Interview with Alan Gow: Part 1

After the closest championship finish in the history of the BTCC, the series has got its best TV deal ever with most events going out live on ITV1, and all events on satellite channel Motors TV. Yet at the first official test of the year, just 11 cars ventured onto the track. In a two-part interview, Paul Rayner talked to series boss Alan Gow to ask what’s going on with manufacturer involvement, what changes fans can expect in future, and the season ahead.

“I’m looking forward to the season, the grid’s got a whole different look to it,” says Gow. “If you took a photograph of last year’s grid and the year before’s grid it’d look the same. If you took a photo of this year’s grid compared to last year’s grid it’d look totally different. What we have is a greater variety of cars, which is really good."

When asked whether the numbers are disappointing, Gow is defensive: “We always have this sort of number. We always have 18-20 cars at the beginning of the season, even back in the 90s that’s what we had. We’ll probably get 17 at Donington and then 18 after that and you always pick up two or two going through the course of the season; we always end up with more cars than we start off with.”

Although they may not have made headlines or made more than a single visit to the podium, Proton’s withdrawal from the series leaves the BTCC with just two manufacturer-backed teams. So why aren’t manufacturers coming back to the championship?

“Who says they’re not?” Gow replies. “Just because they’re not here this season doesn’t mean they’re not. Manufacturers take two or three years to come into a championship; it’s not something they do on a whim, they’ve got to work it out as far as their product launches and their marketing strategy. There was meant to be one more for this year but it was a bit too late so he’s coming in next year.

“Last year the season was run between 11 cars. The sharp end of the grid and the way the championship will be decided will be the same as last year, so we haven’t lost any quality. We might have lost two Protons as a manufacturer team but to be honest they weren’t championship runners, were they? It’s a good season, it’s probably the most open season we’ve had for a long time.”

From outside the championship it’s difficult to see what’s happening in terms of manufacturer involvement. We often hear about how series organisers are “talking to manufacturers,” but what exactly does Gow do to persuade them to enter the BTCC?

"There was meant to be one more [manufacturer] this year but it was a bit too late so he’s coming in next year."   - A.Gow

“Other than what we’ve always done which is provide them with great TV and everything else, the rest is down to separate discussions and negotiations with what they want out of a motorsport championship – what their marketing aims and everything else are. It’s a very complex thing getting manufacturers into a championship because they don’t just decide ‘let’s go motor racing,’ it’s got to fit in with their new model plans, their product launches and everything else. But the bottom line is if you’re a manufacturer wanting to go into British motorsport, what else are you gonna go into? There’s no other British motorsport that gives them this profile, nowhere near it. The manufacturers that want to do motorsport at the moment are in. The manufacturers that want to do motorsport will come in and they’ll come into this championship because there’s really no other choice for them – it provides them with the best TV, the best crowds, the best everything.”

In part two of the interview, we talked to Alan about season passes, whether the series could visit Castle Combe, or Rockingham, and even got him to say who he thinks are the favourites for the 2005 season. Find out what he said here!

By Paul Rayner