General News
29/Nov/2012
tech-speed Cruze appears
Stalwart Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship team tech-speed Motorsport today re-appeared with its NGTC-engined Chevrolet Cruze in a test at Donington Park.
The Warwickshire squad has raced in the BTCC since the early Nineties but hasn't been seen since the end of 2011's season when it ran two Cruzes in full S2000 (normally-aspirated) trim.
But today it rolled out one of its cars, now fitted with a latest NGTC-spec turbocharged engine, at Donington in Leicestershire for BARC production touring car trophy racer Joe Girling.
The 22-year-old from Hull had hoped to race the car in one of this year’s final two rounds but is now concentrating on the 2013 season and the BTCC’s newly-created Jack Sears Trophy for S2000 machinery.
Team principal Marvin Humphries told btcc.net: “We gave the car a shakedown at Bruntingthorpe yesterday but today was its first proper test of sorts. There have been a few inevitable teething problems but generally everything has run properly.”
Girling added: “An S2000 car with an NGTC engine is not going to be a match for a full-on NGTC machine in 2013 but the Cruze will be ideal for me to contest the Jack Sears Trophy and enable us to gauge how we’re performing compared to the other S2000 runners.
“It’s my first time in a BTCC car and it’s a steep learning curve – the biggest thing is how it just sticks to the road when cornering. Hopefully I can test the car once more before Christmas but where we don’t know yet… let’s keep an eye on the weather forecasts.”
Also in action today at Donington Park sharing the Speedworks Motorsport team’s Toyota Avensis were Lea Wood and Dave Newsham (see separate story).
