Who is Shaun Watson-Smith?

Making his debut in the British Touring Car Championship this weekend is South African Shaun Watson Smith, in the all new driver line-up driving Team Petronas Syntium Proton Impians.

Shaun is a new driver to the British Touring Car Championship, though he has plenty of experience in tin top racers in his native South Africa.

The thirty-three year old from Port Elizabeth is used to winning in Touring Cars having won his first ever Touring Car race and scoring five race victories for Team Petronas in the 2000 South African Touring Car Championship on his way to the championship runner-up spot.

Since then he has extended his impressive performances with a string of wins in the fearsome Wesbank V8 racers.

Shaun began his motorsport career at 14 in motocross, taking several titles. He switched to karting at 17 and then moved to Production Cars in 1991. Following several championship victories, he was invited to join the Opel South Africa team in 1994 and racked up many more race wins and titles for the Petronas-backed works team and in the process became the most crowned driver the South African Production Car Series has ever seen.

"I've been driving in saloon cars in South Africa since 1991, most of my career in production cars, then a couple of years in touring cars, and a couple of races in super touring cars and the last couple of years I've raced in modified saloons, which is rear wheel drive cars with 500 horsepower, wings and big tyres," Shaun explains

"The last thing I raced in was in Volkswagen Polos. Now I'm in the BTCC it's a big challenge for me, but these cars are very similar to what I drove in 1999 and 2000 in South African touring cars."

The British Touring Car Championship has plenty of new challenges however. "This is new for me," says Shaun. "Last year I came over and went to about five tracks just for orientation really, didn't do any serious running but I had a few laps at about five tracks.

So is it all new in 2004 for Shaun? "Not as much is new as what you may think. The team is not new to me, I've worked with them in the past extensively, the car is not new to me anymore because I've tested it extensively in South Africa, and as I said it's very similar to what I've raced before."

The first round of the British Touring Car Championship is this weekend at the thrilling Hampshire circuit of Thruxton.