WTCC @ BRANDS HATCH // NEIL TOZER'S RACE REPORT

They will tell you in life that tolerance of others’ interests and opinions is a quality to be admired. Well yes it is but all too often some of us can knock and belittle the beliefs and viewpoints of others, whether it be religious or sexist based or even a tribal issue that we see in the world of soccer. It is bound to and probably always will happen, as in my opinion it is human nature.

A personal example of this that I can relate to is somewhat heavily connected to the sport I have followed since childhood. For me as I attended race circuits all over the UK and beyond as a child with my father an early impression was forming. I developed as I reached my teenage years an opinion that single seater formula racing was the be all and end all of motorsport. I didn’t exactly look upon Saloon/Touring car racing with distain but truly felt that it was totally secondary in the motorsport pecking order. My father you see, loved it along with Sportscar Endurance racing, I however felt that both disciplines were for drivers who’s careers had faded somewhat and that competitively it was a non event... [read more]

F3000 was my biggest love but that was all to change as the FIA series became a one chassis make formula in its final years. But then along with my developing personality I too discovered Touring Car racing. It was a good time for this to happen as we were moving on from multi class saloon racing towards the now much hallowed “Super Touring” era. I began to appreciate the absolute closeness of the racing itself, the characters who no longer had to tow the team’s line at times and actually could and did speak their mind instead of spouting out endless almost robotic answers to journalist’s questions.

Still today some people view Touring car racing as nothing more than a full contact “crash fest” and indeed in the past countless internet forums have been awash with this view. In my opinion certainly in the top series the WTCC this opinion is totally flawed, yes contact does happen but with the competitiveness of the racing this is always going to be inevitable and the FIA have and will punish anything that looks blatant or gives a competitor an unfair advantage. “Thrills and Spills” usually bring in the crowds and along with that the worldwide TV audiences which in turn generate sponsor interest which then has a positive affect on entries which in these harsh economic times is priceless.

With regard to competitiveness take one look at the lap times from qualifying 1 at last weeks WTCC meeting at Brands Hatch for instance. Taking place over the 2.489 mile GP circuit the gap between 1st to 10th was four tenths of a second with an unbelievable one tenth separating 2nd to 8th! Yes some of this is obviously down to the compensation weight rules, but who cares this is ultra competitive no quarter given racing. The series organisers strive to make it this close and with front and rear wheel drive, diesel and petrol personally I think they have done a very competent job.

Aside from the on track action the challenge for the mechanics is huge. WTCC employs a limited “work” time system between the days two races. Taking a stroll down the pitlane half an hour before race two with the cars removed from “Parc Ferme” is an eye opening experiance. The massed ranks of team personnel  are poised to go into action as soon as the countdown ends. At this point all hell breaks loose with the sound of hydraulic jacks and wheel guns everywhere. All the work has to be completed in this limited timeframe and so everything is done at almost pit stop speed, be it accident damage repair, pad changes, damper tweaks or plain old windscreen cleaning. Many patched up cars only just make the cut and the stress and panic can be plainly seen on the faces of some team engineers.

The German Schnitzer team (above) are, given their origins, particularly efficient at this kind of thing even after the two bottles of Bavarian lager that they have been seen walking round the paddock with neatly tucked away in the rear pockets of their shorts. Believe me it happens!  We also saw at the Kent circuit that yes, it is definitely true, Germans do have a sense of humour. “Safety Car Superstar” Franz Engstler (below) was spotted sporting a very nifty rear screen sticker publicising his new website hit the link to view this masterpiece given the events at Pau during the French round two months ago.

This years two races at Brands were not the best in terms of lead changes but the fierce competition down the order was to marvel at. One encounter that certainly caught the eye was the race two independents battle which saw Tom Boardman (Below) take a deserved first win which was a tremendously popular result as he is probably one of the most down to earth and nice guys that you could ever hope to meet. Sitting in on the final press conference of the day and with the likes of Farfus and Muller having spoken it was Tom’s turn. As he started to speak you could hear the raw emotion and nervousness in his voice, pure unbridled joy and at the same time coupled with absolute modesty. Yes he praised his team, as he would, but to him just being in the company of so many super talented and experienced drivers was an awe inspiring moment.

With the rumours of BMW pulling the plug on their WTCC effort next year the series is probably going to go through a transitional phase. 2011 will see The FIA introduce a standardised engine into the mix. The unit will be a 1.6litre Turbo unit and should ensure that arguments over engine equalization will be a thing of the past.

Good news for our stateside readers comes in the form of an announcement that the WTCC is looking seriously at the possibility of a USA race in 2011, with circuits such as Laguna Seca, Phoenix and the Homestead Miami Speedway having been mentioned. “The USA market is of great interest to us” said Marcello Lotti recently.

Touring car racing has a habit of re-inventing itself now and then and the next few years will be no different in my eyes. To me it is a series very much worth fighting for and who would have believed that sentence coming from myself, with my blinkered single seater background. Times change and so do we.
 
Photos/Editorial: Neil Tozer

*ColdTrackDays would like to dedicate this article to Richard Frank Tozer*