Rockingham Preview and Round-Up

The BTCC circus rolls into Rockingham this weekend, minus its Championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi. So in the absence of the Italian, who can take control? Championship favourite Jason Plato has targeted an impressive 40-point haul this weekend, but Mat Jackson has warned that talk of just giving the title to Plato is “very wrong”.

“It’d be a very brave man who walked into the bookies and put all their money on him at such an early stage of the season,” said Jackson to the official BTCC website.

Plato predictably agrees, claiming that the Chevrolet Cruze is still too new to the UK circuits and Dunlop rubber to be justifiably labelled a favourite, with such a tag not being warranted until the title fight has become a clearer picture post-Oulton Park.

“If there is any talk that I’m now the clear favourite then it’s not what they’ve been saying down my pub,” said Plato to btcc.net, establishing that him and Jackson could well share the same inter-round drinking venue.

Although just the second round of the year, Rockingham sees a number of changes from Round One at Thruxton, which are summarised below.

· Dunlop’s new Sport Maxx tyre makes its BTCC debut. Greener, more durable and quicker, the tyre was the talk of pre-season, but wasn’t used at Thruxton because of the track’s toughness on tyres. Instead the rubber gets an easier debut this weekend, with Plato describing the tyre as “a fantastic bit of kit.”
The new tyre will now be used for the remainder of the season.

· Another new arrival is James Nash. The 24-year-old had five outings in a Chevrolet Lacetti in 2009, and now gets to try his hand behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Vectra. As for the man he’s replacing, well that’s double BTCC Champion and 2010 Championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi. So no pressure there then.

· Finally Forster Motorsport make their BTCC bow, though whether it will be one or two BMWs lining up for the green flag is currently not clear. Earlier in the week Martin Depper was stranded in America thanks to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. But with flights having now resumed, it looks far more hopeful that Depper will join Arthur Forster on the grid for his BTCC debut.

· And if you’re planning on recording all the BTCC action on ITV4 this Sunday, don’t forget that coverage of race three will be delayed until the evening because of the final of the Indian Premier League cricket.
The coverage will be on as usual in for races one and two, before going off air at 3pm. Highlights plus Race Three will then be shown at 9pm on ITV4.

Looking back at the form guide, the wins in previous seasons have gone to a variety of cars, indicating that perhaps none of the BTCC machines will have a clear advantage, particularly now that the BMW, with which Stephen Jelley took two wins in 2009, has had its start advantage annulled.

Further levelling the playing field is the very real prospect of rain on Sunday afternoon. The Honda Civics went well in a damp qualifying at Thruxton and showed excellent race pace pre-punctures too, so both Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal should be at the front of the action, especially with the removal of Giovanardi.

A definite one-to-watch at the Corby circuit is Andrew Jordan, who by his own admission left Thruxton, “Pretty gutted that we hadn’t managed to use our pace to score points.”

The Pirtek Racing man is aiming to be closer to the car’s potential this time out and thinks that the turbo-charged Vauxhall will be one of the cars to have this weekend.

“I had a podium at Rockingham last year and challenged for the lead for several laps,” said Jordan, “So we know the Vauxhall runs well there. This year with the NGTC Turbo engine I’m confident the car will be even stronger and we can hopefully run at the front again.

“I would really like to take away a podium from one of the races and hopefully an Independent class win, but obviously the main goal is to go for outright victories which I’m confident we can achieve.”

A lack of success ballast plays into his hands nicely, while simultaneously harming the chances of Paul O’Neill, who does have the dreaded lead on board. Rockingham won’t suit the Integra as much as Thruxton did, but the Tech-Speed racer is confident:

“It will be the first time we have had to run with extra weight due to our championship position, but we hope to be quick again despite the ballast onboard.
“I qualified well at Rockingham last season and am confident that we can score more points. We have to focus on finishing as high as we possibly can and scoring the maximum points possible from the weekend. If we could get onto the podium again, it would be fantastic. As everyone saw at Thruxton, the car is running really well at the moment and we have to make the most of it.”

Alex MacDowall is another who believes he has a strong overall package for Rockingham (though when was the last time you heard a touring car driver claim the opposite!), which will allow him to go for a maiden podium. On the evidence of his Thruxton weekend, a podium and even a race win would appear to be more a case of when, and not if.

Could it be this Sunday? Well to do so he’ll have to beat his teammate Plato, who told the official series website that he’s “Got a very clear target for Rockingham and that’s 40 points. I’m going there with the mindset of winning races but, as a team.”

Whether this means he’ll greet a win for MacDowall with the same jubilation as a victory for himself is anyone’s guess, but it would be amazing if the BTCC left Rockingham without at least one of the Chevvies taking home a podium finish.

Equally keen for podiums will be Ford’s double-Tom attack, whose Thruxton meeting was ruined by race one punctures. If the two qualify well and steer clear of trouble they should be able to battle with the Hondas, BMWs and Chevrolet’s at the front.

With regards the BMWs, if Thruxton is anything to go by, the Motorbase machines are now ahead of the WSR cars on form, though Rob Collard will want to reverse this situation, and providing he steers clear of Matt Neal.

To finish as top BMW driver though, Collard will have to come out on top of Jackson and Thruxton winner Steven Kane. Both have high hopes of taking another win for Airwaves, with Kane confident the BMWs superior traction at the hairpin will help power him to another success.

Other intriguing prospects are the Vauxhalls of Nash and Glew. Nash has shown before he’s not intimidated by the BTCC big guns and is able to run at the front, while Glew had a solid debut in the car at Thruxton. Both drivers know they are sat in a car capable to taking two wins in a weekend at the opening round, so can they now step up to the podium this time out?

All will be revealed come Sunday.

Previous Rockingham winners
2009: Stephen Jelley (2), Jason Plato
2008: Gordon Shedden, Mat Jackson, Matt Neal
2007: Fabrizio Giovanardi (2), Jason Plato
2003: Matt Neal, Yvan Muller