Handy Motorsport could look to bringing in a “proven BTCC race-winner” with additional commercial backing for the 2015 season.

Despite having funds secured from current sponsors for next season, the team is still in search for more commercial backing, forcing team owner and driver Simon Belcher to look at bringing in a “proven BTCC race-winner” to the Swindon-based team as it looks to build its long term future in the BTCC.

“I really want to stay behind the wheel of the car as we made some good progress towards the end of the 2014 season, but we need more funding to make that possible so this has led us to look at a couple of options”, said Belcher, “One of those is to bring a proven BTCC race winner into the team who can help us develop quicker.

“There is a huge demand from people to obtain a licence to race in the BTCC at the moment and, towards the end of last season, many of the smaller teams were approached by numerous other teams to buy a TBL [TOCA BTCC Licence].

“Ours is not for sale, we are here for the long term, but if the right deal came along to lease out the licence and car for one year, and this in turn secured Handy’s long term future in the championship, we’d be foolish not to consider it.”

Handy Motorsport formed a technical partnership with Speedworks Motorsport at the tail end of 2013, acquiring an ex-Speedworks Toyota Avensis for the 2014 season, and are currently in negotiations with the Cheshire team for the deal to continue in to the future.