- Tom Onslow-Cole returned to the team to replace the injured Ollie Brown
- Tom is carrying 45kg of new driver ballast for free practice, qualifying and race 1
- Nic returns after missing Knockhill due to accident damage caused at Oulton Park
- Jack was the lead car in 21st place
- It was a blustery but dry day throughout
Jack: “Firstly, it’s great to have Tom back in the team this weekend, it’s been seven years since we were teammates in the BTCC, how time flies!
“Out of the box the car felt reasonable in FP1 and something that we could definitely work with to progress forwards over the weekend. As everyone knows, tyre wear is extreme at Thruxton, even on the hardest compound of tyre that Goodyear supply so we took the decision to compromise our Saturday to save the majority of our tyres for tomorrow’s races to maximise our chances of scoring a good haul of points.
“So, whilst we’re disappointed with today’s results, tomorrow will offer a great chance of making progress up the field and into the points.”
Tom: “Well that was fast! It’s great to be back in the BTCC and to come back on the fastest circuit in the country was interesting to say the least. Honestly, I’ve been so excited since announcing that I would be back driving the Volkswagen CC and I wasn’t disappointed when I jumped back in.
“Today has just been about getting back in the grove of driving a touring car. The differences between this and GT racing is quite dramatic, I can finally ride the kerbs again!
“I’m happy with the overall balance of the car, it’s just the speed at the top end which we are struggling with and here that hinders you in a pretty dramatic way.
“The 45kgs of new driver ballast is a pain and I’m looking forward to getting rid of it in race 2 tomorrow but we’ve tried to be smart by running around on some real old tyres throughout the day to save as many Goodyears as we can for tomorrow’s races. Once we lose this weight, I’m confident we can make progress.”
Tony Gilham (Managing Director): “We tried a number of new setups today as this was our first running on the hard Goodyear tyre with the new aero and chassis developments that we made to the CC over the winter.
“We are pushing hard to give the CC the best send-off possible as it has been a great servant for not only the team but also the championship over it’s seven-year life. However, the car is still lacking in a straight line which is disappointing and is really highlighted around this high-speed circuit. We are struggling to unlock that extra couple of tenths in qualifying unlike the other teams which is putting us further down the grid then we deserve.
“Tomorrow is a new day and I’m confident that the tyre plan that we have selected for this weekend will prove fruitful come Sunday evening and we can drive away from Thruxton with some points.”