Jack Sears impressed by SEAT Cupra Championship

Jack Sears, the first British Touring Car Champion, says that the SEAT Cupra Championship "is a wonderful feeder formula for any young driver wanting to make a name for himself in touring car racing," after driving a SEAT Leon Cupra race car.

Jack drove a 150bhp Austin Westminster 105 to victory in the 1958 British Saloon Car Championship, as the BTCC was known then, and like the SEAT Cupra Championship competitors of today, he bought and took home his own race car, even though he was a professional works driver. But that's where the similarity ends, as competitors cannot drive their 300bhp turbocharged SEAT Leon Cupra race cars to and from a race meeting as Jack did then. Significant changes have taken place over the last 50 years as well, with roll cages and racing seats introduced and fireproof racing overalls the preferred attire rather than sports jackets and ties.

SEAT Sport UK driver Jason Plato gave Jack a ride in a SEAT Cupra Championship Leon to show him how the car works, before the 78-year old legend took over the controls. Jason saw first-hand that Jack hadn't lost any of his passion for motor racing, while Jack himself enjoyed driving the Leon Cupra around the Silverstone circuit.

Jack Sears said: "I've never raced on dry slick tyres before and they do offer amazing grip, and that was one of the most notable things when I was a passenger with Jason Plato. I was also surprised how great the G-forces were; Jason was really cornering quite fast and I could feel the need for those special seats with good grip at the side of your body - which I never had in the Austin Westminster of course. We didn't have roll cages either, so it was a lot easier to get in and out of the Austin as well.

"I was very impressed with the power of the SEAT Leon Cupra's engine. It's a four-cylinder 2- litre turbocharged engine compared to the Austin's six-cylinder 2.6-litre engine, but it has 300bhp compared to the 150bhp I had in 1958.

"The SEAT Leon's gearbox was quite special and very unfamiliar to me as well, and Jason was using his left foot to brake, which I didn't do. All these sort of things were very new to me and it was all very exciting.

"The old Austin Westminster drives now exactly like it used to back in 1958, so it was wonderful to compare the two cars. There is a massive difference between the Austin and the SEAT Leon as you'd expect, because fifty years is a long time. We've all seen pictures of motor racing in 1900 and we've seen pictures of Grand Prix cars racing in 1950 and the difference between the two is massive, and here you are comparing an Austin saloon with a SEAT Leon fifty years
later and the difference is just as great.

"I would definitely have liked to race the SEAT Leon - it's exciting to drive and exciting cars are great to race. We certainly didn't have anything like the SEAT Cupra Championship when I started racing in 1950, and it took me until 1957 to do my first saloon car race.

"The SEAT Leon is a very fast car, so I'd say that aspiring young touring car drivers learning the trade will have a very fast journey up the ladder in the SEAT Cupra Championship. If they'd been karting and are used to left-foot braking they wouldn't have such a big learning curve as I had."

"I'm told that the SEAT Leon that runs in the Cupra Championship is very similar in terms of top speed and performance of the cars like the Leon TDI that run in the BTCC, so I think the SEAT one-make series is a wonderful feeder formula for any young driver wanting to make a name for himself in touring car racing."