Earle: ‘there is a lot of work to be carried out’

Team Aon boss Mike Earle has admitted that the team has a lot of work to do over the summer break as his squad look to continue to make progress with their Ford Focus ST’s. Croft last time out saw the team once again suffer from bad luck and poor performance as Tom Chilton collected only one points finish over the weekend.

In the opening race of the day Chilton was running in tenth position and on course to take his second points finish of the season when the Chevrolet of Harry Vaulkhard spun into his path, leaving him with nowhere to go and substantial damage to the front of the Focus (pictured).

The team worked flat out to repair Chilton’s car in time for race three, where the 24-year-old rewarded their efforts with the team’s second points finish of the year. There were also troubles for the second car of Tom Onslow-Cole, who stepped in to replace Alan Morrison at the last minute. The former Team RAC and VX Racing driver was forced out of the first two days with engine troubles, and he failed to finish race three after falling off the circuit early on.

Indeed it is engine problems that are again continuing to plague the team’s progress, as the car’s continue to be routinely the slower machines through the speed traps. The team are hoping to solve this problem over the long summer break, with Earle admitting that the time will definitely help them massively. “We know what we have to do and there is a lot of work to be carried out,” he told btcc.net. “We simply did not have enough time to make the changes before Croft so we knew it would be tough to be competitive this weekend.

“We were very encouraged with how well the chassis is working now and that enabled Tom Chilton to race strongly and he showed in the first race that we have produced a great handling car. Obviously it was hugely disappointing for him and the team to have his race ended prematurely by someone else’s mistake. But in the last race he showed again how drivable the car is with his point-scoring drive from the back of the grid in some pretty atrocious conditions.”

With so much praise from the chassis coming in, including from Onslow-Cole, Earle is confident that the team will be much more competitive in the second half of the season once the appropriate developments are undertaken. “When we can produce a better engine package the car will be very competitive,” he added.