George Gamble excels in British Touring Car Championship pre-season test day
Racer George Gamble excelled with some outstanding times in the British Touring Car Championship (BTTC) official pre-season test day, reports Paul Horton.
Gamble, 25, who is new to the BTCC and hoping to make a dent in the standings this year, can take confidence from his test day at Donington Park, where he put on podium-worthy times ahead of the season opener.
Gamble, of Epperstone, took part in the first of three official pre-season test days before the first race, also at Donington Park, which is the weekend after Easter.
Driving for Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport alongside experienced-campaigner Adam Morgan in their pair of BMW 330e M Sports, both gave the 1.957-mile national circuit tarmac some hammer as they finished in the top ten.
The test marked the first official outing of the TOCA Hybrid system in 2022, which sees Britain’s premier motorsport series become the first major touring car championship in the world to integrate hybrid power after it was distributed to all BTCC teams in recent weeks.
Gamble said: “It was definitely a good start so far, we had some running issues with the new hybrid set-up like a lot of the teams.
“We lost some running during the day but are looking forward to the next couple of test days to build upon and the start of the season here at Donington in a few weeks.”
Competing in his 11th season in BTCC, team-mate Morgan will be around to help Gamble get to grips with not only a new car, but a new race series to compete in.
Morgan won twice last season and is upbeat about the team’s prospects for the approaching campaign.
He said he was pleased to have Gamble alongside him in the other BMW.
Team owner Russell Morgan said: “George’s experience and winning pedigree is clear to see, and I am sure once he has acclimatised to the championship he will be running at the sharp end.
“Remaining with Car Gods as title sponsor is also excellent for continuity within the team as we approach the challenges faced by the changes involved with the switch to hybrid technology, which will certainly add an interesting element to the racing.”
Motorsport journalist Horton said: “It’s a big step up for Gamble but the BTCC is a good move for him.
“He has been a race winner in every support race category he has competed in.
“Gamble is mindful of the step up in competition involved with joining the championship for 2022, but the way he performed during testing showed off the things to come for the new season.”
He has enjoyed the delights of taking part in the Touring Car package in many guises since 2011 when he competed in the Ginetta Junior Championship, through to the other classes of Ginetta racing with some outstanding wins.
He has amassed a total of 24 race wins across his support race appearances, more recently George has enjoyed success in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, winning the Rookie title in 2018 and finishing third in the Pro Class a year later.
Ahead of the first race weekend, Gamble said he hoped to mount an attack on the Jack Sears Trophy, for independent drivers who have never scored an outright BTCC podium finish.
“That’s definitely the plan,” he said. “That’s a solid aim.”
You can follow every race featuring Gamble live on ITV4.
The series gets under way on April 23.
He managed to get 13 laps completed towards the end of the morning, topping speeds of around 128mph and a top time of :11.451 9s on lap 9 to see him 9th fastest on track,. Teammate Morgan finished the morning third fastest.
Gamble was only 0.120 of a second off the top spot taken by Colin Turkington
The afternoon proved more fruitful, Gamble was like lightning from the start of the session, as was every other team so the pressure was on, he was flying around the Donington Park circuit having completed 47 laps to take the flag 10th on the track, he took speeds of 133.4mph on part of the circuit on lap 24 and his fastest time of 1:09.658s was on lap 44, to finish 0.554 of a second behind the BMW of Colin Turkington
23 cars eventually completed nearly 250 laps and around 2000 miles of testing and Gamble was way ahead of some of the long-established names on the TOCA scene like Jason Plato and Gordon Shedden.
