BTCC

Rockingham BTCC: Drivers’ Quotes

4 Mins read

Matt Neal:

“I am never confident, always believe confidence breeds complacency. Who knows RE Rockingham, hopefully with a wee bit of boost back and more twisty bits we should have a chance of getting to the front. Knockhill was a farce with straight line speed, they took it too far 10kph difference on the straights is too much just too much even if they want to make old cars win.”

Jason Plato:

“I can’t wait to get back in the groove at Rockingham. We had awful luck in Scotland. Rockingham is such an important event for us. My championship hopes hang on strong results here. The target is simple, we have to win, and win we will!”

Andy Neate:
“It was great to get out in the car at the Donington test last week, after what was a pretty miserable weekend for everyone at MG KX Momentum Racing in Scotland. That weekend is well and truly behind us now and the test gave me a chance to learn some things and also verify certain others. I’ve got a good feeling for Rockingham.”

Ian Harrison, MG KX Momentum Racing Team Principal:
“We have put Knockhill behind us and are only looking forward to the last three BTCC weekends. We have a lot of ground to make up, but we understand the issues we had at Knockhill which will not affect our performances going forward.”

 

Ollie Jackson: ”We had a few small issues that we had to deal with during the test but we have definitely taken a positive step forward with the set-up on the car. We found more front-end grip and that will improve the handling when we get to Rockingham. I think we have to aim to be pushing towards the top ten again this weekend and get back into the zone we were in earlier in the year. We’ve seen the NGTC cars take big steps forward but hopefully we can run strongly all weekend and be in a position to score some good points.”

Shaun Hollamby AmD Team Principal: “In the [Snetterton] test we discovered that we really need to run the car stiffer than we had been doing, and when we made that change, it improved the handling and the grip. I¹m looking forward to seeing what impact the changes have this weekend as Rockingham is a circuit where we have gone well in the past, especially last year where we qualified tenth and were only seven-tenths of a second away from pole.”

Will Bratt: “Pretty pleased [to be back]! The fact that it’s at Rockingham doesn’t matter so much to me, it’s just good to be back racing again. I’m always aiming to win, that’s why we’re all there. If everything goes to plan there’s no reason why we can’t pick up a win out of the 3 races, but having said that there’s plenty that can go wrong over the course of a weekend and we’re still doing a lot work on the car – so I’m just going to relax and concentrate on putting in the best performance I can, which will give us some great results I think. I tested it at Snett, we had a small reliability issue that cost us a lot of running time but otherwise the car felt really fast and the team have put a lot of work in behind the scenes and made some changes which will big improvements I hope.”   

Mat Jackson: “I think Rockingham should prove to be a circuit where the NGTC car will come in to its own.  With the long corners and abrasive surface, the 18″ tyre should provide us with a more consistent car. Whilst we have enjoyed a great start to our NGTC programme we are still on a big learning curve with the chassis and the break has helped us to get our head around the data that we have gathered in the previous two rounds to understand further what makes the car tick! With new parts arriving daily we are hoping for further improvements on the car that will enable us to challenge for podium places from the off.”

Aron Smith: “After Knockhill I’d say I’m more fired up than ever, yes there was some drama but that’s all part of it! All I want to do is show what we’re really capable off and make the team proud; you wouldn’t believe how much of a team effort it really is.
 “Rockingham has been good to me in the past; in fact I won my first championship in the Renault Clio Cup winter series back in 2008 around there. What’s good about Rockingham is that it’s a good mix of corners; I know parts will definitely suit the S2000 focus so it will be all about capitalising there. Hopefully I can put on another good show!”

Redstone team manager Oly Collins: “I’m approaching Rockingham with an air of caution. With the NGTC car this is where we predicted would be our first realistic chance to challenge for podiums on out right pace and I still stand by that comment. We’ve had two race meetings under our belts and understand the car a lot better than we did at both Snetterton & Knockhill, so now is our time to deliver. We’re still some way behind the two factory backed teams with experience of the
car but that’s never stopped us before!”

Andy Jordan: “The infield section at Rockingham should suit us with the longer corners where our grip and handling will serve us well. I think we’ll be pretty strong there and, if we get a bit of help with the turbo boost figures, we could be very strong.”

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