[BTCC] BTCC - 1998 Season

[Gingers4Justice]

Brands Hatch 98 was the earliest race I can remember attending - I was four, I think. Great days.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by Icebaby

Yep fair points there Redshoes but I do need to correct you, the first incident was the test at Donnington park

You're right, it was Donington. I still think you are being a little harsh on Lemmer though.

Originally Posted by jab

Why didn't Nigel stay on? Was he keeping his options open so that he could try for another F1 comeback or did Ford sensibly think that Menu and Reid were better value for money?

Mansell's 98 contract was only for 3 race meetings, it was essentially a PR stunt by Ford not Mansell's attempt to start a touring car career. He might have been F1 and Indycar champion but a big single seater is very different from a front wheel drive SuperTourer car and in those terms he was still very much a novice. He wasn't helped by the Mondeo that year being a real dog, it wasn't too bad in the wet when lack of power was less of an issue but in the dry even Will Hoy with all his experience and testing miles struggled.

Donington will go down as one of the classic races of the era, Mansell's result no doubt helped by it being a wet race. At Brands he was woefully off the pace and after two biggish shunts plus one earlier in testing it was pretty obvious that he really didn't want to be there. His last outings at Silverstone were pretty uneventful but by that point no one cared, least of all Mansell himself.

Ford reputedly spend a small fortune hiring Menu and Ried, but then Mansell's wage demands weren't exactly insignificant. I don't believe Mansell even wanted to come back for another year but even if he had I'd have taken Menu and Reid over him any day of the week.

[codename_47]

People look back on the era of Super Touring with rose tinted glasses, but for me it had two of the worst things you can have in racing, Aerodynamics and pitstops!

Yeah the cars looked nicer but since Alfa turned up with their wings downforce was becoming an issue and the cars were finding it harder and harder to follow.
Imagine if we'd still be running ST now! We've seen how boring and processional the DTM has become, ST BTCC would be pretty much the same!

I guess it looks better in hindsight with non-live races so the boring parts get dropped and only the stuff worth watching made it into the highlights.

That said, I am looking forward to the David Leslie memorial ST race this weekend at the Silverstone Classic

[Andrettifan]

Remember hearing that the factory Alfa Romeo team would reappear for the mid-season in the 1998 BTCC season, but this did not happened, but were there reports that a private team was going to run a Volvo S40, and Gareth Howell would also run a privately entered Ford Mondeo.

[Les]

Originally Posted by codename_47

People look back on the era of Super Touring with rose tinted glasses, but for me it had two of the worst things you can have in racing, Aerodynamics and pitstops!

Yeah the cars looked nicer but since Alfa turned up with their wings downforce was becoming an issue and the cars were finding it harder and harder to follow.
Imagine if we'd still be running ST now! We've seen how boring and processional the DTM has become, ST BTCC would be pretty much the same!

I guess it looks better in hindsight with non-live races so the boring parts get dropped and only the stuff worth watching made it into the highlights.

That said, I am looking forward to the David Leslie memorial ST race this weekend at the Silverstone Classic

I have just watched the piece of video and I must admit it brought back some memories but it also shows what was good and bad about the ST.
I hated the pitstops - the number of times a wheel nut ruined a decent race.
The sound of those cars was great though.
The commentary was what made it on the tele. Charlie and John could make a procession behind the safety car sound like the best race ever. The filming was excellent but it is all because of the editting - something we don't get now as it is live.
I always thought of it as close racing but looking at the videos it certainly wasn't. The fields were really strung out.

I still prefer think last years beat it