News and media coverage

[IanM]

I hope this year the coverage of the BTCC in the papers and on Local television news improves.I live near Donnington Park and we dont get anything on the news at all.For what is supposed to be a top british motor racing series the coverage is non existant.You scan the papers after a race for result and if you're really lucky,you may find 3 lines tucked in a corner somewhere.When it comes to F1 there are pages of guff.If our news can show a 10 minute slot about racing skips and sheds around Donnington,why caqnt they do the same for real racing????

[Super Tourer]

To be honest I've found most of my BTCC news right here in this forum.

With so many members, someone, somewhere always seems to see/hear something or know someone in a team.

We've always got members at the races, who can nearly always come back with some 'paddock' gossip, and of course the forum has a close association with team B&Q York City racing.

Several ex and current BTCC drivers are also members and look in from time to time as well.

All I can say is stay tuned!

ST

PS.Craig, was that a good sales job?

[pink69]

TV wise the BTCC gets goodish time. But in newspapers you hardly ever see anything about the BTCC so the net is the best place really.

[speedy king]

I think ITV have done a great job with the TV coverage, so great credit to them and shame to the BBC. I do still think though there needs to be more coverage on the local newses and national news papers etc.

[Craig]

Maybe ToCA could get a deal with a national daily such as the Daily Mirror. Ahem...

[speedy king]

I smell a bit of sarcasim.....

[speedy king]

P.S i cant spell the big word i put in my last post!

[IanM]

thanks for the post ST.Im going to stick with this site.I dont know who's idea it was ,but good on them.I'll be able to bring you all the news from Donnington Park as and when it happens.

IM

[Peter S]

I thought the Autosport coverage off the BTCC last year, was pretty poor. The autosport has gone to much towards formula one now. It needs to go back towards championships like the BTCC and rallycross when they used to get on the front cover. Now hardly nothing other than formula one manages to hit the front cover at all. the motoring news does a great job though, as did the telegraph newspaper.

[bella]

i'm with peter s. the telegraph did a good job of ensuring that the btcc was covered, including that end of season supplement. hope they decide to continue their coverage.
daily mirror my arse...

[redshoes]

It's not just BTCC, there's virually no motorsports coverage in any national newspaper. Apart from F1 and maybe the Rally GB that is. The local paper here will occationally include a picture and two line caption of a local driver but it's not what you would call coverage.

From what I remember of the Telgraph end of season review, it was clearly heavily funded by Vauxhall.

I've said this before but it's a sad state of affairs that Team B&Q's various "stories" have probably generated more column inches in the last 2 years than the rest of the series combined.

[bella]

does it matter who funded it? the fact was that it existed. vauxhall were the major players anyway in the final race so whoever funded it it was going to be all about them anyway.

[rdjones]

I quit agree with Redshoes. Take last Tuesday IMO there where two major motor sport announcement - Ralph Firman signing for Jordan and the offical launch of the Bentley Le Mans Program.

I picked up The Sun at work on Wednesday morning and there was about half a page on Firman and nothing about Bentley, but in the Daily Express, which I read at home, you had a medimum sized report on Bentley and a paragraph on Firman. Try and work that one out.

Sorry for not menetioning the BTCC, but I think it proves the point about how the media works in the UK

[touringlegend]

I think the point is that would the Telegraph of bothered reporting on the BTCC at all if Vauxhall hadn't funded it?

[bella]

do you really honestly think sun readers give a flying **** about bentley? you'd have to write it in such a way that it was, and it's bad enough trying to make a story of "rich daddy's boy gets f1 drive" let alone a minority race that few people have any interest in.

sorry for putting it so harshly.

[bella]

Originally posted by touringlegend
I think the point is that would the Telegraph of bothered reporting on the BTCC at all if Vauxhall hadn't funded it?

vauxhall DON'T fund it for general race reports.
actually.

[Craig]

They would if it were 'our Nige' in the car... Mansell Mania. Purrrleeasseee... but it sold papers to the union jack wearing shaven headed morons.

You seem quite defensive of the Telegraph, B

[touringlegend]

I wasn't even talking about other race reports, so that's irrelevant.

[bella]

well, vauxhall don't fund their touring car coverage. they choose to cover it. a small column, but it's all that's necessary. if something good happens, they'll put in a picture (eg if there was a good one of paul o'neill on fire last year). otherwise there's not the demand or the interest.

[redshoes]

Calm down Bella. Whatever the typical Sun reader thinks of Bentley road cars and Bentley owners this was a story about Bentley's Le Mans team and I for one know several Sun readers who are regulars at Le Mans.

You might as well say the same about BMW drivers (no offence) and ask why the Sun bother to report on the Williams F1 team.

[bella]

when the sun decides to buy an article about le mans they will do. until then there's too many other sports to be reported on using their pages.
it's just simply not newsworthy.

[Craig]

Yep, much better idea to fill it up with football...

[redshoes]

Buy ?
Ten minutes rewording the press release and downloading the pictures supplied by Bentley. What is there to 'buy' ?

[bella]

they don't have the staff to do that.

[Sarah W]

I get the Daily Express and it is generally good for mentioning motorsport. They do report any BTCC news.

My local paper, the Eastern Daily Press, has a motorsports feature one day in the week either mentioning local drivers or what's been happening in Karting or at Snetterton. Our local TV news does a feature on the BTCC when its at Snetterton as well.