[BTCC] Anthony Reid returns......

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I remember Reid from his Nissan days. He was a clean racer from what I can recall, ok I remember a couple of bad incidents like his ram on Thompson at the last round in 1998 and his nudge on Rydell at Brands in the same year, but compared to some on the grid that year, he was quite tame.

He is a clean racer, you only need to look at how he's driven in historic racing to see evidence of that. He seemed to develop a 'dick dastardly'
persona in the BTCC towards the end of his time there and that was more to do with what other people were saying about him than persistent bad behaviour on track. As somebody who's spent his entire life trying to garner media attention for him and the teams he raced for, Reidy lapped it up and went along with it.

I have huge respect for him as a racing driver. His versatility and sheer speed in an enormous variety of different cars down through the years have certainly earned him the status of legend

[Super Hans]

Wonderful, wonderful news. Reidy's a top-drawer pedaler and a real character to boot. Game on!

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by davyboy

He is a clean racer, you only need to look at how he's driven in historic racing to see evidence of that. He seemed to develop a 'dick dastardly'
persona in the BTCC towards the end of his time there and that was more to do with what other people were saying about him than persistent bad behaviour on track. As somebody who's spent his entire life trying to garner media attention for him and the teams he raced for, Reidy lapped it up and went along with it.

Exactly, a lot of it was stirred up by the media. Rather like the whole Plato and Muller rivalry thing, when they actually got on really well together and had a lot of mutual respect. Wasn't like that in the 90s, they just drove and got on with it, no need for creating false rivalries, they did that themselves.

Johan - thanks for that clip. You know I'm just going to have to bring out the 1998 review video to watch today!

[Aunt Sally]

Originally Posted by davyboy

He is a clean racer,

Who do you think Neal, Plato and Collard learnt their moves from??

you only need to look at how he's driven in historic racing to see evidence of that.

Historic racing is a slightly different world? The drivers respect the cars a bit more..

[Peat]

This is great news!

Last time a saw him, he was ruddy-cheeked enjoying SEVERAL real ales on a sunny saturday afternoon in the Turf Tavern, Oxford a few months back.

He was a schoolboy-hero of mine back in the Nissan Super Tourer days....

[Icebaby]

Originally Posted by JMeissner

Then you must have forgotten "incidents" like these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHk3D2XhuTc

Move to 3:10. Not exactly tame...

Reidy was certainly no angel however Neal/Collard appear to have the trophy for bumper car driving at present

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by JMeissner

Then you must have forgotten "incidents" like these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHk3D2XhuTc

Move to 3:10. Not exactly tame...

I did mention that in my original post if you read it.

I can't think of many other incidents that were as out of order as that though, as I really do not know what Reid was thinking, he was about 80m back from the Honda at the braking zone.

Anyhow, I still think Reid has had far less "bad" incidents, the same with the late and great David Leslie, always respected him for clean racing.

[werner]

I can remember from my 2004-btcc-dvd his moves at Silverstone international circuit, where he punted bot Thompson and Neal of in quite ridiculous and dangerous ways.

[Icebaby]

Originally Posted by werner

I can remember from my 2004-btcc-dvd his moves at Silverstone international circuit, where he punted bot Thompson and Neal of in quite ridiculous and dangerous ways.

Yep remember that one as well, Thompson remarked "Reid's a clown and should be juggling balls in a circus"

Neal and Reid had a stand off in the interview with a some finger pointing and pushing....

The Thompson move was stupid by Reid, the Neal/Reid one was more 50/50. Chilton took his first win I think in the Civic and congratulated Reid/Neal on some excellent driving!

[chunder]

Fairly obvuious why the team ahve emplyed him really

I am sure he is under very specific orders!!

[VIVA GT]

I think he's an excellent and experienced racer. He just adapted his style to suit when he joined the BTCC. As we all know, this now stands for Bash The Car Clear.

[Jon411]

In Autosport this week WSR say they are taking it on a round by round basis as they don't have the funding in place to have all 3 cars out for the final 3 rounds yet.

[medius]

Hmm, depending on results this weekend then, Jelley could be put on gardening leave to make room for Reid. Assuming he's on the pace.

[touringlegend]

Probably not as simple as that, I guess Jelley is financing a large portion of that team!

My thoughts are if the points gap to Giovanardi decreases or stays the same after Silverstone we'll see Reid again. If it increases dramatically maybe not - i.e. if Gio doesn't score at all!

[Icebaby]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Probably not as simple as that, I guess Jelley is financing a large portion of that team!

My thoughts are if the points gap to Giovanardi decreases or stays the same after Silverstone we'll see Reid again. If it increases dramatically maybe not - i.e. if Gio doesn't score at all!

Yep, thats how I see it as well, Jelley won't be asked to step aside and why should he as he's paying for his drive.

The other factor which will determine Reids involvement is accident damage to the WSR cars something VXR have no concerns over and will be on the mid of the drivers.