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Tim Harvey : Page 2
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| SuperTouring Successes |
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For his first season of SuperTouring, Harvey switched to the BMW M3 prepared by the private Vic Lee
Motorsport team. Harvey started the year slowly, and in round 3 was penalised 48 points for failing the exhaust
noise check following the race. It took till the end of the season for Harvey to bounce back from this set-back,
but a win in the last round at Silverstone put him in a positive mood for the following year.
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VLM became a works supported team for 1992 and alongside the existing Prodrive team they developed the
new 318iS Coupe for BMW. Harvey was joined in the team by Steve Soper, with Ray Bellm standing in for Soper when his
DTM commitments clashed.
During the first half of the season Harvey struggled with the car, the new rear Z-Axle multi-link
suspension taking the majority of the blame for the poor performance. A mid-season re-design saw an immediate up-turn in
the teams success and this combined with a decision by TOCA to remove 25kg from the rear drive cars, saw the BMWs
dominate for the remainder of the season.
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Harvey took five wins out of the last seven races, giving him an outside chance of the title in the last round. On the day, 4th was
good enough for him to take the crown from under the noses of Cleland and Hoy, help in no uncertain terms by the clash
between Cleland and Soper.
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Harvey's excellent development work on the BMW brought him to the attention of newcomers Renault, who hired him
to help develop and race their new Renault 19. The 19 suffered from poor performance and handling initially, but still
Harvey managed to take the car to its maiden victory in only the 2nd round. The very wet conditions, Michelin tyres and
Harvey's undoubted skill in the wet all contributing to this unexpected result.
This success was followed by a string of poor finishes and retirements for Harvey, but things did pick late in the season
when Renault finally fitted their new sequential gearbox, which improved handling by allowing the engine to be lowered
in the car. Harvey netted 14th overall at the season end, which was probably no better than he could have expected in his first
year with the French manufacturer.
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