Alan Gow happy with how 2015 rule changes have worked

BTCC series director Alan Gow says he’s happy with the way rule changes brought in for the 2015 season have worked out – and joked that he was worried about the lack of complaints from teams down the paddock.

Changes to success ballast and the qualifying format were the headline changes made ahead of the season, as well as changes to the rear-wheel drive cars’ weight balance.

And as the season hits its halfway point at Croft, Gow said the closeness of the championship proved the rules were working.

Gow gave his thoughts to TouringCarTimes about the rules and, among other things, the BTCC calendar and the mooted trip to Macau.

“It’s been a much more competitive season and the cars are obviously closer. Clearly different tracks are suiting different cars,” said Gow to TouringCarTimes.

“Good drivers and good teams will always come to the fore, it doesn’t matter what the regulations are. The cream rises to the top – it’s the same as in any motorsport with any good team or driver.

“The weight had to go up and that’s worked out. You’ve seen some cars are handling it better than others.

“If it changes the grid around, that’s what success ballast is supposed to do. It’s exactly the same as a weight handicap on horse racing.

“The soft tyres have worked this year as they did last year. So far I haven’t seen anything we’ve done which I think I’d have to sit back at the end of the year and think ‘I might need to change that’.”

Addressing the lack of complaints from the teams this year, Gow added: “Yes, it’s been a bit boring actually! It’s human nature when a team or driver isn’t having a good weekend, they always blame the championship regulations first.

“It’s ever thus and it’s the same in any form of motorsport. Funnily enough this year there’s probably the least amount of complaints I’ve ever heard – and that worries me even more!”

The prospect of some BTCC teams visiting the legendary Macau circuit became a serious possibility over the winter. And while the idea didn’t bear any fruit, Gow says it is something he would look to support in the future.

He said: “Macau was never a round of the BTCC, it was only an invitation from Macau. It would have been nothing to do with the BTCC, it was a non-championship invitational event which some or all of the teams might have done.

“If Macau want to invite the cars to come over we’d certainly encourage it and do everything we can to help.

“It is [nice to be asked] but I don’t live on vanity. I don’t need that to pump the BTCC up or pump our grids up. It doesn’t pump my tyres up! It might sound strange, but we don’t need it. We’re quite happy in the world we live in.”

While the prospect of an international race may be on hold this year, Gow says there are no plans to change the calendar back at home in the future.

He said: “We’ll keep the same amount of rounds we do now. The teams don’t want to do any more, and that’s fine. There’s only a certain number of racetracks in this country which can physically take us with the infrastructure we have, and we go to them all.

“There’s no new tracks on the horizon. If someone wants to build a track or upgrade a track we’d look at it, but there’s no real reason to change.”