Frustrating but proud day for Speedworks

The late arrival of the Speedworks Toyota Avensis has caused the team to reassess their objectives for the first part of the season. The team were the first outfit to commit to running a full NGTC specification vehicle in the 2011 BTCC and the only such outfit to turn a wheel on media day, but the late debut of the Avensis on track means that season’s objectives have to be reassessed.

“It’s changing day-by-day at the moment because obviously the car is late and it’s been an on going thing,” said team principal Christian Dick speaking to TouringCarTimes.

“So week-by-week we’ve been changing those. As it stands at the moment it looks like we’re going to get one day of running with the car before we actually turn up at the first meeting. So the first few meetings are really just going to be about getting some seat time for Tony and us trying to get a handle on what makes the car work and get a baseline setup for it,” said Christian, minutes before he departed for Heathrow to catch his fourth flight of the week, destination Hockenheim and testing with his team’s new GT3 Chevrolet Corvette British GT contender, which had been going “superbly well.”

By contrast BTCC testing at media day was badly hampered by fuel pressure problems with the car only competing five laps, leading to mixed feelings from Christian about how the day had gone.

“It’s obviously quite a proud moment when you get to this level and you can get a car out there. Still it is tinged with a bit of frustration because we wanted to do a lot more and get a couple of hours running on the car. Not to be competitive or see what we could achieve, but just to get some mileage on the car with it being brand new.

“As often the case with new builds there are some teething problems and we’ve had those today but we think we’ve got on top of them all today so we’ll hopefully get another test in at the early part of next week.”

A more positive note was the reception that car and its livery received, comments which were welcomed by the team.

“Absolutely. The car has been later than anticipated which isn’t an ideal situation and puts us on the back foot, but it is nice to know that you can turn out a nice looking car and that people are talking about it.

“Obviously our objectives have changed with the late start that we’ve had but hopefully we can get some performance to match its looks!”

Debutant driver Tony Hughes agrees, telling TouringCarTimes, “Everyone is raving about it to be honest. Red, white and blue, there are no better colours for a car in my book. I’m very pleased with how the car looks.”

How the car ran however was another matter, with Hughes revealing his frustration when fuel starvation, a lack of power steering and an inability to go beyond 4,000rpm shortened planned afternoon running.

“I’d like to say everything was fine,” said the Knutsford driver mid-afternoon, “But unfortunately we’ve had technical problems. We’ve not been able to get the car going well.

“It’s a bit like driving a London bus at the moment! But the car feels great, the seating position is good, the suspension feels nice but unfortunately I just haven’t been able to give it what I want to give it and get some hours in it, which I need.”

Speaking during the morning as the team worked hard to ensure that the car made it out on track for the afternoon’s test session, the former Ginetta runner admitted that because of the car’s late arrival, all he could do in the opening few rounds was to learn the intricacies of the machine and touring car racing.

“We’re just a little bit late with the start, and I’ve got a big uphill struggle having not driven the car so I’ve got a lot to do,” said Hughes, who has no front wheel drive racing experience.

Despite rolling his ex-Dave Newsham Renault Clio, with which he had been adapting to FWD, at Thruxton in February, Dick believes that Hughes won’t have too many problems converting to the Avensis from last seasons’ Ginetta G50.

“Tony did very well with the Clio when we were out testing with that before he had a misdemeanour. In fact I’d say it suited him better than the rear-wheel drive so whilst there’s a fair bit of frustration that we’re not putting miles on the car both from Tony’s point of view and ours, I think it will come good and we’ll get some reasonable results before the end of the year.”

Hughes is targeting a final position halfway up the standings for the year’s end, but isn’t predicting a close battle with fellow Toyota NGTC runner Frank Wrathall.

“There hasn’t been too much rivalry between me and Frank because he’s a lot younger, a lot more experienced, he’s won various karting championships and he’s a damn good driver. I take my hat off to him, but I’d like to be on his shirt tails,” says the 51-year-old.