Rotek Racing still targeting two-car programme for 2015

Rotek Racing hopes to be able to expand to two cars for the 2015 British Touring Car Championship season and run a pair of Audi S3s next season, following another points finish at the Rockingham circuit last weekend. The racing licence system however is a major sticking point in the team’s plans to field a second car admits team owner/driver Robb Holland.

“We need to expand, that’s what’s been holding us back all this year,” said Holland to TouringCarTimes. “We need another car for data, for set-up, for everything, we need another car.”

As from this season, the Championship has implemented a racing licence system called the TOCA BTCC Licence (TBL), which has allocated 31 of the 32 possible grid spots out for 2014. TOCA aims to hold on to two licences which will be reserved for either a two-car manufacturer programme, or existing teams which want to expand, which may be Rotek’s last bet should no other team relinquish any of its licences for 2015.

“We’ve been talking to everybody, but the problem is not knowing what’s out there and everyone’s holding it close to their chest,” added Holland. “Obviously TOCA’s got one left, and we’re trying to see what teams that might finish, or which teams might drop a car, but no one’s saying anything right now.”

Holland adds that the plan is still to run an all-American driver programme at Rotek Racing, but would entertain other options.

“I’d really like to bring another American on board, but at the end of the day, it’s also about the best person for the job, it’s not about putting someone in there for show. There are a couple of really good touring car guys in the US, and we’ve been talking to all them and what we’ve been doing has raised some interest, but we’ve got a multi-national driver association going after us, we’ve been talking to French drivers, German drivers, Brits, so, if we have a second car, we’ll have no problem in filling it.”

Holland finished 15th in the third race of the day at Rockingham, his second points finish of the 2014 season, and believes the car has now become a proper mid-pack car, but there’s still more to find from the team’s front-wheel drive Audi S3 saloon.

“We’ve said this is a learning year, and we’re learning and moving forward, so why stop with two races to go. We have some ideas, it’s just we don’t really have enough time to test. We might see if we can sneak a test in before Silverstone and try to verify a few things,” said Holland.

“I think really right now, the car is a mid-pack car, I made two mistakes in qualifying which cost me four-tenths on my fast lap, so that was driver error, and that would have put us 16th or 17th in qualifying, so the car can do it.”