Robb Holland was left to count the cost of a damaging race three accident with James Cole in the penultimate Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting at Silverstone, but confirmed that 2015 already appears a refreshing prospect for the squad to look forward to.
The American will hand over the seat of his Rotek Racing Audi S3 to former boss Tony Gilham for the final event of 2014 at Brands Hatch GP on 11/12 October, and was left disappointed with the outcome of his concluding outing of the season, after a race-ending shunt in round 27 at Silverstone.
The incident occurred when Holland was powerless to avoid James Cole‘s spinning Toyota Avensis which had been tagged by Hunter Abbott at Becketts, Holland’s Audi slamming into the side of the United Autosports driver of whom he had also suffered a heavy incident with earlier in the season at Donington.
Holland assessed the damage to the Rotek Audi following the shunt, and says that he hopes it can be repaired in time for the season finale at Brands Hatch.
“For, me obviously it’s a frustrating end to the season, because I’m getting out of it at Brands”, Holland told The Checkered Flag after the unfortunate end to his own season.
“Hopefully, we’ll get it fixed for Tony [Gilham] before then but there is a lot of damage to repair. It’s very unfortunate.”
Holland intends a two-car assault in 2015 (Photo: Kingsley Newman)
Holland’s season has been predominantly a learning process with the new machine, certainly one of the most striking on the current BTCC grid.
With two points to Holland’s name in 2014, attention had already shifted to 2015’s plans as early as the mid-season summer break, with Holland looking to introduce a second Audi S3 for next year with the intention to acquire two TBL licences, which would allow Rotek to run a pair of machines for the whole campaign.
“We’ve been making plans I’d say since July this year”, Holland confirmed on his and Rotek’s future plans, insisting that testing and data collection will be aided massively with the introduction of a second car.
“You can’t just sit around until January next year and we know that, what with everything that’s going on with the series.
“Looking at licenses and drivers, there’s a lot of planning that goes into it, which is all interesting. We’re crossing our fingers that we’re going to be running with two cars for next year.”
Photo: btcc.net
The Rotek driver also praised the current state of the competition, adding: “We were P24, a second off pole, and I think next year it will be 32 cars all within a second. I’m very confident about that because the guys down there were certainly getting faster.
“The series has really taken off in terms of interest; you just have to look at the crowds that have been [at Silverstone] over the weekend, you look at the racing which has been exciting and I think that it’s just going to get closer.”
Holland added refreshing news also that the squad have received a high level of interest from drivers regarding their 2015 plans, saying that as many as three drivers engaged with the squad at Silverstone alone in relation to a potential seat at the team.
“We’ve had tons of interest from drivers. We had three drivers here this weekend that are looking to drive for us next year”, Holland concluded.
