Scion ready for title attack in all new WC

With the new SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge Series about to start this weekend at St. Petersburg, a great number of regulation changes have seen a massive shake-up in the Touring category.

With the formerly known as ‘Touring Car 2’ class regulations now in force for World Challenge Touring, winners of this category last time out at Laguna Seca, Scion, are back with a second car and new driver line-up under the name Dan Gardner Spec.

TouringCarTimes spoke to owner/driver Dan Gardner about the new season.

What are the team’s objectives this season?

“The objective is always to win. Our number 18 car is super well-sorted. The 36 is going to take a little bit of time, but it will get there. Sure the title’s a possibility. I’m not sure how other teams approach things, but I don’t do anything unless I think we have a shot at the gold. We certainly have that chance here. The ultimate goal would be to win a driver’s championship with the number 18 and then take the team championship with the number 36.

Generally, one of our omnipresent objectives is to prove to the world that Scion is about performance as well as image. The tC is a great car, and we want more and more people to be exposed to a fantastic brand. Generating exposure that has great bang for the buck for all of our sponsors is a major consideration. Without them, we would never get to go to this great dance.”

Who do you think will be your main competition from the announced entries?

“It’s hard to say, and I never want to underestimate anyone. That’s a huge mistake…you never know what kind of gun someone is bringing to a fight, so plan for everyone to carry submachineguns and you’ll be good to go! The Mazdas may be down on power, but we know all too well from racing a 5 or 6 car RX-8 team how awesom they are under braking, and how well balanced they are. The TSX’s make good power, but the big power hog of them all is the Cobalt. Of course everything is going to depend on how well they’re driven and how the cars are set up.”

What do you think of the new World Challenge Touring regulations?

“We think the regs are awesome. Couldn’t be a better fit for our car. Keeps costs down, and allows a whole new crop of teams and drivers to mix it up with the mainstays. World Challenge is headed in the right direction, back to their roots. Outright speed of the class matters very little in my estimation. Some of the best races I’ve seen involved 120 horsepower Miatas or 140 horsepower 944s.”

These are the biggest regulation changes in World Challenge Touring for a while, as a result the grids a little light to start – how do you see the series & grid sizes developing from
this?

“I think the light grid thing has been exaggerated. Last year was pretty darn light, and with 11 TC entries, we’re close to on par. That’s about as many DP cars as started at Daytona!!! This is a reborn class, and to have this much support so early on spells great things to come.”

Are you going to be, or maybe looking at, racing in other series this year? Continental Tire again maybe? Or is just WC the plan?

“The Grand-Am thing was a great experience for us, but honestly I think this is better…for now. You always keep your options open as a team owner and as a driver. You have to go with where you feel the best package is. The term “package” means a whole lot of things. There are a myriad of factors, and you can’t make a decision based only on a unidimensional approach. For this year, I’d say a two-car, three driver World Challenge team is more than enough!”

It took only three weeks to put together the No.36 car. How impressed are you with your guys? Did you expect to acheive it, or were you ready to go to St. Petersburg with one car?

“That’s a great question. I wasn’t sure we would make it. I have a reputation for being super intense and very, very relentless. Even for a guy like me, I didn’t know if I had the energy to pull it all together. I pushed the team, our sponsors, and all our supporters harder than I ever have before. It placed a great strain on everyone, and I owe people some very expensive bottles of wine at this point.”

“Here’s the thing though…I asked a few of my mentors if they thought it was possible. You know what they said?? It went something like, “No way, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s you.” Not stroking my ego or anything, but I guess that was there way of acknowledging the fact that they know how much I’m willing to sacrifice in pursuit of goal worth attaining. And it’s totally true…anyone who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. It’s as simple as that.”

So the championship is the goal for the Scion?

“Yeah, sure – the 18 car, as it’s one driver, should be going for the drivers championship. It’s got 15,000 race miles on it, but it’s a strong well sorted car that’s got two national championships under it’s belt and a top 10 running feel back in Grand-Am.”

Dan also raised his concerns about making sure the team took things easy for the first race of the season in the first round, where Touring Car & GT cars will race in the same races this season:

“It’s worse (than Grand-Am Continental Tire) – I’ve compared some of the spreads, like at the Glen you could have an 18 second spread on lap time – you’re talking about cars with three times the horse power”

“I warned the guys, there are no low risk passes, do not make a single one, if you crash the car on Saturday, you earn no points on Sunday. It’s not like the second round is three weeks later, it happens the next day.”

The team is focusing heavily on reliability, with a very technical foundation being the squad:

“They’re good cars…we have made a name for ourselves with just relentless anal car prep, that may not mean that everything aesthetically is pleasing all the time, but it means that everything is checked and double checked all the time – I never wait, things get swapped out all the time. I was worried with how fast the deal came together that we may lose some of that good and maticulous car prep and I don’t want to let that slide, we have to field cars that can finish every race – you’ve got that saying in order to finish first, first you must finish, and once you solve that, there’s the other quote which I always like if you lift for a second, that’s where you’ll finish.”