With a 30-car Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship field at Rockingham this weekend there’s sure to be action all the way down the order. The championship thrives on the racing action from teams of all sizes and budgets, and btcc.net spoke to Houseman Racing’s team manager Rob Houseman about the challenges that face some of the smaller squads in the pit lane – read his thoughts below:
“We’ve been improving the car as the year has gone on and the team has been working hard every single weekend. We have to keep everything in perspective – we are in the premiership of motor sport up against the best teams, the best engineers and of course the best drivers in the country. That’s what makes it so enjoyable for us – the fact that we’re here at all is amazing, we’re a small team and we work tremendously hard to raise the budget and get out there every weekend.
“It’s testament to the guys in the garage, while most people look at the finishing results, but for us it’s just as important to look at things like DNFs and getting the car through what is an incredibly tough weekend of racing. We wont be able to compete with the guys at the front who have huge budgets unless we get those budgets too! It just means that we set our parameters a little differently.
“It’s a huge team effort, all of us have to double up and have lots of different jobs from marketing, entertaining guests to changing tyres! We have to carefully plan our weekends, try and avoid damage and bring it all together. We punch above our weight, we turn out a good reliable car and I hope put on a good show for the fans – I’m proud of our gang.
“I’ve been associated with this paddock for many many years and we’re working tremendously hard to secure everything we need to stay here for years to come. What gives us the confidence is that it wasn’t that many years ago that the likes of Team Dynamics were a small independent one car team and now look where they are with manufacturer backing. It gives us something to aim for and we’ll keep working at it until we punch through to the next level.”
Listen to the full interview below:
