by Russell Atkins
Leading British Touring Car Championship ace Tom Chilton has admitted he dreams of a future in endurance racing, and he will be dipping his toe in the water with a handful of outings in the Le Mans Endurance Series over the forthcoming campagn.
The 21-year-old will be competing on a regular basis for Vauxhall in the BTCC this year, but when those commitments allow he will also participate for Arena Motorsport in the LMES, behind the wheel of an LMP1 Zytek. It is a prospect he is evidently relishing.
“Arena ran me a couple of years ago,” he told
Crash.net, “and I raced with them for three years in the BTCC in a Honda Civic Type-R. The car is similar to what I raced a couple of years ago, though I haven't driven the new-spec car yet. It's got different tyres and downforce and a bigger engine – it's gone from I think a four-litre V8 to a 5.7-litre V8 or something like that. It's a quick car, a lot quicker than a BTCC machine.
“Two years ago I did five LMES races and won two of them with Hayanari Shimoda as my team-mate. At this stage I can't really talk too much about team-mates, but I think it's a great series and it will be good for me to get some more races under my belt in it. I feel I'm still learning as I've only done five races in the championship, and I feel there's definitely more to come from me as a driver. I can't wait to get out there with those guys, learn a bit more and hopefully get a couple more wins under my belt too.”
The Surrey-born star recognises the fact his prior knowledge of both team and car will be a vital boost as he aims to build on his already impressive victory tally in the series.
“Whenever you move to a new team and you don't know a few people there it's always tough to start off with because you have to learn about everyone,” he explained, “but if you can go back to a team you've known for a long time everyone already knows how you tick. You can go out there, do a few laps, come back in and say this, that and that and bang, it's done – you can literally get straight back out onto the track again. It's great.
