BTCC prepares to embrace bio-ethanol.

History will be made in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship next weekend at Croft when Fiona Leggate makes her entry into the series at the wheel of her Vauxhall Astra Coupe - which will be the first car in the championship to run on bio-ethanol fuel.

The Astra - the former works car of Frenchman Yvan Muller - has been converted to run on bio-ethanol fuel by Triple Eight and Sodemo and will be run by the TechSpeed team, which ran an Astra last season for Michael Bentwood under the VX Racing Junior banner.

Leggate will become the first top-line female racing driver to compete in the BTCC grid for six years when she lines up on the grid and said she was looking forward, not only to joining the grid, but to show that bio-ethanol can be a viable energy source in the future.

"Bio-ethanol is a viable fuel for the future and people will see that when they watch my car in the BTCC," the 25-year-old farmers daughter said. "The championship is the perfect arena to demonstrate there is no difference in power between a car using bio-ethanol or petrol. The only difference will probably be the smell!

"The BTCC is a major step up in my career. I'm not interested in being seen as a bird against the blokes. Fair enough, the grid is made up of males, but to me they are just other racing drivers and if I get a chance to overtake them then I will."

Bio-ethanol is the third type of fuel to be used in the BTCC in two years, with the Mardi Gras team having used LPG in 2004 for the Honda Civic and Peugeot 406 campaigned by John George.

With the BTCC regulations also allowing for diesel powered cars to enter the championship, series director Alan Gow said the introduction of the TechSpeed car is an indication of the forward thinking nature of the championship.

"The BTCC is all about forward thinking and we welcome with open arms innovative technology such as bio-ethanol," he said. "Over the next few years, this fuel could really take off among the automotive industry and where better to push the boundaries and also demonstrate its obvious merits than in front of British motor sport's biggest crowds and television audiences?"