by Russell Atkins

After pinching both the drivers' and manufacturers' laurels from under the noses of arch-rivals SEAT in the very final race of the 2007 British Touring Car Championship campaign at Thruxton last month, Ian Harrison has admitted Vauxhall didn't do things the easy way.

With Jason Plato winning two of the three opening races at Brands Hatch back in April – and Fabrizio Giovanardi notching up but a sole podium finish at the Kent circuit – Vauxhall were playing catch-up season-long, but right from the early stages the potential of the new Vectra was clear for all to see, a fact Harrison readily acknowledges.

“We got to the first race and we didn't really do a very good job,” the VX Racing team principal said, speaking to Crash.net Radio at Triple Eight's Oxfordshire headquarters. “To be honest Brands was one of our worst weekends of the season, and we came away from there knowing we had to dig a bit deeper than we had done and get our act together a bit more, which we did. We didn't panic, but I think we had a good look at ourselves following Brands.

“After that you could see we were starting to win races at Rockingham and Thruxton, and you start thinking 'hang on, we could actually be in with a shout here'. Then we started making it difficult for ourselves on a few occasions, with mistakes both from a driving and team point-of-view.

“It's been tough, but we kept going. It wasn't just about playing catch-up; it was like a yo-yo effect all season. We'd have a really good weekend followed by an absolutely rubbish one, and then we had to come back and do it all again. Playing catch-up was nobody else's fault but our own at the end of the day, but we were always very focussed on the job, there was no question about that.

“I think that made it a little bit more satisfying at the end, going into the last race one point behind and thinking 'we've had a good go at it whatever happens now'. We just kept our heads down and finished up nicking it right at the end. I'm very proud of all the guys in the team.”

Indeed, Giovanardi headed into the final meeting at Thruxton lying nine points adrift of Plato in the drivers' title standings, but come race three the gap between the pair had been reduced to just one. Harrison insisted there hadn't been too many frayed nerves in the VXR garage, despite what was at stake.

“I wasn't too bad, frankly,” he underlined. “The Rugby World Cup was on the Saturday night, and all the boys from the team were down in the hotel lobby and they put a big screen up. All the lads had their shirts on and I think one or two of us drank a couple of pints of Guinness too many, but it was ok and that meant we went into work the next morning having already had the massive adrenaline rush.

“I got the impression that everybody was pretty cool and collected really…apart from Mike Nicholson, who was on tenterhooks! It was out of our hands at the end of the day – it was down to the drivers to do the job and they did.”