Carl Breeze - New BTCC Star!

[Arsenal]

Carl Breeze in a Peugeot hey! This Kid will become a big star in the BTCC, time we had a new young star to rival Jimmy Thompson! Such a shame that he couldn`t get the funding to go with Carlin or Manor in F3, they were really keen on him. Old news now this kid is gonna light up the BTCC with his superb driving skill. Heard Vauxhall are keeping tabs on Breeze for 2003! What do you reckon to this young star, will he be on the shopping lists of the BTCC teams for 2003?

[Super Tourer]

Let's wait and see. He didn't leave them standing in the Porsche race's.....time will tell.

[Arsenal]

Originally posted by Super Tourer
Let's wait and see. He didn't leave them standing in the Porsche race's.....time will tell.

Come on Veteran give the kid a break, 1st race at Brands he qualified 3rd only .1sec off pole after only 1hour testing in car. His ABS failed in race 1, had to start from the bac in race 2 and fought up to 7th right behind champion Chambers.

Oulton Park had to miss testing due to gearbox problems. Then in qualifying his clutch went so couldn`t set a decent time. Race 1 up to 5th place after only 2 laps the Slater spun in front of him and teammate Hazell. Hazell slammed reacted 2much and Breeze had no where to go. Damaged rad meant he had to stop when a 4th place finish was a cert. Not bad from 17th on grid hey! 2nd race had to start 14th and flew past Sumpter, Chambers, Slater(all Top Porsche drivers) at the start and was up to 5th when Hellier Split his oil pipe right in front of him going into Cascades. B4 he could react he was on top of oil slick and slid onto the grass which damaged his tracking. Paddock rumours were that Parr Motorsport were mega impressed with this young charger and in fact desperately wanted him to stay for the full season with them.

Come on Veteran look at bad luck this kid had! You can`t doubt his speed, let`s get behind this British driver, people in the know reckon he`s gonna be mega once he adapts to front wheel drive!

[Super Tourer]

Ok - but don't build him up too much before we've seen him in action, then we'll see who's shopping list he get's on.

Don't forget, that some of last year's BTCC 'hotshot's didn't end up on anyone's shopping list, or even with a drive at all.

As for Vauxhall, we don't even know if they're going to be in the BTCC in 2003 yet.

[Arsenal]

Yeah we all know why Plato didn`t keep his drive or secure a new one! Wanted about £200,000 to stay seen as he was the champion and all. Not building Breeze up, but I reckon he will be one of the new breed like Howell and O`Neil who will become the new Stars on the series. Only gone for breeze cos his abilities are masively underated by the certain areas of the press!

[El_Gibleto]

Carl has had just 2 good seasons out of 6, in both cases when Alan Mugglestone was engineering his car. Apart from those two seasons his record is no better than that of a midfield journeyman. I cant honestly see him becoming a star in the btcc,there are better young drivers around.

[Arsenal]

Let`s Look at his record Mr. El Gibleto.

Formula Ford with Mugglestone (1 car team) finished 4th in privateer Mygale. 3rd in Young driver ahead of Wheldon, Rod Sperafico, Vitor Meira etc. Not bad considering the team were new to Fords

Palmer Audi. biggest con going, why its a club formula now

Old Formula Renault won 1 race in rubbish mygale, was ahead of his teamate Kimi Raikkonen in Championship before his management pulled the plug. battled on to finsih 3rd ahead many Tatuus`s.

2000 Renault season with Aztec (1 car team) finished 5th. They have never had anywhere near them results again with other drivers such as Ricardo Van Der Ende etc. Know looks like he done a superb job seen as the team were new to renault. Can`t see your point mate.

Last year with Motaorld. dominated series with a car that was finally good enough to match his talent. Beat Antinucci, Watts, Kovalainen, Mcloughlin, Sisley, Walker, Simonsen!Are you saying these drivers are **** then, because they are the future at the moment. Where r Motaworld this year, haven`t won a race yet. Need I say anymore, Breeze is gonna do well in the BTCC!

Sounds like you are letting your personal feelings get in the way. He`s always done a great job on a very limited budget. I don`t race but I know that he is bloody quick,eg.6 Pole Positions last year beating Raikkonen`s record of 5 from his 2000 winning season so I think you don`t know what you are talking about.

[El_Gibleto]

Sisley & Walker only did partial seasons, Kovalainen was in his first year in cars NOT his 5th! Antinucci is considered by many to be very overrated and is prone to cracking under pressure, the others were in teams who haven't shown themselves capable of running a season long championship challenge.

Arsenal, please remind me who was engineering Carl last season? a Mr Mugglestone I believe.

It seems you may possibly be allowing personal feelings to blur your objectivity. I genuinely look forward to seeing Carl prove me wrong.

[rlinter]

Ok there are so many things wrong with the whole idea...

1/ Surely Carl is considered a star
2/ Porsche @ Brands
3/ Isn't BTCC a career dead end for all but the very very best.

Anyway the word I heard was that sisley is managed by Dennis Rushen...

[El_Gibleto]

I'd say the new btcc "STAR" made his debut at Oulton Park. All things considered Colin Turkington made an impressive debut at Oulton, and if teh car hadn't failed him he waas on course for a podium finish. All from a driver with only 2 days driving in anything more powerful than a Ford Fiesta. He has a great personality too, something that can't be said for some of the other drivers in the series.

[Super Tourer]

As I said before let's wait and see. Saloon car racing is a very different skill, look at the Clio cup this year, Andrew Kirkaldy was on a fast track to F1 a few years ago - F3 with PSR - Autosport award, yet look how those 'club' boys are performing against him in the Clio's this year, sure Andrew is a front runner - but he's not the leader and has faded in the races relative to qualifying.

Whatever you say Arsenal, Carl didn't blow those 'old boy's' away in the Porsche race. We can come up with excuses for driver's all day long. There are still old club driver's tooling around the paddock saying how they beat Senna and Coulthard,etc.

You know the old saying 'I've had won the championship if I hadn't retired from every race...'

I know Leighton and no doubt he'll tell you how he beat Pizzonia and Burti in Formula Vauxhall junior - fact is they are F1 test driver's and Leighton is still trying to put a Formula Renault season together.

The only reason I sound cautious, is that I've worked in motorsport at a reasonably high level - I still know lot's of driver's (past and present) and I've seen lots of driver's who should have done well that haven't. Over expectation is a career killer in motorsport - under expectation and over delivery is the smart way to develop.

Also don't underestimate his team mates, Tim is alway's up there and can handle himself on the track, Eaves's is highly talented - IMO. So let's see how Carl goes.

[KA]

Originally posted by Super Tourer
As I said before let's wait and see. Saloon car racing is a very different skill, look at the Clio cup this year, Andrew Kirkaldy was on a fast track to F1 a few years ago - F3 with PSR - Autosport award, yet look how those 'club' boys are performing against him in the Clio's this year, sure Andrew is a front runner - but he's not the leader and has faded in the races relative to qualifying.

Whatever you say Arsenal, Carl didn't blow those 'old boy's' away in the Porsche race. We can come up with excuses for driver's all day long. There are still old club driver's tooling around the paddock saying how they beat Senna and Coulthard,etc.

I can definitely see where you're coming from here- I think some people also underestimate the levels of ablility at the front of the grid in a lot of the one-make series, and assume that a young driver with a decent single-seater background will automatically blow the 'amateurs' away- I think Breeze did a fairly decent job in his two Porsche races given the problems he apparently had, but I wouldn't have expected him to blow away the 'old boys' like Pete Chambers or Mark Sumpter that easily- after all, they've been racing Porsches for years and have a lot of experience of how to drive a 911 fast.

It's far too early to judge how well Breeze will do in the BTCC- we're not going to know until he's actually out there....