Motor Racing: Champ Priaulx Enjoys Weight Loss for Macau Showdown

The race track through the roads and streets of Macau has a corner known as 'Maternity'. It is an appropriate name since there is likely to be the mother and father of all incidents on this tight circuit as no fewer than nine drivers fight for the World Touring Car Championship next Sunday.

Two Britons, Andy Priaulx and James Thompson, are among the contenders and both have had more than their fair share of knocks during a championship that has been as closely contested as it has been ragged and, at times, ruthless. Priaulx is in joint second place, just one point behind the leader, Augusto Farfus of Brazil. Priaulx aims to complete the extraordinary feat of winning the title for the third year running but he travels to the Far East today to begin preparations in the knowledge that just 12 points cover the top nine drivers and there are 20 points up for grabs. Much will depend on Priaulx putting his BMW 320 on the front of the grid. Macau may be Monaco without the brass knobs but the overtaking opportunities are just as rare.

"Qualifying will be absolutely vital" says Priaulx. "The races will follow the usual format of being in two parts, with the top eight finishing positions from the first race being reversed for the starting grid of the second. The aim is to do well in qualifying, get into the lead and away from the shunts and score big points in the first race. Then, even though that would mean being on the third or fourth row for part two, the aim would be to keep an eye on whoever might be my main rivals and stay close to them. The big advantage I have going to Macau is that my car will not be carrying a massive amount of success ballast." Priaulx is referring to the penalty placed on a driver for doing what he is supposed to do: winning races. It is an archaic system that is designed to spread the winning among the main contenders from BMW, Alfa Romeo and SEAT. It usually results in the sort of frustration that has had Priaulx and drivers like him involved in unnecessary accidents as they struggle through the midfield. At one point during the season, Priaulx was forced to carry 80 kilogrammes of ballast. In a sport where weight is God, it is the racing equivalent of having to tow a caravan.

"The trouble is, this championship is so competitive that a tenth of a second can cover several places on the grid," says Priaulx, "so you can imagine the handicap of having to drag a lot of extra weight around. In Istanbul [three races from the end of the series], I didn't finish either race because I was hit by another driver at the first corner each time. I just felt that everything was totally out of my control." At the penultimate round in Valencia, Priaulx was involved in yet another collision although, this time, he accepts that he played a part in his own downfall.

"Because of the extra weight, me and Gabriele Tarquini [fourth in the championship, two points behind Priaulx] qualified pretty well down the field. In some ways, I attracted the first-corner collision with Tarquini. I knew that if I went round the outside of him I would not have survived anyway. I tried to block him and get on the inside and he spun me round.

"We've been heavily penalised with weight and that does not make the car feel good. I think I let the weight thing get to me at the last two races but, now that I've got it out of my system, I can move on. The good news is that I have only 45kg on board. I will not be the lightest, but neither will I be the heaviest. I have won races this season with 60kg on board, so I'm pretty confident. And this is a circuit I love driving. I'm going to have a big, big attack."

Priaulx reckons this is his best season ever thanks to four wins (one more than any of his rivals). While Thompson remains an outsider in his SEAT, Priaulx is a favourite to repeat last year's performance in Macau and secure the title. For once in his life, Priaulx is pleased that he did not win a race: had he done more in the past two rounds, the weight penalty would have been a massive burden in Macau. His objective now is not to drop the lot at Maternity on the first lap.