James Cole excited for future of Subaru project

James Cole expressed his excitement for the Subaru Levorg project after a promising opening race weekend at Brands Hatch saw the team come on leaps and bounds across the six session of on-track activities.

The Team BMR driver had his first drive of the new Levorg on Friday evening in a 15 minute session open to all cars, before giving the car its first proper test in free practice one on Saturday morning. Although the team was off the pace compared to Team BMR’s 2015 successes, there were promising signs as the four cars steadily worked their way up the timing screens throughout the weekend.

“My feelings are of excitement of what this package can very quickly become,” Cole told TouringCarTimes. “I think we’re all very impressed how we’re only on day two and we’re already looking for tenths, not seconds anymore. I haven’t seen the times from our final race but it’s very clear for us where we think we’re lacking and we’ve got to do what we need to do to fix that. It’s not a quick fix but I’m very happy and encouraged for what we’ve managed to do very quickly. I’m very impressed with the team in terms of how they managed to turn four cars around so quickly they now deserve a week off.”

The move to the Subaru Levorg signifies Cole’s return to rear-wheel-drive machinery, having driven cars with a similar drivetrain in the majority of his racing career before the BTCC, and is already seeing signs of improvement in his own relative lap times when compared to that of previous seasons.

“It can only move forward, dramatically as well,” continued Cole. “Apart from saying how impressed I am, I can’t say much more than that other than I’m very excited to be back in rear-wheel-drive. My pace relatively to my other team-mates has been better than it has in the past and I suit rear-wheel-drive. I got to grips with it really quickly and in the races the differences between us was tenths so I still have a lot to learn, as do the team, but if we keep improving like that it’ll be great.”

With two weeks between Brands Hatch and the next round at Donington Park, Cole knows there’s still plenty of work for the team to do, but firmly believes that the four cars will continue to climb up through the standings and be regular challengers for points in the near future.

“I think at Donington the team will take another step forward, I don’t know if we’ll be in a winning position yet but if we can get cars in the top ten that’ll be great, we got to take each race weekend as it is.”