|
The 2011 British Touring Car Championship season has been action packed.
With different race winners, fiery on and off track battles and a very public transition to New Generation Touring Car (NGTC) regulations testing the teams as well as the Series administrators it is no surprise that interest in the BTCC has been growing.
At the latest round of the Championship at Rockingham I had the opportunity to sit down with BTCC Series Director and fellow Australian, Alan Gow, and ask him for his thoughts on the season so far and on the future direction of the sport.
How would you describe the 2011 BTCC season so far?
It’s been a fascinating season. First of all, all our numbers are up so we’re having a really good season. Our grid numbers are up, today [Sunday at Rockingham] for example we’ve got the biggest grid we’ve had since the nineties. Our TV audiences are massively up on previous years and our spectator numbers are up so all the indications are that we’re having a great season.
What about the racing?
The racing has been good. Occasionally you’ll get the odd dull race but on the whole the format we have for the three race format always provides good racing. I can’t remember many race meetings where I’ve come away thinking that was a dull day so the racing has been good.
We’ve got such a mixture of cars this year with different types of power plants and everything else so that’s providing a great mix too. Again today you’ve got the top 16 on quite a lengthy lap covered by a second. With all the different types of cars and everything else in there that’s pretty incredible.
What are your thoughts on how the NGTC cars have developed?
Fantastic. They started developing... not forgetting those teams that have got those cars have never had touring car experience, either drivers or teams. They’ve got a car that was untested and they got the car and they’ve developed it through the course of the year. They’ve basically done their testing in public and quite a restricted amount, it’s not like they go for days and days on some sunny test track, and now look at it. The car is where we always knew it would be. Probably in hindsight it should have been that way a little bit earlier but it wasn’t because the car was late. Every racing car produced is always produced late.
So it’s validated the entire concept. The car is fantastic, it looks good as well, it performs well and now you have major teams like Honda announcing they’re building their own NGTC car next year. They wouldn’t be doing that if they didn’t know it was the way to go.
You mentioned the strength of the series earlier, do you think that there is still room for improvement in its commercial viability?
Of course there is. I think if you asked Bernie he’s say the same thing about Formula 1. I don’t know any series that sits back and says that’s as far as we can go. You’re always looking for new opportunities and ways to exploit the series commercially and grow it commercially. In a perfect world there are a lot of things I would do that we can’t.
Street races is a fantastic example. We can’t legally have a street race in this country. Until the Highways Act is changed you can’t hold a street race. The other problem is that it’s a very expensive proposition to hold a street race in this country. So there’s all those sorts of things you’d like to do but you can’t for either legal or commercial reasons. There are always ways in which you could grow this Championship if you were in a perfect world and had the availability to do it.
Is there anything in particular you are looking at?
Not in particular because you look at those opportunities as they arise. As I said if and when one day a street race becomes viable we’ll be straight in there. Obviously we are the only domestic Championship that would make a street race at all viable because of the crowds and everything else. There’s no other Championship in this country which could come close to making a street race commercially viable. So that’s something in the future we’d like to look at but whether it’s doable or not is a different matter because the harsh reality comes to play and someone has to pay the bill.
Is it likely to be doable at some point do you think?
It’s doable, it’s the bill that’s going to be the problem. It costs millions to put a street race on. Birmingham still has the ability to run a street race and they’ve occasionally looked at redoing it because they have a current Act of Parliament which allows them to do it but the sums don’t add up. It’s many, many millions of pounds to do it. The cost base could be less in other venues but certainly Birmingham can’t afford to do it.
One final question, you have an MSA racing license, do you still do any racing?
I haven’t done a race for a couple of years. I just haven’t had the time.
... Nothing that you’re looking at?
No... yeah I will do. I’ve maintained my racing license. I haven’t had the time to be honest. The last the last two races I’ve done have been the Britcar 24 hour and then before that the 2CVs. I like long distance races so I’ll do another race again sometime but it’s the scheduling. Trying to find a weekend that doesn’t encroach on everything else I do. By Chelsea Woods , Photos by Marc Waller
Worth Checking - Motoring news - Road Tests
|
