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It was a great day out at Thruxton, despite the sun. The touring car action was refreshingly clean, but very exciting, and was only bettered by the support races!
In terms of the touring car talk, Vauxhall have their act together, and have two drivers who are coming on almost as nicely as their car! Good to see BMW running so well at Thruxton, but the lack of ballast was likely part of it. I would also not discount any Honda teams, and Neal was certainly looking the part.
Ingram and Sutton had more pace than their finish positions show. Ingram was obviously hampered by Race 1, but Sutton was certainly looking racey relative to the cars behind. Plato, in race 1, had a nice scrap with Sam Smelt for last place, which he eventually lost before pitting.
Despite the protests of many, it seems that if the depth of quality and the standard of racing is as high as it has been, Plato is in no way a pivotal figure for the championship. He can trundle around at the back making a mockery of his win tally and, quite frankly, nobody really cares. They are more focused on the immense quality at the front and in the midfield. If Plato wants to kick up a fuss, that's fine, but the BTCC will continue on a high whether he wins races and titles or leaves for good. Him missing race 3 didn't make a noticeable impact on the crowd, or the race. Whilst it would be shocking and rather sad actually to see such a great of the BTCC (and of touring cars in general) go out with such a whimper, at the end of the day there are already superior drivers - see his teammate, who also proves that the BTCC can have feisty drivers without other drivers races being jeopardised by egotistical, farcical barging.
Dare I say, if anything, Neal could be a bigger loss, as it may well mean Team Dynamics fade away too...
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