MIRACLE REBUILD AND ANNOYING TECHNICAL TWEAKS
The miracle story in the build-up to Croft was the Motorbase Performance squad’s rebuild of the Ford Focus in which Rory Butcher had suffered a horrendous shunt just two weeks earlier at Silverstone. But it was a grim Croft for the team, with Butcher’s progress inextricably intertwined with the mishaps of title favourites Ash Sutton and Colin Turkington.
First, Butcher qualified 10th, but Motorbase team manager Oly Collins pinpointed a lap that was half a second up – in other words, good for the front row – when the red flags appeared for Sutton’s crash. Then the Scot, already up to fifth on the opening lap, nerfed Sutton into a spin at the complex. Although he scarpered away to finish fourth, he was penalised back down to fifth behind the recovered Sutton. “There was no malice in it – as I arrived at the apex Ash was cutting across and our paths crossed,” he explained.
Then Butcher was collateral damage in Turkington’s second-race mistake: “With
Colin going straight on I had to take avoiding action. It then put me back in the pack, and I had a slight touch with Adam
Morgan, and that spun me off at high speed at the chicane – it’s fortunate there’s not a tyre barrier there…”
The other talking point was
TOCA’S tinkering with the starting-boost restrictions for rear-wheel-drive cars. Before the two September rounds, the BMWS and Infinitis were restricted by 6.5% up to 125km/h, but this was almost doubled to 11.5% up to the same speed. From Croft, it stayed at 11.5%, but the speed for the restriction to take effect was cut to 110km/h. BMW squad West Surrey Racing arrived at Croft having tried it out in a shakedown at MIRA, and was unimpressed, with the team’s Tom Oliphant particularly vociferous.
“It’s a token gesture,” he fumed. “We’ve got good traction – that’s physics. But front-wheel drive is faster on the first two laps, better on the brakes, and better in difficult conditions. I agree we had to be pegged back, but I feel it needs to be looked at again.”
As a purist, it’s hard to disagree with Oliphant. What next? Compulsory failure of rideheight tests (as happened to qualifying topper Tom Ingram and the Hyundai of third fastest Senna Proctor) for RWD cars to even things up? Motorsport has always been – and should always be – about the advantages and disadvantages of various machines and concepts playing out naturally across a season.
“FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE IS FASTER ON THE FIRST TWO LAPS AND BETTER ON
THE BRAKES”