Famous races: Fabrizio Giovanardi talks about the 2007 BTCC finale

The four-time European champion and two-time British Touring Car champion, Fabrizio Giovanardi, an Italian who has spent five years in the BTCC, talks to TouringCarTimes about one of his favourite moments in the championship – in this case, the 2007 season finale at Thruxton, where he won his first British Touring Car Championship title, which saw a particularly dramatic end to a thrilling BTCC season, after a season-long battle with SEAT Sport UK’s Jason Plato.

Giovanardi reflects first on his thoughts ahead of the finale. “I am not the kind of person who would worry ahead of a showdown, I actually enjoy that kind of situation,” he said. “First of all because it means that I am hunting the crown, but also because that’s what a race driver works for. Those were great moments. I knew the job was not easy.”

The two championship contenders were separated by as little as nine points before the Thruxton weekend. Plato was leading on 265 points, with Giovanardi on 256.

Current World Touring Car Championship driver Tom Chilton, who was Giovanardi’s team-mate at the factory Vauxhall squad, run by Triple Eight Race Engineering, took pole position for the first race. Also this weekend, Alain Menu was briefly brought out of his WTCC commitments with Chevrolet to help fellow General Motors driver Giovanardi to try take the title home, but the Swiss didn’t play much of a role in the end in the title battle, although he did take good results on his first return to the championship in seven years with fourth in the first race and sixth in the second.

Giovanardi managed to win the first heat of the day just ahead of his title rival Jason Plato. The duel had thus far been very intriguing and triggered several discussions, increasing the rivalry between the two. A moment to remember between the two was at Snetterton the very same year.

Plato was fighting with Mat Jackson, who was driving a BMW 320si E90. Into the esses, the two made contact and subsequently lost speed. This enabled Giovanardi, who was just behind them, to try and squeeze his Vauxhall past the fighting duo. Plato tried to close the door on the Italian, who eventually ended up in the grass together with the SEAT driver. The two somehow managed to get their cars back on the road, with Mat Jackson losing several places as he tried to avoid Giovanardi and Plato and Team Dynamics Honda driver Matt Neal getting past both of them.

That was one of the several epic moments of the season, but the best was yet to come. Although he eventually clinched the title in the last race – and by a narrow margin of three points – Giovanardi rates Race 2 as the most important heat of that day.

“The mood was very peculiar,” remembers the Italian. “Jason had just had his famous accident with the Caparo T1 and had sustained burns to his face and hands. Everybody knew this was going to be an epic fight, but the circumstances made it even more thrilling from the outside. As for me, I was not taking that into account before going out on track. Plato is a quick driver and I wouldn’t rule him out of contention because of his injury. I was right, because he was very competitive for the whole weekend. I don’t know if he was in pain or not, but it certainly didn’t show when it came to racing.”

The second race was crucial. If both drivers had failed to finish, it would have meant losing all realistic hopes of winning the championship. At the same time, Plato knew he had to beat Giovanardi and vice versa, as the two were now only separated by five points. The Italian was starting on pole alongside his SEAT rival.

A thrilling fight lasted for the whole race, but the key moment was on lap 13, as Giovanardi remembers: “There was obviously a lot going on in that race. Jason and I were also fighting with Matt (Neal, who was in third), and we were really close all race long. At the start of lap 14, though, it was a really special moment, and looking back on it it was really fun!”

On that lap, with two to go, at the first corner Plato was in second, defending from the charging Neal as well as attacking race leader Giovanardi. As the SEAT driver managed to close the gap on the Honda, Plato made a late move on the inside and ended up touching Giovanardi. The Vauxhall driver immediately put his car straight and went through the grass, followed by Plato, but after that the Brit was no longer able to mount a serious challenge to the Italian’s lead, who eventually went on to win the race.

Giovanardi tells the tale: “It was very close, I could only see yellow in my rear-view mirror. Approaching the first chicane, I realised I suddenly couldn’t see anything there anymore, and I saw a yellow flash in my right mirror. I immediately realized that Jason had out-braked himself and was on my inside.”

Giovanardi had an instinctive reaction which probably handed him the championship: “At that point I knew I was at risk of finding him directly in my passenger’s door. I knew my only alternative was to go through the grass. I don’t know what could have been had I not done that.”

The two came together, but at that point the double BTCC champion had already decided he was not able to make the corner.

“Nothing changed and so no penalties applied for cutting the first corner, especially under those circumstances. When I crossed the line, I felt the championship much closer.”

Rather curiously, as he crossed the line he had a strange thought into his head.

“It’s probably hard to believe, but when I won that race I went back one year and thought how much the team and I had improved. The year before I got lapped at Thruxton, and there I was winning the second race of the day, close to my first British title.”

Although he was not in the lead of the championship at that time, Giovanardi feels the touch with Plato practically handed him the title.

“It was a key moment. Had I done things differently I would have probably lost the championship. At that point I was on a very good form, and went on to finish second ahead of my team-mate Tom Chilton, who defended well from Plato. If I have to think of one particular moment which handed me a championship, I will always choose Thruxton Race 2, 2007.”

The Italian’s career in the BTCC was put to a momentary halt in 2010, when after winning two races in Thruxton at the opening round of the championship at the wheel of his Vectra run by Triple Eight, the team’s sponsor pulled out and left Giovanardi without a seat for the season.

Giovanardi returned to the series last season with Motorbase Performance, which saw the Italian take a podium finish as he tried to get to grips with the all-new for him BTCC cars. “These cars are a different world compared to what I drove in the past. The way things are, you get to finding your limit by working on the set-up, whereas in the past works teams such as VX Racing had a lot more freedom when building the cars,” he said.

“The team did a great job, but the “window” in which you can get a car that suits your driving style is very narrow, and it only happened a few times this season. There are many things you can change on the car, but you only get the right feeling by getting mileage under your belt and it’s not always possible to do so. To be honest, as a driver, nothing compares to the old Super Touring cars we had in the ’90s. It doesn’t mean that the other cars I drove were not awesome, but those cars were really fun to drive!”

Giovanardi is currently evaluating his options for the coming season.

“I am in talks with some teams in different championships. I am motivated and I always look for the package that appeals to me the most. I want a competitive car in a good championship, that is the main criteria to choose, it has always been like that and I haven’t changed my mind.”