Performance Parity - BTCC

The highlights of the Oulton Park meeting?

The Hondas taking each other out... and Platos rant afterwards!

Firstly why do BTCC drivers insist on blocking. Matt Neal locked up and put his team mate and himself out of race two, robbing either of them of the win, but to me that was only half the story.

I was glad to hear of the Honda team rule that says on the last couple of laps they are allowed to race each other for a win, as long as they don’t take each other out... oops... but why did Sheddon move over on Neal going into the corner? Yes Neal was never going to make the corner but why do touring car drivers feel they have to block each other? The other big wreck of the day was caused when a driver moved over on another car and put himself out of the race!

So on to Platos rant after he won the second race of the day.

Was it a rant or is there some substance to what Plato was saying.

The trouble the BTCC has always faced, and will always face, is “performance parity". This is because the cars are based on road cars and some are front wheel drive, some are rear wheel drive. This year some have turbo engines, some are naturally aspirated. Some are “BTCC spec” some are “WTCC spec” and some are “NGTC spec". Not an easy start if you want an evenly matched grid of cars.

However this years attempts at “performance parity" are not working. Plato does have a point when he complains that his Chevy is down on power. The ease of which a turbo car overtook him in race three, literally out powering him in a straight line, forcing him to slot in behind before they even reached the braking point was a bit much! Plato didn’t stand a chance!

If this was NASCAR, Platos Chevy, and Neals Honda would have been taken straight from parc ferme, away from the teams, to a series organised test to find out how much power the different engine configurations are putting out, and to see what can be done to equalise them... but this is the BTCC, and whatever the organisers have done so far, is not working.

The trouble is, as it stands right now, we are in for more of the same for the remainder of this year and next year until the full NGTC spec cars become the norm in 2013. If it was up to me I would do everything I could to bring in the new spec cars next year, banning the naturally aspirated engines and old cars after this season. The issue is money, or a lack of it.

Which brings me back to Plato. Why is he so vocal with his issues this year. My guess... is it because, unlike the past few years, Plato is paying to race? Has he provided his sponsorship Pounds so he can go racing? If this is the case he is going to get very frustrated when race after race he has no chance of actually competing, and is powerless to do anything about it.

Money is in short supply in motorsport at the moment, to the point where the “works” teams of Chevrolet and Honda aren’t really “works”. The teams are privateers who are faced with the prospect of buying new engines and developing totally new cars, and this is not going to happen overnight.

Maybe one step towards “performance parity” is to ban the old spec engines after this season, and ban the old spec cars at the end of next season, ready for the 2013 NGTC restart!

Several things have been bothering me about the NGTC cars this year. Firstly I still do not understand the idea of a rear wheel drive Audi A4. Since when have Audi ever had anything to do with rear wheel drive? If the cars are supposed to reflect the road car layouts then the Audi should be four or front wheel drive. Or, and this is my personal preference, if you are going to allow a rear wheel drive Audi then why not just make them all rear wheel drive!

I have said it before and I am happy to say it again... Bring back rear wheel drive!

The other thing that I have been thinking about is the new spec NGTC cars lack of pace compared to the older cars. For the 2011 and 2012 seasons this may be become an issue as no team is going to develop a new car if they have no chance of winning races with that car for up to two years. Is this lack of “performance parity" due to the differing car specifications, or due to the NGTC teams lack of budget to develop the cars?

I hope the NGTC cars are slower than the old cars! We know that the new spec engines will produce more power than the old ones, once the turbo boost is turned up, but it does not bother me if the cars are not as “good” as the older spec cars. More power in more technically even but lower spec cars, maybe even rear wheel drive cars, sounds like fun to me!

Whatever your opinion is I am glad Jason Plato said what he said, when he said it, and I agree, Mr Gow you should tell the fans what is being done to sort the problem of “performance parity”!