Arena accepts BTCC rule tweak

Date published : 21 Aug 2010 - 17:40:01

Arena Motorsport boss Mike Earle remained philosophical about his team's hopes in the British Touring Car Championship despite the performance of his pair of LPG-powered Ford Focues being pegged back by series organiser TOCA.All cars powered by alternative fuels have been ordered to fit smaller air restrictors and had their boost reduced with immediate effect following the team's clean sweep of the front row in qualifying at Silverstone.Earle, whose team is the only one affected by the amendment to the technical regulations, said that he could understand TOCA's reasoning behind it."Tonight's regulation amendment, will obviously severely hamper the progress of our two cars," he said."However, given the disparity between our qualifying performance today and the rest of the field and bearing in mind the fact that we are still on a learning curve with the Calor powered car, I fully understand TOCA's view point."We'll take it on the chin and continue to do the best job we can and should these new restrictions impede our cars performance as severely as we believe they will, then hopefully TOCA will look at reversing some of their decisions."Silverstone polesitter Tom Onslow-Cole is the leading Arena driver in the championship in fourth place while his team-mate Tom Chilton lies seventh.