Bamboo on WTCC, ETCC and Turkington

Commercial reasons as well as a desire to compete against the world’s best are the reasons behind Bamboo Engineering’s step-up to the WTCC. That’s what Richard Coleman has told Touring Car Times in respect of discussions with reigning BTCC champion Colin Turkington.

Following a story linking Bamboo with Turkington in this week’s Autosport, Touring Car Times has spoken to Coleman about how things stand between Bamboo and the BTCC titleholder. The Bamboo chief was unable to comment further on the story, having told Autosport earlier this week that “We’d love to get him in the car.”

Coleman has confirmed that Bamboo’s interest in running a third car this season wasn’t dependent on the presence of the Northern Irishman.

“Yes we would be very interested in running a third car if the deal was right to do so”, said Coleman, “We have the capability and resources to do it if it made financial sense.”

A European Championship campaign made up of selected rounds also isn’t entirely out of the question, with the Team Principal saying, “Looking at the calendars and freight schedules it will be hard, but we would consider an ETCC programme.”

Talking about the decision to graduate to the World series from the BTCC, Coleman said:

“We felt that there was more commercial opportunity in the WTCC, and that it was a championship that will weather the tough economic climate. Plus it is the highest competition in the world for touring cars, so that is where we naturally aspire to be.”

“Our aims are to be a front running independent team, both our drivers a capable of podiums during the year. Harry is still young, but he has matured a lot in his driving. Braga showed he can get the job done.

“Darryl has a very strong pedigree but we will have to see how well he gets on with front-wheel drive, some drivers have never had this issue but some have struggled to start with we will have to wait and see.”