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A View From The Driver's Seat: Things are shaping up well for our first full season in the BTCC

By Aiden Moffat / MJP Media | 28 January 2014

As we move into 2014, there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes for Aiden Moffat and the rest of his team ahead of the 2014 British Touring Car Championship season.

I can't believe where the time has gone since that last wet day at Brands Hatch and our subsequent decision to commit to the 2014 British Touring Car Championship season. Indeed, we are aiming at a 4 year project and I thought it would be a good time to let everyone know what the team is up to and how committed we are to competing in the right way and giving my fans and sponsors the best possible experience.

I started at the end of the 2013 season with a number of big decisions, the most important of which was whether to try and set up a team around me, or do what a lot of drivers do and simply buy a seat in a new or existing team. On the face of it, buying a seat in a team has a lot going for it - most notably just turning up and driving. The more we thought about it though, the less logical that became for a lot of reasons. The first issue was how long are we looking at this for. Once we had decided that it was a 4 year project, it made no commercial sense to simply spend money with somebody else. There were too many risks. What if the team folded, or didn't compete in subsequent years? What if they make the wrong personnel choices? What if the car isn't competitive? So we opted for building our own team.

Next up was the matter of the car. We knew there were some mediocre BTCC cars available for sale, but we also knew there was one outstanding car that we might be able to acquire. We went for the best option which was the RML built Chevrolet Cruze. After all, the Cruze had won the 2010 BTCC title and the 2011, 2012 and 2013 WTCC Drivers titles, so the car is good.

Having bought the car outright and secured our TOCA BTCC Licence, we have spent a lot of time ensuring that the car is fully compliant with the new regulations whilst slowly building our team personnel. We have also been busy building a comprehensive spares package so we should be able to spend more time on track during testing and race weekends despite the inevitable bumping that occurs in touring cars.

In addition, we have been busy talking to potential sponsors and discovering what they want from us. Make no mistake though, we have the resources already in place to ensure we can see the project through to the end - something not too many of our competitors can say at this point. As part of that, we have just acquired a phenomenal hospitality unit from Dynojet, which was one of the best units in the BTCC paddock in 2013.

In between all of this I have been getting on with what every other 17 year old does - school, homework and working hard on everything I get involved in. I have passed my road driving test and fitted in a trip to the Autosport International show as a BTCC driver this time and not just as an interested spectator. I have a lot to prove this year and we know it is a learning process. I am just aiming to do my fans, my sponsors, my team and myself proud. I look forward to meeting you all during the season and I will bring you news and pictures of our first test late next week.

Aiden #16

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