Airwaves BMW on the podium at Thruxton
If someone had said to me back in January that I’d have Steven back in the car and I’d have Mat Jackson as well, and then that we’d have a 1-2…well, I’d have looked at them with complete disbelief.
Thruxton is a notoriously difficult circuit for the BMWs, so I was pretty pleased when Mat got a podium in the first race. I thought that was probably the best we were going to get out of the weekend.
If you looked at the pace of some of the other cars, it was clear that there were some very quick cars out there – they just hadn’t worked out what to do with the tyres.
I expected everyone to take some camber off for race two and try to make the tyres last. There wasn’t a lot more to come for us at that point. Then to go into race three and to be running at the front – ok, we got the better of the draw – and to be sitting on the front row with Rob [Collard] and Rob not being in one of our cars was quite strange. That was my driver line-up, Collard and Kane. That was my aim for 2010, that front row.
At the end of last season, with what happened between Matt Neal and Jonny [Adam], Matt was public enemy number one here, but he went from hero to zero with us in that race! Not that we wanted to see that happen to Rob – Steven was running with him and would have raced fairly for the lead. We had a faster car; I think Rob knew that; and he was defending very well. Then that happened though and we ended up 1-2.
After that, the main thing was controlling my drivers and making sure that they brought home a result that could only be a dream for us.
When the safety car came out, I wasn’t all that optimistic because that lets the front-wheel-drive cars cool their tyres down and they can all bunch up with us, which makes it very difficult. But, Steven and Mat pulled off a perfect restart and they were gone. Then they ran to the flag.
You could see clearly that Mat had the faster car, but a quick word down the radio to tell them how important this result was for Motorbase and for Airwaves and we ended up with a 1-2. I couldn’t have been happier!
With all the heartache over the past four weeks, it was great to come away from Thruxton leading the championship in both the BTCC and the Carrera Cup.
I don’t think you can draw any real conclusions form Thruxton, though. It’s such a strange circuit and it throws up so many strange results. I think that’s what happened this time. By the time we go to Brands, we might know where everyone is.
The Hondas are quick. Dynamics have done a lot of aero work over the winter and they’ve done a lot of work underneath the car. They’ve got Matt back and they’ve got Shedden – that’s a blinding line-up. I expected the gas cars to be quicker. They struggled, but they will be quick. And the Chevrolet, too – I don’t know why the Cruze wasn’t quicker down there. That car’s going to be a bullet.
You’ve got to look at Honda, Chevy and Ford. Then there’s still the mystery of the NGTC cars.
Our aim is to keep banking large amounts of points and giving the guys reliable cars. We’ve got two very capable drivers and they’re both going to be fighting hard.
We have no team orders – just that they don’t take each other off. If they do take each other off, they’ve got to come back to the motorhome to get their car keys at the end of the day, so I’ll get them then. At some point, one of them is going to be ahead of the other one and then we’ll see how we have to handle it.
It’s been a great way to start the season for Motorbase and for Airwaves BMW – roll on Rockingham!
Tags: Airwaves BMW, BTCC 2010, David Bartrum, Motorbase Performance, Thruxton
