SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well just two weeks to go until the start of the season, Aidan. Are you looking forward to this year in the British Touring Car Championship?

SPEAKER_00 0:07

I am, yeah, quite excited for this season actually. There's a lot of unknown this year right now because we've only had one proper day in the car. But you know, it's exciting to be a part of that. We might hit the ground running, we might take a little bit of time to get things where they need to be. But I think seeing all the hard work that's been put into the car build, um the initial feeling from it, however it starts, we know it's only going to get better regardless. So it's exciting. There's obviously it might at first be a bit difficult, but I think when you when you know what the bigger picture is and what people are putting into it, it's um you don't mind that and you actually quite get excited for the challenge.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

So swapping from uh the uh BMW rear wheel drive into the uh the Audi, how it was that I mean you you're used to doing that, you've done it before, yeah, haven't you? So it's not as big a shock to you as to some. I mean, have you have you found your feet relatively quickly with a front wheel drive again?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah, I felt the the we stayed at Croft for an extra day and I felt really, really comfortable in the car. Um and it's nice because it's that lighter touring car. Um obviously with uh the hybrid weight coming out and things like that. The last time we I drove a touring car at those weights is uh was the Mercedes A class um in 2019. And I think that a touring car comes alive and they're just that's those extra 70, 80 kilos or whatnot, it makes a massive difference to the car. So yeah, it was to drive the car like that, it felt it just it just felt fun, you enjoyed it. Um the BMW never really clicked for me at all. Um there was a lot of things I kind of directions I would have liked to have gone best on the kind of infinity days, but the kind of the team wanted another direction and it didn't click with me. And I just um I had some issues with the car as well. I think it's quite a heavy car, and you needed to be very light to move ballast around. They kind of need some weight of the right rear wheels to stop them lifting off the ground, which my car seemed to be doing quite a lot, so it was um caused me some issues. Um and yeah, I just decided that the way it was going, I wasn't enjoying that. Um so yeah, that was kind of uh there was a brief minute I thought going to going to Portugal playing golf more times a year would be would be lovely. Um but yeah, the uh the when the I the how do with the power man trace the LQQ when that came around, it was uh yeah, it gave me excitement again, which has maybe not been there for a few years.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

So just uh we've got a test day uh here tomorrow. Um but only two weeks till the start of the season. Is there much to do between you and the and the car before Donington, or are you lots? Uh okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

There's too much to do to cover everything we need to cover before Donington. That's going that's it'll be physically impossible with the time we have. But you know, we could have had more time if the team wanted to keep running old coupras that were off the pace. Or you know, so I mean that's the position we're in, is they wanted to build new cars to be great. Um they wanted to do a lot themselves rather than kind of other people doing parts because they had better ways to do it. Um but to do all of that, they obviously had the rather small issue of um setting up a new base to do it from. So um, you know, I think even after the fire and things, there's equipment, there's you know where things are, you know how things even getting the same machine to do the same job, sometimes it's things are just different. So that was a hell of a task just to get to the starting point, never meant getting from that starting point to the belt car. Um so yeah, obviously things rang on a bit. We've not got the testing we would have liked, but we're in that position because um Adam and the team are trying to provide the best possible car, so it's one of them. It's uh yeah, it would have been nice to get out, but it's by no means uh something's gone wrong or something. It just kind of is what it is with the with how big a task it is to build two brand new touring cars without having to build uh a new uh workface.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

A new facility as well. I know everybody knows what what happened with with Paramax last year, and I think everybody was also uh impressed with Adam Weaver and the team there who showed uh a great deal of ambition, didn't they, to to put cars back on the grid for the end of that season. Is that part of has that been part of your decision-making process as well? You know, that they're a team that have a similar ambition to that which you have.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah, I think um Adam's always been a friend of myself and the family as well. Um we've always got on, and Adam's just he's just a normal, just a real person, you know, he's a good laugh, just a normal person that's does well in business and um do the best he can with a team, which is how we done it when we done it ourselves, and uh brought the infinity out. Um obviously what working with BMR and whatnot. Um and it's just got that nice family vibe and family feel to it, which for me it's an important thing for myself. It's just something we had back in my shade these days with Sicily, it's something we had when we ran our own teams over the years, even when working with BMR with Ash, his team around him. Um I gave all that feeling. I feel it's just a kind of environment that brings the best out of me, perhaps. So I think being walking into a team like that, um it gives you a lot of peace of mind and just kind of puts you in a good mental spot for it as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah, and that that makes a difference, doesn't it? When you climb in the car, if you're in that right frame of mind with the team, you're in the right frame of mind as a driver. Yes, definitely. Okay, good. Um, new qualifying race and format this year, um, which everybody has an opinion on. So, what's yours? What do you make of it?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Well, I'm terrible at qualifying, so I'm happy. Um, qualifying is not my strong point. So a young old racing I can make up a lot of places straight away. He says it's I'm better at racing than qualifying, so yeah, fine by me.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Um there are a number of people saying that uh with every with the changes, everything that's going on, drivers moving, new cars uh and marks coming in, that this season could be one of the best that we've seen for a long time. Are you have you got that feeling?

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Um you kind of so focused on what you're doing that to a degree you don't care about any of that. I think um for us we just want to develop the car as fast as possible and cover as much ground in a little time as possible. So we're just so focused on that that yeah, you obviously want it to be a good spectacle, but I'd rather we were at the front and it was boring as hell than it was a spectacle and we were at the back. So yeah, if they just stay focusing on what we're doing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Um you've had some great seasons, some great racing, you've had obviously some disappointments, but you've been on the top of the grid, you've achieved so much in the championship. But the big one being right up near that front at the very end has just eluded you on it on a you know a number of occasions. Is this the year that those pieces of the jigsaw puzzle come together, or do you need a development year and then next year is the one?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

I'd be surprised if we didn't need a development year. I mean, the expectation is to have a potentially difficult half a season and a strong half a season. Um we love to be proven wrong there, and and that may well be the case, but I don't think we can go out and expect to do well. I think um the team and the people around are more than capable to make that the case. But I think to bring to build a brand new touring car, have two test days and expect it to go out and be right at the sharp end and know everything about the car is a uh it's uh a bit of a tall uh a tall ask. So um yeah, I think you never know, but I we're certainly not sitting expecting that. We know we're going to have a lot of hard work, and I think if you did expect that you'll get yourself frustrated very quickly and um maybe not treat the project how it how it needs to be treated to to bring things on. So yeah, I think if we can have an extremely competitive second half of the year, that'll be great. And anything other than that will be a bonus.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Fantastic. Well, I wish you the very best for the season, Aisan. It's good to uh see you staying in the championship and an exciting challenge for you uh in uh in the Audi with PowerMax. It's gonna be a good season. Um, as you know, because you're an old hand at this, we always finish off with something that's a bit a bit different. Uh, this year it's questions from the highway code. Okay. Right, we'll give it a go. Um, first of all, choose one, two, or three. One. Uh 40 miles per hour, the stopping distance according to the highway code. You can give it me in either metres, feet, or car length.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

I don't have a lot of things. That's a nervous laugh. Metres 40 mile an hour. What is it? Ten metres or something? 36 metres.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Oh yeah. Remember, only a fool breaks the two-second rule. You know that's what I mean. Yeah, that's it. We'll go on, we'll go one more. Um two or three. Two? What shape is the stop sign? I proper overthought this in my head now. It's a circle, ain't that? No, it's a hexagon. I'm sorry to say Mr.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Moffat, you've failed. Yeah, that's a rifle. It's been um to be fair, it's been nearly 13 years since I had to revise it. We give away with the sign, though, it's a big red thing, it's it's stopped, so don't pay too much attention to the to the to the shape in my defence.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

I won't I won't give away uh any uh being discreet and give away any names, but when I asked for the shape, one person said red. So you haven't done so badly then. Aidan good see you have a great day. Thank you very much.