Target Competition’s Dušan Borković was incredibly frustrated with Hyundai’s Balance of Performance woes after finishing fourth in race one at Spa-Francorchamps, some ten seconds adrift of the Volkswagen Group (VAG) podium finishers.
After the race, Borković told TouringCars.Net that he will stop racing if the BoP doesn’t stop hindering the Hyundai i30 N TCR, and branded the VAG runners ahead of him as competing in the ‘Volkswagen Cup.’
“From where do I begin? From the normal cars, I’m P1,” said Borković. “So if I don’t count the ‘Volkswagen Cup’ I was pretty good.
“And if you don’t count the Peugeot, who is like 100 horsepower more or I don’t know what is happening because he is gaining like 70 metres or 100 metres per straight. Then I’m happy.”
“If I am P4 – but reasonable P4 – then it’s okay. Everybody was crying because I was a little bit faster in Paul Ricard, the rest was quite normal and the BoP was quite normal.
“We need to adjust just 10 or 20 kilos, but then they [BoP controllers] adjusted 20 kilos and with less power and the car already was slower – I can show the onboard from the Paul Ricard and the car was already slower [in a straight line] than Audi, CUPRA and VW. They slow us down still again more.”
The double-winner at the season-opening Paul Ricard went on to say that he will stop racing in the series if this continues as it is too dangerous defending on high-speed tracks such as Spa-Francorchamps.
“This is dangerous, because this is a dangerous circuit and all of the drivers who were not in the Volkswagen cars are going to kill themselves because they are on the limit trying to make something more because you’re losing six tenths or one second in one fucking sector.
“If this continues like this, I will definitely stop. I have my life, I don’t need to risk my life to be 15 kilometres slower on the straight because some guy from the BoP doesn’t know how to see clearly the results because we clearly are in the danger, we are risking the lives, and I’m the only one who has the balls to say that.”
Borković also believes that the process of Balance of Performance needs changing, as he says comparing circuits on the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) calendar with venues like Spa is not viable.
“They cannot compare the small circuits in the WTCR with these kilometre straights [at Spa] where the power of the Peugeot and the power of the Volkswagen Cup cars is like ten miles [per hour] in front of us. I don’t know how much horsepower because this is not eight or ten horsepower, this is 30 horsepower difference and I can show the on-board to show everybody.
“On the last lap [Julien] Briché was catching me – in the second sector he was not faster but in the third sector and the fast first sector he’s catching me 50 or 60 metres like I’m staying still. Next race I will bring my GTR or my Turbo S to drive and then we will be OK.”
When asked if tomorrow’s race was all about damage limitation for the championship, Borković, who currently sits second in the standings, said: “How can you score points?
“Tomorrow the guys who are maybe a bit slower I cannot overtake because I have the same power that they have, my teammates.
“But then behind you you have the rocket machines and the rocket machines will pass on every straight easy. Then I don’t know what to do. I will stop.”