The 25-year-old will join Shaun Hollamby's AmD Tuning squad for next season, piloting the team's Ford Focus, which debuted this season at the hands of another Clio Cup champion, Dave Newsham.
"It's a little overwhelming really" he admitted, "I've never really set big aspirations for myself. When we started off in the Clio's it was a small privateer team, just a lad and his dad basically. To end up winning the championship and then all of a sudden having something big in place for next year, it's going to be a challenge; it's quite a feeling I have to say!"
The deal to bring Bushell in at AmD was relatively quick in terms of BTCC driver announcements, with most being made in the New Year. Bushell, though, is confident about next season's drive, and believes he has made the right decision: "We've known Shaun [Hollamby] for a while now through someone we know from racing; he's also fairly local which is good, but aside from that Dave Newsham has been fairly quick during the year, and someone let us know that Shaun could potentially be looking for a young upcoming driver so we spoke to him and he was the only one we spoke to in the paddock. We hit it off straight away and it felt like the right way to go. I also thought 'what's the point in waiting?'".
Bushell joins the BTCC grid for next season after clinching the Renault UK Clio Cup title in nail biting fashion at the season finale at Brands Hatch. Looking back at the 2014 season, Bushell is still finding it hard to believe that he took the title: "It's a little strange I have to say. If you'd have asked me mid-season if I was going to win I'd have probably said no; I think I was fourth in the points and quite a long way back, I'd made a couple of mistakes and had bad luck, but then after the summer break I had a good run, took three wins from four races and saw [Josh] Cook have equally bad luck that I'd had earlier on in the year. That's probably why it's all the more satisfying because I honestly didn't think I was going to do it".
It's not the first time Bushell has competed in the BTCC though, having debuted in 2013 in the IP Tech Race Engineering Chevrolet Cruze at Knockhill. With it being his first full season in the championship, Bushell admits that his targets for next season are modest: "Anything but last will be a bonus! If I can have three finishes in the opening weekend that'll be a good starting point. I'm quietly confident that we can be competitive; the car's proven with it being a Motorbase built Focus, and as I said before Dave Newsham's had a good run in it this season so that's a confidence boost. I think one of my main aims has to be having a good working relationship with the guys at AmD - looking back at this season it was my first season with Team Pyro and I managed to win the championship so I think if I can bring that bond to AmD then we can be competitive".
Bushell added: "I think the goal has to being able to compete with the likes of Jason Plato and Matt Neal, certainly in the long term. If I can get the speed together first, get really in tune with the car then maybe later on in the season I'm sure there'll be opportunities with the reverse grid that I might be able to have a head-to-head fight and we'll see how I fare!"
With the season returning in April, it will be some time until we see how Bushell fairs behind the wheel of AmD's Ford Focus. In the mean time though, Bushell's main aims will be to squeeze in as much pre-season practice as possible before the curtain is raised at the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit on April 4th/5th.
Written and interviewed by Alan Faulkner
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey Motorsport Photography
