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Series director Alan Gow vows to get tough with BTCC standards

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BTCC series director Alan Gow has said he is keen to introduce “harsher sanctions” against drivers to help reduce the amount of unnecessary contact seen on track in the series.

A number of drivers were hit with penalties following the weekend at Silverstone, where a number of figures within the paddock were vocal in their views – both on and off the record – regarding the standards displayed on track.

It came on a weekend where Triple Eight’s Josh Cook became the first driver in more than a decade to be banned for a race after incurring a fourth strike of the season, and where both Rob Collard and Will Burns were taken to hospital as a result of the accident that caused race one to be red-flagged.

An increase in the severity of penalties being handed out to drivers – both in financial and competition terms – was amongst the suggestions mentioned by some team bosses following the conclusion of racing and in a statement issued on Monday, Gow himself expressed displeasure at the amount of contact and vowed that the series would work with the teams to “sort it out”.

“I’m not happy at all with the amount of contact and resulting body damage – despite the fact that we have clearly been increasing the amount and severity of penalties for driving infringements,” he said. “We’ve had more and greater penalties this year than in any season I can remember.

“Yes of course when there are 32 cars blanketed by just nine tenths during qualifying then it’s almost inevitable that some degree of minor contact and mistakes will occur – some drivers are truly superb to watch in close duels, but many simply don’t give enough ‘racing room’ to each other.

“So we will keep issuing increasingly tougher penalties where it is warranted, but by then of course the incident has already occurred. The harsh reality is that it’s the drivers themselves who have to take sole responsibility for their own actions. After all, those are the guys who are driving the cars and making the decisions that lead to making contact, or not, with another car – not us.

“We have a teams meeting next month and this subject will be at the very top of my agenda. Personally I’m in favour of ‘lowering the bar’ even further in terms of drivers accruing a race ban, along with introducing other harsher sanctions, and I look forward to hearing what the teams and drivers will also do to help us remove unnecessary contact.

“It can actually be changed quite quickly, largely with a simple change in mindset and attitude from some drivers and teams. We will sort it out…”