overseas drivers

[billy bleach]

Not pointing fingers! But, with a few exceptions Overseas drivers don't export well to V8SC ( maybe not Priulx or Bourdais) ( but certainly Engle, Primat, Plato,Neal) . They do however get slagged for being off the pace! It would seem the move to GT racing in Europe this weekend has produced the same scenario with "proper" drivers like Lowndes, Van Gis, etc being a bit average. Strange I wonder why they are all good drivers.

[rich07]

Van Gisbergen didn't get to drive in the race due to the car being binned before his first stint so that question remains unanswered for him

[Reload]

Sounds like CL went pretty well.

[FAS33]

Daniel Ricciardo is not average, he just won his 2nd F1 race.

[Hingo]

Lowndes was on a similar pace to the leaders. It is hard to tell because with 61 cars, you are hitting traffic a lot but his pace during the night was pretty good.

[Reload]

Originally Posted by FAS33

Daniel Ricciardo is not average, he just won his 2nd F1 race.

But the topic is GT racing.

[FAS33]

Originally Posted by Reload

But the topic is GT racing.

that's my point, it was GreaT racing from Daniel Ricciardo, thoroughly deserved that win.

[ForumNick]

Originally Posted by Reload

But the topic is GT racing.

NO! The Topic is: 'overseas drivers'

[Reload]

Originally Posted by ForumNick

NO! The Topic is: 'overseas drivers'

The OP is using the GT category in this instance.
What's it to be billy ?

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by Reload

The OP is using the GT category in this instance.
What's it to be billy ?

surely he is talking about overseas drivers as this is an Australasian touring car forum. which is mentioned in the first line

if he was talking GT he would be in the GT forum

[Reload]

Originally Posted by peckstar

surely he is talking about overseas drivers as this is an Australasian touring car forum. which is mentioned in the first line

if he was talking GT he would be in the GT forum

In this instance, more like an opportunity for you to give us that same old, same old.
I actually asked the OP, not you as it makes a huge difference to the topic as it appears that the first few posters might also have thought it was regarding GT racing.

[ForumNick]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Not pointing fingers! But, with a few exceptions Overseas drivers don't export well to V8SC.

No mention of GT in his opening sentence!

I think he is asking why it appears that (good) overseas drivers generally don't seem to do well in V8SC AND why (good) V8SC drivers generally seem to have a similar problem in europe ?

[GROUPA]

Morris & Bright went OK in Indy Lights

[racer69]

It is unfair to judge the quality of overseas drivers based on an appearance at Bathurst these days. They get little testing, hardly any practice and then get thrown into a stint on race day.

Overseas drivers, when in familiar cars, have shown they have no problem at all mastering Bathurst (and vice versa when Australians have gone overseas in familiar cars)

[Malfunction Junction]

Ekstrom?

An absolute freak it must be acknowledged, but he did quite well.....

[peckstar]

is it as simple as a left hand drive vs right hand drive thing?

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by peckstar

is it as simple as a left hand drive vs right hand drive thing?

Fair call - can it be that simple it doesn't explain why Plato and Neal were so average although Turner, Lyons and Westbrook did OK. It just seems no Northern Hemisphere drive can string a season together and yet be bang on the money in Europe or USA...

[old fart]

Billy,we are downunder thus everything is upside down-it takes a Koala grip to to hang onto the steeringwheel and change gear whilst inverted!!

[one five five]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Fair call - can it be that simple it doesn't explain why Plato and Neal were so average although Turner, Lyons and Westbrook did OK. It just seems no Northern Hemisphere drive can string a season together and yet be bang on the money in Europe or USA...

Plato & Neal were only average in cars they weren't familiar with.

Plato drove away from Messrs Radisich, Brock, Brabham etc.. in the early laps of the 1997 race and put his familiar Renault Laguna into a healthy lead. Similiarly Mr Neal damn near won the 1998 race with his familiar Nissan Primera in a great chase of Mr Rydell in the late stages.

Turner, Lyons & Westbrook were at least used to driving RWD cars regularly.

[Holden308]

People like Allan Grice have long held the view that overseas drivers don't usually do well at Bathurst because "it takes years to learn the place". However, the European drivers never really had a problem with The Mountain. Driving at Bathurst to them was no different to driving the old Spa, Nurburgring or Brno circuits, and when they came out here in their own cars (Group A), they were pretty much always amongst the fastest. No more examples needed than TWR and their XJS Jags and the usual visitors we had driving Sierra's or M3's.

American drivers on the other hand have tended to struggle big time. They drove cars they weren't used to (saloons, RHD) and for some reason most of those we got were Indy or NASCAR drivers which compounded the problem, they weren't road racers. From memory the only American driver to do well at Bathurst was Tommy Kendall with DJR in 1996. His advantage was that he actually came from road racing as he drove Trans-Am so he was used to driving saloons.