Tony Gilham: We have proved everyone wrong

When the charismatic Tony Gilham announced a four-car entry in this season’s British Touring Car Championship, it’s fair to say there were a few raised eyebrows.

The Kent-based team had purchased the two Vauxhall Insignias built by John Thorne last season, and planned to add two Volkswagen CCs which they would build from scratch.

The doubters took the team’s decision to skip the media day test as a sign that they would not be on the grid at Brands Hatch.

But with three rounds gone in the season, the Tony Gilham Racing squad is arguably one of the most impressive outfits on the grid – and the boss says their progress shows they have “proved everyone wrong”.

The one CC they have brought to the track has already scored two podiums in the hands of the excellent Tom Onslow-Cole – and the two Insignias are improving too, having been rebuilt from scratch to an identical specification to the Volkswagen.

Gilham spoke to TouringCarTimes about the progress the car has made, his ambitions for a championship challenge, his drivers, and how the team has proved the doubters wrong.

Gilham on….the progress of the Volkswagen CC

“We were one-and-a-half tenths off the fastest lap of the weekend at Brands in terms of race pace, so we were on it from day one.

“The car is only eight weeks old, and when it was two days old at Brands Hatch it was on the pace.

“We took the decision to skip media day to spend more time on it. The attention to detail was done before we got the car out.

“The time is in our homework. Fundamentally the basis of the car is there, and it is just a case of refining it.

“The good thing is, we have still got a lot more refinements to do, and we know exactly what we need to do to improve.

“Hopefully we are going to be ahead of the game, because we are on the pace, but we have got a lot more to come.”

Gilham on….the progress of the Vauxhall Insignia

“We really went to town on the CC, but at the same time, the Insignias are exactly the same. They are going to get quicker and quicker.

“The cars are identical – everything is the same on them. The only thing that is different is the bodywork, and the exhaust is two inches shorter!

“We built them the same deliberately. We bought the cars from last year, we looked at them and we knew we needed to start again.

“We have built three new cars already, and we have the fourth in build. We will introduce that as soon as it makes sense.”

Gilham on….the drivers

“There was a deliberate reason for us to get Tom in the car. It works for me, it works for Tom, it works for the team.

“Everyone knows he is a fantastic driver, and I want to give him the platform for him to win the championship. I think that is possible.

“Jack [Goff] is improving all the time. We know how quick Jack is. We know that car is just as good as the Passat and we know he is going to get further and further towards the front.

“He is strong, a good character – exactly what we want in the team.

“The same goes for James [Cole]. He has had no front-wheel drive touring car experience, and we knew it was a massive leap to come into touring cars and be competitive from day one.

“He is doing that. He is beating the Audis and mixing it with the BMWs. He is in the points, he’s doing a good job and there is more to come from him.”

Gilham on….proving the doubters wrong

“There were a lot of doubters saying we won’t build the car, we won’t do this, we won’t do that.

“If I say we are going to do something, we generally make it happen. It doesn’t matter what we have got to do to make it happen, we will get the job done.

“It is tough, and there are always going to be doubters. There probably still are doubters. But we will keep plugging away – we are going to do it our way.

“Hopefully we can make friends along the way and prove a few people wrong, but at the same time we are just going to do out best.

“If you do your best and are successful, you have done your job right.”