[BTCC] Donington Park, Rounds 4, 5, 6

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Someone has to start the thread!

I would attempt to predict the results in some way based on form, but I really can't. There are surely about 12 drivers who have a realistic shot of winning a race this weekend.

However, I can pose big questions, such as:

How much will the success ballast impact qualifying now?
Will Árón Smith continue his beating of his teammates (however he did it, or rather, the others didn't!!!)?
Will AJ find a reasonable car setup?
Will Matt Neal continue his "resurgence"?
Can Priaulx get a win?
Will the soft tyres have such a major affect as at Brands?
If AJ and Plato have no ballast, does this guarantee them a front row start?

And, very importantly:

Will it rain?

[tux]

No rain expected.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by tux

No rain expected.

Well it can't stay like this forever can it?!

[gregc]

Autosport reports that the second Infiniti will be out, as will Dan Welch, so the grid should be complete this weekend.

According to the BBC, at the moment "light rain" is expected on Sunday morning into lunchtime....

[pimmy]

I hope it doesn't rain. BTCC is better in the dry.

[tin-top fan]

Originally Posted by pimmy

I hope it doesn't rain. BTCC is better in the dry.

Does anyone know what the tyre situation is if it rains? Of course the cars will switch from drys to wets, but how does this affect the hard/soft tyre situation?

[slummingangel]

How much will the success ballast impact qualifying now?
Hopefully it won't effect it too much. Last thing I want to see is "Do well in a weekend be an also-ran in the next weekend"
Will Árón Smith continue his beating of his teammates (however he
did it, or rather, the others didn't!!!)?
Hopefully he does Don't forget he's got more seat time in the car than the others
Will AJ find a reasonable car setup?
I've a feeling it won't happen this weekend but maybe in the next I hope we don't have to wait for the mid season break for it to happen
Will Matt Neal continue his "resurgence"?
It would b to see alright.
Can Priaulx get a win?
I think he will. I seen something with him on that Mobil 1 grid program the other night I didn't know he was involved in driver training looked very interesting.
Will the soft tyres have such a major affect as at Brands?
I don't. think they will people will have learnt from the season opener hopefully.
If AJ and Plato have no ballast, does this guarantee them a front
row start?
AJ I don't know as I said earlier I think he won' t be fully up to speed this weekend. Potato I say will be. He has a habit of being at the pointy end regardless of the situation

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by tux

No rain expected.

No rain was expected here today, but I've just got wet cycling home!

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by tin-top fan

Does anyone know what the tyre situation is if it rains? Of course the cars will switch from drys to wets, but how does this affect the hard/soft tyre situation?

If it's wet the soft tyres carry over to the next race, at that meeting. So if you elect to run softs in race 1 and it's wet then you have to run them in race 2, unless race 2 is also wet in which case they carry over to race 3. If race 3 is wet the softs don't carry over to the next meeting.

[skells22]

and just a reminder we now have a new rule for the rest of this championship, we will have a random person do the draw so the grid random for race 3.

[tux]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

No rain was expected here today, but I've just got wet cycling home!

Me too, just going on what the forecasts are saying really, we all know this country is dodgy weatherwise!

[porsche962fan]

so what excuses does Plato now have ? has Turks Passat RWD advantage ?

if Turks beats Plato this season it will be forever proven that he is simply a better driver than Plato , most of us already know it


and Shedden rocks too , just wait until that Civic hits the more tight and twisty tracks, it may be unstoppable

also impressed with COOK putting the Power Maxxed Chevy that up front

WSR is a real dissapointment this session, Collarad 19th, Priaulx 23rd

[BillWiskins]

Link to qualifying results for anyone who blinked while watching the ITV stream...

https://twitter.com/DunlopBTCC/statu...959809/photo/1

Interesting top ten. More problems for Welch, but at least one of the Protons is higher than last place.

[tux]

BmW struggling alot with straight line speed, only thing that will save them is tyre wear.

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

so what excuses does Plato now have ? has Turks Passat RWD advantage ?

if Turks beats Plato this season it will be forever proven that he is simply a better driver than Plato , most of us already know it

I'm getting the feeling you don't like the most winningest driver in BTCC history....

Looking forward to tomorrow, a proper touring car track.

[porsche962fan]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

I'm getting the feeling you don't like the most winningest driver in BTCC history....

and the WHINIEST too in BTCC history


BTW the most wins is utter rubish PR crap, Plato has 30 races per year

the likes of Andy Rouse had say ONLY 9 races per year, say like in 1986
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Br...ionship_season


so how exactly can you call this fair measuring ?? Andy Rouse would had to drive 3 seasons just to achieve the same number Plato can in single season !!

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

and the WHINIEST too in BTCC history


BTW the most wins is utter rubish PR crap, Plato has 30 races per year

the likes of Andy Rouse had say ONLY 9 races per year, say like in 1986
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Br...ionship_season


so how exactly can you call this fair measuring ?? Andy Rouse would had to drive 3 seasons just to achieve the same number Plato can in single season !!

You beat me to it sir on both counts!

[Craner Curves]

I'm being a bit facetious Viva

[thetool]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

so how exactly can you call this fair measuring ?? Andy Rouse would had to drive 3 seasons just to achieve the same number Plato can in single season !!

But remember Rouse was against almost no competition. Also bear in mind, whilst there are 30 races a season, actually winning more than 20 of them is extremely difficult due to the reverse grids, and this year even winning more than one a meeting is looking tough due to the increased success ballast.

[porsche962fan]

then what about the guys before 80s ? like Jack Sears, Frank Gardner and Co

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by thetool

But remember Rouse was against almost no competition. Also bear in mind, whilst there are 30 races a season, actually winning more than 20 of them is extremely difficult due to the reverse grids, and this year even winning more than one a meeting is looking tough due to the increased success ballast.

The difference is that back then it was an engineering driven competition, whereas today car development is supposed to be not a factor anymore.

[Bramzel]

What about staying on topic?

[slummingangel]

What's people's opinions on the goff abbott coming together? Most of what I've read about it is a tad biased (Rob Austin's FB page)

[S griffin]

So everyone expects Plato with zero ballast to be on pole, then Colin in the same car but with more ballast puts him in his place. That said ballast maybe did have a bit of an effect as Jordan was up there despite driving a s***box and the two Chevys and Moffat in the top 10. Disaster for WSR, Tordoff's top 10 being the only consolation, although Priaulx missing half the session doesn't help. Should make for great racing tomorrow.

Finally is anyone else getting annoyed with the bufferting on the ITV website while trying to watch quali?

[tux]

Originally Posted by slummingangel

What's people's opinions on the goff abbott coming together? Most of what I've read about it is a tad biased (Rob Austin's FB page)

Hard to say, all ive read is that Abbott was on an inlap and was crawling through the chicane and Goff didnt slow down and just ran into the back of him.