James Nash secured a brace of top 15 finishes during rounds 15 and 16 of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship but is unhappy with the reduction in success ballast given to BMW and SEAT.
With 14 of the 21 cars entered coming from BMW and SEAT, the Milton Keynes based racer knew that it would be hard to make an impression in his Team Aon Ford Focus and his initial impressions were proved correct.
“We now have a nine week long break until the next race in California in September and I hope that we can use that time to push through some more new developments for the Ford Focus,” explained Nash.
“It is clear that the breaks given to the Seats and BMW’s have cost us. I understand the theory that the break was given to reflect the discrepancy between them and the Chevrolet’s, but frankly apart from possibly Gabriele Tarquini in the semi-works Seat the Chevrolets are quite simply on a different planet let alone performance level to everybody else anyway.”
Nash finished the qualifying session 19th fastest but was able to climb up the order on both occasions. In the first Brazilian race, Nash was involved in a seven car battle over 13th position, a battle which was picked up on by the Eurosport cameras.
“It would be easy I guess to lose motivation starting so far back but, that isn’t me and I was determined to give the races my best shot,” added the 2011 British Touring Car Championship Independents’ Champion.
“Race one in particular was fun and at one stage I was in the thick of a seven-car battle for 13th that raged for several laps. It was so good that I understand that the television Director chose to follow the battle instead of the Chevrolet’s leading the race!”
Next up for Nash and the team is a trip to Sonoma Raceway in California for the maiden WTCC race of the USA over the 21/22/23 September.