On my return
- Category: TinTops
- Published on Friday, 03 June 2011 10:01
- Written by Nicholas Smith
- Hits: 304
As the title says, on my return to England, my father rather nicely offered to buy the breakfast. I am not telling you this for no reason but because while demolishing a french stick with sausage, bacon, egg and black pud, (it was sooo nice!) my father pointed something else out to me which made me a little, errm, mad.
I have been accused of having a one track mind, and unlike most mid twenties gents, my one track is motorsport, not the opposite sex. So until my dear ole dad pointed out that Vauxhall had kindly sponsored not one national football team but all four I hit the bloomin roof.
I am considering a campaign, Look East may even cover me marching up and down outside Griffin House hurling abusive slogans at the funky chicken on the Vauxhall logo. On my placard it shall read; Sod Footy, BTCC!
Triple 8 Motorsport could certainly use a decent sponsor to give the racing talent of our nation a fair crack at glory. Add to that the impending arrival of Thorney Motorsport, not running an old taxi with a turbo but actually investing to develop the latest Luton metal in to a racer. I ask one question.
While I accept that football is a major sport and millions watch it, surely a car company is better investing in motorsport? And not the motorsport as practiced in Formula 1 or even at Le Mans, where lets face it, an Insignia VXR with a spoiler would be laughed all the way back to the Channel Tunnel. I am talking the premiere tintop series in the UK, possibly even Europe.
There is a direct link between BTCC and the showroom, more so now than ever. Before you could go into the showroom and buy a car which looked kind of like the touring car and had a dull as dishwater 2.0 naturally aspirated engine. No longer. Now you can walk in and buy not only a car which looks almost the same as the car on the track, minus the rear wing and a few stickers but you can get a similar engine too.
Showroom success, bred on the racetrack. It is true. How else do you think Vauxhall got away with charging nearly thirty grand for a Vectra? Yeah, dodgy car but it has racing pedigree. "I'll take it" says the man with the oversized wallet.
So here is my recommendation to you Vauxhall. Drop one of the football teams, or even three and pour some money into Thorney Motorsport. Get the Insignia out there and winning to drive traffic into the showroom. Then, once you have annoyed Chevrolet UK, go out and put it into the WTCC and annoy Chevy the world over.







