ON
TRACK WITH RICK PEARSON #40
By Rick Pearson
Hello and Happy New Year! Firstly an apology for the period of time that has passed since my last musings. Unfortunately the lengthy off-season sponsor hunt has taken all my spare moments but I felt it was best to focus on that so I could ensure I had some great topics to write about this year! Secondly, I'd like to say a belated farewell to my race-engineer, Rob Friend who has been snapped up by a rival team to be the Chief Mechanic on a FIA Sportscar. Clearly this is a great career move for Rob and we wish him all the very best for this year with Team Jota.
"BACK AND RARING TO GO..." So where are we now and what does 2002 hold? Well, if you've seen Autosport or Ceefax in the last few days you'll know I've signed to run again with Mark Fish Motorsport for 2002. This will be my fifth year with the team and whilst I had offers to return to the UK Clio Cup and even the production class of the BTCC, we felt that we had some unfinished business in Europe. So, we will be returning to the European Clio V6 Trophy.
To a degree this decision was forced on us by a total apathy from UK companies for the BTCC, despite it's fabulous new television deal. It is an expensive Championship for a privateer to get involved with, with a budget of around £150,000 required for a BTC-Production car for the year. Perhaps when it has drawn huge crowds and great viewing figures for a year, sponsorship will be easier to find.
Meanwhile, Renault have invested huge effort on both the promotional and technical side which means the Clio V6 trophy will be better than ever. Firstly and most importantly, we are now part of the Eurosport Super Racing Weekend! Supporting the FIA GT and ETCC Championships we will be racing on the Saturday afternoons with "Live Delayed" coverage on Eurosport. This will give us the greatest possible opportunity to impress the GT teams and maybe earn a drive for 2003. (Are you watching Lister?)
This also means 2 visits to the UK, firstly for round 2 in May and then the penultimate round of the Championship at Donington in October and it also means we have our best ever chance of raising the budget to complete the year!
Currently we have new title sponsor, Freeparking.co.uk, the domain name registrar, who are putting in a very considerable budget, but around £30,000 is left to find from an enlightened company that wants that kind of European exposure or fancies some great exposure which may include the Grand Prix crowd at Monaco. Yes, once again the Clio V6 will be making their annual pilgrimage to be the support race for the glamour boys of F1 in the Principality. And this year probably represents our best ever chance of making the race as the top 30 in the Championship after the first 2 rounds get to go race in Monaco.
Next week, we'll look at the pre-season preparations in more detail but until then I'll leave you with those Clio V6 dates for your diary. After all, if you can't be trackside, you'll be able to see us all on British Eurosport on the same afternoon!
CLIO V6 TROPHY 2002 20th April Magny-Cours (F) 4th May Silverstone (GB) 26th May Monaco (MC) 1st June Jarama (E) 29th June Anderstorp (S) 13th July Lausitzring (D) 3rd August Spa (B) 31st August Imola (I) 5th October Donington (GB) 19th October Estoril (P)
Have a good week one and all! Rick.