It’s a tough life being a racing driver: Tom Onslow-Cole gets to grips with the rigours of pre-race publicity
Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog
IT’S a tough life being a racing driver. What with all the getting photographed with glamour girls, fast cars and champagne spraying, it doesn’t seem too bad!
I went up to the Bluebird restaurant in the Kings Road, Chelsea, yesterday to see the Auto Windscreens unveiling of the Arena-run Team Aon Ford Focus British Touring Cars.
The two Focus STs will be driven by the two Toms: Tom Chiltern and Tom Onslow-Cole – the latter receiving the close attentions of the two girls in the picture on the left.
Nigel Davies, the sales & marketing director of Auto Windscreens, told me he was really pleased to be back in motor racing and the publicity it will generate for the windscreen repair and replacement brand.
It’s a canny move. The BTCC racers always produce close racing. And there’s an extra element to bring interest to the cars – they are run on cleaner Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG).
Mike Earle is a highly experienced team owner – I remember him when he was running the Onyx Formula 1 and Formula 2 teams, although he also has experience with the Audi Sport UK R8 Le Mans sports car racer – but this was the first time I’d ever met him. It was a great honour.
I asked Mike if the LPG fuel made any difference to the performance. “No,” came the short answer. “We’ve done miles of testing and you wouldn’t realise it was on LPG unless we told you. Except we only pay 46p a litre for it!”
Of course, the real test will come this Sunday in the first round of the BTCC series, which will be held at Thruxton this Sunday (4 April). One thing’s for sure though, should there be a cracked windscreen during one of the races, the Team Aon cars will have the experts on hand to effect a fast replacement.
