John George returns to BTCC in 2009
John George has announced on his web-site that he plans to compete in the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.
John George competing in this year’s BTCC was put in doubt after his spectacular crash at the last round of the 2008 championship at Brands Hatch were he was airlifted to hospital.
A new Honda Integra has been sourced to replace last year's Honda as it was coverted to spares after it was written off.
As in 2008 this will be run by the TH motorsport team of Trevor Humphrey from their Watford HQ.
This will be John George's third consecutive year in the championship.
“It just made so much sense for us to run the Integra again although we didn’t have a car we had numerous spares and all the tools and experience to run that car." said George.
JAG Communications will coniue to be the title sponsor of the car though the team will be hoping to add more during the season.
Unfortunately because of the late purchase of the car TH Motorsport will only have a week to prepare it and John is unlikely to even see the car before media day on Thursday 19th March at Rockingham.
George went on: “It will be great to get back behind the wheel again, I have only had a few laps since Brands in September 08 so I expect I will be a bit rusty, I have been out on track days with my coach John Pratt during the winter so it really shouldn’t take to long to get back up to speed.
"I am really looking forward to working with Trevor and the team at TH again it all ended very sadly for us last year when I had that big smash, so it will be good to see them all again. I am hoping for some better results this year, we really didn’t have the luck in 2008, we went quicker at all but one tracks yet we just didn’t feature in the positions though we should have, but that’s racing.
"This year is going to be hard we have a tiny budget and really need a decent sponsor to give us a hand, so if anyone fancies being involved please give us a call.“
( source Touringcar Times )