Team Aon confident for Oulton despite restrictor

Team Aon says that they are still going to be competitive at Oulton Park in three weeks, despite the reduced restrictor for their LPG Ford Focuses.
“I believe we will still be competitive and look forward to another strong performance at Oulton Park in three weeks time,” said team boss Mike Earle.

The British Touring Car Championship organisation decided to reduce the turbo restrictor for Team Aon to 37 mm, something that is going to reduce the power.

“Obviously we do not welcome the reduction in restrictor size, but it is quite within the BTCC regulations for TOCA to do this, so we have to take it on the chin and deal with it,” said Earle.

While the team is going to suffer from the reduced power, Earle does not see this as a major issue for them.

“Whilst any change to our engines’ specification and the resulting reduction in power will surely hurt us, I also feel that the engine is only one part of our overall package and we have worked incredibly hard to make all aspects of the package as strong as possible and will continue to do so.

I said after Brands Hatch that I felt we were at about 75% of the cars’ potential, and most of our expected gains will come from work on the chassis,” said Earle.

The team is currently preparing for the next race with suspension development in Belgium.

“A car is presently undergoing some suspension development at Ford’s testing facility at Lommel in Belgium and this is part of our ongoing plans,” said Earle.