abbey and Howell’s weekend came to an abrupt end.

“Tom Chilton hit me hard in the first race, so there was no way I was going to give way to him again. He’s a lucky boy to have such a fast car, but he shouldn’t be battling with independents really! I had a good race with him though. I had a great race with Colin – for old times sake! That was really good, we both respect each other a lot, so both gave each other room, and did about half a lap side-by-side. I don’t know what happened to him at the end though. Then I caught Gavin and just protected his back for the last couple of laps. I didn’t try to overtake him, because obviously it’s important they try and win the championship. It’s great for Gavin to have two wins at the end of the day.”

“The car had some sort of fuel pressure problem at the end. I just came out of Abbey and lost all pressure, so I’m gutted really. That’s twice now I’ve had fuel problems at the end of a race.”

Commenting on the weekend as a whole, Howell enthused, “It’s been really good to be here, but it’s obviously frustrating now it’s finished. I’ll feel really miserable when I go to work tomorrow morning! I’ve been lucky to be here. There are lots of people who haven’t got as far as Touring cars, so I can’t feel hard done by or anything. I’m really pleased that I’ve been given a chance by Steve Neal and Team Dynamics. I just hope we can work together in the future!”

“I’d like to be out again, but it’s not up to me in the end! We’ll have to wait and see what happens!”