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BKR: The BTCC new boys – and girls – making their mark

For a team that didn’t even expect to be on the BTCC grid a month before the season kicked off at Brands Hatch, it’s not been a bad start to the 2016 campaign for Team BKR.

Podium finishes at both Brands and Donington Park mean Aron Smith sits seventh in the championship standings – two places and six points better off than at the same time last year – whilst the team sits sixth in the HiQ Teams’ Championship; ahead of the likes of WIX Racing and Speedworks.

It’s a far cry from what was actually planned for Nico Ferrari’s team this season, with the Essex-based outfit having been one of those to have committed to the new BTEC Development Series for it’s inaugural season.

A deal with Warren Scott meant the team had no fewer than six cars available for the club level series, with ex-BTCC man Kieran Gallagher having signed up as the first driver and talks ongoing with potential team-mates.

In short, after a part-campaign in the Renault Clio Cup last season with Freddie Hunt and James Colburn, things were looking good for a busy year on-track.

And then, the BTEC series was canned – for 2016 at least – and suddenly the team found itself with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Or that’s how it appeared.

BKR had already made an attempt to get onto the BTCC grid for 2016 but had failed to secure the TOCA BTCC Licence required to join the grid; something which played a large part in the decision to make the move to the BTEC series instead.

Almost as soon as the series was postponed however, the wheels were being set in motion on a deal to secure one of the licences that would ultimately be returned to series organisers in the off-season; with the possibility of a BKR-run car appearing on the grid appearing more likely when the team started testing with former Clio Cup racer Mark Howard.

Round 1 of the 2016 British Touring Car Championship.
Unbeknown to many though, BKR hadn’t managed to secure just one TBL but had in fact picked up two – with Smith having been the first driver to secure his place and Howard then being added in a second car when it became apparent that a second was available.

Whilst that was exactly what Ferrari had wanted for his team, albeit three years earlier than had been planned, it created a new issue.

In short, there was barely a month to go to the season opener and he suddenly needed to put together a team in order to go racing.

“When it comes to the BTCC, of course we didn’t expect to be on the grid this season after missing out on a TBL, which is why we elected to go down the BTEC route instead,” he said. “It was somewhere we felt we could learn our trade and then hopefully make the step into touring cars two or three years down the line.

“All of a sudden though, we found ourselves in a position where the BTEC Series wasn’t happening and there was a chance that we could get ourselves onto the touring car grid. Everything came together so last minute as it was only two weeks before Media Day that we actually got the TBLs that we needed. Then, it became one hell of a fight to get the cars ready for the season launch.

“The fact that we managed to do that was a triumph in itself, but even then, we went to Donington with the wrong engines in the car and they basically had to be rebuilt all over again before Brands Hatch.

“We had to find the staff to run a touring car programme very, very quickly, which was a huge challenge so late in the day as a lot of people had already committed to other things. However, we managed to pull together a good group of people who have shown excellent team spirit and togetherness. They put in endless hours to get us ready for Brands Hatch, and the result there was just amazing.”

Round 1 of the 2016 British Touring Car Championship.
That result was an impressive third place in the second race of the season opener for Smith – something he would then repeat in the second race when the field headed to Donington Park.

Whilst proud of the work his team has put in over the past month to make those results possible, Ferrari admits that it is the Irishman who has really made the difference as he looks to impress following a tough end to his 2015 campaign.

“Aron puts so much into the programme behind the scenes and he has been a massive help,” he said. “It’s probably true to say that we wouldn’t even be on the grid without him, and that’s without what he’s done on track. He spends a lot of time with us away from the circuit and it’s thanks to him that we have this amazing spirit within the team – he is the person we look to for inspiration.

“We all bounce off Aron and he is also helping Mark a lot as well as he makes the move up to touring cars. The reality is that there is no-one out there who has as much experience of the CC as he does, so he knows exactly what he wants from the car – he could probably run it himself without an engineer if he needed to!”

That the team is able to call on the support of Team BMR also shouldn’t be underestimated, with pretty much an open door policy when it comes to data sharing having played a role in the VW continuing to be a potent force on track.

“The fact we are still running GPRM parts was good for a number of reasons, in that we have been able to acquire spares from teams who have switched to RML, but also because it means we have a wealth of data available to us from BMR,” he said. “You’d expect that they wouldn’t want to help us too much given they are busy with their own programme, especially after we went out and got the podium first time out at Brands Hatch. However, it’s actually been the complete opposite.

“That result allowed us to prove ourselves to them, and they have actually become more helpful on the back of that. There was none of the hostility you might have expected and there is nothing hidden. We can go to them with any questions we have and they will help us out. That help can’t be underestimated.”

British Touring Car Championship Race 1
Whilst the results so far have been impressive, there remains an important end goal for the team as it seeks to secure a place on the grid for the long-term, with work ongoing to pick up the additional sponsors and financial support that can allow the team to fulfill its true potential in the eight rounds still to run this season.

“We are still working out of a single truck which isn’t ideal, and know we have work still to do, but the priority at the moment is the cars and everything else has to come after that,” Ferrari continued. “We want do to more for the fans and want to improve our image and how we present ourselves, but the cars have to come first.

“It is tough budget wise, especially when everything comes together so late in the day, but we are lucky to have the support of some fantastic sponsors and are looking to bring more onboard.

“We came into this with the aim to secure the TBLs as we are basically on probation at the moment. We have to do a good job to show TOCA that we deserve to be given them as our own and I think that we have done that so far. We are showing that we have a car that is capable of fighting inside the top ten, and it down to us to make the most of it.

“Okay, we may have jumped forward three years in our plans in the last month or so, but I’m not about to forget where we were six months ago when we were knocking on the door and trying to get in. Now we are here, we want to make sure we stay.”