Dunlop MSA BTCC 2011

  • Thread starter Thread starter Furinkazen
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Again, I think you're exaggerating and being a tad unfair. Last year there were plenty of those situations that you describe, and not that many "DNF punts". I also don't believe that dirty driving has become "widespread", most of the time its the same old drivers - usually Plato and Neal.
The only seriously dirty move I can recall from yesterday was Shedden's. MacDowall was pretty bone-headed in the braking zones to take out Neal, but he was punished with multiple fines and I don't believe he did that intentionally, he simply missed his braking point (or at the very least, its difficult to tell if he was being intentional or not).
 
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Ardius
Again, I think you're exaggerating and being a tad unfair. Last year there were plenty of those situations that you describe, and not that many "DNF punts".
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Possibly - but as I said, I stopped watching in 1999/2000 when it became wholly endemic and a Vauxhall-based borefest (I remember flicking onto it by chance at one point in the noughties and four of the leading five cars were Astras).

Ardius
I also don't believe that dirty driving has become "widespread", most of the time its the same old drivers - usually Plato and Neal.
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Plato is by far the dirtiest driver in the series. Since he started in the series in 1997, it's not surprising that he is almost the embodiment of it. I will add that I intensely dislike Plato anyway, so this can be taken with a pinch of salt.

Ardius
The only seriously dirty move I can recall from yesterday was Shedden's. McDowall was pretty bone-headed in the braking zones to take out Neal, but he was punished with multiple fines and I don't believe he did that intentionally, he simply missed his braking point (or at the very least, its difficult to tell if he was being intentional or not).
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In race 1 I saw three incidents - not including the idiotic parade lap crash - where a driver had his race utterly ruined by another driver being just flat unwilling to allow him to be where he actually was. Not preventing him from making a move, or a door-to-door lean, but actually moving into the space currently occupied by him. Sadly I've erased it from Sky+ (6 hours of space, apparently suitable for sodding "Saddle Club" instead). Race 3 was, curiously, far better - though there was an incident involving one driver repeatedly punting another driver through several corners and that driver responding by trying to take him out and missing (I recall one of them was a Leon, but I don't recall which - damned Saddle Club).

McDowall's stupidity - by taking out his team-mate's probable number one rival for the season - was, sadly, just an indicator.
 
I've never liked Plato a whole lot either, in fact I recall being quite delighted to see Thompson give him some of his own medicine at Oulton Park all those years back. But I like Matt Neal even less, at the very least Plato is capable of pulling off some decent overtakes and race side by side with people. Neal almost always tries to overtake in the silliest spots, usually the final chicanes at Thruxton and Snetterton.
Its not really clear what went on with that parade/warm-up lap incident but it sounds like Griffin got caught out by the field bunching up in a corner, but the cameras didn't catch it so its difficult to really blame someone. Certainly an amateur mistake but it happens...even in F1 to Schumacher.
 
Out of all the drivers to have done BTCC in recent years, Turks was the cleanest and had the best racecraft.
 
Just saw the BH race on ITV 4 and that is what I love about BTCC :D
Can't wait for the Knockhill round now!
 
Aldo
Just saw the BH race on ITV 4 and that is what I love about BTCC :D
Can't wait for the Knockhill round now!
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Me neither, and it's a 4 day, 500 mile trip for me... Knockhill is the best round on the Calender if people want to visit a race IMHO!
 
So, I need some intel...

I've not been to Donington for a race event before, does anyone know if there is general admission to the paddock area throughout the Sunday? Some circuits there is, and some there isn't... what's the crack at Donny?

If I don't do the BTCC at Donington then its the supertrucks the following weekend... might giove that a go, never been to a truck race before.
 
If it's like the other BTCC stuff you just pay at the gate and you can go through the paddock and do the pit lane walk (obviously at the specified times for the pit walk).

No extra charges for any of the BTCC meetings I've been to.

If you do go you'll have to tell me where you're watching from and I'll see you there.
 
Duffers917K
If it's like the other BTCC stuff you just pay at the gate and you can go through the paddock and do the pit lane walk (obviously at the specified times for the pit walk).

No extra charges for any of the BTCC meetings I've been to.
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IIRC, Thruxton and Brands last year required 'special' ticket.. or at least the standard bought in advance ticket wasn't enough to allow access. Silverstone, Knockhill, Rockingham and Croft were all open to everyone. I don't remember at Oulton.

If you do go you'll have to tell me where you're watching from and I'll see you there.
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Well, (fingers crossed) I'll be running in a new EOS 60D if I do go to Donington... so I'm likely to be all over the place, but I'll let you know if I do go. It'll be Sunday only as I'm having to work most of the Saturday (taking an hour off to pick up the camera hopefully!)
 
Source: AutoSport

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Another new model is set to enter the British Touring Car Championship after Thorney Motorsport announced it will run two Vauxhall Insignias in the series later this season.

Thorney, which has extensive experience running tin-tops in British club events, is currently building the NGTC cars and hopes to run them at the Brands Hatch or Silverstone rounds in October.

Team boss John Thorne will drive one car, while the team's Dunlop Production Touring Car Trophy driver Joe Girling could fill the second seat.

The team is considering using the Swindon-developed TOCA engine, but has not ruled out developing a unit itself.

Thorne said: "It's been a dream of mine for many years to run in the BTCC. We've come close in the last two years and the new NGTC regulations are just too good to ignore.

"As a team we always built our own cars and the new regs allow both the budget to be kept reasonable as well as allow some engineering flair that we can thrive on."

Thorne believes that, despite its extra size compared to Vauxhall's Vectra and Astra models, the Insignia can be a good base for a BTCC racer.

"Commercially our core business is performance upgrades for Vauxhalls and BMWs so we have to run one of those for obvious reasons," he said.

"The Insignia has an excellent drag coefficient, which is going to be very useful for us. No bulbous wheel arch extensions means much better aerodynamics and we think will give a very Super Touring look to the car.

"TOCA want bigger cars in the championship and frankly we agree with them."

Thorne also confirmed he wants to give the team time to develop the car before it appears in the BTCC.

"We aren't going to rush it," he said. "I've got first hand experience of rushing a car to the grid when it wasn't fully developed and it's no fun and you've no idea how it will compete. I'm not doing that again."
 
Good move, I was watching the last racing wondering why no one was fielding an insignia.
 
TVR&Ferrari_Fan
Source: AutoSport

st_6782_3b30.jpg



Another new model is set to enter the British Touring Car Championship after Thorney Motorsport announced it will run two Vauxhall Insignias in the series later this season.

Thorney, which has extensive experience running tin-tops in British club events, is currently building the NGTC cars and hopes to run them at the Brands Hatch or Silverstone rounds in October.

Team boss John Thorne will drive one car, while the team's Dunlop Production Touring Car Trophy driver Joe Girling could fill the second seat.

The team is considering using the Swindon-developed TOCA engine, but has not ruled out developing a unit itself.

Thorne said: "It's been a dream of mine for many years to run in the BTCC. We've come close in the last two years and the new NGTC regulations are just too good to ignore.

"As a team we always built our own cars and the new regs allow both the budget to be kept reasonable as well as allow some engineering flair that we can thrive on."

Thorne believes that, despite its extra size compared to Vauxhall's Vectra and Astra models, the Insignia can be a good base for a BTCC racer.

"Commercially our core business is performance upgrades for Vauxhalls and BMWs so we have to run one of those for obvious reasons," he said.

"The Insignia has an excellent drag coefficient, which is going to be very useful for us. No bulbous wheel arch extensions means much better aerodynamics and we think will give a very Super Touring look to the car.

"TOCA want bigger cars in the championship and frankly we agree with them."

Thorne also confirmed he wants to give the team time to develop the car before it appears in the BTCC.

"We aren't going to rush it," he said. "I've got first hand experience of rushing a car to the grid when it wasn't fully developed and it's no fun and you've no idea how it will compete. I'm not doing that again."
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Exciting news!
 
Anybody know when quali is?
 
Good to see Wrathall's Avensis a bit more on pace. 👍
Also great to see Rob Austin's Audi finally make an appearance! Rob doesn't seem too shabby at the wheel too.

The Vauxhalls are still looking strong, Nash and Jordan surely must be possible title contenders if they continue this kind of pace!
 
Amazing to see Plato out for Race 3 after that roll in the 2nd race, incredible job from the team to get it ready. Exciting racing, I thought some of the standard was a bit weak at times (but then this is to be expected, it is BTCC after all).

Good fun and the Clio's were pretty good too.
 
Yeah, some terrible race craft displayed today, with almost all overtakes involving contact. Andy Neate can never seem to stay out of trouble sometimes he's unlucky but mostly he's a prat it seems. 👎

But the championship is very much alive with 5+ contenders it seems! Vauxhalls still competitive, great to see Onslow-Cole and the Golf finally score points - shame about race 3!

Hats off to RML (and the rest of the paddock) for somehow repairing Plato's chassis...not to mention him then turning that into a solid 6th place drive! Today seems to have been a day of back of the grid-to the front charges in F1, BTCC and Ginettas!

Also congrats to Tio Ellinas on an impressive first win and generally an impressive rookie season so far in FRUK - no doubts who is moving quickly upwards!
 
That was a great day, Jordan is on fire, and really looking for the title so far. Pretty mad to see JP rolling/almost rolling in front of me aswel. Had good little chat with Andy after R2 aswell, with him being my local driver and all.

And props to Rob Austin for getting the A4 out aswell, it sounded loud and looked awesome. A good omen for a full field of NGTC's.

How's this for awesome as well? As I got out my car and went to the gate Damon Hill walked past me!
 
Have to say, I'm not a fan of the Formula Renault's. I'm not massively sure why, I think it's because the field seems to spread out quite quickly and they don't follow very well.

Maybe today I was just a bit overloaded with Motorsport to enjoy them!

Edit: Yeah, not at all convinced by Neate. I thought Chilton was very suspect in (I think it was) race 2 as well.
 
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Chilton has been a little invisible this season so far, running solid 4ths/5ths. The Focus seems a decent car again.
Neate I've never held much regard for, he was a wrecking ball last year in the WSR BMW, it seemed Dave Pinkney was taken out by him almost every race. It only serves to increase my dislike of Team Arena/Aon.

Yeah the Formula Renaults are not amazing to watch, but they can produce the odd good battle and race, they are over-shadowed by all the other series though. I usually find the Porsche Carrera Cup the most boring though. They are too fast and heavy to produce much great racing, particularly on the tracks the BTCC visits.
The Ginettas and Clios are perfect support races though, forgot to add that the G55/G50 racing was great today too, particularly enjoyed the battling between Breeze and Freke. 👍 Shame that Tom Sharp seems to have that championship all sewn up.
 
Unlucky to ... Plato (race 2), chilton, neate and gilham Well done to.. Plato (race 3), Nash, Neal, Jordan and smith. The first lap of race 3 was so exciting...
 
Some amazing racing today, I caught most of it on ITV4. Wish I could of gone though, holding out for Donington Historics though for a chance to see some Group C beasts.
 
There was far too much Banger Racing going on in the BTCC races yesterday. What's going on with them? Can't they race properly anymore?
 

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