Alan Gow defends RWD rule change

British Touring Car Championship boss Alan Gow has defended the decision to introduce a longer first gear for rear wheel drive cars next year.
“Perhaps many people forget that the BTCC is the only touring car championship – running to S2000 regulations – that does not have any rolling starts,” said Gow on the forum of the official championship site.

The introduction of a longer gear is to reduce advantage of the RWD cars compared to the front wheel driven cars in the start.

“All the others (such as the WTCC, Sweden, Denmark etc) introduced rolling starts some years ago in order to negate the clear BMW standing-start advantage.

However, as we have seen, these rolling starts are often problematical and can result in quite substantial accident damage in the first corner due to the higher speed,” said Gow.

Voices, especially within the BMW teams, have been raised against the decision, something Gow hits back hard at.

“It’s bewildering that some people feel our championship has been harsh on the BMW’s – because the reality is exactly the opposite.

The WTCC and the other S2000 championships introduced rolling starts (purely to negate BMW’s start advantage) years ago and also require the BMW’s to compete at heavier weights than we do.

Perhaps those same people either aren’t aware of this or have simply chosen to ignore it…”