Gow fuming over BTCC track-limits standards

British Touring Car Championship boss Alan Gow has slated his drivers after a new track-limits deterrent failed on its debut outing at the opening round at Donington Park.

The unpopular chicane tyre stacks, which have come under fire in recent years following several car-damaging incidents, were removed ahead of the race weekend.

Instead, series organiser TOCA invested in four new cameras, with two situated at the chicane, and one each at Redgate and the Old Hairpin.

But a deluge of track-limits offences across the two free practice sessions led to several drivers sitting out a period of running in the sin bin, and the tyre stacks were reinstalled in time for qualifying and will remain in place for Sunday’s races.

“They’re high-quality 4K TV broadcast quality cameras,” Gow told Autosport. “We said to the teams we will invest in this because no one likes tyre stacks. At the teams’ briefing this morning we told them, ‘This is what we’re doing. As long as you can control yourself we won’t need to put the tyre stacks in.’

“They didn’t, and then after FP1 we talked to all the team managers again and told them, ‘You’ve got one more chance to make sure your drivers can drive within the track limits, otherwise we’ll be forced to put the tyres back.’ And they didn’t.”

What was remarkable was that three drivers were sin-binned in the opening half of FP2 for offences since the start of that session, rather than a cumulative total dating back to FP1.

“Now you know why we put the tyres back!” added Gow. “We had the same in FP1, read them the riot act and thought, ‘OK, they’re going to be a bit more sensible now.’

“We clearly defined where you can be on the track, we sent them a note saying, ‘This is the colour kerbing you can use’, and said very clearly, ‘We will put the tyre bundles back if you can’t manage to drive around the track properly.’

“All the support series are managing without them, but this mob… they get what they deserve. What really annoys me is that TOCA invested this money to help them, and we’ve wasted that money because they can’t manage the drivers on the track.”

Speedworks Motorsport Toyota driver Ronan Pearson was black-flagged no fewer than three times, although starred later on to make it into the final six-car qualifying shootout.

“You have to applaud the organisers for giving it a shot,” said Speedworks head of racing Danny Buxton. No one want the tyre stacks. It reduces the amount of racing through there, it increases the damage, but everyone has to just stay on the track and we’re as guilty as anyone.

“Ronan had a couple of bad judgement calls and was also a victim a couple of times of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with other cars spinning and him bailing out and triggering the sensors. We’ve had a bit of a debrief and there’s total clarity, shall we say, for the interpretation of the rules.

“It’s always difficult with such a short course and such an evenly matched field. At the end of the day we advise our drivers, and I’m sure the others do, to stay on the track. You can only do your bit.

“But a racing driver isn’t a racing driver unless they’re pushing the boundaries. What’s the fastest way round a track? The shortest possible distance.”

Even with the tyre stacks back in place, several drivers fell foul of time deletions for track limits in qualifying.

Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai driver Adam Morgan set a time good enough for sixth – and graduation to Q2 – in the opening segment, but all his laps were deleted for track limits. One Motorsport Honda racer, Josh Cook, should have progressed into the final shootout in sixth place in Q3, but this time was struck off, promoting Pearson.

Gow said that the cameras would be in place at all remaining rounds this season.

“We’ve spent a considerable amount of money buying these cameras and putting the controls upstairs in race control,” he explained.

“And those circuits where tyre bundles are used, like the Thruxton chicane, I’m happy to try it again on Saturday morning and see if they can drive on the circuit.

“I’m persevering with it but these guys need to know that if they can’t help themselves, we can’t help them any longer.”