Shedding light on the BTCC engines debate

There was some great racing at last weekend's British Touring Car Championship round at Oulton Park, and the Honda clash between Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden also added incredible drama. And yet the ongoing debate about the relative performance of the turbocharged and normally-aspirated cars was still one of the chief topics in the paddock.

Series boss Alan Gow's decision to have cars built to different regulations racing against each other was understandable. It has given teams time to go through the rules transition, but it has given him a headache.

Matt Neal takes off his Honda team-mate Gordon Shedden © LAT

Inherently, two-litre turbo cars are going to be faster than two-litre NA machines. Even with the extra weight over the front wheels, they have the power to outpace the 'atmos'.

Gow has pledged to equalise the cars, but how best to do it? So far, he has chipped a little here and a little there, with a boost reduction for the turbos, and then a weight break for the NA cars, but it's clear from the speed traps at Oulton that parity has yet to be reached.

So far, Jason Plato's NA Chevrolet Cruze has qualified an average of 0.760 seconds away from pole (in each case taken by a Honda), and that includes Brands Hatch and Oulton - tracks at which the Cruze is strong. He also hasn't yet looked capable of taking on the Civics in a straight fight in a race, barring the first event at Oulton when Neal was clearly in trouble.

It's not that Plato should be on pole and winning every race - that would be going too far the other way - but it seems fair to say that a works Chevrolet Cruze driven by the reigning champion would be closer to the pace if there was parity between the different engine types.

However, if Gow is to peg back the turbos further, he is likely to come under fire from all the teams that would drop behind Chevrolet as a result. It could also remove some people from the title fight, which wouldn't help Gow when it comes to putting on a good show.

But Gow says he wants to match the best of the turbos with the top NAs, and that surely means getting the works Chevrolets and Hondas to battle it out at the front. That's no disrespect to the other teams, but with the budgets and resources at the works squads' disposal, it would be unusual for them not to lead the way. Just look at who was at the front last year...

Plato has even suggested an alternative that may help. He believes the Neil Brown-prepared engines in the Hondas and the Mountune units in the Fords have an advantage over the Swindon-built TOCA engines because they breathe better. Put an air restrictor on all the turbos and you bring them back to the NA cars and hurt the quickest entries more while keeping the rules the same for everyone.

If it works, those with the best car/driver combinations would still win, works-supported or not.

Plato has scored four wins despite no turbo © LAT

And if the changes go too far, it shouldn't destroy the championship. The NA cars have now had four meetings with a disadvantage, so one where it swings the other way wouldn't be a disaster.

What is making life difficult for Gow is Plato's finishing record. He has won four races this year, more than any other driver, and came away from Oulton with a first and a second.

Those results, however, don't tell the full story. Of those four wins, one came at Brands after Neal's pole-sitting Honda was punted off, the second Brands success was aided by the Hondas having to fight through the field, the third was the reversed-grid event at Thruxton, and his Oulton victory only came after Neal assaulted team-mate Shedden and robbed Honda of a one-two.

There is no doubt that some of the turbo teams, particularly the Team Dynamics-run Honda squad, has done a great job this year, and there have been some great drives: Andrew Jordan's win for Eurotech at Donington, Shedden's damp victory at Oulton, and Mat Jackson's defeat of Shedden last time out to take his second win of the year for Motorbase. But it would be much better to talk about the strengths of the champion, whoever that may be, rather than be left with the nagging doubt that it wasn't a level playing field.

As GT equalisation has shown, you'll never get to a perfect situation: the varying characteristics of different tracks and cars will always mean the advantage swings around. But given enough time, data, and bravery to keep changing things until a balance is found - whatever the complaints - you can get there in the end.

When GT3 was launched in 2006 there were constant arguments about the FIA's equalisation efforts, but five years on those complaints have died down. And both the FIA GT3 and British GT championships now have strong grids and great racing.

Those are values the BTCC has often been able to sell itself on and still can. It just needs to find the right balance, stop the moaning, and let the best teams and drivers fight it out for us to find a deserving 2011 champion.