Drivers continue to question the differences between front and rear-wheel drive

The arguments between the front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive equipped drivers, an age-old debate within touring car racing, continued after the opening round at Brands Hatch two weeks ago, with it yet to be seen how things will play out this weekend at Donington Park.

Seven of the 29 cars on the grid will be rear-wheel drive this weekend, the three West Surrey Racing BMWs, the two Rob Austin Racing Audi A4s, and the two Infiniti Q50s of Support Our Paras Racing.

At Brands Hatch, a rear-wheel drive BMW, that of Andy Priaulx, took pole position, while team-mate Rob Collard won the first race, while front-wheel driven cars won races two and three, both the Honda Civic Type-Rs of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, though it’s worth noting that Jason Plato in the Team BMR Volkswagen CC was also dominating race two until a shard of debris punctured his front-left tyre three laps from home.

With Collard driving up from fifth on the grid to second by Paddock Hill bend in race one, later taking the lead as Andy Priaulx’s soft tyres faltered, two-time champion Jason Plato was quick to question the rear-wheel drive advantage, which series organisers TOCA have made moves to address.

“I thought TOCA had made some adjustments on the rear-wheel drive?” said Plato to TouringCarTimes. “It appears they haven’t. Do you think that’s Rob’s skill or do you think that’s a rear-wheel drive advantage?” he added referring to Collard’s start.

“(This year) TOCA have mandated that (the rear-wheel drive cars) have to run at reduced boost in first gear, and guess what, they did that anyway last year to maximise traction, so all they’ve done is mandated that they have to run a perfect start strategy, and we know that as (Kevin Berry, Colin Turkington’s engineer at West Surrey Racing last year, is working with us now). So there is no reduction in the advantage of the rear-wheel drive cars at the start, and had that had happened, I think we could have had a BMR 1-2 (in the first race).”

Race one winner Rob Collard’s view on the start differed from his rival’s.

“I didn’t get to the front from the start, that was for sure,” he said to TouringCarTimes. “I managed to tuck in behind Andy, Jason went to go wide, around Aron I think and I went to go down his inside.

“We didn’t have that great an advantage off the line and in the race there was no advantage, it was just track position because Aron was matching my times lap after lap. I couldn’t get away, he had no drop off, if it had been the other way round he’d have won and I’d have been second. There is no advantage.”

Plato’s Team BMR team-mate Aron Smith however defended the view that Collard’s start was unfairly balanced.

“If we were doing it in increments, say that was 50%, it needs to go another 150% for it to be about equal,” said Smith to TouringCarTimes. “I’m not taking it away from them, once Rob got in to the lead he was pretty unstoppable, but he got to the front with that start. I think he came through two or three rows… I got probably the best start I ever had, but we weren’t able to match it.”

Rob Austin however perhaps offered the most balanced perspective on the perceived advantages between the two drive configurations of the weekend.

“There was one rear-wheel drive win and two front-wheel drive wins, (I think) that statistic speaks for itself doesn’t it?,” said Austin to TouringCarTimes

“I think the first race was a good example. All the rear-wheel drive cars’ tyres were destroyed for all those that went on softs in the first race. That’s because they weren’t hot enough at the start of the race, while Jack Goff (front-wheel drive Triple Eight MG) however was able to do some warm up laps, and got them up to temperature and was able to use his tyres properly exactly how they were designed, as the tyres are designed for front-wheel drive cars.

“It’s swings and roundabouts. At some points, yes we have advantages, and there’s also lots of points where the front-wheel drive cars have advantages, the problems we face is A. We’re outnumbered, and B. the one advantage we have is really obvious, unfortunately that’s the way it is.”