by Malcolm BaylisTHE first round of the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton on Monday promises a mixed bag of thrills and worries.

For York driver James Thompson it could lead to the first of many visits to the winners ' podium after several weeks recording the fastest times.

The Honda Accord driver goes into qualifying tomorrow having set a new lap record at the Hampshire track.

He said: "I'm very happy and morale within the team is high. I hope I'm still in front come Monday evening, but although I have a car which works really well for one hot lap at Thruxton it's going to be a very differnt matter, and very hard work, repeating that feat over 32 laps of the feature race. You are right on the limit here at Thruxton."

It is clearly one of his favourite tracks, having scored his first-ever BTCC win there four years ago and took poll position last season.

But it has not been all plain sailing for the 23-year-year old, who will be partnered this year by newcomer Peter Kox. Engine trouble stopped the car from completing its pre-event trial in the rain on Thursday.

If the wet weather does continue it could spell disaster for Harrogate driver John Bintcliffe, 32, taking the Audi Quattro out in its new two-wheel form for the first time.

He has had two accidents in successive days this week, severely damaging the rear of his car - the second spin seeing him slam backwards into the bariers at 100mph.

That meant no Easter break for Bintcliffe's mechanics who are working round the clock at a garage near Thruxton to repair his car.

"I'll be aiming to repay them with a top result on Monday," said Bintcliffe, whose team-mate Yvan Miller makes his BTCC debut on Monday.

Bintcliffe said: "We have insufficient data for the two wheel drive Quattro at the moment. What we need are a few more dry runs. But it has been chucking it down since we arrived," he added.

Champion Alain Menu remains the man to beat. He topped the timesheets in the first official test session with his Renault Laguna team-mate Jason Plato second quickest, ahead of ex-Formula 1 star Derek Warwick, who also did well in the second session in his Vauxhall on his home track.

Warwick is one of four former Grand Prix drivers in this year's championship, which includes nine manufacturers and five former champions.

This year also sees sweeping changes to race and qualifying session formats.

Each of the season's 13 meetings will feature two races, the shorter sprint race and double-length feature race. Adopting ideas successfully tried elsewhere in the world, qualifying for the sprint race will be a "one-shot showdown" with each driver given a single hot lap to set his time and claim his grid position.

In the feature race all cars will be required to stop to change two wheels and tyres to add to the strategy headache.There will be those drivers who choose to stay on track until the last minute in the hope of leading the race and picking up a bonus championship point.

These are not the only innovations for this season: there's big money on offer, starting with £1million prize for anyone who wins all 26 rounds of the championship.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.