Well a big year lies ahead for us all at Team Eurotech, and I couldn’t put into words how much I’m looking forward to the season ahead.
Expanding the team is a fantastic thing to do and a big thanks has to go to our sponsors that we have got to the level for a two car team in the BTCC. I’m quite happy to be running the Integra again, although we know that the Super 2000 cars aren’t going to get any slower and we know the development that the likes of Dynamics, Vauxhall and SEAT are going to put in. They’ll get a little quicker, but for what we are hoping to achieve, and for Andy in his first year, the Integra is still a damn good car and can still be a regular top ten machine.
On its day, it can be more than a top ten machine, as I showed at
Brands Hatch last year before a certain Italian left me incandescent with rage. That quote got used a lot and I was a bit cranky – so was Andy afterwards – but it shows that the Honda, on its day, can do it.
I’m disappointed that it meant we didn’t win a race last year and frankly I will be disappointed if we don’t win one this year. In qualifying, if we can regularly knock on the door of the top six or top eight then we’d be happy. Years ago I wouldn’t have looked at it in that way as I couldn’t imagine going into a series and race knowing that there isn’t a realistic chance of winning all the time. But it is no different from
Formula 1. The likes of
Force India know they won’t out-qualify
McLaren and
Ferrari and at this level, I’d rather be competing against the factory teams knowing it takes a damn good day to contend with them than try to do something lower profile just with the aim of winning. You don’t want to buy the trophies.
