Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell will aim to continue the progress made in the opening two rounds of the season as the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to Donington Park this weekend [3/4 May] for the third round of the year.

Martyn has enjoyed a solid start to life with his new Arkas Racing with Sunshine.co.uk team having picked up finishes in five of the six races run so far; his only retirement coming when he was taken out by a rival in the first race of the year at Brands Hatch.

Despite challenging conditions last time out at Rockingham, Martyn secured his first points in the competitive Independents’ championship at the wheel of his ex-works Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch and will now aim to add to his tally at what is effectively one of his home races on the BTCC calendar.

Continuing to work closely with team-mate Erkut Kizilirmak within the Tech-Speed run team, Martyn admits that he hopes to put on a good show at Donington, with a number of friends set to make the short trip from Lincolnshire for the weekend’s racing.

“Momentum is building within the team now and we have good data from the two cars that we can use over the weekend,” he said. “I hope that we can have a good weekend and be competitive with the car. I feel that I can do a lot with it in the dry now although I’m still learning when it’s wet as, despite the downpour at Rockingham, I haven’t had a lot of wet running in it.

“We need to build on the foundations that we have put in place so far. I expect to have a lot of people coming to watch with Donington being one of my home tracks, so I want to put on a good show for them.”

Donington wasn’t kind to Martyn last season as a power-steering issue on his car and wet weather conditions worked against him, but he remains a fan of the East Midlands venue and believes it will be well suited to the Astra.

“Donington is a great circuit and is different to both Brands Hatch and Rockingham as it is very flowing,” he said. “I think it will suit the Astra Sport Hatch well and I can still remember seeing Colin Turkington put the car on pole there for its debut back in 2005. While we won’t be doing that, I believe that we can improve our qualifying performance to climb up the grid and then look to pick up some better finishes in the three races.

“The team has worked really well so far this season and I’m really happy in my racing. We are now just due a bit of luck and hopefully it will come this weekend.”