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James Thompson Q&A

James Thompson has been a BTCC star for the best part of a decade, and finally he has claimed the title he has wanted for so long. But last weekend's Donington Park finale started badly when an engine blow-up led to points being deducted from his championship lead. He actually went into the weekend a point behind team-mate Yvan Muller and was cursing his bad luck. The 28-year-old talked to Nick Phillips about how he was feeling 48 hours before his misfortune became nothing more than a bad memory.



"What can you do, really. I'm just going backwards at the moment, points-wise. It's nothing that I've done and I can do nothing about it. You can never predict what's going to happen. That engine had done 100 kilometres, the one we took out before - to be safe - had done 1,400 and was fine. It's just one of those things, but unfortunately it's hurting my championship massively. I'm now not leading the series and I've got work to do, instead of having a nice five-point lead. It's frustrating and unfortunately I've fallen foul of it, but there's no point in moaning the rule's a rule and it's not going to change. It's not as though I'm going out there and over-revving the engines and so blowing them up, we've just got a failure in the engine that occurs anytime that it wants to rear its ugly head, unfortunately, and there's nothing I can do about it."



"OK four points is not a lot, but it's better than being one behind. The fact of the matter is that at least I had a position where I could have finished behind Yvan in one of the races, but now I have to beat him in both. It does put a slightly different complexion on it. It is frustrating - I've probably lost more points than anyone else this year because of failures and stuff, but you've just got to think that somewhere along the line there's got to be a positive. If I don't win the championship, I think that probably I deserve to win it to be honest. If I don't, I don't."



"Unfortunately, yeah. It's not all doom and gloom though. It's a good car and we know it well, so we've got a good chance of putting something on that's going to be competitive. We did some race simulations in the first session and then we were just going out to try and get a decent qualifying set-up, when it blew up on lap three or four or whatever. So it is a guess for qualifying - it will either be right or need a bit tweaking. So I will just get on with it and try to see whether I can get the pole positions - or at least one of them - and get some points back. I just hope I don't have another engine go."



"Well it's the same one that was taken out before Brands Hatch, rebuilt. If we'd left it un-rebuilt I wouldn't have lost five points. So it's a bit of a bitter pill to see the same one going back in, but without the [original] seals - bit of a double kick in the balls. What can you do? I think I've driven as well as possible this year. I've not made one mistake myself; I've not been to see Bob [BTCC clerk of the course Bob Kettleboro] this year; kept out of trouble; qualified with most weight on-board generally by winning feature races after I got out of synch at the first meeting. I think I've done a good job, so if it doesn't happen because of a silly rule about engines, then so be it. Unfortunately it doesn't come up that way on your CV - would have been champion but for silly rule-change... That's just the way it is."



"You've got to be in a good frame of mind, but this doesn't make an ideal start. It was bad enough having to pick myself up after Brands and having such a dire weekend there. You think that's got to be it now, I've got all the bad luck out of the way. Then I come here - and it does give you a bit of a kicking, but I've just got to get on with it and do a decent job over the weekend."



"I can't say at the moment. I'm not under contract, so at the moment I'm a free agent. I've had a good year. Last year for a number of reasons was not good for me, but it's been much more back to the norm in 2002. I'm happy with the performance and I think I've got a lot to offer teams in general, so I'll just see what happens. I've really enjoyed being with the team [Triple Eight Race Engineering] - it's one of the best I've ever worked with, if not the best. But I still want to make sure I'm in a position to win. If I don't win it this year, I've got to make sure I can next year - if I'm actually in this championship..."



"Yeah, the nightclubs of Belfast were pretty good, but not really the roads - or should I say the bumps. Where I crashed, the lads were mightily impressed. They said they knew I was going to have an accident from half a mile away. I went off down the straight, caught out by a bumpy road. It just pitched me off. Rory [Peugeot works driver Galligan] went off at the same point so it shows it can be done by the best. The guys who were marshalling broke into a toast. It wasn't lack of commitment..."



"Yeah. I've sent the entry form in and hopefully it will be accepted. I've always wanted to do that, from when I was growing up. My dream was to do the RAC Rally, so it would be great to do it."



"I can't - lack of experience really. And I still love the racing. It's fantastic and it's what I do best at the moment - there's no point in changing and giving up what I enjoy and I haven't won the championship yet. When I've won a few, maybe I'll think about it."

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