Glynn Geddie admits that the British Touring Car Championship provides a ‘different kind of buzz’ to GT racing, as the Scot prepares to embark on his first season in the championship in 2014.
Geddie moves to the BTCC having spent the past six years racing GT cars. Geddie first raced sportscars in the 2008 Porsche Carrera Cup GB – a series he remained in until the 2010 season. During his four years in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Geddie impressed, winning the Pro-Am 2 category in his first year and following it up with the Pro-Am 1 title in 2009.
In 2013 Geddie raced in the Dutch Supercar Championship with United Autosports and took the title at his first attempt.
Geddie admits that driving a BTCC car is substantially different to the GT cars he has previously raced and is under no illusions that adapting will be a steep learning curve.
“Just going into the front-wheel drive racing it’s about being a lot more patient,” said Geddie to TouringCars.Net. “Not having the aero is a bit strange but after maybe ten laps or whatever we got used to it and it’s just a totally different way of driving and approaching it really.
“It’ll be interesting – it’ll be a steep learning curve for me and the team. I’ve not really got my finger on what it is yet but it is a different buzz to drive it compared to the GT cars.”
Geddie says the decision to switch to touring car racing for 2014 was taken by the team and that the opportunity to prove himself in a different racing discipline appealed to him. However the Scot added that his sportscar racing days are not over yet.
“To be honest it was a team thing [to switch],” said Geddie. “Obviously I raced for United last year and I got on well with them, liked them, and I got offered the opportunity to go with them.
“I’d like to still do some GT stuff and I’m sure there are opportunities that will come up that I’ll be doing GT racing throughout the year as well. It was a good opportunity for me to widen what I’ve done in my career and to start with them from the bottom, so hopefully there’s a lot of years left for them to progress.”
Despite the strength of the grid in 2014, Geddie is setting his targets high and hopes to be challenging for top six positions in the races. The Scot cites the experience of personnel in the team in GT racing and World Touring Cars as important.
“I don’t think I could have got a better or worse year to join really,” admitted Geddie. “I think a lot of people think that it’s a learning curve for the team but we’ve got experienced guys and my engineer’s from World Touring Cars, so I don’t think we’re wanting to cover ourselves with the learning curve too much.
“We need to set our targets high. After the two day test at Snetterton I’m positive – in the wet we were as quick as anyone and in the dry we’ve got some work to do. I think we definitely have to get into the top ten in qualifying and into the top six in the races.”
Geddie races a new-build Toyota Avensis in the 2014 BTCC, with team-mate James Cole’s car coming from the Dynojet team which ran it in 2013.