Chevrolet too fast, says Chilton

In contrast to expectations, the Chevrolet Cruze was the car to beat at Snetterton much to everyone’s surprise, particularly Team Aon, with Tom Chilton believing that the balance needs to be changed.

The Chevrolet was 2 mph slower than turbo-charged Ford Focus, with the top recorded speed of the Focus 142mph on the fastest speed trap on the circuit, against the Cruze’s 140mph.

With the paddock’s belief that the Ford Focus ST would be unbeatable at the high-speed circuit, the Ford didn’t take victory in any of the three races that weekend, though Tom Onslow-Cole put in a stunning drive in race one to drive from 21st to sixth – and Tom Chilton taking his highest points score from a round this season.

Team Aon’s Tom Chilton admitted to TouringCarTimes that the team have been very surprised by the Silverline Chevrolet team’s pace at the weekend:

“He’s (Jason Plato) done an awful lot of whinging over the last five weeks, they’ve put restrictors on us and we’re a lot slower – there’s only one mile an hour difference.”

Chilton believes the Team Aon focus is suffering with the weight of the car, and imparted that maybe a weight dispensation would be in order to keep the Focus up with the Chevrolet.

“We struggle naturally because of the turbo; I think we need a bit of a weight break, I think the car needs to a little bit lighter maybe by 15 kilos. The old BTC cars are 30 kilos lighter, that makes a big difference.”

“You look at Jason when he used to be in the old SEAT turbo diesel, they always were 2-4 mph faster because you know from a turbo how much you lose from engine braking and weight distribution”

Rounding up his thoughts, Tom says:
“I’m quite surprised at what’s been happening this weekend…and Jason admitted to me he wasn’t even pushing at the end of the races, and he had full success ballast on. That’s a second of a lap faster roughly he’s quicker than anyone, and that’s wrong – our racing should be within tenths or hundredths, and for his car to be a second of a lap faster, his car’s completely outside the regulations, I think someone needs to look at it.”

The Silverline Chevrolet team themselves have been surprised by the pace of the Cruze this weekend, with a few improvements made during the mid season break, the car’s performance at Snetterton has exceeded the teams expectations – though suspect the nature of the track favours the World Touring car designed Cruze.

RML’s Sponsorship & Marketing Director, Rupert Manwaring told TouringCarTimes:
“It would seem here that car is better than it has been, and certainly to the others. We had a very good test here two weeks ago, and we thought we may have found a couple of things that have genuinely improved the car – and so really it’s a case of making sure that’s still the case at Silverstone.

Snetterton’s a very particular track, and it could be just that the set-up’s great here, and it won’t really be until we get to Silverstone that we know the genuine improvement.”