THE APPLIANCE OF ALLIANCE

The BTCC's top team has a new home. Damien Smith visits Napa-backed Alliance Racing to find out how it ticks

- Damien Smith

A nondescript unit on an industrial estate outside Northampton. Not for the first time, we are glad we live in the era of the sat-nav. This is the new and far from ostentatious HQ of Alliance Racing: the fourcar, Napa-backed team of pristine blue and yellow Ford Focuses that everyone in the British Touring Car Championship wants to beat.

'Superteam' is the perception.

"That's what we are," says driver Dan Cammish, "and a lot of people would be envious of the position we are in." They are but, as we discover, this is a long way from Formula 1 - even though in a literal sense the opposite is true. Just down the road is Brixworth, home of Mercedes AMG HPP, where the manufacturer's F1 powertrains are built. Just the powertrains, remember. The rest of the F1 team is down the A43 in Brackley. Such is the size comparison between even the biggest BTCC team and F1. Different worlds.

Nevertheless, Alliance is justifiably proud of its new home. Large enough to park and load the team's artics indoors, it is four and a half times bigger than the team's previous base near Brands Hatch in Kent. Now relocated to the heart of a region known colloquially as 'Motorsport Valley', the move is a sign of ambition and intent.