Target Competition’s Josh Files believes driving sensibly in the opening TCR Europe race at the Red Bull Ring could pay off in his championship challenge as he sees “big potential” to claw back points.
The double TCR Germany champion had led the standings before a crash in qualifying at Spa essentially ruled him out of any strong points hauls with recurring damage marring his performance.
With main title rivals Julien Briche, Gilles Magnus and Aurélien Comte all starting the opening contest outside of the top ten, Files’ front row grid position means he feels there is “big potential” of regaining ground in the standings.
“I have to be sensible today, I see who is around me on the grid and I see where the closest rivals on the grid,” Files told TouringCars.Net.
“It does mean that today is a potential big chance to claw some points back, so I do have to be sensible, I appreciate that.
“But at the same time I want to win races, so [Luca] Filippi won’t get an easy ride from me, that’s for sure. I’ll be pushing in the opening laps for sure to take the lead and try to clear off.
“But again you just never know, I just hope that everyone is sensible at turn two because it’s such a big stop at such high speed.
“I’ve seen many big accidents by so many people just being so over-exuberant so fingers crossed it’s a nice fair and tough touring car race.”
After Target Competition acquired and built a new Hyundai i30 N in between the Spa round and this weekend at the Red Bull Ring, Files credited his “track knowledge” at the Spielberg circuit for his pace after teething troubles cost him in practice yesterday.
“Track knowledge is quite important, so I’m going to assume that Luca must have driven a lot here as well, because that’s what helped me to a few nice laps together actually,” said Files.
“On my last flyer I knew what I had to do and I was just a little bit too cautious in turn one, which is sector one and I think I lost two or three tenths just there and then gained everything back where I needed to.
“It’s one of those things, I could have gone a little bit faster but I didn’t. But I’m super happy because yesterday we had a few teething problems with the car new car.
“We sorted them all out and credit has to go to Target [Competition] for in four weeks sourcing, building, re-building a brand new car for this weekend to come and get a front row grid slot so I think it’s a good day so far.”
The opening TCR Europe race of the weekend is scheduled to get underway at 13:30 CEST [12:30 BST].