When David Bartrum first put Motorbase Performance cars on a BTCC grid in 2006, nobody could have predicted the journey that would eventually lead to four consecutive Teams' Championships and the first Ford Manufacturers' crown in a generation. The team arrived quietly, running a Honda Integra Type-R for Dave Pinkney, finishing 13th overall and learning quickly. That has always been the Motorbase way, learn, adapt, and come back stronger.

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The early years were spent building the team's identity rather than chasing silverware. Two SEAT Toledos in 2007 brought speed but also incidents. The switch to BMW machinery for 2008 brought the first real momentum, Rob Collard and Steven Kane scoring the team's first podiums before Collard delivered two outright wins in 2009, the team's first, to finish 6th in the standings. The following year, a last-minute cash crisis threatened to leave the team without a car on the grid at all. Bartrum held it together, signed Mat Jackson and Kane, and was rewarded with a sensational one-two finish at Thruxton in the opening weekend. The team led the championship at the halfway point.