[BTCC] Thruxton 2: The Revenge

[pimmy]

Originally Posted by sceptic

He had a power steering failure, so the fact he was able to get around the lap at all was incredible.

Well that explains that. Having no power steering on a track which is just one continuous corner can't be easy.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

is there penalty for stoping a bit further back than the line ?

Didn't JP stop quite a fair way back at Knockhill a few years ago?

(IIRC, it was to deliberately set a fast lap for the purposes of R2 grid)

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Didn't JP stop quite a fair way back at Knockhill a few years ago?

(IIRC, it was to deliberately set a fast lap for the purposes of R2 grid)

Ringing a bell in my head, so quite likely. The JP of old pushing everything to the max.

[Akrapovic]

He pushes everything to the max now. Tends to be the bumpers of other cars, using his Power Max ultra Xtreme Pro Astra.

[porsche962fan]

meanwhile in the standings an anomaly

Manuf.

BMW 577
Honda 550



but in teams standings

Halfords Yuasa 378
Team BMW 367
Cobra Sport 325



BTW who the heck finances Oliphant ??? as he doesn't seem to have a big sponsor like Pirtek , his car hardly looks different than Turkintons

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

BTW who the heck finances Oliphant ???

https://www.tomoliphantracing.com/partners

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

meanwhile in the standings an anomaly

Different titles using different scoring system.

Manufacturer championship uses 2 nominated entries, selected from Turkington, Oliphant and Jordan. Depending on who they think will get a better result, they may include Jordan in the nomination.

Team championship is only for cars from the same team, so for Team BMW that can only mean Turkington and Oliphant. Jordan is entered BMW Pirtek Racing, which is a separate team.

Also Manufacturer championship counts only the nominated entries and ignores everyone else. Thruxton R1, Cammish and Neal were 2nd and 8th in the results but score Manufacturer points for 1st and 3rd.

[slummingangel]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Didn't JP stop quite a fair way back at Knockhill a few years ago?

(IIRC, it was to deliberately set a fast lap for the purposes of R2 grid)

Was there not something about him opting to start from pitlane because of a bad qualy result and therefore have a good chance at fastest lap

[S griffin]

He did that at Croft, but at Knockhill he deliberately started a long way back

[Johno.UK]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Easiest solution is to prevent teams from being able to add an 'artificial' aid for positioning their car.

Or just let them line up the way they did for years before using the wheels rather than the splitter as pretty much every other series does to my knowledge. Far easier to judge where the wheels are than where some part of the car sticking way out in front is. It's not like JP is the only one who has had this penalty this year although you'd think he was the only one who couldn't "park" properly going by the comments.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Johno.UK

Or just let them line up the way they did for years before using the wheels rather than the splitter

and drivers still got done every year for not lining up their wheels properly

[RS67]

Originally Posted by Johno.UK

Not really. You can't expect the driver to pull up on the dummy grid, get out of the car. Work out the angles to the pit wall with loads of people around and put the tape on the wall all by themselves. It's the responsibility of the team to do that and make sure the car is in exactly the same position on the dummy grid as it will be at the start by getting people out of the way etc. The drivers responsibility is to make sure that they pull into the same position at the starting grid. Of course, in JP's case, if the first bit hasn't been done properly then it's irrelevant what the driver does. Cammish had exactly the same issue earlier in the season.

The team member puts the marker where the driver tells them to. They stand by the pit wall offering up the bit of tape then stick it down when the driver has indicated it is in the correct place. If there are people in the way the team member won't have got the instruction. This isn't the first time Plato has failed to line up on the grid properly.

[Johno.UK]

Originally Posted by RS67

The team member puts the marker where the driver tells them to. They stand by the pit wall offering up the bit of tape then stick it down when the driver has indicated it is in the correct place. If there are people in the way the team member won't have got the instruction. This isn't the first time Plato has failed to line up on the grid properly.

It was different the first time at Brands as he assumed that the marshal (he was on the front row again) would stop him in the correct place from his comments at the time if memory serves. First meeting with the new rules.

Doesn't matter where they put the tape if the car is at an angle on the dummy grid or the start grid. Whether you believe both circumstances are the drivers fault seems to be a difference of opinion on many social media posts. To me it's the drivers fault for the start grid and the teams fault for the dummy grid as they have a better view and the driver is trying to weave between people.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Johno.UK

It was different the first time at Brands as he assumed that the marshal (he was on the front row again) would stop him in the correct place from his comments at the time if memory serves. First meeting with the new rules.

Doesn't matter where they put the tape if the car is at an angle on the dummy grid or the start grid. Whether you believe both circumstances are the drivers fault seems to be a difference of opinion on many social media posts. To me it's the drivers fault for the start grid and the teams fault for the dummy grid as they have a better view and the driver is trying to weave between people.

His quote was - 'If I broke the rules on where I lined up then fair enough, but I was waved into position by a marshal and I think there were other cars around me that were over their lines.' which sounds like another case of finding someone else to blame.

There are no penalties for the dummy grid, so if it's driver's fault for the start grid, that's the only gird that matters.

Whether it is the marshal's fault, the team's fault or the person who painted the lines on the grid - what counts is that twice JP has picked up a penalty for being out of position on the grid this season. Someone of his experience should not be letting this happen twice in the same season.

Add to his two penalties for R3 Snetterton and his penalty for R2 Thruxton makes a total of at least five penalties at least this season.
If three penalties equals a strike - is it known how many strikes and penalties drivers are currently on?

[RS67]

Originally Posted by Johno.UK

It was different the first time at Brands as he assumed that the marshal (he was on the front row again) would stop him in the correct place from his comments at the time if memory serves. First meeting with the new rules.

Doesn't matter where they put the tape if the car is at an angle on the dummy grid or the start grid. Whether you believe both circumstances are the drivers fault seems to be a difference of opinion on many social media posts. To me it's the drivers fault for the start grid and the teams fault for the dummy grid as they have a better view and the driver is trying to weave between people.

Any team their worth will guide a driver into the "box" and line him up squarely on the dummy grid, if he doesn't get it right they will move the car into a better position. Plato still should have had a tape marker on the pit wall. He would also be able to see where the Marshall was standing as he approached the box.

[Akrapovic]

Whether your lining the wheels or the splitter up doesn't matter. You can't see either as a driver and still need a marker.

This really isn't much of an issue tbh.

[Craner Curves]

Tremendous sweeping under the carpet from Jack Youngs event report 😂

https://mailchi.mp/c79d65dd9b14/jack...hruxton-review

[850Estate]

Catching up with the recording, and it was mentioned that Rob Smith was a third generation BTCC driver.

I had no idea. Who's his old man (and his old man's man?)

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by 850Estate

Catching up with the recording, and it was mentioned that Rob Smith was a third generation BTCC driver.

I had no idea. Who's his old man (and his old man's man?)

His grandfather Don raced Jaguars in the BSCC in the early '60s.
His father Paul was mainly a sports car and single seat racer, who had a class win at Le Mans in 1982 and took part in HSCC in 2014.

[S griffin]

I remember them mentioning that on the commentary that he was a third generation in the series

[mprmke]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I did notice Dan Cam was (to my eye) a good 2 foot behind the P2 spot for R3. So either it is tricky or he was being particularly cautious bearing in mind JPs punishment.

Bit of both. That grid position is the most awkward one to see, and bearing in mind Cammish got done for the same thing as Plato earlier in the season and he'd just seen Plato get done for it, then he's bound to want to play it extra safe.

[S griffin]

AJ is saying the car suffers in traffic, so no surprise the Beemers were not able to make progress

[850Estate]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

His grandfather Don raced Jaguars in the BSCC in the early '60s.
His father Paul was mainly a sports car and single seat racer, who had a class win at Le Mans in 1982 and took part in HSCC in 2014.

Thanks for that - I had no idea, and not knowing was eating away at me inside.

[Gravel Trap]

Crmalcolm is quite correct, Rob's grandfather, Don, did race Jaguars in the BSCC in the early sixties, being Birmingham based he was able to pop down to Browns Lane to have the latest factory modifications. Racing was much simpler then!!

His father, Paul, scored a class win at Le Mans in 1982 in the Charles Ivey Racing Porsche 935 and again the following year in a Porsche 930.
In 1984 he raced a Terry Drury Racing Alfa Romeo in the BSCC.
In 1985 he returned to sports cars until retiring from racing in the early nineties.
He is often mistaken for the Paul Smith who competes in HSCC events and endurance races.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

His father Paul was mainly a sports car and single seat racer, who had a class win at Le Mans in 1982 and took part in HSCC in 2014.

The Paul Smith who ran in HSCC SuperTouring wouldn't have been old enough to race at Le Mans in 82. If he had, then a class win in the same year he left school would have been pretty impressive. I think driverdb has got a bit muddled up.