Craft-Bamboo Racing Team Principal Richard Coleman says that he is glad to have entered his team into the TCR International Series, adding that he believes it can coexist alongside the World Touring Car Championship.
Craft-Bamboo Racing, with backing from Russian oil firm LUKOIL, entered the new series with a trio of SEAT León cars for Pepe Oriola, Jordi Gené and Sergey Afanasyev. The team spent four years in the WTCC between 2010 and 2013 campaigning Chevrolet cars, before being forced to take a sabbatical in 2014 as the series switched to new regulations.
Whilst the team have returned to the WTCC in 2015 with a single TC1 Chevrolet, the British outfit have also entered a three-car squad into TCR with a departure from the Chevrolet brand for the first time.
Coleman doesn’t see the new series as a direct competitor to the WTCC believing, like many others in the paddock, that both championships can coexist alongside each other.
“I think there’s room for TCR and WTCC to coexist together, I don’t see them as necessarily the same thing,” said Coleman to TouringCars.Net. “TCR is obviously aimed and oriented much more around teams. It doesn’t necessarily depend on manufacturer interest, whereas the WTCC does.
“I think TCR presents very good value for money, but having said that it’s very easy in its first year to do that. It has to maintain that mantra on-going to keep the costs down, otherwise it loses its place in the market.
“It’s no secret that the WTCC has become expensive for independent teams right now. The WTCC depends on OEM [original equipment manufacturer] interest – if there’s more OEM activity in World Touring Cars then it’s got a bright future. But I do see them as being able to coexist, I don’t see them as the same thing.”
Craft-Bamboo Racing are not only one of the most experienced teams in the TCR paddock, but the outfit also has one of the most experienced driver line-ups. Gené was the lead development driver for the SEAT León Racer and has extensive experience of the car, whilst Oriola has also started to make a name for himself in touring car racing. Afanasyev also has considerable experience in GT racing. Consequently, Coleman adds that he has set the bar high for his team.
“I’ve told the guys that the objectives for this team in this championship is to win the drivers’ and the teams’ titles,” added Coleman. “To be honest anything outside of that is a disappointment. Of course there are good quality drivers and good quality teams in this series so that’s not an easy objective at all, and the BoP [balance of performance] is something which is often beyond our control, but I’ve got confidence in the series that it will pan out and that we’ll be able to compete over the course of the season.
“There are a few circuits on the horizon that don’t look like they’ll be very favourable to us, in particular Monza and Salzburgring which are power circuits. If you look at the dynamic of the series there’s a lot of power circuits on the calendar, but we’ll just have to see how the BoP works out.
“I’ve got full faith in the championship that it will, but the objective is to win.”