Touring Car discussion - WTCC, BTCC etcTouring Cars 

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I managed to watch all three of the btcc races but switched over to the live FIA GT race on motors tv why oh why cant the different networks co-ordinate their sceduales
 
Bellzie
I managed to watch all three of the btcc races but switched over to the live FIA GT race on motors tv why oh why cant the different networks co-ordinate their sceduales
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Probably because they were all showing the races live.

I had a great Sunday watching motorsport. Mrs Cracker might disagree though.
 
On the Herbert/Giovanardi incident...

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Fabrizio has a bit of a whinge about it​

Fabrizio Giovanardi
"He’s a guest driver, he’s not involved in the championship, so I don’t know why he had to smash into me, many times... After that, my car was completely destroyed. It is frustrating when it happens like that, but when you lose out like that, to unprofessional driving, it makes it all the more difficult"
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From TouringCarTimes (link in title)

Come on Fabrizio, you've been a Touring Car driver for long enough... if you honestly expect another driver to just give up his position then you're barking up the wrong tree. If you don't like it, drive faster than the other guy. Turkington got the hell bashed out of him but he still had a grin on his face at the end of the race.

And good on James Thompson for the two second places in the WTCC Lada. Tommo is a class act and the Lada is obviously improving quickly.
 

Fabrizio Giovanardi criticized Johnny Herbert strongly after the previous race, something the Italian now apologizes for.
"I wish I had not said this and I apologise for my over-reaction," said Giovanardi to BTCC.net.

By Johan Meissner

Giovanardi dropped several positions, finally finishing outside the points, after his incident with Herbert, something that made the Italian mad.

"It was straight after three races and it was a hard day because I’d lost points to Turkington. This made me really upset.

At that moment I was fired up because he wasn’t involved in the fight at the front, but I’m sure he is a good guy," said Giovanardi.

Herbert quickly got in to the thick of the action but does not see him self as a dirty driver.

"I did nothing wrong and I think Fabrizio in hindsight knows that. I’m not a dirty driver. I don’t go round smashing people up the back and all we did was rub doors and wheels a bit which is nothing new in this business," said Herbert.
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(Link to article in title)

Surprise surprise. Fabrizio realises he's actually in touring cars and not F1. At least he's had the decency to say sorry. I can't actually imagine many drivers less likely to punt people about for the hell of it than Herbert!

In other news, the WTCC have confirmed you guys in the States will get a race in 2011... at either Laguna Seca or somewhere in Miami. Miami is currently looking like the favourite for logistical reasons.

Apparently Russia are also pushing for a round to be held there, mainly thanks to Lada's involvement in the series.
 
On a half-related note. Congrats to Volvo driver Tommy Rustad for winning the Swedish Touring Car Championship's Driver Title. Even if his teammate did a dick-move during the penultimate round of the series.
 
Appie
I thought BTCC was dead after 1999 season. Must get a quick look see:D
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Definitely do, it's a great series and not too far off how it used to be in the mid-nineties. And if you missed the 2000 season then shame on you, there may not have been many teams competing but what that meant was three works cars per team which then meant three top drivers all in the same car (to be specific, Menu, Rydell and Reid all in the Mondeo). Produced some great races.
 
I miss the days of MASSIVE grids, but surely it can only get better.

Hopefully we see some more teams in the next few years. That would be great
 
Only_in_f1
looking forward to this weekend.

ITV4 have a near 7 hour marathon of coverage. Can't wait!


CUMMON TURKS!
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Aye, a full day of motorsport for me, get up at 5am to see if Button claims the championship at Suzuka then the rest of the day to see if Turkington wraps up at Brands Hatch. 👍
Just annoying I have to put up with adverts again, but I guess the BBC wouldn't have the time to show the entire BTCC schedule.
 
homeforsummer
In other news, the WTCC have confirmed you guys in the States will get a race in 2011... at either Laguna Seca or somewhere in Miami. Miami is currently looking like the favourite for logistical reasons.
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I have some questions to ask.
  • Any of you think we might have another US manufacturer join in the WTCC for 2011(Ford maybe?)?
  • Will Chevrolet's car for the race be based on a US model car?
  • If Miami is chosen, will the race be on a street circuit or at Homestead?
  • Will the races be on TV in the US? If so who'll carry it?
 
I'm guessing Ford won't while they are still in WRC. I think they (they being Ford Europe) may have a go at the BTCC if the Team Aon Ford Focus continues to achieve decent results, but I don't think they will in the current climate.
 
CAMikaze
I have some questions to ask.
  • Any of you think we might have another US manufacturer join in the WTCC for 2011(Ford maybe?)?
  • Will Chevrolet's car for the race be based on a US model car?
  • If Miami is chosen, will the race be on a street circuit or at Homestead?
  • Will the races be on TV in the US? If so who'll carry it?
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Refer to Ardius' post about Ford. There's a Euro-market Focus in the BTCC at the moment, it would be up to the privateer team to decide whether to compete at world level.

Chevrolet's car very likely will be a US model car, as they're currently using the Cruze (which is now on sale in Europe too).

Re: Miami - not sure. A street circuit might be an option, as they seem to be gaining in popularity and of course the WTCC already use the Macau street circuit which is considered one of the most challenging in the world. It depends how big a profile the WTCC can gain really - I can see a street circuit falling through if the authorities consider WTCC too unimportant and too unlikely to draw an audience.

Re: TV, again not sure. I can see a channel like ESPN being interested, but I'm not familiar enough with US TV to know if any channels would be perfect to cover the WTCC. Over in Europe it's covered by Eurosport, which is owned by the French TF1 group, which appear to have no holdings in any US channels. So whichever US channel chose to cover it they'd have to pay TF1 for the rights to broadcast.
 
I got a glimpse of BTCC racing on One HD the other night here in Australia. The racing was great and fun to watch (was the Snetterton round), but why do they all use such old cars?:odd: I was seeing Chevys, Vauxhalls, Hondas etc all from a good 2-5 years ago it seemed. I would have thought that such a premier series would only use the new cars.
 
Paulie
I got a glimpse of BTCC racing on One HD the other night here in Australia. The racing was great and fun to watch (was the Snetterton round), but why do they all use such old cars?:odd: I was seeing Chevys, Vauxhalls, Hondas etc all from a good 2-5 years ago it seemed. I would have thought that such a premier series would only use the new cars.
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I was more concerned by the fact that there was no penalty for running right off onto the run-off at turn 2. May as well just re-design the whole corner if they're going to let the drivers use that bit of tarmac.
 
Paulie
I got a glimpse of BTCC racing on One HD the other night here in Australia. The racing was great and fun to watch (was the Snetterton round), but why do they all use such old cars?:odd: I was seeing Chevys, Vauxhalls, Hondas etc all from a good 2-5 years ago it seemed. I would have thought that such a premier series would only use the new cars.
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The cars aren't that old. The top teams all use up-to-date cars - the current 3-Series, the current Civic, the current Focus, the current SEAT Leon.

The only people using older cars are Chevrolet with the Lacetti (which is still on sale in the UK, and the newer Cruze has only started being used this year in the WTCC so no BTCC teams have had the chance to buy one yet), Vauxhall with the Vectra (which again is only a year out of date) and then the privateers, who are very much restricted by what they can afford.

And to be honest, if the older cars still remain competitive then I don't really see an issue. I'd rather have a grid full of cars from the past five years than only two teams running the latest cars.

Plus, the racing = much more important than the cars.

Jackington
I was more concerned by the fact that there was no penalty for running right off onto the run-off at turn 2. May as well just re-design the whole corner if they're going to let the drivers use that bit of tarmac.
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Most drivers don't use it every lap (indeed, I think there's a penalty for doing it more than a certain number of times each race), plus it's not the smoothest bit of tarmac in the world (in fact, it's bumpy as hell and there's a lot of gravel on the exit of the runoff) so it's there more for the purpose of giving a bit of extra "elbow room" to allow for closer racing.

As circuits go Snetterton is quite narrow so a little extra room is always useful.
 
Heh, just like the Japanese Grand Prix has seemed to make the F1 go down to the wire, so does Brands Hatch with BTCC.
Most exciting BTCC season I've personally watched for a while, though in previous years it hasn't been so well covered. 👍
 
Fantastic!!! I would love to see Turkington as a champion...

Giovanardi is fast though but yeah... Who knows until the end but I will never discount Plato on this... He's a burning rocket :|
 
I'd like to see Turks win it, but i just hope fora great race!

Would be fantastic to see Plato win it for the fact he would have had a great comeback
 
Yuuusss!!!!! Fantastic!!! Great season Turk you nailed it!!! Congratulations!!!!

FANTASTIC!!!
 
Congragulations BTCC Champion, Colin Turkington!!!
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Great job, and a great way to finish the season! Long may the quality racing continue, despite Vauxhall's departure! :cheers:
 
phew!! 13.5 hours of watching motorsport on tv.

Well done to Colin Turkington, the deserved winner of the 2009 series.

A great day of action (as usual) and probably the best motorsport/coverage in the U.K.


Turk.jpg
 
Congratulations Colin Turkington!
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He's a deserving winner, and nice to see a proper return to the top for BMW in the BTCC too after so long. Must be the first time in absolutely ages that a rear-drive car has walked away with the BTCC title? Nice bloke too, I remember talking to him at the Autosport show a good few years ago just as he'd joined the Vauxhall team and started testing the then-new Astra Sport Hatch. I wished him good luck but I didn't think it'd be as long as it has been before he got the title...

Congratulations must go to Plato too though for winning all three races. I know not everyone is keen on Jason as he's not the cleanest of racers, but he undoubtably makes the BTCC more exciting and he's turned the Chevy from being a WTCC winner into a BTCC winner too. Will be interesting to see if the Cruze makes an appearance in the BTCC in the near future...

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(Photo credit: TouringCarTimes/btcc.net)​

Incidentally, that photo above - excellent! Don't suppose anyone can find it in bigger, can they?...
 
Yeah, on the subject of Plato, he's a bit of a Schumacher really, I respect his driving ability and he does put on a good show when he scythes through the field to win.
However, I don't like his antics and even when I was younger I was happy to see Tommo give him some of his own medicine at Oulton Park 1999. :sly:

But regardless I agree, he's a necessary character. 👍
 
After falling asleep, and missing very little action, during the Japanese GP, those three BTCC rounds were fantasic. Motorsport at it's very best. Even the Moto GP round was fairly lack-luster today.

Well done to Colin Turkington for winning the title, and nice driving by Plato for winning all three races with very little contact. For him.
 
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