Today our editor, Phil Woods had the pleasure of talking to Dan Welch, a BTCC driver who races for his own families team, Welch Motorsport. Dan has been racing in BTCC since 2011, finishing 22nd in the championship during his maiden season. His most successful season was in 2012 when he was 15th in the standings, he also had his best finish of his BTCC career, when he was 4th at Oulton Park.
its not a cheap hobby to have. So the more work I can undertake myself is work I don’t have to pay someone else to do. You never stop learning, as we’ve moved through categories we’ve always had to try and catch up. We’ve always tried to place ourselves in difficult championships not going for an easy ride, but that is the main reason for us really financially its the best way to do it. Some of the budgets with existing teams, they have to charge it as they all have workshops, overheads, staff costs and that all costs a lot of money so that’s why we’ve done it. PW – (That brings me to a couple of questions further down with you talking about money), British Touring Cars is a good way of giving smaller teams the chance to race in a big series, I used to know quite well Tony Gilham, Team-Hard. I know that as a small team starting out they got the chance to get in there. Whereas going into things like F1 you’ve got no chance unless your millionaires, do you think you will see a day when a small team manages to rise to the top without the need for a huge budget in touring cars?
DW – Well I think you’ve got examples right there with what Andrew Jordans done. They’re not a huge outfit yet they are well funded, but don’t have a huge budget like Honda has. They’ve just applied their resources really well, got the right people on board and have done a fantastic job. It depends how you look at it of how small or underfunded team you want to be. We are probably one of the smallest teams that turn up on a weekend and still there are 22 of us there. As soon as you get 2014 is set to be an exciting year for Dan as his team have two to touring cars there is no such thing as a small team. cars on the grid. Dan will be hoping to get that well deserved elusive podium, good luck Dan, we will be watching with in- PW – The NGTC car is being lorded as a way for smaller teams terest. to get into british touring cars and be competivie, now you’ve As you will read, Dan started his racing career from an early age in karting, as do many other racing drivers. He moved up to the Seat Cupra Championship in 2007 where he managed to finish 5th in the championship. Dan also raced in the Ginetta G50 cup and then in 2009 he competed in the Seat Leon Eurocup.
ran one from the beginning in the touring cars, do you agree Phil Woods – What made you decide to start motor racing, with that, that it is a good way for smaller teams to get in and and how much your dad was an influence on it? be competitive? Dan Welch – I don’t think I ever really got a choice to do anything different. With growing up and going racing every weekend it was just a way of life! I started when I was about 6, and how I ended up getting into it was dad back in the day used to race against John Button, Jenson’s dad, and it was kind of one of them things that John would come along to the meetings. And they decided that Dan was at the age to get into racing and basically took me under their wings for a few years. PW – How difficult is it to move through the categories, you’ve been with your family team since the Seat Cupra Championships, most drivers as they move up through the categories look for a new team. But with you being with a family team all the way through I’m just wondering if you had more knowledge of the challenges that people face as you move through the categories?
DW - That was the whole concept of what’s now the British touring car, the concept of it was that you didn’t need millions of pounds and a manufacturers budget to develop a car. That there are so many stock parts to bolt together and then its up to the engineers to try and get the performance out of it, there’s still plenty of areas where we can make a difference, but the idea is to help cut costs and cut budget and put more of a level playground out there, so if you had a manufacturer turn up they would just blow everyone else out of the water. PW – So do you think its helped then moving to the NGTC? DW- Its been for everyone at Toca quite a tough project to bring together but I think the grid numbers sum it up. PW – There’s a lot of ex champions on the grid this year, does that make it more exciting or daunting for yourself?
DW – The main reason we’ve always done it as a family team is the cost side of things. As you move through the categories DW – Neither really, they’ve all only got 2 arms and 2 legs. So
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