Q&A: Tom Chilton - EXCLUSIVE.

by Russell Atkins

Tom Chilton is aiming to showcase his versatility in 2007, as the British Touring Car Championship star takes to the wheel of an Arena Motorsport-run LMP1 Zytek in selected rounds of the Le Mans Endurance Series.

The 21-year-old has previous sportscar experience which he will be hoping to put to good use during the forthcoming campaign, as he bids to lay down his marker for a possible future career in the discipline. Here he explains how he sees the year ahead panning out...

Q:
Tom, you will be competing in the Le Mans Endurance Series this year. Tell us a bit about that.

Tom Chilton:
Yeah. The project is run by Arena Motorsport who ran me a couple of years ago and who I raced with for three years in the BTCC in a Honda Civic Type-R. I will be in a Zytek LMP1, similar to what I raced a couple of years ago, though I haven't driven the new-spec car yet. It's got different tyres and downforce and a bigger engine - it's gone from I think a four-litre V8 to a 5.7-litre V8 or something like that. It's a quick car, a lot quicker than a BTCC machine.

Two years ago I did five LMES races and won two of them with Hayanari Shimoda as my team-mate. At this stage I can't really talk too much about team-mates, but I think it's a great series and it will be good for me to get some more races under my belt in it. I feel I'm still learning as I've only done five races in the championship, and I feel there's definitely more to come from me as a driver. I can't wait to get out there with those guys, learn a bit more and hopefully get a couple more wins under my belt too.

Q:
As you say you know the team from beforehand, and to a certain extent you know the car as well. How much of a benefit will that be?

TC:
Huge. Whenever you move to a new team and you don't know a few people there it's always tough to start off with because you have to learn about everyone, but if you can go back to a team you've known for a long time everyone already knows how you tick. You can go out there, do a few laps, come back in and say this, that and that and bang, it's done - you can literally get straight back out onto the track again. It's great. I will be with a team I know and a car I sort of half know. I know roughly what the car does, where it spits you out on corners. I've been there and done that. It should be like riding a bike - I should be able to get back in the car and it will just click.

Q:
Does your LMES schedule take in all the races on the calendar, including the Le Mans 24 Hours?

TC:
Fingers crossed. At the moment I think it's looking like I'm only going to do a couple of races in the endurance series, because a lot of them clash with BTCC rounds. I would obviously like to do all of them but I don't think that's going to happen. It's early days yet. I can't talk too much about it, but I would love to do the Le Mans 24 Hours. It would be great if I could go there and get it under my belt; it's one of the few things I haven't done and I would really like to do it so I can pull out that card if I ever need to do it again.

Q:
So the sportscar route is something you would consider going down full-time once you wind down your career in touring cars?

TC:
I would love to, yeah. The BTCC is great fun; I really enjoy it and it's a great career for me at the moment, but sportscars are my ultimate goal, where I would really like to be. That's where I see my future. Whether it's next year or ten years away I don't know, but I would love to be in sportscars. I think they're awesome. My little brother Max is just going into British F3, and I would love in the future for us to do Le Mans together. I think it would be quite cool if we could do that as brothers. It's a very prestigious event; it's not easy even to finish it let alone get on the podium, but that's where I see my future.