TWO long races and two gruelling days of testing in Spain have prepared Liam McMillan for the start of the biggest motor racing season of his career. The 18-year old from Wisbech is contesting the SEAT Supercopa – the Spanish equivalent of the SEAT Cupra

TWO long races and two gruelling days of testing in Spain have prepared Liam McMillan for the start of the biggest motor racing season of his career.

The 18-year old from Wisbech is contesting the SEAT Supercopa - the Spanish equivalent of the SEAT Cupra Championship and the pan-Europe SEAT Leon EuroCup, which is a support race series to six rounds of the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

Driving his Leon Cupra McMillan, who is sponsored by the Wisbech Standard, took part in the Copa Espanol Resistencia race meeting at the Jarama circuit.

The track, near Madrid, is the venue for the opening round of this year's Supercopa on May 3 and 4.

The race attracted a massive 47-car entry.

Driving solo, and in his first race for four months, McMillan finished the first race in 15th place, beating many local drivers who know the circuit well, despite a time handicap of 2min 15secs.

He was running inside the top 10 in the second race but dropped down the order when he had to take avoiding action when cars ahead spun, be he still ended as a classified finisher.

"Jarama is a very technical circuit and very fast in places, so it was difficult to go there for the first time and race in such a large field," said McMillan.

He added: "I was one second per lap quicker each time I went out on the circuit, so by the final race I was very close to the leader's pace. I really enjoyed it, and it was an encouraging start to the season."

McMillan, the 2006 Saxmax Champion, then spent two days testing at the twisty Torrecica track in Albacete.

The first day remained dry but half of the second was rained off.

McMillan said: "I have two completely different sets of tyres to get used to his year, as Dunlop is the Supercopa control tyre and in the EuroCup we run on Pirelli, so we spent a lot of time on this.

"We didn't go out in the rain because we've done enough testing in the wet in the UK, but when conditions dried we were able to end the test of a high. It was a very good trip, I spent a lot of time in the car and the Leon ran faultlessly throughout.

"The car is now back in the UK to be prepared for the opening round of the Supercopa, and I can't wait to get back out to Spain. I'm really looking forward to the season ahead."

McMillan plans to test at Valencia at the end of the month.