McMillan ready to mix it in the BTCC

Liam McMillan will debut his ex-Jason Plato SEAT Toledo at the official 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship test session at Rockingham this Thursday (March 19th), signalling the first time an ultimate-spec Toledo S2000 race car has been seen in the series.

The 18-year old Maxtreme team owner/driver has successfully completed four pre-season test sessions, but those outings were in chassis number 008, an ex-James Pickford Toledo fitted with a 20v engine. Now Liam will debut chassis number 011 – the car in which Plato sensationally won a race at Thruxton on SEAT Sport UK’s first BTCC appearance in 2004. It will be powered by a new 16v engine (which has 12bhp more than the 20v unit that was fitted into chassis 011) and the entire car has been prepared to the latest Toledo S2000 spec, including the latest aerodynamic package. This specification was only introduced by SEAT Sport in Spain during the 2005 WTCC and has never run in BTCC before.

The official BTCC test, which takes place on the afternoon of the Media Day, will be the first time the new Maxtreme team has worked together, after the Wisbech-based squad has been expanded to deal with the demands of a three-race BTCCweekend.

Team Manager will be Liam’s father Paul, who has over 25 years of racing experience as a driver, race car builder and creator of the SAXMAX series for 14-17 year old drivers. Liam’s Race Engineering will be Paul Ridgway; one of the world’s most sought-after engineers in touring cars, whose many achievements include winning the Independents’ WTCC title in 2006 with Tom Coronel and guiding Rob Collard to the BTCC Independents’ title in 2003.

Paul Colman, who last year worked on Matt Neal’s Vauxhall Vecta, will be Liam’s Number One Mechanic, ably assisted by James Trostler (a Mechanical Engineering graduate from Coventry University) and Stuart Gates (former Super Nova Formula 3 team mechanic).

Rockingham will also be the first time Liam has tested his Toledo with the rest of the BTCC field on track as well, as his previous four very successful outings this year at Snetterton, Silverstone and two days at Brands Hatch were private test sessions. Each of those tests were carried out in very cold conditions, with temperatures never reaching more than 0ºC, so Liam hopes his week will be the first time he can get some heat into his Dunlop control tyres and set some competitive lap times.

Liam said: “Pre-season testing has gone well. We achieved our main aim of getting as many miles under my belt as we could, including a number of race distance runs. It was too cold to work too much on lap times and with the base weights changing for 2009, we didn’t really have any accurate data to compare ourselves with anyway.

“It hasn’t taken me long to become comfortable in the Toledo and I already feel right at home in it. It’s a nice car to drive and it reacts well to any changes you make to the set-up, so we’ve been able to do a lot of work during our four winter test days and changed the car to my liking.

“I’m looking forward to testing at Rockingham, because it will be the first time I’ve been on the same track with the BTCC field and the first opportunity to compare laps times. I’m also pleased that the opening rounds of the series take place at Brands Hatch, because we’ve done more winter testing there than anywhere else, so I know the Kent circuit well and I know how the Toledo handles there.”

The opening three (out of 30) rounds of the 2009 BTCC take place at Brands Hatch on Sunday 5th April.