David Pinkney yesterday tested a British Touring Car for the first time in a year when he shook down a Team Halfords Honda Civic at Donington Park, confessing later he hopes to back in the HiQ-backed Championship in 2009.

With 2008 drivers Gordon Shedden and Tom Chilton unavailable, the experienced Pinkney – a former customer of Team Dynamics which runs the Halfords cars – was called up to run-in the new car.

And he joked with btcc.net: “I’d love to come back… it depends if Alan Gow gives me a free entry. He needs some older characters like me on his grid.

“Of course I want to get back into the BTCC. It’s one of the best championships in the world and by far the best championship in Britain. You can go and do something else, but what is the point?

“It’s the buzz of competing at the top, the levels of professionalism that the BTCC offers that I want to be a part of.”

Pinkney, aged 51, admitted he’d like to be in a Halfords Civic for next season and also said he enjoyed the feel of the car.

He added: “It felt fabulous; it’s so sorted, even in the damp. It just sits there and does what you ask of it. I wasn’t there to wring its neck – just to lap reasonably quickly as it was a shakedown. There was one big sideways moment when I hit some oil at Coppice Corner that someone else had dropped so we called it a day, but it’s a great car.”

Source btcc.net