Andy Priaulx may currently be sitting only fourth in the current World Touring Car Championship drivers' standings – with barely half the points total of leader Gabriele Tarquini – but he is adamant there is no way he will be giving up the fight as he bids to make it five international tin-top crowns in succession.
The Guernseyman is battling against the odds in 2008, as the defending three-time WTCC Champion finds himself and his BMW 320si up against the might of SEAT's five-strong turbocharged diesel brigade – and with just one victory to his name so far this year, the discrepancy in performance between the petrol and diesel-powered machines is clear to see.
“I think it's complicated,” he reflected, speaking exclusively to
Crash.net. “When I look at the situation as it is at the moment, it's a number of things that are contributing towards our pace not being good enough. It's not just BMW struggling – it really is that the regs aren't suited to us.
“We've lost standings starts and now have rolling starts, we're carrying extra ballast, we don't have a sequential gearbox, the tyres don't really work on a rear wheel-drive car – I could go on and on and on.”
There is significant merit, therefore, in the fact that it is Priaulx who heads the petrol-powered drivers in the title chase, seven points clear of the next best-placed contender, countryman Rob Huff in the Chevrolet.
Looking back over the latest outing at Brno in the Czech Republic – and ahead to the forthcoming rounds at Estoril in Portugal and in front of his adoring home fans at Brands Hatch at the end of the month [win tickets by
clicking here] – the 33-year-old is well aware that things could have gone rather better, but remains insistent that, with 14 more chances to score still to come, there is a long way to go yet.
“Brno was tough,” he acknowledged. “It was a difficult weekend, I was carrying a lot of ballast and we didn't perform particularly well. We qualified well, but sometimes you have these weekends and you take it on the chin.
“Hopefully you can be determined enough to turn it around, and I don't think the championship is by any means over, so I'm going to work really hard to try and improve my performance for Estoril.
“If there's one person other than me that I'd like to win a race, though, it's Alex [Zanardi – who secured his first WTCC triumph in Brno since Istanbul nearly two years previously]. It was a very special day for him, and obviously good for BMW with the manufacturers' points as well.
