Q&A: Gareth Howell – EXCLUSIVE.

Wednesday, 24th January 2007

After two seasons acting as ‘super-sub’ for Team Halfords, Gareth Howell is off to pastures new for 2007 after agreeing a deal to lead Motorbase Performance into its second season in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

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It's obviously been stripped back to the bare bones the shell and is being repainted and then built up by the mechanics who are learning the car as they go. They are very clued up guys, a lot of them used to work for VLR and a lot of guys that are helping out are engineers who worked on the car when it was a works car - and the guys from Northern South have been a great help.

Luke [Hines] has been telling me a bit and will give me a little bit of his data and I'll see if I can tap Jason up a little bit although that might be harder given that he still races! It's a good team and a good car, we have a good deal for the engine tuning that is virtually done so it has all the bones of a good venture.

Q:
And we've already seen the potential for the car in Motorbase hands at Silverstone last year with Tom Ferrier mixing it near the front, and that came with the team having only had it for a matter of days…

Gareth Howell:
Yeah, it was proof of what the team can do and what the car can do. They had that car for four days before the round and were missing countless bits like roll bars, dampers and springs and Tom did a great job just getting it round, never mind being as quick as he was. His quickest time in the third race, I was looking the other day, was half a second off my lap which was the fastest of the race. For a car that you've almost thrown together, it was really competitive and to go out there with so little experience of the car and be vying for the lead showed how strong Motorbase are.

Q:
It looks like being a strong season ahead and SEAT start as the favourites with the Leon but Vauxhall won't rest on their laurels, Halfords will want to reclaim the titles again and we have the RAC BMWs.

From a championship point of view, what do you think you can achieve? Do you feel that a proven S2000 package means you could be an outside bet to finish in the top three in the standings?

Gareth Howell:
I wouldn't bet against that. As a driver, you are there to win all the races and win the championship. I think we are capable of doing that, not winning all the races, but I am going for a championship win and I know that Dave is.