Challenging race day ahead for leaders West Surrey Racing

BTCC series leaders West Surrey Racing were left bemoaning the effects of the success ballast after qualifying at Snetterton, after points leader Sam Tordoff could only manage 10th and second placed Rob Collard finished down in 18th.

Team principal Dick Bennetts said the effect of the weight was to be expected on a circuit which isn’t the strongest for the team’s BMW 125i M-Sport, a view also borne out by the struggles of Jack Goff in 16th.

Both Bennetts and Collard were hopeful that fortunes would change after Sunday’s first race, when the cars will most likely lose some of the ballast they carry into it.

“We changed the car quite a bit for qualifying, but just had no balance in the car, which was really strange, it was horrible to drive. We’re very disappointed really,” said Collard to TouringCarTimes.

“We knew the weight was going to be a big factor here and it was going to hurt us. I think we sort of thought earlier though we’d be stronger than we are, cos we weren’t too bad in Free Practice 2, but (in qualifying) we just lost all pace.

“We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow. We’ll get an early night tonight and really think about strategy tomorrow.

“With the weight, it’s going to be very tough to overtake here against the TOCA engines. It’s constantly like cat and mouse, and when you’re carrying the weight you can’t get out of the corners quick enough. It really does hurt, but it’ll be a long day tomorrow, there’s three races, so we’ll focus on making something out of Race 2 and Race 3 and the reverse grid.”

Bennetts analysed the previous form of the 125i at Snetterton, and also pointed to the speed of the cars with the stock TOCA engine on board.

“What you’ve got to look at is how well we’ve done here in the past. We’ve never won with an NGTC car at Snetterton. It’s not a good track for rear-wheel drive – it’s a power circuit,” said Bennetts to TouringCarTimes.

“We’re a little bit disappointed but when you consider Sam’s got 75kg on board, Matt Neal’s just one ahead and he’s got 57kg [on board].

“His team-mate’s on pole carrying 15kg. Andy [Priaulx] was 0.2 off pole last year and he was carrying 15kg. And when you look at all the TOCA engined cars, they’re right up there.

“This track will hurt us because of the weight. You’ve got to stop with it and accelerate with it, and there are lots more low-speed corners.

“In race one, we’ve got to get rid of the weight for race two and see where we end up for race three.”