BTCC 2009 season
2009 WTCC Chevrolet Cruze Preview
19/06/2010
Alex MacDowall has qualified 4th and Jason Plato 6th for the first of tomorrow's Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at Croft.
Having set the early pace, Alex was top of the time sheets for much of the session but a late surge from Chilton, Shedden and Collard pushed Alex back down in P4 with a best time of 1:25.157s, 0.528s adrift of pole position.
Some final set up tweaks to Jason's car pushed him up the field into 6th place with a best time of 1:25.317, however unable to unlock the Cruze's true pace potential with 36kgs success ballast on board, weight played on Jason's mind:
"The weight cost us a lot here, about 0.5s. But that's what you get when you're at the top of the championship. When the weight comes off the car, it's a completely different kettle of fish, as proved at Oulton Park. The weight really does play a big role, both in outright performance and race-ability (car handling).
We have to think long term results, so in the seven-week gap we have, we need to work on finding more pace with the weight onboard. Maybe we don't win every race, but we must continue to maximise on points scoring finishes."
Commenting on his qualifying performance, Alex said, "That was pretty good – seeing P1 on the timesheets after my first run. It was a reasonable time, I was chasing down Shedden who was in front but he spun going into the complex so I backed off on that lap.
We made a slight setup change for the second run, which seemed to help because I went another three tenths quicker. We stayed P1 with that time, but then Chilton popped up to P1, so we made another rear set up change for the third set. I managed to go a tenth quicker, but still slipped down to P3. Collard just caught me at the end of the session. I'm happy with P4. The aim for the first race will be to get a podium and hopefully please the home ground. I think the car will be great during the race."
Catch all the action from the three races, live on ITV4, from 11:30 tomorrow.
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