Tales from Rockingham

Vauxhall Sport boss gets ready for farewell

Brands Hatch's BTCC finale on October 4 will, barring a shock reprieve from corporate bigwigs who've never set foot in a touring car paddock, represent the end of Vauxhall's continuous 21-year involvement in the series as a works team.

Former rally co-driver Mike Nicholson has been Vauxhall's sports boss since those early days in 1989, and his massive enthusiasm for the sport has carried him to almost all of the 490 BTCC races held since the Astra GTE was wheeled out for John Cleland to dominate that first season. He also presided over the Formula Vauxhall, Vauxhall Junior and Vectra Challenge series that used to feature on the TOCA support bill.

And if that's not enough, wife Marie was one of the lynchpins at Barrie Hinchcliffe Productions, whose legendary delayed-highlights packages catapulted the BTCC stars to TV cult-hero status in the series' 1990s heyday.

So with just one round of Vauxhall participation to go, it was time to quiz Mike at Rockingham on his best memories of the past 21 years...

Favourite car (contenders: Astra GTE, Cavalier, old Vectra, Astra Coupe, Astra Sport Hatch, new Vectra)

"The Astra Coupe - it was such an amazing car; born to be a race car. The aero was fantastic, the engine was strong and we had some cracking drivers. It was so good it was almost embarrassing. Everyone expected us to be 1-2-3 all the time, which is fine for a couple of years, but when you get to the third year you really want to have some competition. Then we changed to the Sport Hatch and found we had too much! You could see it on the data: on the long back straight at Snetterton the Sport Hatch would hit a brick wall two thirds of the way down, and the Coupe would just keep going."

Favourite era (contenders: Group A, Super Touring, BTC Touring, Super 2000)

"The most competitive, when you used to get really nervous before a race, was in the Super Touring days, with eight or nine manufacturers. But when you look back there were still only 18 cars on the grid, plus the odd independent. Even so, it has to be my favourite time."

Favourite driver (contenders: too many to mention)

"It's really close between four of them - Fabrizio Giovanardi, Yvan Muller, Jason Plato and John Cleland. But the problem with Yvan and Jason was having them in the same team - they didn't fit in with each other. Yvan in particular has this awesome car control, and always set up the cars a bit loose. You could never get Thommo [James Thompson] to run his settings!"

Best driver (contenders: ditto)

"It's too close to call between Yvan and Fabrizio. Right now the edge would be with Fabrizio, but maybe that's because we're running him at the moment."

Favourite season (you'd expect him to choose a title-winning year, so let's choose 1989, 1995, 2001-04, 2007-08)

"It's got to be 2001 when, after really struggling, to hit the sweet spot was rather special. But one of the most satisfying wins was with JC [Cleland] when he won the title in 1995, especially after being robbed in '92. JC was a great driver - I loved his fiery temperament."

Favourite team (contenders: Dave Cook Racing, RML, Triple 8)

"For personal reasons it's got to be Triple 8. I used to have stand-up rows with Roland Dane [one of the team founders, who now runs Triple 8's Aussie V8 team] - once we had one in a restaurant, with everyone staring at us! But we got on famously, and when he went off to Australia I really missed him."

Yvan Muller and James Thompson © LAT

Most embarrassing memory (contenders: we're going to have to trust Mike to come up with a good one here...)

"We had this Australian chairman at Vauxhall, he was ex-Holden, and was really enthusiastic about motorsport. It was back in the days when we had tyre changes in the races. Yvan came out of the pits at Brands Hatch on cold tyres just as Thommo came past with his tyres warmed up. Yvan went up the inside into Paddock Bend and slammed into Thommo, right in front of our Australian chairman. He let us have it with both barrels after that!"

Not quite BTCC, but scariest Australian pit fire (contender: 1998 Bathurst 1000)

"Ha! I was stood in the garage, and Derek Warwick went, with the fuel hose still attached. It was like slow motion as I watched these fuel droplets coming towards me, and then suddenly there was this searing heat - unbelievable. I turned and ran, but tripped over and headbutted the rail at the back of the pits. The lad who was refuelling was on fire, but other teams put him out. Two or three of us ended up in hospital - but I was only there for a lump on the head. It didn't knock any sense into me!"

Herbert makes his mark

BTCC aficionados wouldn't normally be expected to be fans of the Spice Girls, but when Mel C, the sister of tin-top folk hero Paul O'Neill (Rorty Spice?), spun the reversed-grid wheel of fortune, she set up a classic third race at Rockingham.

It provided plenty of talking points: Tom Chilton, the man on pole, clinging on in front for several laps in his Ford Focus; Stephen Jelley proving his maiden win earlier in the day was no fluke by taking another victory; class act Fabrizio Giovanardi displaying some out-of-character thuggery on Mat Jackson; and Jason Plato proving what he's always said - that his title shot is a forlorn one - by throwing caution to the wind and getting delayed in a collision.

But what about Johnny Herbert? On his second BTCC outing, the three-time grand prix winner got his Team Dynamics Honda Civic well and truly stuck into a race that must have reminded him of his epic FF1600 days from 1984-85, when he raced against Mark Blundell, Damon Hill, Paulo Carcasci, Bertrand Gachot and a cast of spaceframe-clad hooligans.

"Yeah, but it was maybe even better than that," he smiled. "It was like being back in karting, and it's nice to have that type of racing again - it's been such a long time. I certainly wasn't going to let them tell me what to do! As long as you're smart, you can put yourself in a position where they can't get rid of you."

Johnny Herbert (Dynamics Honda) duels with Fabrizio Giovanardi (VX Racing Vauxhall) at Rockingham © LAT

Herbert paid particular tribute to sparring partner Giovanardi: "He's one of those who isn't stupid. He does just enough space-taking that if there's something about to happen, he's got enough room to get out of it."

Since replacing James Thompson, it's been tough for Herbert to get on terms with front-wheel drive, and he believes he isn't there yet: "The team's expectations with what to do with the car, bearing in mind what Thommo did, were confusing to me. It was only when we did it in qualifying here that I found it worked. It's the opposite to what I've done before.

"I'm proud to have adjusted so well in such a short space of time."

As a postscript to this, it was sad that Giovanardi, understandably miffed to have been knocked out of the points, criticised Herbert and trotted out the old Senna-esque 'he's not involved in the championship' line. If that's the case, why don't we just eliminate 18 cars from the Brands finale and go to watch a three-car race between the Italian, Colin Turkington and Plato?

Carroll the coach

Any Formula Renault team worth its salt has a driver coach. Among the familiar faces in the TOCA-supporting series' paddock this year have been Robbie Kerr, Kelvin Burt, Warren Hughes, Rob Bell, Duncan Tappy, Tim Mullen, Danny Watts, Jonny Kane, Allan McNish (as mentor to rookie Harry Tincknell) and Andrew Kirkaldy (although he doesn't count, because he actually runs CRS Racing).

With Kirkaldy and CRS chum Mullen busy racing in the FIA GT Championship, Tim's cousin Adam Carroll has been called in to help the five young racers in the CRS awning over the past two rounds, at Silverstone and Rockingham.

It's been a frustrating summer for Carroll since winning the A1GP title for Team Ireland in May. When Team Ireland seatholder Mark Gallagher and chief engineer Gerry Hughes joined Lola for its planned Formula 1 graduation, it seemed obvious that Carroll would be a leading contender for a drive. But then the FIA rejected Lola's application...

"There was genuine interest with what I demonstrated in A1, but it didn't happen and that was that," said a philosophical Carroll at Rockingham.

He remains optimistic for 2010. Gallagher is now at Cosworth, while an interest from IndyCar team Andretti Green Racing is encouraging. "Number one is F1, because I've been trying to get there a long time, but IRL is good. The good thing is that Andretti Green did A1, and most of the team got to see me drive. I've got a good relationship with those guys and it's positive. But no matter what you're going to do, you've got to find the money."

KMS team-mates Timo Glock and Adam Carroll during the 2003 F3 Euroseries race at Zandvoort © XPB

Carroll's case for a top seat is compelling. Many forget that he was called up by the KMS Formula 3 Euro Series team late in 2003. Its existing driver was a young German called Timo Glock, who had been there since early 2002, knew the tyres, the circuits, and had the latest updates on his car. In eight races together, their qualifying score was four-all.

"Timo is a proper racing driver and we remain good friends," said Carroll. I'm working as hard as I can to make sure I race against him in F1. You just need an opening somewhere. There'll be an opening..."

Smith hopes for Manor chance

After dominating at Rockingham, West Midlander Dean Smith has put himself in a prime position to claim the Formula Renault UK title for Manor Competition.

Although Manor Grand Prix boss John Booth sold the FR squad in late 2005 to husband-and-wife engineers Tony and Sarah Shaw, Booth still retains a keen interest, and Smith hopes to test for his Manor Motorsport F3 team before too long.

It would be a remarkable achievement to win the title, as Smith missed the opening round at Brands Hatch, where he competed in the Carrera Cup. "If we'd started the year, we'd have been talking about wrapping it up this weekend," he said at Rockingham. But there are no regrets: "I'm glad I did the Carrera Cup. We didn't even know then if I'd be racing anything. Just to be doing Renault with Manor is a massive thing."

Smith, an unassuming, friendly chap, has more excitement to come. He's only 21, but he's already in the family way, and a child is due in February. Just as well his dad is in the pushchair business! Both dad and grandfather-to-be are poised to map out a racing career for the little one, should he or she show any interest: "We'll do it properly and not make the mistakes we did with me!" smiled Dean.