Warren Scott said that Team BMR‘s Subaru Levorg ran strongly throughout their opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting of the season, enjoying solid reliability despite only two days of running.
Although personal results of 21st and 19th warranted no points on his maiden weekend with the Subaru Levorg GT, scores were put on the board by Colin Turkington and Jason Plato during Sunday’s action, as the former grabbed a best result of 12th in race three.
Plato also put in the third-quickest race lap of the second encounter of the day, Scott left with positive feedback of the car which remains still just days old.
Speaking to The Checkered Flag, Scott said: “It’s been great. We’d have loved to have been higher up the grid, but we’d had some problems that we probably wouldn’t have seen before we got here.
“That was [Saturday] and we started solving those, but they couldn’t all be done here. That had to be done back at the workshop, so we’ll be looking at that.”
“Our fundamental issue was that, as you can see in the speed traps, we’re down on ultimate top-end speed”, Scott added. “Which we’ll find; it might take us until Thruxton, maybe afterwards, but we will find it.”
Turkington recovered from race one incident (Photo: BTCC Media)
Despite a late run-out and a unique technical package that includes a boxer engine for the BMR team to get their heads around, reliability was a major coup for the Subaru team. A prop shaft issue prevented Scott from contesting the opening race, while a lap one incident scuppered Turkington’s chances.
“The main thing is the cars have run all weekend”, Scott enthused, as all four Levorgs completed the final two races of the day.
“I think they’ve run strongly in all conditions. You look at Jason and he was third quickest in the second race, so it’s not shabby.
“We’re still learning and they’re young cars. Like I was saying earlier – they’re two days old.”
While the power-friendly nature of the flowing Donington Park circuit is one that Scott says could provoke the Subaru Levorg in two weekends’ time, initial handling concerns are something he believes will rapidly reduce with more set-up development.
Asked on how the package will grow in competitiveness, Scott said: “We think so. We think we’ve got a package that we’re able to work with for the next five years and hopefully keep it at the front of the grid.
“We have had some [handling] issues, but we haven’t had the chance to even set them up anywhere else really. I think we’ve moved quite a long way in understanding, but we’ve got some changes now to make for when we go back which should help us at Donington.”
Subaru’s BTCC Bow In Numbers:
Scenario
Outcome
Best Qualifying Result
11th (Turkington)
Best Race Result
12th (Turkington)
Total Laps Completed All Weekend
584
Points
7
Best Lap
48.453s (Turkington)
Closest Gap To Fastest Car
+0.119s (Plato, R2 )
Drivers Championship
17th - Turkington (4 pts)
20th - Plato (3pts)
Yet to score - Cole/Scott
View the original post at Warren Scott: Subaru “Still Learning” After Maiden BTCC Weekend