Sam Tordoff is confident that both he and West Surrey Racing can build upon a promising first campaign for the 26 year-old behind the wheel of the BMW 125i M-Sport and mount a serious challenge for honours in this year’s British Touring Car Championship.
Tordoff, who claimed a brace of victories in a single season for the first time in 2015, overcame the development curve in adjusting to rear-wheel drive machinery quickly to equal his career best finish of sixth overall in last years series. This year, he believes the main objective for him and the team has to be progress on last years positive results.
He also believes the move by series officials TOCA to switch technical component suppliers from GPRM to RML will play into his teams hands, as will the team’s efforts alongside Neil Brown Engineering to improve the performance of the engine.
“We’ve certainly set our stall out now, we have to capitalise on that and really progress. I think with all the changes to the regulations this year, it will suit us.” Tordoff told TouringCars.net at Thruxton.
“Last year we struggled with various bits, and our engine was our biggest achilles heel, so that’s where all our development work has gone and the change to RML parts should help us in other ways on the chassis front. All in all, we are going to be a really strong package.”
Tordoff is also bouyed by the recent addition of Jack Goff to the team, replacing the outgoing Andy Priaulx, who moves to the WEC to help front Ford’s campaign. Rob Collard has also been confirmed as Tordoff’s team-mate for another season, giving West Surrey Racing arguably the strongest three-car lineup in the field.
Tordoff feels that, with other front-running teams such as BMR making the switch to new machinery, it is even more important that both him and the team capitalise on the early rounds and steal a march on the rest of the field this season.
“We have a great team. Jack [Goff] is a welcome addition, I’ve known him for a long time and get on well with him. Between me, Jack and Rob [Collard], we have a strong team.” he commented.
“I think particularly with what’s going on at BMR and Subaru, they’re probably going to be up against it for the first half of the season so we definitely need to steal a march on them and try and take the fight to Honda.”
A lack of budget has seen several drivers from last years championship bow out, such as multiple race winner Dave Newsham and former Clio Cup champion Mike Bushell. Tordoff, however, admitted that his long-term sponsors GardX made the path towards a new deal with West Surrey Racing much easier than some of his colleagues have endured to secure their respective deals.
“To be honest it’s never easy, but we did the hard work a few years ago with GardX and got them on board. And over the winter they’ve now been awarded a commercial partnership which means that GardX is the official paint protection supplier for all BMW products in the UK. It made logical sense for us all to come back on board this year. It’s never easy but luckily I’ve got some really loyal sponsors on board.” he revealed.
Speaking briefly about his thoughts ahead of the opening rounds of this years championship at Brands Hatch over the first weekend of April, Tordoff stated that the aim, as always, is to be right at the front.
“We go to win, as we go to every round. That won’t be any different when we go to Brands.”
Team JCT600 with GardX will be present with their newly livered challengers at the official Season Launch, which is due to take place at Donington Park on the 22nd March.