[BTCC] Brands Hatch Indy rounds 28,29 & 30

[touringlegend]

Plato's done it - leading home Matt Neal to win the race. Shedden was a few laps down after missing start to change / fix a driveshaft.

It's all actually been a bit of an anti-climax, with the talk of 4 title contenders dominating the press in recent weeks.

Race 3 should be good though, 7 car reverse with Plato going for the all time race wins record.. I think he could do it with what he has shown the Cruze can do with 45kg of ballast.

[FBJim]

Originally Posted by Last2LiftOff

Certainly would be a worthy champion, no?

I'm not saying he's unworthy, but it's a bit sad it had to happen when his two championship rivals from last year couldn't get rides.

[Icebaby]

Tend to agree its been a poor year, Chilton winning the Independents is a joke.

[touringlegend]

Originally Posted by Icebaby

Tend to agree its been a poor year, Chilton winning the Independents is a joke.

Nearly fell off my chair laughing when he told Steve Rider that the team didn't have much money!!

[The SpeCTator]

A terribly dull meeting, Plato and Neal proving that previous bumper car tactics pay off when chasing for the championship. (Sadly the Ginetta Juniors copy their everymove with expensive consequences for Dad.)

The whole show desperately needs cleaning up, Alan Gow seems to turn a blind eye as the crashes disguise the poor grids and lack of quality drivers who can race cleanly.

Chilton winning the Independents is as laughable as poor Tom Onslow Cole car prep this weekend, Tom O C would have been a worthy champion.

[westfieldbend]

Originally Posted by The SpeCTator

A terribly dull meeting, Plato and Neal proving that previous bumper car tactics pay off when chasing for the championship. (Sadly the Ginetta Juniors copy their everymove with expensive consequences for Dad.)

The whole show desperately needs cleaning up, Alan Gow seems to turn a blind eye as the crashes disguise the poor grids and lack of quality drivers who can race cleanly.

Chilton winning the Independents is as laughable as poor Tom Onslow Cole car prep this weekend, Tom O C would have been a worthy champion.

Sadly I didn't speak to a single person who enjoyed today, such as shame as MSV have worked so hard to promote the meeting.

Do what I am doing and forget this weekend even happened and diverting my attention to the excellent meeting next week - formula ford festival, with 42 spectators instead of 42,000.

[adstubbs]

Watched more or less the whole thing on ITV4 - BTCC races were surprisingly low key, Plato was never really threatened in any of the races. Chilton pleading poverty was a bit hard to swallow though, especially when it's known that others are far more financially stretched. Nice to a really big crowd, shame that we will only see 10a tenth of that number for the FFF this weekend. Good to see James Thompson back in the BTCC (albeit only as a test driver), although I initially thought that Captain Jack Sparrow had taken a wrong turn and ended up in the Brands pitlane.

[BertMk2]

Whilst it was a fairly quiet meeting (by BTCC standards) there were some good drives - Shedden was absolutely flying after missing the start of the second race, Andrew Jordan pulled off an amazing save after getting totally broadside around Clearways (which helped set up the win in the last race). I also enjoyed some of the scraps further down the field - Martin Johnson in particular deserves a mention for keeping people behind him despite only running on 3 cylinders.

I can't say I was surprised to see TOC's car fail though......

[The SpeCTator]

Agree it was good to Brands well populated, I reckon there were probably nearly as many there on Saturday as there were on the WTCC on Sunday.

The BH team had certainly made the place look good, kerbs freshly painted, grass cut, staff smiling, litter picked up(although with all the free stuff in the paddock it was going down almost as quickly!)

For the size of the crowd the toilets at Paddock were certainly inadequate, there really does need to be a toilet block built as the foot of Paddock is probably the busiest part of the track!

The BTCC finals at Silverstone next year might produce better racing because as we know they can overtake anywhere as the track seems to have no boundaries and penalties dont seem to happen in BTCC

[touringlegend]

I think Sam Tordoff would disagree with you on that point.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

I also enjoyed some of the scraps further down the field - Martin Johnson in particular deserves a mention for keeping people behind him despite only running on 3 cylinders.

Agreed, great battle between Johnson, George, Kaye, Forster, Depper and Hollamby in race one and Johnson wasn't even being overly defensive.

If anyone was in any doubt how much Johnson was enjoying just being out there look at race three. It's one thing to finish race 1 when the car is only running on 3 cylinders but another to start race 3 when it's still not fixed and sounding like a bag of spanners. Highlight for me was watching Forster get increasingly frustrated at not being to overtake the Astra.

Agree with the previous comments about it being a very subdued meeting. Realistically Plato had such a points advantage that it was going to take a miracle for him not to be champion but once Neal fluffed the start and allowed JP to clear off into the distance it was pretty much game over.

[dan290888]

I was present both saturday and sunday and had a throughly good time. The racing was a little dissapointing although I think we were spoilt a little with last years finale. Some good racing towards the back of the grid with Johnson, Hollamby and co.

I believe Plato fully deserved the title and when needed he has pulled of some amazing drives (back of the grid to 3rd at donnington especially) and his performance at brands with full ballast was amazing to watch.

Both Shedden and Tom OC had a great year and I think its a real shame the way things worked out for Tom OC in suspicious circumstances at AON. Will be a big loss if btcc loses Tom OC imo.

On a different note (possibly opening a tin of worms here ) Im sure I saw Vic Lee a few times over the weekend, isnt he meant to be inside?