Motorbase Performance founder and boss David Bartrum is not really one to do things by halves. No sooner had he established himself in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB he was branching out into touring cars, and he has continued to juggle participation in different series to this day. So it was perhaps rather apt that Bartrum would miss the team’s 300th touring car race as he was running the GT arm in the 24 Hours of Spa.

In a series where new teams have tended to come and go in recent times, the longevity and progress of Motorbase is an endearing story. Six rounds down in 2016 and they are firmly established as one of the top independent teams, with Andrew Jordan leading the Indy standings and Mat Jackson firmly in contention for the overall crown.

It’s a far cry from the rather humbler beginnings of 2006, when David Pinkney bought a Honda Integra from Team Dynamics, called Bartrum and asked him to run the car for him. A podium followed at Knockhill, and the team’s appetite was whetted.

One of the people who remembers the outfit’s earliest days is current team manager Oly Collins, who was working for Team Dynamics when they sold the Integra to Pinkney. TouringCarTimes caught up with Collins at Snetterton, who was running the team for the weekend in Bartrum’s absence.

Sticking around…

“Like you say, people come and go in this championship. Back in 2006 it was a true independent team. It was a small team with a small budget running a customer car,” said Collins to TouringCarTimes.

“We then progressed to the SEAT years (which David would rather forget) then started to get established with the BMW.

“We then had the opportunity to go with the Focus which ultimately evolved into us building our own car in 2012. That was probably our most defining moment and put us up there with the bigger teams.

“We’ve never had the manufacturer status and obviously that’s something everyone aspires to get, but it is an achievement to stay this long. It is something we’re proud of. We’re not just here making the numbers up, we’re here challenging for wins.”

As Collins alluded to, the team’s second year in the series was a trying and somewhat expensive one. They ran a pair of ex-works SEAT Toledos for Matt Allison and Gareth Howell, but the speed showed by the drivers was almost always negated by a huge number of incidents and accidents.

Only when Bartrum secured two Schnitzer BMW 320si E90s for 2008 did the team start to establish themselves as a force, with a maiden win for Rob Collard in 2009 and further success for Steven Kane and long-standing driver Mat Jackson in 2010 (as well as a fleeting appearance for Ben Collins, aka The Stig…).

A switch to ex-Arena Fords in 2011 started an era for the team which has continued to this day, with the unveiling of the Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) rule set providing Motorbase with the opportunity to become a constructor in their own right.

Building the Focus…

“S2000 was a specific car – you had your subframes, your uprights, your brakes, your wishbones – they were specific to your car and it meant someone designed it,” said Collins.

“Obviously the design team at BMW is huge. You have to have seriously experienced full-time design engineers to design and build an S2000 car.

“With the NGTC rules there is so much less to design because there are so many common components. There are still elements of design – you design the rollcage, the shell, the bracketry, the aero and the engine.

“It’s still a big job, but you can choose to sub it out. We chose to do around 90 per cent of it in-house as we had the facilities and the people who had been involved in S2000 build projects.

“That helped us and the rules helped us. There weren’t that many customer cars around so you had to build your own car to stay competitive.

“We had a couple of terrible meetings with our S2000 car leading up to it at Oulton Park and Croft and we made the decision before the six-week break that we were going to push that forwards.

“It meant some very long days and nights getting it ready, and I think it rolled in about 4am on the Saturday morning. A lot of people didn’t even know it was happening.

“There were a few different things that pushed us in that direction, but ultimately the regs allowed us to do it, and do it competitively.”

Motorbase building their own car to the NGTC regulations has coincided with the championship growing to an even more competitive level than under the S2000 rules. As a result, the team is competitive enough to take multiple race wins and podiums but is yet to take home an overall trophy.

A very open 2016 season perhaps provides them with the best chance of ticking that box, with Jackson just 35 points behind series leader Rob Collard with 12 races to go, and Jordan leading Tom Ingram by 23 points in the Independent standings.

It would be a fine reward for a journey which hasn’t always been straightforward – not least the budget issues which forced the team to sit out the first half of the 2015 season.

Independent or overall glory?

Asked which championship is more likely to provide success for Motorbase, Collins said: “I think Independent is [more realistic]. Ultimately we want to win it outright and we have two drivers who are capable of winning outright.

“We have a team of individuals who are capable of winning this championship outright. The difference is funding.

“As an independent team you don’t have the manufacturer support, which is in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, that we simply can’t compete with.

“It has been done before and independents can win, it’s just bloody hard! We’re beating two of the manufacturer teams in the championship outright, which is something we need to recognise sometimes.

“Sometimes when you finish eighth or ninth you’re disappointed, but you look at the guys in front of you and the money they have spent, you realise we are relatively small.

“We’re one of the bigger independent teams, clearly. The independent positions come naturally with good results but we’re still pushing hard to win it outright.”

Collins said the team would look to emulate the success of Leicester City in winning the Premier League, a story which has become a blueprint for celebrating underdog success.

“We need to do a Leicester, don’t we?” said Collins.

“There’s a reason why their success was so well received as it was uncharacteristic at that level. When the minnows win it is a massive thing.

“We’ve come frustratingly close to independent victory in the past, and in 2011 we led the outright championship until Knockhill.

“We’d love to get a championship under our belt. It’s been too long without one. We’ve won races and we are consistently up there, so it would be nice to get a pot.”

The landmark 300th race at Snetterton was marked in some style by Jackson with a third place, before he went even better to take victory in the second encounter of the day. And while Jordan found himself somewhat beaten up in the midfield (a legacy of a power steering failure in qualifying), the team’s overall performance was strong.

As Collins also points out, Motorbase is a team which knows when to be serious and when to have fun. Their colourful journey through the BTCC in recent times is testament to that.

Here’s some more pictures from Motorbase and their drivers in the BTCC, courtesy of PSP Images.