Krenek Motorsport weight change protest rejected

Czech squad Krenek Motorsport have raised a protest against the FIA European Touring Car Cup’s change in balance of performance, which came into effect at the second round at the Slovakiaring. The protest has however been rejected by the FIA Touring Car Committee at this time and needs to be raised differently.

For the first round of the Cup at Paul Ricard back in April, the teams competing against Campos Racing in the top tier TC2T category, reserved for turbocharged Super 2000 cars (as have been used in the WTCC from 2011 onwards), made it clear they were unhappy about the weight penalty carried by their rear-wheel drive BMWs, which was not in-line with the later WTCC waivers which saw the heavily developed Chevrolet Cruze, now used by Campos Racing, put on equal footing with the BMW, and even carrying more weight in recent years pre the application of compensation weight.

To address this imbalance, the FIA Touring Car Committee, headed by Alan Gow, adjusted the base weight of all TC2T and TC2 cars after the first round, which reset them all to 1,150kg, regardless of their drive configurations.

In a bizarre protest, the Krenek Motorsport team, winners of last year’s S2000 drivers title with Petr Fulín, and fielding two cars again in the TC2 class for normally aspirated S2000 cars, requested a review, specifically asking for the regulations to be restored to their levels at Paul Ricard for their class, where the BMW cars would have run at 1,200kg.

The protest from team principal Josef Krenek requests a review is carried out, and somewhat sternly, “to avoid mistakes and confusion in the future we ask for a competent TC2 official.”

The request also indicates agreement from the other teams competing in TC2, as well as explaining that the main reason of the protest is for safety, and perhaps also cost reasons, the TC2 cars and TC2T cars are now fighting together more.

“One standard minimum weight of 1150 kg for the TC2 class does not make any sense and is explicitly not welcomed by the TC2 teams,” said Krenek. “It’s not only unfair but also a safety reason: with a lower minimum weight in the TC2 class the gap to TC2T is closed. Unnecessary fights and collisions among cars of different classes are the result.”

The team state they are looking for a review for just the TC2 class (normally aspirated cars), and are happy for the TC2T entries, which now just comprise of four cars; the two BMWs of Aytac Biter and Mat’o Homola, and the two Campos Chevrolets of Igor Skuz and Nikolay Karamyshev, to remain at their lower weight level.

The protest, by way of TC Commitee request form, was rejected by the Committee of Alan Gow, Dennis Carter and Bernard Niclot, stating that the request needs to be raised through a different channel.

“This type of request cannot be lodged by an individual team,” came the response. “A request for review should be sent through the designated team representative and which must carry the full support of all teams.”

The penultimate round of the 2014 ETCC takes place this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps while supporting the World Touring Car Championship.