Carl Breeze interview

After a frustrating first half of the 2003 season with Team Halfords, Carl Breeze switched to a GA Motorsport run Vauxhall Astra at Croft. He proved a point, out-scoring former team mate Dan Eaves in the first race. His battle for the honours in the Independents' Cup would continue at his home circuit, Snetterton, and Carl told us how his year has shaped up so far.

How different is it driving for GA than for VLR?

It was a good transition. At Croft was getting used to driving on a different side – it’s a left hand drive car. I came away from Croft with loads of points in the independents’ class and was unlucky not to win the second race.

In the first corner I got hit quite hard by Colin Turkington and then the car handled badly through the next couple of corners. I dropped right back to 15th or so, then decided to carry on to get some points, thinking I wasn’t going to be competitive. But the car produced some good lap times and I managed to get into the lead after the pitstops but unfortunately in the last few laps the tyres were very worn and Rob Collard managed to pip me.

When we took car back to the workshop we found that the rear beam was badly bent and instead of having the rear wheels parallel we actually had about 5 millimetres of toe-out on both sides so the car was a little bit like a crab!

This late into the season how much of an impact can you make on the Independents’ Cup now you’ve got a competitive car?

It’s definitely helped me being able to carry my points over from Team Halfords, I closed quite considerably on Collard at Croft. It’s going to be quite difficult if him and James Kaye keep finishing the races, so we could do with a little slip up from them this weekend, and if I can get some wins I’ll put a bit of pressure on them. We’ll see what happens!

How much different is the Astra to drive than the 307?

Well I’ve always known the Vauxhall Astra to be a suburb car, it’s scored many race wins. When I drove it for the first time at Croft it opened my mind to what an excellent race car it is. In terms of the handling it’s probably the best out there at the moment. The engine is up there on a par with Honda. It’s a pleasure to drive the car, and with a bit of experience hopefully we can push a bit harder.

How hard was it last year to make the jump from single seaters?

Really tough. Coming in half way through the year I missed all the pre-season testing and trying to adapt to front wheel drive after having driven rear wheel drive all my life was a big challenge for me. I got to grips with it towards the end of the year which resulted in me getting a class win at the last race. By the end of the season I was on a par with my team mates Dan Eaves and Tim Harvey, two very quick drivers. It just took a while because of the testing restrictions, which meant that I was doing all my development on the racetrack – that’s not always the best way!

Snetterton’s your home circuit, does that make any difference to you this weekend?

It’s a small advantage I guess. I always went well here in my single seater days and I think I’ve still got the lap record for Formula Renault. It’s one of my favourite circuits in the world.



Article text by Dave Brockman; this page © 2003 www.BTCCinfo.co.uk.