Greatest Racecar? Patrick Watts’ BTCC Peugeot 406

From my point of view, a great racecar is one that brings back good memories irrespective of the performance and success of the car. The British Touring Car Championship Peugeot 406 that I drove in 1997, and Tim Harvey took over in 1998 after I’d left the team, fits the bill. I was reunited with the car a couple of years after my BTCC outings in it when I raced it in the Australian Super Touring Championship. I had four outings in the car and got a couple of 2nd-place finishes and one victory, which was very pleasing. The car has special memories, too, as it is the only car my then four-year-old daughter remembers me racing professionally. I have a photo of her with me on the top step of the rostrum at Lakeside in Southern Australia—great memories there. The car, for me, represents an era of Super Touring Cars which was utterly fantastic to be a part of. All the main motor manufacturers of the day were represented with quality grids—fantastic days, and the Peugeot 406 was a fantastic bit of kit.

As for particular races, I think the day you first compete is a great race. Equally, the day of your first podium, your first victory, and your first championship—all these are great race days. In my Peugeot days in the BTCC, the works team was looking for a scapegoat as it wasn’t winning races, or having the success it was expecting. Sister cars in the equivalent championship in Germany were winning, why not us? They changed all the parameters they could, the team, the engine and the driver. When they changed the latter it left me without a drive. Other cars in the series were run by teams like TWR, Williams, Prodrive and Triple 8—teams that are still here today. Peugeot chose MSD. You may ask, “who?” They’re not here today, I think it sums up the problems Peugeot had.  In my view, the car was great and the team was rubbish.