Tom made his first public appearance as a Vauxhall VXR driver at the Autosport International show

Birmingham’s NEC was the venue for the annual show last week and Tom was on duty with the Vauxhall VXR BTCC team to give interviews, sign autographs and meet the fans.

Tom was on the VXR stand on all four days of the show and featured several times on the Autosport central stage. On Friday he was joined by his team mate for this season, Fabrizio Giovanardi and told the crowds how much he was looking forward to driving for Vauxhall and working with Fabrizio;

“ I can’t wait to start. We are testing at the end of January at Albacete in Spain and that will be my first opportunity to try the Astra Sport Hatch. Triple Eight have already started a lot of development of the car and it will be very interesting for me to get to grips with helping that process. Fabrizio will bring a great deal of experience to the team and I’m sure that I can learn a lot from him. When the championship starts in April then I can also help him with learning the British circuits. It will be a team effort; our joint objectives are to win the championship for Vauxhall. “

There was a nice moment on Saturday when Tom appeared on the central stage with his younger brother Max. It was the first time that the brothers have appeared together and will probably not be the last. Max, just 14 years old, will be competing in the BRSCC T Cars Championship in 2006 as well as continuing his karting exploits in the European and World ICA events.