Alan Gow, boss of the massively profitable Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for all however three of the previous 34 seasons, is the personification of a decisive chief.
He spends most of his time making clear, fast choices aimed toward enhancing what’s extensively acknowledged to be the world’s greatest automobile competitors of its sort. For many years, his authority has been each bit as nice as Bernie Ecclestone’s was in his Formula 1 heyday.
Not that there are a lot of different similarities between Gow and Ecclestone. Bernie was small, enigmatic and scary; Gow is tall and laconic, an Australian immigrant who arrived from a profitable Melbourne-based motorsport profession in 1990. He thrives on wisecracks and vibrant language, and for all his word-is-law authority, he’s a remarkably modest man.
“People think all the big decisions come from me,” he says. “But they actually come from me listening. I don’t have a sole franchise on good ideas, so I surround myself with people with interesting opinions, some a lot smarter than I am. So you listen, you sort wheat from chaff, and usually you find the truth somewhere in the middle. I’m a magpie. I’ll pinch anyone’s good idea if I think it will improve the BTCC.”
Typically, Gow has a collection of latest concepts yearly, and it’s the identical for 2024. They are designed to sharpen the competitors and the spectacle. “If you don’t have great racing,” he says, “you don’t have anything.”
This 12 months would be the third for the hybrid powertrains, a world-first he cooked up throughout lockdown with the assistance of Cosworth. After one season to search out the bugs and a second to iron them out, he’s satisfied 2024 shall be a fantastic 12 months for hybrids, making the prospect of 1 driver scoring runaway championship wins (already powerful) virtually unattainable.
“This year we’re doubling the boost available through the driver’s push-to-pass button,” he explains. “It’s a combined turbo and hybrid-electric boost, worth about 80bhp. At the first race this season everyone will get 15 seconds of boost per lap. But as soon as a driver wins a race his boost will fall to just one second, and there are graduated reductions down to 10th place. That will really change things.”