It was just great to be back in the racing seat again after 18 months hard work setting up the Team.

Professional racing driver Nick Leason is racing a Cube Design-backed Leon Cupra R in this year’s Smartnav SEAT Cupra Championship – which began at Brands Hatch.

Nick had planned to race in the British Touring Car Championship this year, and while that is still the 36-year old Northampton driver’s aim for 2006 he has committed himself to the rest of the 2005 SEAT series.

Nick's Leon Cupra R will be run by Northampton-based race team CMS Motorsport.

It sees its involvement in the SEAT Cupra Championship as a two-year programme, as it could run the SEAT next year in parallel with its own BTCC team, using the SEAT Cupra Championship as a tried and tested “feeder” for a young up-and-coming driver.

Nick said: “We have been working hard to get into the British Touring Car Championship, but that’s not going to happen this year so as the SEAT Cupra Championship is such an impressive package that we decided to do the next best thing. Hopefully with the experience I’ve got we’ll be able to dial into the car quickly and be on the pace in the second half of the series.”

""Although as a professional it was very frustrating to be last in qualifying at Brands (as this had never happened before in my race career). We acheived our goals for the weekend, which was to get quicker every sesssion and to learn more about the car. We are now playing catch up with the other teams and have to do our development in the public eye due to restrictions on testing. We just need to get on with it and get the car working how we want. We are hopeful to be in the top 8 after a couple of meetings and hope to acheive this as our goal."