Anthony Reid Q&A

I'm disappointed with qualifying here, there's no doubt about that, because the potential's there in the car - we've looked in the data - to do a low 1m25s lap, certainly a 25.4 [Reid's best was a 1m26.016s]. I suppose it just serves to illustrate that we are still learning about the MG. The big thing is if you look at Vauxhall they have a good store of ammunition of testing data built up over the winter. Our lack of running during the winter has hurt us a little bit. It's not like the good old days of Super Touring when you had two full days of testing just before each meeting. Now everything is condensed down to two 40-minute sessions - mixed in liberally with red flags, yellow flags and lots of traffic. So if you get more than about five or six proper clear laps prior to qualifying, you are doing well. You've got to fall or jump on a set-up quickly and effectively and make it work in qualifying, when you've got new tyres. And of course there is a limit on the number of tyres you can use over the weekend - in the good old days I would never leave the pits without a brand new set of tyres. Now you're using the same tyres to analyse different adjustment and you've got the wear-rate to contend with. I've fallen foul just of this lack of experience with the car. After free practice I was feeling very confident, the balance of the car was good, but when we put the new tyres on for qualifying and we had too much rear grip. I know how to fix it and I'm confident that we'll have good race set-up, but you're not giving yourself the best chance when you're starting fifth and seventh on the grid.



Slightly disappointing at this stage. I expected a step forward this weekend, because we've got a new development engine, which is an improvement, though we've still got some mapping issues with it. Just on this particular track, it's not being allowed to stretch its legs. There's too much stopping and starting, but I think it's going to come into its own hopefully at Donington and Snetterton and if we can make some little improvements in the mapping, that's going to help us. I've been pretty pleased with progress up until this weekend and here we've shown great potential, we just haven't quite crystallised that. Running fourth in the championship, only 17 points behind [Yvan] Muller, we're still in there. [James] Thompson and Muller have qualified well with a lot of ballast, so we've got to race well here and the fight could change - it's certainly possible.



I think it's a possibility. We can certainly contend with the Vauxhalls when we don't have ballast - they seem to be able to carry that better than we do and I think that's nature of the current regulations. They seem to suit the four-cylinder engines, the V6 has a bit less torque and when you add ballast you need to be able to punch through that mid-range. It certainly seems to benefit us a lot to take weight out of the car. There's still further work to do on the engine, but perhaps we should go down the European [ETCC] route and give the V6s dispensation to use more revs - which is a fair point I think, because the whole point of the regulations is to give everyone a fair chance. We know we've got a very good chassis, but the trend is for us to be slow in the speed traps. It's a tough championship. Vauxhall still has the edge, but we're catching. And certainly the MG is a reliable car compared to some of the others.
If we can have a good day's racing here and stay in touch, the car will come into its own at Snetterton and Donington. The closing races will suit us. We've got to keep the pressure on the Vauxhalls.



I'm very happy to be racing for MG. Having the time of my life. Not only to race in the BTCC in a competitive car, but also at Le Mans in a car in which you don't have to keep looking in the mirrors. That car did not get overtaken after the race settled down. We were as fast as the Audis, it was fantastic. Unhappily the car didn't finish. To be in the car that was splitting the Audis, running third and fourth for the first eight and a half hours was just a real privilege. I really enjoyed that. I'm really enjoying my time with MG, they've got a real passion for motor racing, you see the guys that actually run the company on the pit wall at weekends - with other manufacturers you never saw that.



No question. The most important thing I've got is this burning desire to win this championship and this passion for driving faster. I'm probably enjoying my motor racing more now than I ever have done. I love it, and I can't see past driving cars. I feel like I'm at the top of my game.