Byford to drive AMD Golf for the rest of the season

2007 Renault Clio Cup champion Martin Byford has signed a deal to race for the AMD Milltek team in their Volkswagen Golf for the remaining five rounds of the 2011 British Touring Car Championship season.

The 39-year-old British driver will fill the void that team boss Shaun Hollamby has left after he announced that he would call time on his participation in the series as a driver following his one-off return to the driving seat of the Golf last time out at Croft.

Byford is most well-known for his success in the one-make Clio Cup Championship over the last decade, most notably wrapping up the title in 2007 against drivers such as Stefan Hodgetts, multiple race winner Ed Pead and current BTCC driver Andrew Jordan.

The AMD team started the season with multiple race-winner Tom Onslow-Cole as their driver and began the season strongly with a number of solid qualifying and race results, with a seventh place finish at Donington Park being the highlight so far for the independent team.

Onslow-Cole however quit the team after the second race of the Oulton Park meeting shortly before signing a planned deal to return to the Arena Ford team he challenged for the title with last year, after which Hollamby began searching for a driver to fill the vacant seat, with interest reported to be very high.

Byford told Autosport: “I was in the right place at the right time when AmD were looking for a new driver and I’m thrilled we’ve been able to do a deal. This is a golden opportunity for me and hopefully I will be able to surprise a few people and remind them who Martin Byford is!

“I accept that there is a lot to learn, but my aim is to be a regular contender for top-10 finishes”, he added. “The VW is a car that is more than capable of finishing inside the points so I want to set my stall out and be a consistent top-10 finisher by the end of the year.”

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