I know, I know. It’s only media day, you can’t learn anything from the first - and only - official pre-season test. I wanted to do some writing however, and if nothing else it can act as a test for what I’m hoping will become a permanent feature on this site over the coming season.
So here (in best tabloid newspaper’s website style) is the inaugural ‘5 Things We Learned from Media Day'. 1 - Honda are still the team to beat - Whilst last season’s title runners up, Team BMR, stole most of the pre-season headlines with their works deal with Subaru, Honda quietly got on with the job of improving what seemed like an almost perfect title winning car in 2015. As well as the fitting of the new RML components, Team Dynamics and Neil Brown Engineering developed a new engine for 2016. Perhaps a risky move considering the success enjoyed by the previous incarnation, but given its performance at Donington that shouldn’t be of concern. As the four hour session gradually came to a close, Championship veteran Matt Neal was languishing in an uninspiring mid-table position. Hardly the start to the season that those clad in red, white and (now) orange would’ve dreamt about. Then he was top. It was as if he was cruelly trying to give the grid false hope before snatching it from their grasps at the very final minute. Neal may be entering his 25th year in the series, but it would be foolish in the extreme to write off any potential title challenge from the Midlander. 2 - MG are back, and are once again a united force to be reckoned with - It would be fair to say the past few seasons have not been kind to the MG Triple-Eight outfit. After losing two of the most talented drivers of the grid at the end of 2014 - in Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff - they repeated the trick in 2015, with marquee signing Andrew Jordan and teammate Jack Goff heading for pastures new over the winter break. Tordoff and Jordan both endured difficult times with the team, with inter-team relationships appearing fractious, and reliability issues on track. The future for the team does, however, finally look like it is once again heading in the right direction. The addition of Jack Sears Trophy winner Josh Cook, and reigning Renault UK Clio Cup champion Ash Sutton looks like extremely shrewd business. Both drivers produced impressive maiden outings on Tuesday, but it was Sutton who gained most of the headlines. Running top of the standings until the final quarter of an hour, it looked like the 21 year old was about to become the first NGTC debutant in history to top the media day timesheets. Matt Neal - old enough to comfortably be Sutton’s father - nabbed top spot by 0.091 of a second with a late effort, but it couldn’t take away from what was surely drive of the day. The now Buntingford based operation tasted victory only once in 2015. The signs for 2016 already look like they will comfortably beat that number. 3 - Rob Austin has taken the switch to front-wheel-drive in his stride - A few eyebrows were raised pre-season when it was announced that fans favourite Rob Austin and his team were joining forces with Simon Belcher’s Handy Motorsport outfit. Swindon based Belcher had never really tasted the level of success in the Championship that he was capable of, whilst Austin was coming off his hardest year in the series with the overweight and tired Audi A4. The initial signs do, however, look extremely promising. Having spent much of his career in single seaters, GT cars and rear-wheel-drive A4s the switch to the front-wheel-drive Toyota Avensis was always going to be a tough one for Austin. Or at least that’s what most observers imagined... The Evesham driver posted a best time of 1.10.297, fractionally under a second better than his best in the Audi at this stage last season. He topped the times for over an hour, and appeared to be consistently improving. Towards the end of the session he and the #116 MG of Ash Sutton ended up in a race like battle that thrilled the spectators, but ended the hopes either driver had of improving their times as the session drew to a close. Perhaps without that he could’ve improved further, but what it did prove was that Austin has made himself very much at home, very quickly behind the wheel of the #11 Avensis. 4 - Team BMR have a busy ten days ahead - The much anticipated Subaru Levorg finally caught its first glimpse of daylight at Media Day, but the stunning white and blue machine has still to turn a wheel in anger. The build of 4, brand new cars was always going to be a tough job for Warren Scott’s crew, but it is one they are still confident of completing in the coming days. The biggest announcement of pre-season had fans everywhere bubbling with excitement at the prospect of seeing the Levorg GTs on track, but a supplier issue meant that it was not to be on Tuesday. At least one car is fully completed and, according to Colin Turkington, will be ready to hit the track for its maiden shakedown as early as tomorrow. The rest remain in build, but should be completed in time for the season getting underway on the first weekend of April. The team have been working until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning to get the cars to this stage, and you’d imagine an outfit as professional and dedicated as BMR will be ready, and on the pace, for the season beginning. 5 - Dan Welch is finally ready to put a miserable few years behind him - It was around this stage two years ago when Welch Motorsport signalled their intent to build their own NGTC engine, based on a Mitsubishi unit for the 2014 season. To say it was a disaster would be harsh. Actually, it probably wouldn’t. Welch and then teammate Ollie Jackson spent the season admiring the scenery of the circuits from two horrendously uncompetitive machines. In fact, plagued by reliability troubles, neither driver spent a great deal of time admiring it from their Proton. Last year was a slight improvement, with Welch finally scoring his first point with the new engine at Oulton Park in June. It would prove to be the only point it scored during the whole campaign however. The team, one of the most well liked in the paddock, and Welch himself had been working flat out to try and help ‘Optimus’ become competitive with his new heart, but it wasn’t to be. After a pre-season where rumours of a switch to a Hyundai i30 were mooted, Welch returned with the Malaysian saloon for what will be its 5th season. This time however it would be running the NGTC Swindon developed engine - the same unit it ran when Welch achieved his career high finish of 4th at Oulton Park in 2012. That may seem a long way off, but Welch is undeniably a quick driver who should certainly be back amongst the regular points scorers in 2016. So there we have it, a shakedown if you will of my BTCC writing (typing) hands and a taste of what’s to come across 2016 on this site.
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April 2020
CategoriesAuthorI'm Fraser, 22, Sons fan who is now living the dream of reporting on Dumbarton for the Lennox Herald. |