Encke Sport Analysis

Today saw the announcement that Peter Enckelman, the premiership goal keeper for Blackburn Rovers, is to put his backing to a new BTCC entry (See full btcc.net story here).

The first few races will be testing times for the new team, which is being built from the ground upwards and is still recruiting. As a result, the team has quite reasonably set realistic expectations and as team principal Ed Tilley has put it “we want to learn as much as we can”. However in recent years it seems that many teams have uttered the same pre-season talk of learning the ropes and accumulating points, but how many times has the talk actually materialised on the track?

Perhaps Encke Sport, as the team is known, will buck the trend. Fielding the now-ancient Vauxhall Astra Coupe that Triple Eight first built in 2001 is not exactly the most promising start. The Coupe has been an old car for many years and isn’t getting any faster. Add to that the fact that BTC-Specification cars (as the Astra Coupe is) are no longer going to be the dominant force in the BTCC in 2007 and it seems that the drivers in the Encke Sport outfit may just be making up the numbers. However, Tilley has spoken about fielding new cars for 2008 and finding your feet in a car that has won the championship multiple times in the past five years can’t be all that bad can it? Tilley admits that the team isn’t going to be anywhere near the championship protagonists in its first year, and bearing that fact in mind there is little point in throwing money at the championship in only the team’s first year.

Encke Sport is ultimately a good move for the BTCC as the championship picks up another team with sufficient backing to run a duo of drivers with Tilley himself considering piloting one of the cars. “We should hopefully be testing drivers in the first week in February”, explains Tilley to Crash.net (so watch this space) and the team is also talking to five or six drivers. Although you may see the Astra’s running near the back this year it isn’t necessarily a bad move - after all, someone has to run last! Additionally, with other outfits planning to continue with BTC-spec machinery it could make for some interesting battles in the midfield, regardless of the final championship outcome.

Let’s hope Encke sport doesn’t score any own goals!

Andy Abbott
‘The btcc:action man’