Netherton racing driver Josh Caygill makes his return to action in the Audi Sport TT Cup.

The opening two rounds of the 2016 season are staged at Hockenheim in Germany on Saturday and Sunday and the 26-year-old is hoping to make a very strong start to the campaign.

The signs are certainly good as in the official pre-season testing, which also included qualifying and race simulations, at Hockenheim a couple of weeks ago Caygill set his stall out well with an impressive effort across all sessions.

Inside the top six in practice, he went on to finish fifth in a race simulation where the lead quintet had an advantage over the rest of the pack.

The top five all lapped within a few thousandths of a second of each other to underline how tight this season should be at the sharp end of the grid.

Determined to build on that pleasing performance when he arrives back in Germany this week, Caygill knows the level will be ratcheted up another notch for the first qualifying session of the season.

However, he is quietly confident of being in the mix for the first two or three rows on the grid and said: “We’re definitely up there where we want to be, if the test day was anything to go by, as the top five of us were very close.

“There really was nothing in it at all with the lap times, so that was a very positive start for us and a big improvement on where we were a year ago.

“After looking through the data, I know where improvements can be made but the main thing is the speed is there and it looks like we’re going to be competitive at Hockenheim.

“Obviously, everyone is going to up their game from the test day, but I’m happy with how things have gone up to now.

“And I am really looking forward to the first two races – they should be fantastic.”

Caygill again runs with the trusty No14 on his yellow and white Audi this season with continued backing from sponsors Vancraft, Volkswagen Van Centre West Yorkshire, SMUK Auto Electrical Engineers, BHP Clough & Company Chartered Accountants, Integro, Tog 24 and Audi Financial Services.

Following free practice tomorrow, qualifying will take place at 8.05am (local time) on Saturday ahead of round one at 11.10am (local time).

On Sunday round two will get underway at 3.20pm (local time).