AmD Technik Essex is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 car tuning

Car tuning

Car tuning is both an industry and a hobby, in which an automobile is modified in order to improve its performance, handling and appearance. As most vehicles leave the factory set up for average driver expectations and average conditions, tuning has become a way to personalize the characteristics...

 company and auto racing

Auto racing

Auto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of cars for competition. It is one of the world's most watched televised sports.-The beginning of racing:...

 team.

The company was formed in 1987, specialising in the Volkswagen-Audi

Volkswagen Group

Volkswagen Group is a German multinational automobile manufacturing group. , Volkswagen was ranked as the world’s third largest motor vehicle manufacturer and Europe's largest....

 marque, forming their own VW-backed race team in 1990. They went on to win many championships with AmD-built and tuned Volkswagen Golf

Volkswagen Golf

The Volkswagen Golf is a small family car manufactured by Volkswagen since 1974 and marketed worldwide across six generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada , and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico .The...

s. The company now offers tuning parts for most European cars.

For the 2008 & 2009 season AmD ran SEAT León

SEAT León

The SEAT León is a small family car built by the Spanish car manufacturer, and Volkswagen Group subsidiary SEAT, S.A. since October 1998.The two León generations are, or have been built upon two differing variants of the Volkswagen Group A platform, and they also share many other components with...

s in the Dunlop Sportmaxx Cup

Dunlop Great & British Festival

The Dunlop Great & British Festival is an annual series of auto races in the United Kingdom.The Championships:*Radical Enduro and Biduro - Radical Motorsports racing, the fastest racing in the UK, open to three types of cars....

 and won the championship in 2009, with Simon Shaw driving.

In 2010, AmD Essex, under the name AmD Milltek Racing, raced in the British Touring Car Championship

British Touring Car Championship

The British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom. The Championship was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and has run to various rules over the years – "production cars", then FIA Group 1 or 2 in the late 1960s...

 running a Volkswagen Golf Mk5

Volkswagen Golf Mk5

The fifth generation Volkswagen Golf Mk5 , built on the Volkswagen Group A5 platform was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in October 2003 and went on sale in Europe one month later. To commemorate this, Wolfsburg was renamed "Golfsburg" for a week. It reached North American markets in June...

, driven by their managing director, Shaun Hollamby

Shaun Hollamby

Shaun Hollamby is a British auto racing driver. He is managing director of AmD Essex a performance tuning company based in West Thurrock, Essex. In 2010 he drove a Volkswagen Golf in the British Touring Car Championship...

. The car was previously run in the Baltic Touring Car Championship

Baltic Touring Car Championship

The Baltic Touring Car Championship or BaTCC is a touring car racing series held each year in the Baltic states. The championship is regulated by a board containing two representetives each from the automobile associations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Eligible cars for the championship have...

. The team remains in the series in 2011

2011 British Touring Car Championship season

The 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship is a multi-event motor racing championship for sedan based touring car racing cars held across England and Scotland...

, with Tom Onslow-Cole

Tom Onslow-Cole

-Career:Onslow-Cole began his career in karting at the age of eight. He was the 2006 Renault Clio Cup champion, winning the title by 113 points from his nearest rival. This allowed him to graduate to the BTCC for the 2007 season...

campaigning the Golf for the first four rounds of the season, now conforming to NGTC regulations.

On Sunday 5 June, following Race 2 of round four at Oulton Park, Onslow-Cole announced he would be leaving the team following the final race of the day. Given the sudden circumstances, AmD Milltek took the decision not to field the car for the final round of the day. A day later, it emerged that Onslow-Cole was to return to his previous team, Aon Ford, to run a third car.

It was announced on Wednesday 8 June that managing director Shaun Hollamby will pilot the car at round five at Croft, to give the team longer to find an appropriate replacement for Onslow-Cole.

External links

• AmD Essex
• http://www.amdessex.com/btcc.blog.cfm
• http://www.btccpages.com/news/1/1678/New-team-brings-VW-Golf-to-2010-BTCC/
• http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news/cars/438063/volkswagen-joins-btcc-grid.html
• http://www.crash.net/btcc/news/155825/1/amd_reveals_volkswagen_btcc_plans.html
• http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80796