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Old 14 Feb 2010, 16:07 (Ref:2633257)   #53
KA
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Round 11- Silverstone 7th Oct 1984. 15 laps

Pos. Cat. # Driver Team/sponsor Cat. Car Grid Q-time FL Laps Time Notes
1.1.18Dave BrodieBBW Motorsport/Mitsubishi Colt CarsAMitsubishi Starion Turbo      
2.2.7Andy RouseRouse/ICSARover Vitesse1     
             
?1.38Graham GoodeGraham Goode Racing/EBC BrakesBNissan Bluebird Turbo      
?.2.40Phil DowsettTerry Drury RacingBAlfa Romeo GTV6      
?.3.32Rob KirbyARDT/John WestBAlfa Romeo GTV6      
?.4.????         
?.5.30Jon DooleyARDT/NapolinaBAlfa Romeo GTV6      
             
             
?.?.9Frank SytnerSytner BMW/GSIABMW 635CSi      
?.?.6James WeaverCC Motorsport/BMW GBABMW 635CSi      
?.?.5Vince WoodmanCC Motorsport/BMW GBABMW 635CSi      
?.?.17David KennedyBS Automotive/GrundigABMW 635CSi      
?.?.14Win PercyHughes of BeaconsfieldAToyota Celica Supra      
?.?.13Charles Sawyer-HoareEquipe Esso/Daily MirrorARover Vitesse      
??.???AFord Capri 3.0S     Can't tell whether it's Newman or Chatfield in the pic
             
             
             
             

The report doesn't give much of the result apart from the top 2 and Class B. Dave Brodie finally took the first win for the Starion, shadowing Rouse for 13 laps before getting alongside the Rover on the exit of Club, as Rouse was baulked slightly by lapped traffic. Brodie stayed alongside, finally making the move stick approaching the Woodcote Chicane

The two drivers' comments on the performance of their rivals' respective mounts in the last laps are interesting:
Rouse on the Starion: 'No way I was getting back by on the last lap- he was taking three lengths out of me on every straight'
Brodie on the Rover 'I couldn't believe the power of that Rover. I was outbraking him at the end of every straight, but it was really quick in a straight line'

The BBW team were ecstatic with the result, after a tough time trying to find reliability from the 2-litre turbo engine. The big breakthrough, however, had been in handling, a new limited-slip diff having transformed the Starion. Apparently, the standard Mitsubishi LSD wasn't up to the job, leading the team to run a softer rear suspension set-up than they'd like in an attempt to kill wheelspin out of slower corners. The new LSD, designed by the team, solved the problem.

Somewhere behind this, a tight race-long battle between the Kennedy, Weaver and Woodman 635s was settled in Weaver's favour, though the fourth BMW of Frank Sytner was well ahead by then. (incidentally, Kennedy seems to have changed his race number during the season- a Brands pic on Flickr, as mentioned a few posts back, clearly shows the Grundig 635 as car 16....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3611177...7622382683987/
....whereas a pic of the Kennedy/Weaver/Woodman scrap in PC clearly shows it carrying no17....)

In Class B, Graham Goode took a dominant win. Behind him, there was drama amongst the Alfas....I think I've told this story before, but Dooley needing 4th in class to tie up Class B, was down in 5th, with a down-on-power V6. Team-mate Kirby (holding 2nd in class for most of the race) made what seems to have been a last-ditch effort to help Dooley's position by slowing down just before the finish line, letting Phil Dowsett past into 2nd, but only managing to drop himself to 3rd, the class title going to Graham Goode...
Dooley later commented 'He'd have done the team a bigger favour if he'd just driven it into a wall!'

Naturally, this being the 1984 BTCC, there was off-track drama, centred around fuel and the intercoolers on the two turbo cars...

Firstly, Brodie was subjected to demands for no less than 3 fuel samples after the race- the third, in particular is described as 'particularly heavy-handed' and bordering on harrassment- it was made long after the statutory 1 hour Parc Ferme period had ended, and considerable pressure was put on a junior team member by the scrutineers- whileteam principals Brodie and Ken Brittain were already in with the Stewards to discuss a protest made against them.

The protest centred around the Starion's intercooler- the fitment of intercoolers on Group A cars being a particularly controversial issue it seems. Apparently, it should have been legal on the Starion, as one was fitted on the production car- except, for some reason, the homologation papers didn't record this fact....

Jon Dooley also protested the Goode Nissan over the intercooler- he had apparently been trying to get a clear ruling on this from the MSA all season, and finally protested the Nissan, both to clarify the position in the rules, and to protect his championship position.

No idea of the result beyond the top 2 and Class B, however a photo of the start of the race gives an idea of who was present at the front of the grid, so I've included every identifiable car illustrated, though I don't know where they finished.
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