An interview with… Christian Dick and Jack Coker from Speedworks Motorsport

Ahead of the final round of the 2021 BTCC season, we caught up with Christian Dick – Team Principal and Jack Coker – Rory Butcher’s Number 1 Mechanic at Speedworks Motorsport to discuss what goes on behind-the-scenes at the factory between race weekends, and their aspirations heading into 2022.

How did you get into motorsport and your current role?

CD: “I ended up in my role kind of by accident, I didn’t know that this was a career path that I wanted to go down. I knew that I loved motorsport and racing from a very young age. Thankfully I had parents that did as well so I’ve been in and around that world for as long as I can remember. At first, like most young boys I wanted to race cars myself, so from 10 through to 30 I was racing myself while also running the team. The role has evolved over the years, with BTCC being the main headline for us, and my role developed into the Team Manager role over the years.”

JC: “I was studying mechanical engineering at the time and thought motorsport may be a good avenue to follow so I started off as a volunteer in the team, came down and wanted to give it a try and thankfully Christian and Amy said yes. This has been my 10^th season with the team, I started in 2012, which was the team’s second season in BTCC.”

Can you give us an overview of Speedworks Motorsports’ history?

CD: “Speedworks Motorsport was originally set up in 2005 to run in a one-make Mazda Mx-5 championship, and since then we’ve gone from strength-to-strength. We were very much a grass roots team when we started, but we’ve learnt a lot on our journey coming up through the ranks from Mazda’s to Ginetta’s; from G20’s through to winning the British GT4 Championship in a G50 in 2010. In 2011 we moved to the BTCC with one of our Ginetta G50 cup drivers and since then we’ve gone from strength-to-strength in the BTCC. “

How many staff do you have working for the team?

CD: “On a day-to-day basis there are 8 full time staff here, but when we get to a race weekends you have to obviously include hospitality, truck drivers, tyre men, we’re looking at closer to 45 staff between a Wednesday night through to the Sunday when we pack everything away again.”

What tasks do the team undertake between race weekends?

CD: “So between each race weekend it’s quite intense here, sometimes we have a smaller turnaround than at other times to the year. If it’s a back-to-back weekend, we will be getting back Sunday night and have to get everything prepared and sorted to leave again on Wednesday for the next event. Provided we’ve got no major chassis or accident damage to repair, we have a standard preparation, where the cars will get stripped back to its bare chassis and every component will get crack checked, cleaned, serviced and put back on the car.”

JC: “My role within the team is maintenance on the car in-between and during race weekends, set-up changes and making sure the decisions Rory and the engineers make, make it onto the car properly. The level of preparation between race weekends varies depending on the any damage you’ve picked up at the last round, and the time between rounds. If it’s a back-to-back weekend, you have 3 days max in the workshop so you have to keep things to a minimum to get everything sorted in time.”

Q: What can often be the major time-consuming elements of your teams work back at the factory?

CD: “Some of the areas that consume the most time are accident damage, the BTCC can be a robust championship and if we end up with damage on one or both cars and a short turnaround it can be a tough ask to achieve everything we need too as a team. If we have a straight forward meeting, the main focus is preparation for the next round, but the big focus is always performance. We are always trying to drive to the front of the pack, win races and lead the championship. We are always looking at data analysis to establish where we are strong, where we are weak and what we can change to improve our performance.”

How often do you prep the cars?

CD: “Preparation is something that is vital to our on-track performance. Every time the car moves; whether that be a test, a shakedown or a race meeting, we’ll prepare the car to the same level as to whether it has done 250km or 50km. We need to make sure that car is reliable and as fast as it can be out on track.”

Q: How important are having trusted partners like Motul to ensure quality products are used on the team vehicles?

CD: “It is absolutely vital that we have trusted partners like Motul along for the ride with us. It’s vital to our very existence, not only for the financial support we get from them, but also from every element of reliability on track through to performance. If you think about Motul’s input to us, it isn’t just the race vehicles, it’s team vehicles such as trucks, team vehicles, crew buses that take people from the hotel to the circuit; they all use Motul products. Our on-track performance is determined by the quality of the products we get supplied by Motul”

What Motul products are used on the vehicles?

CD: “Motul offer a huge range of products that are really useful for us, from all sorts of areas such as general lubrication where we use a product called EZ lube, right the way through to the major components. For the engine we use the 300V 040 product, gearbox we use the Gear 300 product, and we use Motul grease in the driveshafts. So, it literally is every area of the vehicle, and it’s absolutely vital. It’s not just component life we’re looking to improve, its performance we’re looking to gain. Whether that’s friction reduction or the outright performance these products can give us in a straight line, we need that performance.”

JC: “We use Motul products daily, for cleaning all the way through to mechanical elements. We used Motul products long before we were sponsored by them simply because they are the best products you can buy. We are very lucky to now have them onboard as a partner so we can use their technical knowledge to ensure we are using the correct product for the correct application.”

Obviously you also run a British GT team, how do the team logistically run cars in both championships simultaneously?

CD: We also run a Toyota Supra in the British GT4 Championship, logistically than can obviously be a complete nightmare for us. So we very purposely set up virtually two separate teams to run both programmes, because just from a race meeting point of view there may be several clashes throughout the year and this prevents key staff from being stretched too thin across both. This gets compounded even more during pre-season testing and if you pick up any accident damage during a race weekend, so we keep the programmes completely separately.

What are the teams ambitions over the next few years?

CD: “Obviously this year we grew to two cars, and that was a big change for us. Running two cars in the BTCC is a huge challenge to make sure we can be as competitive as we can with two cars. That competitiveness is what drives us forward, that’s what we’re here for. We’re not here to make up the numbers, we’re here to win, so the overall objective in the next few years has to be that we win the championship. We know that we can win races, so it’s a case of stringing together those performances to win the championship.”

JC: “For me, it’s quite simply to win the championship and to be part of that winning team, knowing I’ve helped everyone achieve that goal.”

Witham Motorsport are proud to support and work with a number of race drivers, teams and garages. To read more about who uses Motul oils and to shop the full range, please click here.