Alan Gow explains change for LPG engines

The British Touring Car Championship organisers have decided to introduce a smaller turbo restrictor (37 mm) for the LPG powered Ford Focus. Series boss Alan Gow explains why.
“The LPG engine is very much ‘work in progress’ for both Team Aon and the championship, which is why we have a specific regulation that allows us to make changes along the way – and it may not even be the last time we make some relatively minor tweaks to the specification, either up or down,” said Gow to BTCC.net.

“However, let me be absolutely clear; the decision on the LPG engine was made after logging and carefully analysing data from all its first nine races, then comparing that same data with those from other top cars – it was certainly not as a result of any team or driver complaining. Anyone who knows me will know very well that ‘whinging’ has absolutely zero effect on my decisions,” Gow continued.

There has been voices around the BTCC paddock that have suggested that the LPG Ford Focus has been given extra advantages from various dispensations, something Gow writes off as guesswork and paranoia.

“It’s worth remembering that, as all cars are fitted with our mandatory data-logger, only TOCA has the ability to fully download, compare and analyse the exact same performance data from every car and at any time. This is how we are able to carry out comprehensive performance evaluations, produce factual comparisons and to then make a sound decision based on quantifiable data.

Therefore anyone who may moan or theorise about the relative performances of different cars is generally using little more than self-serving guesswork, often laced with a fair amount of paranoia. But, thankfully, we don’t run the championship in that same way,” said Gow.