Curitiba Report

Solid start to 2009 Season

Tom Boardman's 2009 WTCC Independents Trophy got off to a solid start in Curitiba, Brazil last weekend. The team arrived in South America to find that the base weights of the various cars had been adjusted, leaving the SEAT Leon TFSi heavier than Independent rivals BMW at a track expected to favour the rear wheel drive cars. With no winter testing it was important that during the three half hour practise sessions the SUNRED team and Tom worked through a number of changes to try and establish a good base set-up for qualifying and the race.

The times during the free practise sessions seemed to confirm that the BMW's did have the expected advantage, with ex-works driver Felix Porteiro often finding himself well inside the top ten overall. Despite this, it was the SEAT Leon of Tom Boardman that took the initial fight to Porteiro's BMW during qualifying. The Spaniard did eventually increase the margin to his rivals to 7 tenths, with Tom holding onto the class second until the last few moments when last seasons Independents runner up, Franz Engstler, BMW 320si, set a time just 8 thousandths of a second than the Lancashire based driver. So despite not having tested the car, or previously seen the track Tom had managed qualify in 3rd place in the Independents class, be the leading SEAT TFSi and beat 2 time Independent Champion and team-mate Tom Coronel.

At the start of Race 1, as the cars went through the slow first & second corners at the end of the long start/finish straight, Tom's car suffered a knock to the right front wheel which knocked the steering out slightly and this hampered progress as the balance of the car was changed as a result. Despite this he was able to hold onto 3rd place in class, and as the race progressed was better able to maintain his lap times better than his rivals, eventually finishing just 3.5 seconds behind class winner Porteiro, and 11th overall.

With the cars held in Parc Ferme until just 15 minutes before the start of Race 2, that were a lot of discussions in the SUNRED garage on how to solve a couple of problems that had developed during the race, a fuel pressure problem and more worryingly the loss of the clutch pedal on the in lap. As the cars were pushed into the pit lane for the start of the 'repair time' the weather changed dramatically, with a heavy downpour adding to the problems as the mechanics worked on fixing the problems and preparing the car for race 2. Once the cars arrived on the grid the rain came down even harder and the start was delayed for nearly 30 minutes. Eventually the race started behind the Safety Car due to standing water on the track, but the rain had by this time stopped and so the Safety Car pulled in after 2 laps and the race was underway. The track conditions were normally ones in which Tom would excel, but the set up on the car meant that it was a struggle in the slower corners, an area where the BMW's were strong, and after running 3rd for much of the race he eventually had to concede to two of the BMWs, eventually finishing 5th, inside the top 20 overall.

It was a solid start to the season, at a track expected to favour many of his rivals, with good qualifying pace, two points finishes, Tom is fourth in the Independents Trophy and the SUNRED team are leading the Teams Trophy. Rounds 3 and 4 take place in Puebla, Mexico over the weekend of 21-22nd March.