It’s been a while since I spoke to you last, but it seems to be a good time to look back over 2007 and my first year of racing in the BTCC.
I was really pleased with how my year went. I didn’t really know what to expect as my first race came around, but I soon got myself settled and started to get some fairly good results from early on in the season.
In moving from the Clio Cup into the BTCC, one change I had to make straight away was from front-wheel drive with the Clio to rear-wheel drive in the
BMW. You are always picking things up with that change through the year and we only had two days of testing before the season started so it was quite tough in the beginning. But at the end of the day it is still a racing car and I’m a racing driver, and we managed to get a grasp on the car straight away at
Brands Hatch at the start of the year. After settling in at the first event, I felt comfortable and confident in the car but even towards the end of the year, we were still learning different things with set-up and getting to know more about the car.
Aside from getting used to rear-wheel drive, the hardest thing for me during the year was qualifying and having so many tyres at your disposal. You only really get a two or three lap run out of set at their best and that was quite a challenge for me to get my head round. It is definitely something that I don’t think I perfected and is something that I will be working on for 2008. Unfortunately, Colin my team-mate was probably the best qualifier on the grid during the year so it was a hard mark to pitch myself against! But I was able to learn a lot that I hope I can now carry over to next season.
