ADAM Morgan admits his 2018 campaign has been one of ‘what if’ but is confident that 2019 can yield a sustained championship challenge.

The Touring Car star ended the season seventh in the championship with three race wins under his belt, but admits to a tinge of disappointment having led the standings earlier in the year.

But Morgan, from Blackburn, has the belief that his Ciceley Motorsport team can improve over the winter and come back stronger in 2019.

“This year I was hoping for a bit more. It wasn’t our year, it wasn’t to be,” said the 29-year-old.

“It’s always been a ‘what if’ in motorsport, at one point we were leading the championship.

“Midway through the season, we had two bad rounds where we scored eight or nine points out of a possible 60.

“So, had we not have had those rounds, then we could have had say 15-30 more points and then we could have had a chance of winning the championship.

“So, to have that and come away finishing seventh overall, it’s a little bit disheartening. We know the pace is there. I’ve had the second most wins this year, I’ve been on the podium nine times this year.

“We know we can do it, so we’ll come back fighting stronger and be faster next year.”

Morgan will again be in the colours of Accrington-based Ciceley Motorsport next year having rejected the advances of other teams ahead of this season.

He closed on 232 points with title winner Colin Turkington amassing 304 and the East Lancashire ace is hopeful the margin can be a lot closer come the first race of next season in March.

He added: “We’re going to be doing some development work over the winter and try and get the car punching less of a hole through the air, making it a bit more aerodynamic.

“We’re going to do some testing over the winter, over in Spain or Portugal, where the temperature is a bit warmer.

“So hopefully we’ll come back in 2019 hit the ground running from day one and have a really good package for the entire year.”

Morgan claimed his first win of the season at Donnington Park before adding a second at Thruxton and converting his maiden pole position into victory at Rockingham.

Things didn’t go according to plan after that win but Morgan is a consistent top 10 racer across his career in the spot and has seven victories since his 2012 debut.

And, speaking after the last round at Brands Hatch where he closed out his campaign with an 11th and 19th place finish as well as a DNF, he said: “It is a little bit disappointing, we came here with a mission of finishing third or fourth in the championship but, we struggled in qualifying and in race one because we had 40 kilos of weight.

“When we came to race two, we knew that was our time to attack, we had soft tyres on, no weight and I was on maximum attack.

“We got all the way to ninth and then had a puncture with three laps to go. That was our weekend over, because in race three I had to start from 23rd.”