BTCC Brands Hatch: Rounds 22, 23 & 24, 18-19 August

[Suze]

I obviously can't count then! Was one of the Motorbase cars involved as well?

[touringlegend]

Yeh I think I spotted Ferrier smash into Jackson.

[Suze]

Cheers. Any idea if the second BTCC race will be shown after the F Ren? Not sure what timetable is or how ITV are doing things.

[touringlegend]

Will be, timetable says 13.35 for the start of Race 2.

[cos]

Originally Posted by Suze

Cheers. Any idea if the second BTCC race will be shown after the F Ren? Not sure what timetable is or how ITV are doing things.

2nd BTCC race should be shown live on ITV4.

[Suze]

Cool, just checked TV schedule and reckon the 3rd race will be shown live on ITV1 according to the scheduling. F Ren just finished so ties in with touringlegend's info. Thanks both

[Suze]

They've just shown a replay of the R1 incident and you're right, Allison did hit Jackson and one of the MGs was over there too. They're on the green flag lap now for R2.

[Suze]

Gutted - Allison in the wall in a reasonable hit, inside of the hill on the run to Druids. Shame for Motorbase again, especially seeing as they had to fix him after R1.

[touringlegend]

What a silly mistake from Smith on the restart of Race 2, I'm sure he could've had a very good result from there.

[Sodemo]

I really like the BTCC, though I think the quality of the drivers after the top 8 or 10 is quite suspect.

You have about 10 cars at the front which are about the same pace, then after that the gulf in talent is massive.

[Craig]

Okay, the rain didn't put me off heading down to Brands in the end. What absolute rubbish. Got seriously bored during the second race so went for a wander in the paddock. Realised the Clios were on next so hung around for them only to find them red flagged and then abandoned! What a load of cock.

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by Craig

Okay, the rain didn't put me off heading down to Brands in the end. What absolute rubbish. Got seriously bored during the second race so went for a wander in the paddock. Realised the Clios were on next so hung around for them only to find them red flagged and then abandoned! What a load of cock.

I had the exact same experience at Donnington in July.

Rain caused lots of red flags and safety car moments, which combined with the uncompromising ITV TV scheduling, conspired to ruin the day's racing.

It just seemed nonsensical, they decided the bring lunch forward and had a break of an hour just when the rain stopped, when lunch was over the rain had started again and chaos ensued once more, when they had a perfect opportunity to run a race in that hour whilst the track was totally clear as well as the skies.

[BootsOntheSide]

Some of the driving in the BTCC was abysmal, almost every driver made some kind of mistake resulting in contact. Tom OC wiping his team-mate out at the start of race 2 was amateurish, Smith forgetting the safety car procedure was inexcusable, Jackson's race 1 mistake was the result of ludicrous agression, and so on. It made for good entertainment, but showed the gulf in driver quality with the WTCC. ITV interviewed Priaulx on the grid, he must've been thinking "I could have this lot for breakfast, if they don't punt me off". Only Gio really came out of it with any class, by apologising for his race 3 error.

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by Hazard

Race two on ITV4 live. Race three on ITV1 live. No Setanta coverage this weekend.

I missed that Will the same deal be in operation for Knockhill? Surely BTCC would get more ratings than old films and "The Way We Worshipped" - any comment on that going to parc ferme.

It's a sad fact of life that the whole show is about the BTCC - they sometimes have to move the support events if there is a balls up somewhere. It's better to have the support events shunted around the schedule a little to suit the broadcaster than to have no TV deal Besides - a red flagged race isn't normally restarted if more than half (?) is run (my knowledge of red flag stuff is dire).

[touringlegend]

I thought the third race was brilliant, shame Jones and Onslow-Cole locked wheels towards the end.

4 points between Plato and Giovanardi with 6 races left. Crucially, Gio has 2 more wins to his name. Could be all important in a draw.

And as for the days incidents, Mat Jackson's mistake was one of these things. Colin Turkington did the same but in different circumstances. It was unlucky everyone got caught up in Jackson's mistake, but thats the way thing's go. How predictable Steve Neal has started moaning about Jackson today, just because they're probably going to build a new car for Matt.

The RAC / Turner incident I'd put down to Turkington, Onslow-Cole was going up the side of Turner when CT closed the gap.

Giovanardi outbraking himself was a bit ludicrous.

[brands]

Having watched the highlights of race 1 plus races 2 and 3 live I must say that the dodgems have outdone themselves for dragging British motorsport into the gutter.

The driving standards are akin to banger racing and Harvey/Edwards aren't willing to condone any move regardless of how reckless it is

I bet the chav crowd at Brands Hatch will be happy though, having got their monies worth of crashes.

...and people wonder why driving standards have gone downhill ( Mansell) when this is the only national motorsport that's live on normal British TV

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

Some of the driving in the BTCC was abysmal, almost every driver made some kind of mistake resulting in contact. Tom OC wiping his team-mate out at the start of race 2 was amateurish, Smith forgetting the safety car procedure was inexcusable, Jackson's race 1 mistake was the result of ludicrous agression, and so on. It made for good entertainment, but showed the gulf in driver quality with the WTCC. ITV interviewed Priaulx on the grid, he must've been thinking "I could have this lot for breakfast, if they don't punt me off". Only Gio really came out of it with any class, by apologising for his race 3 error.

Umm - Were we watching the same races!

Tom OC was possibly wiped out by his team mate. Turkington made the same mistake as Allison later on and Gio cocked it up big time, although it was also the save of the century!

And why was Tom OC flashing his lights all the time?

[Tim Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by brands

Having watched the highlights of race 1 plus races 2 and 3 live I must say that the dodgems have outdone themselves for dragging British motorsport into the gutter.

The driving standards are akin to banger racing and Harvey/Edwards aren't willing to condone any move regardless of how reckless it is

Agreed. I think pretty much every "name" driver made at least one overtake simply by knocking the guy in front out of the way - even Darren Turner seems to be at it now. The "gulf" between the top 10 and the rest is that those outside the top 10 aren't playing stock cars!

Again, Steve Neal carping on when his team are hard done by (from a racing incident), but nothing said about Shedden knocking Jones off in race 2 - although Jones himself wasn't squeaky clean in race 3.

I hope all the marshalls on the run up to Druids are okay - it looked like Ferrier made a hell of an impact.

Brands is a very tight circuit, but if 30 club racing saloons can get round there with minimal casualties (as last weekend) then I'd expect the cream of British tintops to be able to do the same!

[Hazard]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

11, say BTCC.net. 8 didn't take the restart. Neal hit Jackson, then Pinkney slammed into the back of Neal. Neal and Pinkney were taken to hospital as a precautionary measure.

Just thinking, when was the last time a BTCC race was red flagged ? I'm thinking Brands Hatch, October 2001, when the heavens opened ?

Formula Renault's are also being shown in ITV4 now.

You know there's a linking factor to those two events That was my first BTCC race

11 cars indeed, TV doesn't do it justice - it was carnage! Took almost an hour to clean up and Matt Neal took about 15mins to get out of the car. That said, he walked out but into an ambulance.

[Hazard]

Originally Posted by brands

Having watched the highlights of race 1 plus races 2 and 3 live I must say that the dodgems have outdone themselves for dragging British motorsport into the gutter.

The driving standards are akin to banger racing and Harvey/Edwards aren't willing to condone any move regardless of how reckless it is

I bet the chav crowd at Brands Hatch will be happy though, having got their monies worth of crashes.

...and people wonder why driving standards have gone downhill ( Mansell) when this is the only national motorsport that's live on normal British TV

Having watched the highlights of race 1, you're the victim of editing trickery. The first lap incident was one of those things - speaking of 'club racing', the Clio race got canned cos non of them could get their act together (there were two crashes on both the green flag laps!).

Can't say I saw anything but good racing today from the BTCC, exceptional in-fact...apart from the unfortunate smash in the first race.

Sorry you didn't like it.

[redshoes]

Was the wrong side of the circuit to see the race one incident and only just home so haven't seen the TV coverage yet. It just seemed to be one of those days. Several Porsches tried to throw themselves at the scenery and Clios had 2 attempts before being sent home to bed without any tea. First attempt Doyle got sideways at Paddock and all hell broke loose. On the restart Stefan Hodgets put his car into the barriers whilst trying to warm his tyres on the green flag lap.

Hate to say it but can't help but think today's events are going to have a serious impact on the grid at Knockhill. Pocklington seems to have disapeared, I recall reading somewhere that Kerry was planning to miss the next round, Leason and Blanckley have already bailed. I'd already heard rumours of another team considering giving Knockill a miss and that was before today's carnage.

Neal's car is probably written off, although I would expect the team to be back with something.
Ferrier's isn't much better - if it needs a re-shell I doubt we'll see him back this year.
Allison's need some major surgery, and not for the first time this year. What budget is left?
Murray's is fixable but does he have the parts and/or budget?
Stockton must wondering if it's really worth the effort.
Leggate's was repaired for the third race (well for one corner at least)
Can't recall seeing Pinkney's car being dragged back but suspect that need more than a bottle of T-Cut and a roll of tank tape.

[safc_fan89]

I'd guess that whenever there is a smash in WTCC, a lot of you just class it as a racing incident, but if the same happens in BTCC then obviously the drivers are useless!

Mat Jackson showed 'ludicrous aggression', did he? So now, a driver can't make a genuine attempt to overtake at the start. It was an accident, he didn't do it deliberately, yes it ended with a major accident but that's motor racing.

[Suze]

Yes but BTCC has more contact than other formulae and, in my opinion, than is necessary......

Some are racing incidents, but some are from poor driving standards.

[safc_fan89]

True some are, but why when I look at forums such as this one, is just about every incident down to bad driving? I don't think that is the case.

[DSM]

Originally Posted by Hazard

Can't say I saw anything but good racing today from the BTCC, exceptional in-fact...apart from the unfortunate smash in the first race.

I should feed the guide dog and get off to bed then!

I thought it was very poor, even by BTCC standards.