SPEAKER_01 0:00

Ash, good to see you. Um I'm really sorry uh to say this, but I've just made you said I've just made you feel old because that's this is a a decade for you in the British Touring Car Championship. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

That's a big number, isn't it? Where's it gone? I I I think it I feels like only yesterday I was all essentially the new kid on the block. But yeah, that kind of quickly got swept under the carpet, and here we are a decade down the line.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

It's been an amazing ten years though, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

It has. It has. If we look back at what we've let's say achieved, uh the history, the goals I've gone out and achieved, things like that and accomplished through those years, it is pretty phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

We're two weeks away from the start of the 2026 season, lots to talk about. Um last season just eluded you, didn't it, by a cigarette paper with?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah, I mean, I think I had a taste of my own medicine. I've used that term a couple of times. I mean, if I look back at 23, um I we kind of me and Tom kind of swapped roles ultimately. We didn't have the same machinery as what what Tom did last year, credit to to those guys, but um yeah, it kind of slipped away. We had a couple of bad results throughout the year, which obviously hurt that Tom didn't really have too many of those. Um yeah, it just it was one of those that did we have the quickest car on track? No. Did we try and go about our racing differently? Yes. That's how we tried to stay, that's how we managed to stay so close. Um, that is always gonna be a big ask.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Absolutely. It was fascinating for the fans to watch, but I can sense the frustration still from you. Um, but chance to change that this season. New car, um uh the saloon, which looks tremendous. Uh, and I'm I'm guessing because I'm not hugely technical, but the arrow in that and straight line speed is is one of the considerations.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

I I'll be honest with you, it's the only consideration. That's ultimately why we've gone and done what we've done. Um, yeah, I think if you look back at the actual car from our side, it hasn't really changed too much. Wheelbase is still the same. The actual fundamentals of what we use for our tuning tools, none of that has really changed. Has our high speed balance improved a little bit? Yes. Is it slipper in a straight line? We hope so. Um that's ultimately what we're chasing. So what you visibly see is ultimately the own product. That's the goal we wanted.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

It looks like the touring car from years gone by, just that it looks like a proper touring car.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

It does. I think we're seeing more and more saloons appear in period. Obviously, you've got the Audi and the Merck, and and we've now added to that number. I think it's a bit of a mix, isn't it? I'm hearing people talk of NASCAR, but I don't know if that's just a Napa relationship. I'm hearing Brazilian stock car, that sort of vibe. But yeah, it's and I've heard a couple of people say V supercar. Unfortunately, it drives from the wrong end for that. But um, yeah, I mean, for us, we've got one purpose behind it. We wasn't overly fast about how it looked. We obviously we want it to look a pretty, we want it to look a race car, but it's the numbers at the at the end of the day, the data we want to see is is is faster in a straight line.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Talking about that data, um, you've had some seat time for testing, uh, including Croft. Have you been happy so far? We've got two weeks to go. Uh the test tomorrow is is the last sort of opportunity, really, isn't it, to to do very much. But are you happy where you are in advance at this point in advance of the season?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Yeah, I mean we're in a I think in a good place. We've uh not really put the whole package together. I doubt many people have. Everyone's off doing their own little things here and there and playing around with setup. We've been the exact same. Some of those things have been revisiting what we already know, but just clarifying that it still works with this shape of car, which is what we're we're sort of discovering. But um yeah, I'm I'm happy, I'm in a good place. I think the the whole team seems to we've got a pretty much a complete new team on the car as well, which is uh a big change for us this year. Um, so we're all really bonded in that respect. We've got a good men mentality behind us all. We all want the same goal, we all want to go and win. And that's not just my car crew, that's the whole tech the whole team as a whole. So, yeah, I think ultimately are we in a good place mentally? Yes. Have we got the package to do the job this year? Fingers crossed, we won't know until qualifying comes at Donnington.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Now, talking of qualifying at Donington, new format. Yeah. No, I like it. Okay, right, get topic. So you're you're looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

I am. It's uh sprint racing is right up my street. It's uh get stuck in, yes, it's still, shall we say, qualifying. The the only bit that's gonna be really difficult is the way the TTB is enrolled into qualifying and how we have to essentially we're we're using our qualifying TTB, which is based upon your championship within the race format. So it's that's uh a real twist, and I'm intrigued to see how that's gonna roll out and uh it it's gonna spice it up, especially now that has an effect for your starting position, obviously, for the Sunday morning. I mean, on that the toker turbo boost, if you've got 20 seconds around here on a 46, 47 second lap, yeah, just just yeah, it's uh it's painful, I think, especially if you're sat leading the championship one second, you're up against 20 seconds for every lap of that short race, of course, it's half distance, but still there's a big deficit there. And some tracks we will see seven or eight to a second temps that's gonna pay that you're gonna be up against, and there's not much you can do that, it's simply on a butt.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

It's a variable, an unknown variable at the moment, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 5:40

I think that's healthy. I think I I like change, I like variable because those who react quicker to it pay dividends, but it's gonna make the racing very hard on that Saturday, very, very hard. And I know full well that's what Alan Gale wanted.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah, yes, he did, and and the the fans seem to seem to be looking forward to because it's an extra day of racing, of course, and now I think that's the bit we're we need to not overlook.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Um, the fans are now gonna get a hell of a lot more. It now makes the Saturday much more worthwhile being here, and we hope to see the banks fuller. That's ultimately what the the purpose of the change was to bring that race in there, to be able to have more people here. People make more of a weekend of it, not just a day trip, and the whole thing just gets bigger and better, and there's a lot more love to it.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Is it going to concertina things up a lot more because of the way you can you can earn the points from the qualifying race and the booster we just talked about, which is going to make it more difficult to be at the front all of the time?

SPEAKER_00 6:38

But yeah, I think we're gonna have a much closer championship if we're talking as a whole, but uh in terms of how many people are coming into the final round with a shot. I also think we're gonna see a lot more race winners, a lot more pole sitters, um, probably record-breaking amounts, if I'm honest. I reckon we could be pushing that bar. Um and I I generally think we're gonna see a lot more different championship leaders as well. Believe it or not, I don't think you'll see the one or two drivers bubbling away. I think that will be rotating around it like a hamster will almost.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

It's gonna be interesting, and by the time I don't want to wish our lives away, but by the time we return to to Brands Hatch in October, it's it's gonna be possibly more drivers who are in that mathematical opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And I I want it to be that. I think back to the years when we would come here and there was five to seven of us stood out on the start line getting the championship rival photography done. And it it makes it really interesting. Come race day, you're not just solely focused on that one driver, you're not mirroring that one driver, you're not trying to overcome that one driver. Suddenly, when there's five drivers there, a bit of a different ball game, and um yeah, your focus can't be pinpointed down to an individual, it's got to be spread across everyone, and sometimes you have no control over that. So that's when we're gonna see a topsy-turvy approach, especially towards the back end of the season.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

I I've spoken to some of the new drivers and younger drivers when they come into the championship and they come back for a second year, and one of my questions to them always is how have you changed as a driver and how have you changed in your approach to what you know you might do this season? It it it still applies after after 10 years uh in the championship. Uh Ash, are you coming back this season a different man, a different driver with your head in a different place with a different way of doing things?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah, I feel I'm a big believer in there's nothing than a beaten man. And I look back at 22, we all went away as an outfit, and me as individually, how can we improve? And again, I was a beaten man last year, so I've done exactly that again. So yeah, I think we will always keep learning. There's never a day that you don't think about touring cars or how you can trace that last 10th or the last hundredth sometimes. Um but yeah, I think it's all positive in that respect. I am a different person, I've done my driving style, might have adapted. It it there's little bits that I've learned through winter. I've done a bit of research looking back on uh onboards and ITV footage and just seeing the approach from others and seeing how I can always try and move my goalpost further down the line.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Absolutely. And Tony's with you again this year.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Yeah, that man's never going anywhere on unless I say so. Stuck like glue with Gary. And it's uh it's a perfect relationship in terms of how we work. We we've got we talk the same language. He knows what I want from the car, I know what he can give me, so we only extract the best from each other.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Absolutely, it's gonna be a great season, uh, and I'm sure whatever happens, you'll be at the front end for as much of it as uh as humanly. We hope so. Let's hope so, which is good. So have a great season, uh Ash. Um, as you know, uh, we just finish off normally with something which has nothing to do with driving a touring car. Um words got round, maybe. Um, it's about the highway code.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Oh I word hasn't got round to me, so this was uh this has caught me out. So go on, test me. Um first of all, you have to pick a number uh one, two, or three. Uh here we go. Uh let's go two in the middle.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Okay, what shape is a stop sign?

SPEAKER_00 10:19

A stop sign. Yeah. Oh, why have you done this to me? It's a triangle.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

No, it's a hexagon. Oh, there you go then. So you've got you've got one more chance, number one or number three. Three. Right. This is the interesting one that um that's catching everybody out. Oh, great. Can I go for one then? I can do one. You pull into an emergency refuge area, a stop area off uh off the carriageway. Um, before you rejoin the carriageway, yeah. What does rule 278 in the highway say? Give me that. I'll just let you know the numbers you can look it up. Do you have to put your hazards on, your headlights on, use the emergency phone, or put your arm out of the window in a motion that you're rejoining the carriageway?

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Uh dear, I have no clue, so I'm going with the last one just for the advance of it. The arm out of the window.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

I'm sorry to say I knew it would be wrong, but uh Do you know what it is actually? Um I'll I'll tell you who got it right as well. Um, it's the emergency phone. You have to ring the operator for an emergency area and inform them of your situation before you rejoin so that they can advise you the safest way to do it. It might be that you need assistance to rejoin safely. Well, there you go. Plan to never use that phone, but one now, one of your uh teammates got that spot on, the only person to get it. Who do you think it was?

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Uh Sam Osborne.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

He's absolutely correct, yeah. Yeah. Do you want the third question?

SPEAKER_00 11:42

At least I've got time, right? You did. Do you want the third question? Just no, because I'm gonna really yeah, I won't say what I think. Fair enough while you're ahead. Yeah, exactly that. Good to see you. Have a fantastic season. Lovely. Thank you. Cheers, Steve, thank you.