BMR Racing team boss Warren Scott reflected with TCF on an opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship weekend full of thrills and spills at Brands Hatch, the Volkswagen squad leaving as leaders of the Teams’ Championship ahead of Honda.
With BMR arguably holding one of the championship’s most eye-catching driver line-ups of 2015, Scott’s team-mates Colin Turkington, Jason Plato and Aron Smith all showed front-running pace in the opening weekend of the season.
Irishman Smith was the outfit’s star performer after his front row qualifying effort of Saturday, ending Sunday’s trio of races in Kent second in the championship and a mere point behind Matt Neal and Jack Goff thanks to a brace of podiums in races one and three.
A race two podium for Turkington and Plato’s appearance alongside Smith on the race one rostrum visit added further silverware for Scott’s BMR squad, which head to Donington Park on 18/19 April topping the Teams’ Championship by two points from Honda Yuasa Racing.
Speaking to The Checkered Flag after the weekend, Scott said: “We’ve got the pace in the cars, plus we go away with good team points overall.
“Aron’s preformed extremely well, obviously Jason’s shown immense pace as well, so I think that the trust we’ve put in the lads from the workshop has come out successful.
Fans flocked to see drivers on Sunday – Photo: btcc.net
“It’s going to be hard, don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of good people and cars out there that can challenge.
“But that’s exactly what we’re going to do as well. We’ll keep making steps as we go, I know that, so we’ll challenge them all year.”
The weekend was also marred by scrapes and a bout of misfortune for the Volkswagen squad, the biggest disappointment arguably falling the way of double champion, Plato, denied an 89th BTCC victory of his career by a puncture at Paddock Hill Bend when leading race two – caused by a stray debris shard.
Scott added his sympathy, but said that the pace of his three team-mates on the softer compound Dunlop rubber was a good sign for the season, commenting: “I think Jason began to struggle on the softer tyre. Aron in race three started ok but it got a little bit better as it went on. We’ll see how things go, but it’s still early in the season.
Photo: btcc.net
“We’ll keep plugging away and hopefully it will keep going the right way.”
Reflecting on his own weekend, the team boss endured a rather truncated meeting despite showing flashes of pace across the two days, collecting a best result of 22nd in race one.
A very inharmonious trip into Paddock Hill Bend’s inside tyre barrier caused considerable damage to the #39 Volkswagen CC in second practice on Saturday, Scott playing catch-up from that moment. Another off at the same picturesque downhill right-hander ended his second race the following day, collected by Martin Depper’s Eurotech Honda Civic.
Scott lamented his Brands Hatch misfortune, saying: “I’ve had a very unlucky weekend, I just keep doing things wrong! The first incident in free practice two was my fault, but since then it’s just been little gremlins such as bending things we couldn’t quite find.
“In testing, I’ve not been that far off where I should be. I still lack a bit of experience but the car has certainly got the pace.”
Scott’s accident in free practice two was a heavy one, as you can see for yourself below:
