The bitchiest paddock in motorsport?

The Motorsport Journal looks at the British Touring Car Championship, where grudges last 20 years and the fans love it.

The irony was lost on nobody. When an incensed Jason Plato launched into a tirade against Aron Smith following a clash at Knockhill in 2012 – claiming that “either he did it on purpose and wanted to take me out, or it was an accident and he needs to have his licence taken away” – he could hardly have known that just a few years down the line in his hour of need, it would be Smith, now part of the same Team BMR stable, that Plato would have to rely on for help in the title showdown at Brands Hatch.

Perhaps in light of Plato’s comments at Knockhill, what happened next shouldn’t come as a surprise. Whilst Matt Neal, team-mate to Plato’s chief rival Gordon ‘Flash’ Shedden, played ball, Smith chose to ignore radio messages and held position in race one – taking valuable points away from Plato – before making his team-mate work far harder to pass him than appeared necessary in race two. Afterwards, a seething Plato said Smith had “probably got himself the sack”, but rightly or wrongly, it’s hard to imagine the Northern Irishman loosing much sleep over it.  

Smith found himself at the centre of a team orders storm at Brands Hatch (Jakob Ebrey).

Welcome to the British Touring Car Championship; an arena where grudges can last for years, and form a central part of the attraction. Indeed, the mainstream appeal of the championship today can be traced back to the bad-tempered 1992 finale at Silverstone, which saw Vauxhall’s John Cleland pitched against BMW’s Tim Harvey. 

Cleland carried a slender three point advantage, but Harvey had a trump card – his team-mate Steve Soper. After being spun around on the first lap by David Leslie and then hit by Robb Gravett, Soper’s battered wreck charged back through the field, passing both championship protagonists before slowing to allow Harvey past. Sensing the championship slipping through his fingers, Cleland lunged up the inside into Brooklands, mounting the kerb on two wheels and forcing Soper wide, but the BMW man would have none of it and charged them both off the circuit at Luffield. Even today, Soper and Cleland still disagree over who was at fault, but Harvey was the champion, and the BTCC’s ‘boys have at it’ philosophy was born.

But unlike other racing series that would attempt to distance itself from the controversy, the BTCC is proud of its heritage – Harvey remains involved as a commentator on its flagship ITV4 coverage – and actively caters to the fans’ demand for close racing with a format of three short sprint races, the third of which is reversed and typically produces drama aplenty as the faster cars work their way toward the front.

Two-time champion Plato, the winningest driver in series history on 94 and counting, is one of only two drivers in series history to have won all three races at the same meeting, but for all his success is probably most revered as the BTCC’s token ‘bad boy’. As Smith and countless other have found out, Plato is not afraid to say what is on his mind or provoke his opponents – so irking arch-rival Neal at Rockingham in 2011 that the lanky Brummie threatened to “rip [his] f***ing face off”.

Plato enjoys a huge following (Jakob Ebrey).

A man for whom the term ‘marmite character’ could have been invented, Plato knows every trick in the book, and then some. He’s been banging panels with Neal since the heady days of Super Touring in the late 90s and had more run-ins over the years than anyone might care to put a figure on, but works harder than anybody for his following – comfortably the biggest in the BTCC if Twitter is anything to judge by and at 97.7k, higher than Neal, Shedden and 2014 champion Colin Turkington put together. While his profile can partly be attributed to a spell presenting Fifth Gear on Channel Five, it also attests to the fans’ desire to back a personality.

The BTCC certainly isn’t lacking for those. Alongside Plato and Neal – a three-time champion and veteran of 25 seasons in the BTCC – there’s the star billing of Andy Prialux MBE, who returned to the series this year after winning the World Touring Car Championship three times in succession between 2005 and 2007, uncompromising demolition man Rob Collard, a former hot rod racer who is one of the best overtakers in the business, aviator-wearing seventies throwback Rob Austin, who campaigns an Audi he fondly calls ‘Sherman’ and Adam Morgan, who won a bet with his Ciceley Racing tyre man to get a tattoo – of himself – on his leg.

Former rallycrosser Andrew Jordan put his name in the history books in 2013 by winning the championship with his family-run Eurotech team and says the key to winning over the fans is just to be yourself.

“The biggest thing is you’ve got to be genuine,” says Jordan, who will campaign a Motorbase Ford in 2016. “A few people but on a bit of an act during a touring car weekend, but I don’t understand that. If you’re genuine, you make the odd funny comment or a little bit of controversy, they will buy into that because it’s something they can relate to straight away. If you’re not a funny guy then don’t try to be, you just look like an idiot.

Mid-pack action in the BTCC is always frantic (Jakob Ebrey).

“I’ve had a few words with people, but I’ve never had a big thing with anyone. I think it’s good for the championship if it’s a genuine rivalry – probably the most famous one is Matt and Jason just because they’ve been around for so long – and the grudges just add a bit more spice to it because people can jump on it and get involved, but if it’s not real then I think it’s pointless. The funny thing with Twitter these days is you get so many people saying stuff because they’re behind a screen or behind a keyboard that they wouldn’t say to someone’s face.

“I don’t hide away from confrontation, but if someone’s fired me off into the gravel then going down there and having a shouting match probably won’t achieve anything, it will just wind me up even more. If you’ve got a genuine reason to go and speak to them then great – and if it’s live on TV that’s even better because it’s funny to watch – but sometimes it can get a bit handbags at dawn and when you look back on it you look very silly.”

Jordan kicked off his title year with a somewhat ambitious lunge on Plato for the lead at the final corner, taking both men into the gravel – although it ultimately had no bearing on the final result. Jordan points out that the physical nature of touring car racing means the truly successful drivers will inevitably get into scrapes at some point, but it pays not to have too many enemies that will make it difficult when it really counts; Turkington won his first title in 2009 after a fraught, but respectful battle with Fabrizio Giovanardi’s Vauxhall, while Jordan himself had to rely on the compliance of his rivals coming from the back of the grid after suffering broken suspension earlier in the day.

Jordan triumphed in the gloom in 2013 (Jakob Ebrey).

“I think [Brands 2013] was water under the bridge because we still finished in the order we’d been running; if Jason had been buried in the gravel and I’d won, I think it would have been a completely different story!” he laughs.

“I remember when I had to come through the field I was quite glad I hadn’t upset too many people that year because they will give you a little bit more room when there’s so much at stake, but if you’re going to be in the hunt for championships you can’t be thinking about not upsetting people. You need to be going for moves and if you elbow someone off and it upsets them you can’t be worrying about that.”

If you could sum the BTCC up in a nutshell, that might just be it.

Fanboost: more than just a gimmick?

Snorts of derision greeted the announcement that the FIA Formula E championship would be awarding a 5-second ‘power boost’ at every race to the three drivers who received the most fan votes on social media. ‘How could any racing series dictated by a popularity contest possibly hope be taken seriously?’ asked the sceptics. 

Even those prepared to accept the mid-race car swap – a corollary of the limitations of current technology – were apprehensive. Would unprecedented involvement from the fans in deciding the outcome instead achieve the opposite effect and detract from the winner’s achievement? Could the system be corrupted by teams with larger marketing budgets? Certainly, Fanboost would have a lot of burning questions to answer.

So how then did Fanboost go from being used as a stick to beat the series with to an established part of the furniture in such a short period of time? And was it a coincidence that Formula E’s inaugural champion – NEXTEV TCR’s Nelson Piquet Jr. – also won the most Fanboosts?

Modest beginnings

Fanboost didn’t exactly set the world alight at the inaugural race in Beijing. Although Lucas di Grassi won – thanks to the final corner altercation between Nico Prost and Nick Heidfeld – concerns over energy management meant he didn’t use his allotted boost. It was a similar story for Katherine Legge, who finished 15^th, while Bruno Senna didn’t get beyond the first lap after brushing the wall.

di Grassi won in Beijing, but didn't use his allotted Fanboost (FIA Formula E).

Having had no bearing on the outcome of the race in China, Fanboost usage was made compulsory for the second round in Putrajaya, where we saw the first fan-assisted overtake. Fittingly for such a pivotal moment in the series’ short history, it assisted Senna’s move on Prost for fourth, although the Brazilian would later crash out. Heidfeld was also awarded Fanboost – the German’s first of three on the trot – after a fan’s initiative to help recover the points lost at Beijing. The luckless Venturi driver was thwarted by a robust move from Franck Montagny – later banned for failing a random drugs test – but would recover to finish in the top ten at Punta del Este and Buenos Aires.  

Championship newcomers Jean-Eric Vergne and Salvador Duran were Fanboost winners in Uruguay, alongside Heidfeld. With a point to prove after being dropped by the Toro Rosso Formula One team, Vergne blitzed qualifying to take pole position, but showed his inexperience with energy management as he was forced to pit early. That handed Sebastien Buemi a lead he would hold to the finish, while Vergne retired from second with broken suspension. The Frenchman’s impressive showing helped convince fans to reward him with Fanboost at the next four races, peaking with a second at Long Beach.

Evolution

As the regular frontrunners began to establish themselves, voting trends gradually began to shift away from popular underdogs Legge and Duran to the genuine contenders, with Piquet, Vergne and Malaysia winner Sam Bird winning the Fanboost for round six at Long Beach.

Piquet was a hit with the fans in season one (FIA Formula E).

Piquet had gone firmly under the radar in pre-season, but marked himself out as one to watch with a strong race in Putrajaya – until Jarno Trulli’s untimely intervention broke his suspension – and two podiums on the bounce in South America. Following a fifth place in Miami, Piquet was brimming with confidence at the circuit where his father had won in Formula One 35 years before and leapt from third to the lead at turn one on the opening lap. From thereon he was never challenged, taking his first win of the season, although his dominance effectively rendered the Fanboost void.

The twisty confines of Monaco demonstrated a further, more strategic use of Fanboost. Once again Vergne came out on top in the social media ballot, but didn’t help his cause by qualifying deep in the field, leaving himself vulnerable to any first lap fracas – a common by-product of the principality’s very narrow streets. Sure enough, Daniel Abt was squeezed into the wall in turn two and rammed from behind by Senna, leaving the cars following behind nowhere to go. With broken suspension, Vergne did well just to make it back to the pits, but knowing his chances of completing the race with the usable energy remaining in his second car were next to naught, decided to change tact and used his Fanboost to set Fastest Lap.

This didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the field. At the following two rounds in Berlin and Moscow, first Piquet, then Buemi opted to use their Fanboosts to secure the two additional points on offer for Fastest Lap, rather than save them for an overtaking opportunity. With a just five points between the two championship contenders coming into the final race in London’s Battersea Park – another circuit where overtaking opportunities would be at a premium – both men would have Fanboost, setting up a fascinating duel for Fastest Lap. 

Buemi missed out on the title in London, but the Swiss was the
one smiling when he returned to Beijing (FIA Formula E).

Buemi held the initial advantage, before his time was bettered by Oliver Turvey – another Fanboost winner – and again by Bird. Piquet put in a lap just 0.057 slower than the Virgin driver with two laps to go, but with Buemi stuck behind Senna and powerless to improve, seventh was enough to deliver him the title by a single point.

Assessing impact

Of the 35 that competed in Formula E’s inaugural season, a total of 12 different drivers won Fanboost, two of whom – Turvey and Sakon Yamamoto – appeared only in London. Of those 12, Piquet enjoyed the greatest success with Fanboost, winning two of the six races he was eligible to use it, yet he would more than likely have won both regardless. Mercifully, Fanboost was not so overbearing that those without it could not compete – race-winners Antonio Felix da Costa, Prost and Jerome d’Ambrosio didn’t win a Fanboost between them all season, while all three of Buemi’s wins came without Fanboost assistance – but achieved what it originally set out to by involving the fans in a way no other series can offer, without damaging the integrity of the racing.

A minor facelift for Season Two sees more usable energy available in race-trim – up from 150kW to 170kW – and the introduction of in-race voting until six minutes in. Fanboost winners can now access an additional 100kJ of energy from the battery within a power window of 180kW to 200kW after changing over to their second cars, although with races set to be marginally elongated, its usage will require careful consideration.  

Much like the series that adopted it, perceptions of Fanboost have come a long way in the last 12 months. What could be next in Formula E’s little box of tricks?

Jota's misfortune sees Greaves take European Le Mans Series crown

On a difficult day for Jota Sport, second place proved to be enough for Jon Lancaster, Bjorn Wirdheim and Gary Hirsch to wrap up the 2015 European Le Mans Series for Greaves Motorsport as TDS by Thiriet took victory in a frantic final round at Estoril. Needing to win to keep their title hopes alive, Ludovic Badey and Pierre Thiriet – ably supported by new-signing Nicolas Lapierre – did everything that was required of them in changeable conditions, but knew from the start that their destiny was not in their own hands due to problems suffered at Paul Ricard.

Greaves celebrated second like never before at Estoril - it was
enough to give them the ELMS crown (Nick Dungan).

Starting tenth after Greaves' fastest qualifying time was deleted, Wirdheim had climbed to fifth by the end of lap one, taking full advantage of the slightly damp conditions which caused Tracy Krohn, Leo Roussell and James Winslow to all spin on cold tyres at the first corner. By the time Hirsch climbed aboard, he was third, which would soon become second when Jota’s Simon Dolan, running on slicks, fell victim to a heavy rain storm and floated off the road at Turn Two, losing a lap while he was recovered from the gravel.

Until that point, all looked to be going to plan for Jota. Local man Filipe Albuquerque earned the team an additional point for qualifying on pole and pulled out a half-minute lead over the chasing AF Racing BR01 of Victor Shaytar, who inherited second when Badey ran wide through the gravel at Turn Three. Despite struggling to fire up the Gibson when pulling away from the pits, Dolan was comfortably leading when the rain hit. Almost as swiftly as it came, the rain soon disappeared, but that was little consolation for the luckless Dolan, who now had an enormous mountain to climb.

Shaytar now led from Hirsch and Thiriet, with David Markozov in fourth and Dolan fifth. Thiriet was the first of the lead bunch to pit and switch back to slicks, which proved to be an inspired call, as the fresh rubber vaulted Lapierre into the lead while Greaves and Jota struggled on with intermediates that were on their last legs.

Harry Tincknell took over from Dolan for the final stint, but suffered an even longer delay restarting the car after the stop. With the red mist descending, the fired-up Brit stalked fourth-placed Nicolas Minassian and set the race’s fastest lap before gallantly pursuing Mikhail Aleshin, but the chase had taken the best from his tyres and could progress no further. With no more rain forthcoming, there would be no late surprises.

All went to plan for Jota at the start, but it wasn't to last (Nick Dungan).

None that would change the destiny of the championship, anyway. Despite having to serve a stop-go penalty when Hirsch was adjudged to have released his belts too early, Lancaster was able to resume with a comfortable gap over Aleshin and Tincknell and brought the car home to scenes of jubilation in the Greaves pit, eventually finishing two points ahead of TDS and four ahead of Jota.

Jota’s valiant fightback could only yield fourth place, leaving them to rue the 17 points lost for overrunning Albuquerque’s maximum drive time at Paul Ricard, while AF Racing brought their second car home fifth ahead of the Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 03R following oil pressure problems for Murphy Prototypes.

Elsewhere, a bold tyre gamble from Marc VDS payed dividends as the Belgian squad collected an emotional win in their final outing in GTE. Starting from the rear of the grid, Henry Hassid managed to evade the first corner chaos and moved into an early fourth place, remaining firmly in touch with the lead group headed by Rory Butcher’s JMW Ferrari until Andy Prialux took over at the first round of pitstops. As conditions deteriorated, Marc VDS kept Prialux out on slicks, which proved to be the right call as the track soon began to dry, leapfrogging the BMW Z4 – also in its final race before the M6 model is introduced next year – ahead of the wet-shod Beechdean Aston Martin of British GT champion Andrew Howard.

JMW had gone for a similar approach, but with the less experienced Rob Smith now at the wheel, Prialux was closing rapidly when a second shower hit, bringing both in. VDS took the opportunity to insert Jesse Krohn, who continued the pursuit of Smith until the Ferrari cried enough, transmission problems bringing James Calado to a grinding halt on his outlap.

Marc VDS made the best of the challenging conditions to take a farewell win (Nick Dungan).

JMW’s misfortune opened the door for Howard, Jonny Adam and Alex Macdowall to take a strong second place on their ELMS debuts, while Mike Wainwright, Phil Keen and Adam Carroll made their first podium visit since their victory at Silverstone in the Gulf Racing Porsche.  

Matt Griffin, Duncan Cameron and Aaron Scott were just too far back to influence proceedings in fourth, while a 20-second stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane couldn’t prevent Formula Racing’s Mikkel Mac, Johnny Laursen and Andrea Rizzoli wrapping up the title.

TDS enjoyed a double success at Estoril as Franck Perera, Eric Dermont and Dino Lunardi the GTC championship with a second place finish. The BMW enjoyed a terrific early battle for the lead with Salih Yoluc in the TF Sport Aston Martin – which had led in the early stages with Briton Euan Hankey – but served a stop-go for improving their times under yellow flags, eventually allowing Giorgio Roda, Marco Cioci and Ilya Melnikov through to win in their no. 63 AF Corse Ferrari.

With the championship already wrapped up by Charlie Robertson and Sir Chris Hoy at Paul Ricard, there wasn’t much to play for in LMP3, but Gaetan Paletou and Mike Simpson showed their pace at Paul Ricard was no flash in the pan with a first win of the season in the sister LNT Ginetta. Despite spinning on the warmup lap, the Graf Racing Ligier of Eric Troulliet, Thomas Accary and Britain’s Garry Findlay finished second on debut, with Robertson and Hoy completing the podium in third.

Butcher’s learning curve continues in Estoril

Rory Butcher is looking for further progress in Estoril after an impressive debut showing in the European Le Mans Series with JMW Motorsport at Paul Ricard. The British GT race-winner, who will share this weekend with Rob Smith and Ferrari factory driver James Calado, was delighted with a podium finish on his first outing in GTE, having worked his way past the struggling Porsches of Adam Carroll and Marco Mapelli in the closing stages, but knows he still has much to learn.

“I’d only done about eight laps in the car at Snetterton at the start of August and only received the news that I was going to be in the car about a week before the event, so it was quite exciting,” said the Silver-rated Scotsman, who had team-regular Jonny Cocker alongside to help bring him up to speed.

Butcher impressed on his debut at Paul Ricard (JWM Motorsport).

“It was my first time at Paul Ricard and I really enjoyed it, I really connected with the team and the car. JMW are a really professional squad and they prepare a very quick car, we just slogged it out all the way through the race and the team managed to put me in a position where I could secure a podium in that last stint. Credit to the engineers too because I only had 50 minutes to do on my stint so I knew I could push to that end, anything over that you’re going to be struggling with degradation and I could see the Porsches were struggling for tyre grip.

“It was a really nice feeling to prove that I could hold my own amongst that field, I really want to expand and do as much as I can to establish myself in Europe.”

Butcher recently added a tenth overall on his first start in the Blancpain Endurance Series, but found the step-up to GTE and multi-class racing an altogether different – and slightly addictive – proposition.  

“It was quite interesting,” he laughs. “The LMP2s were unbelievably quick cornering-wise and it could be a little bit frustrating in a straight line because coming onto the Mistral straight, they would initially pull away from you, but about 260 clicks you’d start to catch them back up and you would have to decide whether to pass them or back off and sit behind because they’re so much quicker through the corners. 

"Interesting," was British GT regilar Butcher's description of multi-class racing (JMW Motorsport)

"There would be moments when you would look in your mirrors and there would be nothing there, and you would arrive at the apex of turn nine and there’s an LMP2 up on the kerb shoving you wide! It’s just about managing that and being smart, knowing when to hold them behind you and when to let them by.

“I really enjoyed it, the car has more grip, mainly mechanical but also aero as well; it was nice to be able to carry more speed in towards the apex of the corners. It’s just a more thoroughbred racing car compared to the GT3 and it was quite refreshing not having ABS as well, I enjoyed going back to my roots which are all about having technique and feel for what the car is doing.”

JMW go into the season finale with a mathematical chance of the GTE championship, but with a 24-point deficit to make up, they will need to win with Formula Racing #60, Marc VDS #52, AF Corse #55 and Proton Competition #88 all failing to finish.

Mikkel Mac, Jonny Laursen and Andrea Rizzoli are overwhelming favourites following their Safety Car-assisted win in Paul Ricard, but will be mindful of the final-round heartbreak which befell season-long leaders Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin last season, handing SMP racing the crown. In short, there is everything still to play for.

Tincknell: It’s all in our hands

Harry Tincknell is confident that the Jota Sport team will have enough in hand over the competition to seal the European Le Mans Series title at Estoril this weekend, despite the team’s setback at Paul Ricard.

In one fell swoop, Jota not only lost their hard-won victory to a post-race penalty applied for overrunning Filipe Albuquerque’s drive time, but gifted maximum points to their chief title rivals Greaves, who now go into the final round at Estoril just one point behind. 

This weekend is now-or-never time in Jota's ELMS title challenge (Jota Sport).

With TDS suffering brake problems at Paul Ricard, the French squad need a large slice of luck to fall their way at Estoril, effectively rendering the title battle a head-to-head showdown between the Jota and Greaves squads. But despite having won only once this season at the Red Bull Ring, the Jota-Gibson package has finished on the podium at every round, and it is this relentless consistency which Tincknell believes will give them the edge.

“The pole lap was probably one of the best I’ve ever done, we absolutely nailed the strategy in the race and I was just cruising around at the end thinking about what I was going to say on the podium, so it was obviously gutting to get the penalty; it was an honest mistake and definitely by leaving Filipe out it hindered us rather than helped us, but rules are rules,” he said.

“It’s a shame that we won’t go to Estoril with an 18 point lead, but we still go in there leading the championship, so it’s all in our hands and it’s a track that we know well. I think before we could finish fifth and win the championship whereas now we have to beat the other cars, but Estoril is a good track for us, we tested there at the start of the year and did well there last year, so there’s no reason why we can’t. It’s been a fantastic year for us, we’ve been on the podium every race, so we’ve just got to go and finish it off now, we’ve got one more race and we’ll see what happens.”

23-year-old Tincknell, who is also on Nissan’s factory roster and made his GT racing debut in the Blancpain Endurance Series at the Nurburgring, is open to the possibility of continuing with the team next year, but wants to end the season on a high if it does turn out to be their last together.

Albuquerque, Tincknell and Dolan hope to add to their
victory in Austria at the ELMS finale this weekend (Jota Sport).

“All of last year we were playing catch-up when we crashed out of the first race, whereas this year we’ve been really consistent, which has been massively important. I think along with Greaves and TDS we’ve been the stand-outs of the season, although the SMP cars have been getting stronger, so it will be interesting in the race.

“It’s been a fantastic championship and I’ve loved every second of it, I’m really enjoying driving with Jota and hopefully we can continue next season. We obviously won Le Mans last year which is the pinnacle of LMP2 racing and just missed out on the championship, so hopefully we can put that right this year – in two seasons to be a Le Mans winner and an ELMS champion would be absolutely awesome and it’s everything the team deserves. But we’ve just got to forget all that, it’s a one race shootout at Estoril, we’ve got to qualify well and get the race sorted.”

Lamborghini’s California Kid: Andrew Palmer

It’s easy to imagine that you’re talking with someone much older than his years when in the company of Andrew Palmer. Despite his relatively limited experience, having only made his car racing debut at the 2013 Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final at Vallelunga (incidentally, he won it), the Californian 21-year-old has quickly established himself as one of America’s brightest young talents, winning a race and finishing fifth overall in the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge before making the leap across the Atlantic as part of Lamborghini’s factory roster in the Blancpain Endurance Series for 2015, where he won first time out at Monza.

Palmer has impressed in his first season in Europe with Lamborghini (Xynamic).

Next up is this weekend’s Petit Le Mans, which could see Palmer complete a remarkable season by sealing the North American Endurance Cup, having won both the season opening Daytona 24 and Sebring 12 Hours – his first experience of driving a prototype – before adding a second at the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen in the no. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports LMPC he shares with Mike Guasch and Tom Kimber-Smith. Although the CORE Autosport machine shared by Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and James Gue enjoy a commanding 12 point advantage over Guasch and Kimber-Smith in the regular points after victory at COTA, they must overturn a three-point deficit to add the Endurance Cup, with a possible 15 points available over the 10 hours.

“We’ll try to close it out at Atlanta but it will be really tough, so we can only hope for the best and just keep doing what we’ve been doing the whole season,” Palmer said. “The US has been really good to me this season – the whole deal only came together at the last minute, about two weeks before Daytona happened, so to win both [Daytona and Sebring] was really awesome. We rode that high into Monza and after getting the win there I was just pinching myself, thinking ‘what’s going on? Why are we winning so much?’ That’s a good problem to have I guess!”

There isn’t much comparable between the Chevrolet V8-powered Oreca FLM09 and GT3-spec Lamborghini Huracan, but Palmer believes the experience of driving both – in addition to learning the European circuits for the first time – will ultimately prove beneficial to his development.

“At the end of the day, they all have a steering wheel, a gas pedal and four wheels on the road, so there are definitely transferrable skills from one car to the other,” he says. “I love the prototype but I also really love the Lambo; I’m still a student at university and that’s like the ultimate ice-breaker into a conversation, although I try not to mention it straight away! Of course all the cars over here are fantastic to drive, but somehow it doesn’t carry as much weight as saying ‘I race for Lamborghini’ because it’s such a recognisable brand.

Palmer believes GT cars are reaching prototype levels of development (Xynamic).

“I think we’re seeing more and more GT cars approaching prototype levels of development, whether it be the chassis, the aero components – this car has been in the wind tunnel for hours and hours at Dallara – so every car you drive teaches you something new. The level of technology that every type of class is using is stepping up, so it’s really helpful to run both classes. It’s cool to walk both worlds, not too Americans get to do that, so it’s fun to fly the Stars and Stripes over here.”

The ultimate dream however, remains the Le Mans 24 Hours, a race Palmer admits to having watched since childhood. With the Lamborghini not homologated for Le Mans, Palmer’s route to La Sarthe is as yet unclear, but he’s optimistic that 2016 will present an opportunity of some form.

“I think probably starting when I was ten, we always had it on in the house and the same with Daytona, so it was great to go to this big event I had been a fan of as a child and win," he says. "I would love to have the same feeling at Le Mans, but I’m not sure exactly what route we’re going to take to get there.

“There’s not a lot of Americans who get to have that opportunity, so even getting there would be a great accomplishment. I think 2017 is going to be a golden year in the United States for manufacturer involvement, so anything we do next year to position ourselves well for those opportunities we have to pursue.”

Teams respond to proposed Blancpain GT changes

Reaction among team owners was largely positive following Stephane Ratel’s raft of proposed changes for the 2016 Blancpain GT season, outlined in a press conference at the Nurburgring last weekend. 

In response to concerns that the better-funded teams were gaining an unfair advantage by refuelling more quickly and not having to change their brakes, Ratel announced a minimum pitstop time, sought to address the worrying decline in entries to the Blancpain Sprint Series with revised calendar of five races and an increased cash pot to be distributed among more teams than ever before, and launched an Intercontinental GT Challenge for 2016 - comprising Bathurst, COTA, Spa and Sepang - to give the teams much food for thought heading into the off-season.

JRM are looking to add more cars to the grid in 2015, such as the Always Evolving
entry, which qualified third at the Nurburgring (Always Evolving Performance).

JRM Partnership manager James Walters was wholly supportive of plans to reduce the Sprint Series calendar from seven to five rounds, with Grand Prix venues Hungaroring and Barcelona replacing the little-loved Nogaro and Moscow rounds.

“I’m quite happy that there’s been a reduction in the Sprint Series, ten rounds is good and the move to better circuits is definitely a big plus. For teams that are maybe just looking at Sprint it might look like a small calendar, but for us it’s better to focus on a couple less races and then have a better testing programme,” said Walters. “Especially coming from the side of the manufacturer, we want to attract more young drivers in regularly, so having less commitment on races means we can run more driver coaching programmes and get new prospects in, so I’m pretty happy with it.

“I also think it makes a lot of sense to standardise the classes in Sprint and Endurance. We’re looking at adding an Am car to the full season programme for next season and it was going to be a bit tricky before with the Cup, Pro-Am and Silver in Sprint, so the introduction of a Bronze-Bronze category will help.”

M-Sport team manager Matt Wilson similarly welcomed the alterations to the calendar, but cautioned that levelling the playing field will be no easy fix.

The Bentley Continental GT3 is by no means the lightest
car out there - which affects brake wear (Bentley Motors).

“I think it’s really positive, obviously the Sprint Series was suffering a little bit so losing the smaller circuits like Nogaro can only a good thing,” he said. “And the Intercontinental Cup which doesn’t have a full name looks really interesting; obviously we’ve done Bathurst before, we’re planning to go to Sepang and Spa we’ve done, so on the whole it’s very interesting, the calendar looks really strong.

“The BOP question is a really difficult one to answer; if you look at how close all the manufacturers were to each other at Spa, it was fantastic, but you’ve got some cars that take much less fuel than others and others that can run 150 kilos lighter which is going to be easier on it’s brakes. It’s an interesting preposition, but trying to balance them is probably an even bigger job than trying to balance them on track.”

SRO also announced that Pirelli would take on the tyre contract for the 2016 British GT championship, replacing long-serving suppliers Avon. Whilst Barwell Motorsport boss Mark Lemmer remains unconvinced that his team will extend themselves to a full Sprint campaign alongside prior commitments in the British GT and Endurance championships, he approved of SRO moving to a single tyre supplier across both series.

“We’re very happy in many respects because it reduces our testing costs,” said Lemmer. “The only thing that would change slightly is going from an extremely durable Avon tyre to a slightly more regular-life tyre means we would probably have to increase the number of tyres we use in British GT, which will increase the budgets slightly, but it makes sense on a lot of levels and should make life a lot more straight-forward.

Bartrum (pictured with Liam Griffin, left), was sorry
to see Avon go (Motorbase Performance).

Not everyone was entirely happy however. Motorbase Performance Team Principal David Bartrum was disappointed with the decision to split with Avon, but praised Ratel for listening to the team’s concerns.  

“It does make sense in a lot of ways because if you’re using Pirellis in Blancpain and Avon in British GT, you’re more likely to make a mistake and take a British GT tyre to a Blancpain round – but I’ve got a lot of time for Avon, they work really well with the teams and deserve great recognition for that. They’ve refined their business to a local championship in the UK and they did a good job with it, so it’s an absolute travesty that they won’t be there in future,” said Bartrum, who also runs a successful touring car team.

“I think the gulf has opened up in the teams within Pro, which he has identified, and Pro-Am a little bit as well. They’ve identified that some teams have got a lot more money to spend on their fuel rigs and on their brakes, which will keep the series alive,” he continued. 

“If you don’t let people like Ahmad [al-Harthy] and the Silver-Bronze guys get a result, or feel like they’re getting somewhere, then they’ll be driven away from the series and you’re left with a load of manufacturers, so it’s very important that they do make these changes and they keep it balanced and realistic - rather than futuristic and up in the sky somewhere!”

Osborne believes the move to a single tyre supplier
will mean a better deal for GT racing (Xynamic).

Drivers view: Joe Osborne, Triple Eight Race Engineering

“It works both ways, I’ve been in British GT for nine years so I’ve known Avon a long time and they’re top guys, but I think for the greater community of GT racing it’s better to have a uniform tyre, so teams can jump in and out of the series and know what setup to go for. The Pirelli is probably the better Pro tyre but the Avon is very good for gents, so there’s not all positives but when you look at the bigger picture it’s a better deal for GT racing.”