BTCC IS BACK WITH A BANG
It took only half a lap for the first radio call for a safety car in this season’s British Touring Car Championship. It was the opening chapter in what was a dramatic weekend at Thruxton in Hampshire with three barnstorming races reminding everyone just what they had been missing. There were several drivers who laid down credentials for a championship challenge, while those who might have been expected to hit the ground running were left slipping and sliding around or, in some cases, facing in the wrong direction or even connecting with the barriers.
But what it also went to prove was just how hard it is to win Britain’s highest profile motor racing championship, and that is counting without the changeable UK weather. There were no option tyres to take into account at the curtain-raiser at Thruxton either. Things will only get tougher from here.
Anyone who watched the action would have been catching their breath. What is great news is that, as we stand at the moment, this will be the last BTCC meeting to be held behind closed doors due to the restrictions in place thanks to the pandemic. The next meeting at Snetterton in the middle of
June will finally see (some) fans click through the turnstiles.
The drivers will tell you that they are there to get on with a job, and they will perform at their optimum whether there are trackside enthusiasts or not. That is nonsense. The sense of occasion provided by the supporters pressed to the fence, and the heightened sense of importance of landing a result in front of thousands of spectators, can’t be underestimated. We can’t wait.
Elsewhere in this issue, our question-and-answer incumbent is a driver we have been after for a while. Hal Ridge managed to track down the nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen and put the MN readers’ questions to the Great Dane. To win Le Mans, you have to be lucky. To win it multiple times, it takes more than luck. To win it nine times is almost implausible.
Kristensen is not just a former racing driver. He is a legend, and he is a genuine motorsport enthusiast. It is not just about earning dollar for the man, it is about a deep-rooted passion for racing that goes back to his childhood, as he explains from page 14.
Luke Barry catches up with up-and-coming rally man Tom Llewellin, who is aiming to follow in the wheeltracks of his famous father David, while Graham Keilloh finds drivers who are still banging the drum for the UK’s most successful and long-lasting single-seater category, Formula Ford 1600. Enjoy.