Formula 1 star Johnny Herbert will race in the final three rounds of this year’s HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship starting at Silverstone on Sunday 30 August, it was officially confirmed this evening.

Herbert, who won three F1 grands prix during the Nineties – including the British at Silverstone in 1995 while team-mate to Michael Schumacher – will race a Honda Civic for former BTCC title-winning squad Team Dynamics.

His addition to the grid is sure to further boost the already anticipated huge numbers of spectators at Silverstone as well as Rockingham (20 Sept) and Brands Hatch (4 Oct) as the BTCC title race enters its crucial stages.

The 45-year-old, also a past winner of the world-famous Le Mans 24 Hours sports car race, was confirmed as a Dynamics driver at a Honda (UK) ‘Question of Motorsport’ quiz night at the Chatham Honda dealership in Edinburgh. The event was attended by assorted guests – among them 20 winners in a recent btcc.net competition.

Herbert, from Romford but who in recent years has made his home in Monte Carlo, told btcc.net: “It’s the start of a new chapter in my career. I always like a challenge and I’ve got a lot of F1 experience… although that will probably be of no use to me whatsoever in the BTCC!

“The likes of Jason Plato and Fabrizio Giovanardi have massive experience in touring cars so it’s a big thing for me to go up against the likes of those guys. I’ve done one-off single make front-wheel-drive car races before, in a SEAT and a Mini, and I hated them! But I did the recent BTCC test at Rockingham with this, the BTCC car, and was pleasantly surprised with how it drove. Now I just need to get that last bit out of it…”

Asked if his name and reputation could mark him out as a target for other drivers, he joked: “It depends who gets there first! There’s more contact in the BTCC but that’s going to be the case almost anywhere you find yourself in the field.

“I’ve never been shy of a challenge and I actually think this will be a very interesting but nice challenge at the same time. I’ve obviously seen what James Thompson’s done in the car so far this season so it’s a very interesting time to be joining the people at Dynamics.

“It’ll actually be the first time I’ve raced in a national championship since I won the British F3 title in 1987! But the prestige of the BTCC… it always had a very good fan base and TV package and it’s still got that today, even in these quite difficult times we live in.”

Source btcc.net