MOTOR RACING:: Warwick driven by success

Briton back at controls as he gears up for start of British Touring Car Championship on Monday: Derick Allsop on the man who has some unfinished business on the track

Since there is a popular perception that sport and pressure must go hand-in-hand, someone asked the burly figure filling the garage doorway whether he felt under pressure returning to touring cars.

"You don't understand me and my life," came the indignant reply. "Nobody here in this paddock, in this world, can put Derek Warwick under more pressure than Derek Warwick does.

"I have aspirations, I have goals, I have things I'm aiming for, and they are pretty high. I put myself under pressure when I go to my office at 7.30 in the morning until I go home at seven in the evening. So I'm looking forward to this year, it's a great opportunity."

Warwick never lacked for passion and commitment, and he will need to draw on those reserves if he is to turn this "great opportunity" into a success. The 42-year-old former grand prix driver is back in the British Touring Car Championship, which starts at Donington on Monday, not only as a driver but also as a team boss.

Along with an ex-Williams team manager, Ian Harrison, a highly regarded designer, John Gentry, and a friend who knows his way around the world of finance as well as cars, Roland Dane, Warwick set up the Triple Eight team and negotiated a three-year deal to run the Vauxhall Vectra in the BTCC.

Warwick immediately signed the experienced Scot, John Cleland - "arguably the best race driver in super touring" - for his ninth season with Vauxhall and then, despite a shoulder injury, proved himself worthy of the team's other car.

He said: "My main job was to put the people together, but I'm not hell- bent on being a team manager. My life is still not there yet. I don't have an every-day involvement with running the team. I'm a racing driver.

"Vauxhall had a test to look at new drivers and I was there to evaluate them. A couple of them did stand out, but they were using touring cars as a stepping-stone to something else, and with touring cars now you've got to be 110 per cent committed to it.

"I'd been out of touring cars for 15 months and wanted to find a way in. I ended up quicker than everybody, so all of a sudden I've got the drive."

It is difficult to imagine Warwick switching off from any facet of the business, but it is unfinished business on the track that holds his attention. He had an inauspicious championship with Alfa Romeo two years ago, and many wallowed in the ex-Formula One driver's discomfiture.

"My critics were very quick to criticise and I want to shut them up and finish my career, whether this year, in two years, or five years' time, knowing whatever I did I did bloody well," Warwick said.

"Whatever circle you're in there are always critics, always negatives, but that's a fact of life. I think it's a bit of envy and I've been lucky in my life, but as someone said, `the harder I try, the luckier I get'.

"I've missed a few grand prix wins, which is still fairly negative on my portfolio, but I'm hanging in there. Why don't I stop? Because I don't want to. I still have a lot to offer. I have a passion for this sport that's never dwindled.

"I love the hassle as well as the high spots, I love the interviews, I love giving my point of view, signing autographs, and above all I love driving race cars.

"This year is going to be very tough for us because we've come very late. We didn't even have a spanner in a box in December. But Derek Warwick the racing driver, ever the optimist, will say he thinks the car will be quick and the team will be disappointed not to be on the rostrum within the first three or four races, and he will be disappointed if they don't win a few races this year. And if we achieve all that, we'll have achieved a bloody miracle!"

Warwick has found a kindred spirit in the bullish Cleland, twice a champion, and, at 44, intent on adding to his successes.

Cleland said: "Derek Warwick and I share a passion for motor sport and a competitive spirit. We'll fight about who's first in line for this and that and we'll try to pull every stroke in the book, and have fun doing it. Even if its playing snooker or pool, it'll be a massive fight, because that's the way we are.

"Our experience - mine in touring cars, his in motor sport in general - plus the fact he's got an unfinished job out there, will be hugely important for us. My job is unfinished too. I know there are further championships in me and I certainly have no intention of saying that's me."

Cleland, like Warwick, accepts the championship will be out of reach this year. Warwick tips his former team-mate at Alfa, Italy's Gabriele Tarquini, now with Honda, to take the title ahead of Sweden's Rickard Rydell (Volvo) the champion, from Germany, Frank Biela (Audi) and the Swiss, Alain Menu (Renault), runner-up in three consecutive seasons.

The predominance of foreign drivers at the front is a measure of the championship's standing beyond these shores and Tarquini is relishing his return to Britain.

He said: ``The atmosphere and the competition here is fantastic. In Italy it is not competitive, in Germany it is getting better, but here there are so many manufacturers it is always very strong. It is a good show for the public and satisfying for the drivers."

The BTCC boasts eight full manufacturer entries this year and it irks Ford that they are not considered among the title contenders. Their much vaunted leading driver, Paul Radisich, of New Zealand, is twice a Touring Car World Cup champion but as yet unfulfilled in the British Championship.

He said: "It's been frustrating but I'm willing to stick it out here - within reason. I've got unfinished business to tend to. We know it's going to be difficult, particularly in the early part of the season, because we are so late with the car.

"But the team is getting it together now and, although the competition is certainly going to be tough, I'd like to think we can make an impact before too long."

Peugeot have a new team organising their campaign and the new 406, in the hands of the 1992 champion, Tim Harvey, and Patrick Watts, ought to have considerable potential.

Returning to the BTCC are Nissan, whose drivers, the Scottish pair, David Leslie, the top Briton last season, and Anthony Reid, say they have no intention of hanging around too long on the euphemistic "learning curve''.

Irrespective of Nissan's fortunes, Reid is convinced tin-tops rather than Grand Prix cars, represent the people's racing. He said: "Formula One is very esoteric, touring cars is very entertaining."

BTC CHAMPIONSHIP DATES AND VENUES

31 March: Donington

20 April: Silverstone

5 May: Thruxton

*18 May: Brands Hatch

26 May: Oulton Park

*15 June: Donington

29 June: Croft, Darlington

*3 August: Knockhill

10 August: Snetterton

25 August: Thruxton

7 September: Brands Hatch

21 September: Silverstone

All meetings will stage two races. First race 12.30pm, second race 3.30pm. *Live on BBC Grandstand

WORKS CARS AND DRIVERS

Audi A4: Frank Biela (Ger), John Bintcliffe

Ford Mondeo: Paul Radisich (NZ), Will Hoy

Honda Accord: Gabriele Tarquini (It), James Thompson

Nissan Primera: David Leslie, Anthony Reid

Peugeot 406: Tim Harvey, Patrick Watts

Renault Laguna: Alain Menu (Swit), Jason Plato

Vauxhall Vectra: Derek Warwick, John Cleland

Volvo S40: Rickard Rydell (Swe), Kelvin Burt

Privateers

BMW 320 (Pyramid Motorsport): Colin Gallie

Ford Mondeo (Team Dynamics): Matt Neal

Peugeot 406 (Team Brookes): Lee Brookes

Vauxhall Cavalier (Mint Motorsport): Jamie Wall

Vauxhall Vectra (Janco Motorsport): Jan Brunstedt (Swe)