Interview: Tony Gilham Looking to the Future with BMW

Team HARD owner Tony Gilham hopes that having an old West Surrey Racing built BMW can help them assess their options for the future in the BTCC.

The WSR team, now backed by manufacturer BMW, made the switch from the 1 series to the 330i in 2019 leaving their old cars unused so Gilham jumped at the chance to have one in his arsenal.

It will be driven in 2020 by Carl Boardley who struggled at times in 2019 in the much older Volkswagen CC.

Speaking at Autosport International, Gilham said:

“It’s great to keep Carl on board he’s a great guy and a great driver. He’s more accustomed to rear-wheel drive and it will be nice to work with a factory built car. It’ll be nice to see how a rear-wheel drive car works as we’re assessing our options for after the CC because we’ve only got a maximum of two more years with that car.

”It won’t change the dynamic of the team because we’re used to operating in lots of different areas and expertise.”

Gilham believes that they can take another step forward in 2020 with points and podiums the initial goal:

“We’re investing a lot into the CC’s this year. We would like to be challenging for the Independent’s title and race wins, but realistic goals is to be sitting consistently in the points.”

2019 was a stand out year for Team HARD with Jack Goff securing the team’s first ever win in the BTCC at Silverstone, but this wasn’t Gilham’s personal highlight of the year:

“The obvious highlight is Jack’s win at Silverstone but to be honest my real highlight of last year was moving to our new premises because that transformed our business. We’re now all under one roof. Operating out of three factories was tough.”

Team HARD are unique in that they offer the chance for the public to pay to drive a racing car at a circuit with proper tuition by it’s drivers.

This isn’t an opportunity offered by any other BTCC teams and a very small handful of motorsport organisations worldwide. Gilham explained the reasons why they choose to risk their cars in the hands of the public.

“There’s lots of people who dream of driving a race car, so we provide that opportunity. We have a fleet of 16 track cars that people come down and drive whether that be a touring car, GT car whatever.”