Sam Tordoff is optimistic about the off-season progress that both West Surrey Racing and Neil Brown Engineering have made with the engine package for his BMW 125i M-Sport, believing that a fast, reliable engine this season will stand him in good stead to compete at the sharp end of the field in this year’s British Touring Car Championship.
Tordoff, who claimed a brace of victories at both Oulton Park and Croft last season, is joined this season by series stalward Rob Collard and a fellow race winner from last season, fans favourite Jack Goff.
West Surrey Racing were present at Thruxton on both the 17th/18th February, testing Jack Goff’s #31 Team IHG Rewards Club machine, with each of the team’s three drivers taking two fifty-five minute sessions behind the wheel. With last seasons engine still fitted to the car at present, all eyes are now on the engine supplier, Neil Brown, to see if they can deliver an improvement on last year’s unit.
Tordoff reiterated his faith, however, that the experienced engine supplier will be able to provide him with a potent weapon to use in this years championship.
“Our problem [in 2015] was the engine; we’ve always had a fantastic chassis and the engine has let us down,” said Tordoff to TouringCars.Net. “That was our one main focus for the off-season, to improve the engine. We haven’t got a new engine yet, which is why we’re all here [Thruxton] with one car and the 2015 engine, but we’re confident that Neil [Brown] knows what he’s doing and he’s going to produce the goods.”
Thruxton poses several unique challenges to the teams and drivers, with Dunlop providing a softer compound tyre for use exlusively at the 2.4 mile Hampshire circuit.
Bearing this in mind, Tordoff believes that, contrary to usual practice, both he and West Surrey Racing have been able to learn new things with the car that can be applied more broadly as they continue their development path this off-season.
“Usually, you test at Thruxton to understand Thruxton, and it doesn’t really apply anywhere else. But with the new RML components, any running is useful. We’ve already seen from my personal running this morning that the car reacts quite differently round here to how it did before, so that will then apply next week when we go out testing again.”
Moving forward, Tordoff’s focus is now centered around more personal running before the opening rounds of the championship get underway at Brands Hatch over the first weekend in April.
He also admits that he would much rather receive a competitive engine later in the winter than the opposite scenario, despite the obvious drawbacks to completing pre-season testing mileage on a now outdated engine package.
“[I prefer] more seat time. This was my first time out in the car in 2016 and I think we’re out every week between now and the first round, hopefully. The new engines are imminent, I’m not sure when they’re going to arrive – probably Media Day! But as long as Neil Brown can produce us a fast, reliable engine then I’d rather it was on his dyno getting better and better than on our car.”
Team JCT600 with GardX will be present with their challengers at the only timed pre-season test as part of the official Season Launch, which is due to take place at Donington Park on March 22nd.