[BTCC] Race 4, 5 & 6 - Thruxton, Hampshire - 26th April 2009

[MikeH]

There seems to be no mention of Plato in that press release quite deliberately. To me that says they don't know yet as he's probably still looking for the funding for another RML car.

[NendoShisu]

Originally Posted by medius

Fantastic news. Autosport's article says Plato is unconfirmed for Thruxton.

So does that mean that RML are going the rest of the season with Jackson it said he signed a deal

[Suze]

Really looking forward to the weekend, not been to BTCC much in the past few years and not been to Thruxton for ages either. Hope Plato is out, as said earlier in this thread be good to see four champions racing.

[steve_r]

This is brilliant news. I assume by this:

“On top of that, there’s the potential to compare myself against someone of Jason’s calibre in identical machinery"

That Plato is also going to be running as well?

[crmalcolm]

I hope he does mean that Plato will be driving, and not that he wants to compare his results to Plato's performance at Brands.

[davyboy]

Its very good news that Mat Jackson will be out at Thruxton, but the release is deliberately vague and leaves several questions unanswered.

o Is Mat Jackson confirmed for the entire season, or is Thruxton a one-off.

o Will Jason Plato be back in the car again ?

o Can RML run a two car BTCC campaign simultaneously with their WTCC programme.

[gregc]

Jason Hughes to miss Thruxton - his knee is still flaky after the op. Better news that they're starting prep work on a second car though - I know they're never going to challenge at the front but they're a good bunch.

Don't know why but I have a nasty feeling that Owy won't be there as well

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by Spanner monkey

I dont think it was sheds fault he was twatted by a bmw within 50 yards of the start of the 1st race! This also compramises the 2nd race if you dnf

The civic crawling to the pits with a puncture was regarding how they for years have struggled to make the tires last, sometimes to the point of getting non contact related punctures.

BTW, can anyone explain to me how come RML is not in the "Built their own car" championship?

[gregc]

Originally Posted by stedevil

BTW, can anyone explain to me how come RML is not in the "Built their own car" championship?

Yes - they haven't entered it! Someone asked Alan Gow on the official site just before Brands.

Edited to add... Looks like my pessimism about O'Neill was unfounded - http://btcc.net/html/generalnews_detail.php?id=1390

[Craner Curves]

As nice a guy and decent a driver as Paul is - top 6?

[gregc]

I had the same reaction - but he has got a point about what Andy Jordan managed last year. Top 6 in the last race if he gets lucky with the reversed grid? That's possible I reckon.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by stedevil

BTW, can anyone explain to me how come RML is not in the "Built their own car" championship?

Because they don't want to be?

Just because they are eligible doesn't mean they have to enter. Why pay the entry fee for a full season when they didn't know if they would actually be at more than one meeting.

[stedevil]

I wasn't aware it costed extra money. I just assumed that if you where racing and you had built the car yourself, you would be eligible. If that is not the case, it becomes a lot more understandable. To bad, because with both Jackson and Plato would potentially be the only real competition to VXR in that category.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by stedevil

To bad, because with both Jackson and Plato would potentially be the only real competition to VXR in that category.

That is probably the exact reason why RML would not enter it or have been told not to by GM. They sure wouldn't want them to beat their bigger funded works team.

[Icebaby]

Just a thought but do RML only have 1 Chevy as they sold the other two to Vaulkard which means no car for Plato as Jackson in or am i mistaken and they had two left from WTCC 08?

I am suprised no one is taking up the option on the third RAC BMW which is a winning car?

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by Icebaby

Just a thought but do RML only have 1 Chevy as they sold the other two to Vaulkard which means no car for Plato as Jackson in or am i mistaken and they had two left from WTCC 08?

I am suprised no one is taking up the option on the third RAC BMW which is a winning car?

They had a spare car as well and thus 4 to sell. So that would mean they have 2 left unless somebody bought another one in "secret".

[Icebaby]

Originally Posted by stedevil

They had a spare car as well and thus 4 to sell. So that would mean they have 2 left unless somebody bought another one in "secret".

Cheers for the info

[Suze]

Wonder how much weather will play a part over the weekend, forecast keeps changing. Metcheck originally earlier today showed rain on Saturday afternoon but it now looks dry, but does suggest rain all day Sunday. Could make for interesting racing!

[Spanner monkey]

Vaulkard has only leased a car of RML & they have an option on a 2nd car. That was said by an Engineer from Tempus at Brands

[Spanner monkey]

The civic crawling to the pits with a puncture was regarding how they for years have struggled to make the tires last, sometimes to the point of getting non contact related punctures.

Apart from gordons (Gio also punctured without contact & T.O.C)2 punctures at thruxton last year i dont thin TD had any non contact related puctures last year looking at results.
Thruxton is difficult to judge as dunlop make a special tyre for the thruxton round so as tyres are limited in numbers so are testing days for thruxton

[Hazard]

Entry List (Unofficial) for Thruxton

#	Driver	Team	Car	Graphic
1	Fabrizio Giovanardi	VX Racing	Vauxhall Vectra
2	Mat Jackson	Ray Mallock Ltd.	Chevrolet Lacetti
3	Jason Plato	Team Silverline	Chevrolet Lacetti
4	Colin Turkington	Team RAC	BMW 320i
5	Matt Neal	VX Racing	Vauxhall Vectra
9	Adam Jones	Cartridge World Carbon Zero	SEAT Leon
10	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus
11	Rob Collard	Airwaves BMW	BMW 320i
12	Jonathan Adam	Airwaves BMW	BMW 320i
15	Martyn Bell	Sunshine.co.uk/Techspeed	Honda Integra
16	Nick Leason	Team AFM Racing	BMW 120d
17	Harry Vaulkhard	Tempus Sport	Chevrolet Lacetti
20	Alan Morrison	Team Aon	Ford Focus
27	Liam McMillan	Maxtreme	SEAT Toledo
29	Paul O'Neill	Sunshine.co.uk/Techspeed	Honda Integra
35	James Thompson	Team Dynamics	Honda Civic
44	Stephen Jelley	Team RAC	BMW 320i
50	John George	TH Motorsport with JAG	Honda Integra
55	Dave Pinkney	Team Dynamics	Honda Civic
63	Martin Johnson	Boulevard Team Racing	Vauxhall Astra
77	Andrew Jordan	VX Racing	Vauxhall Vectra
85	Dan Eaves	Cartridge World Carbon Zero	SEAT Leon

Car graphics courtesy of AndyBlackmoreDesign | SpotterGuides.com

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by Spanner monkey

Apart from gordons (Gio also punctured without contact & T.O.C)2 punctures at thruxton last year i dont thin TD had any non contact related puctures last year looking at results.
Thruxton is difficult to judge as dunlop make a special tyre for the thruxton round so as tyres are limited in numbers so are testing days for thruxton

I think I remember Matt getting numerous punctures as well the year before.
Wasn't aware that Thruxton comes with special tires though, might indeed have something to do with the punctures.
But in any case the main issue was that TDs civics in general seems to chew up their tires and drop considerably in pace towards the end, more so than most other FWD brands.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by stedevil

Wasn't aware that Thruxton comes with special tires though, might indeed have something to do with the punctures.
But in any case the main issue was that TDs civics in general seems to chew up their tires and drop considerably in pace towards the end, more so than most other FWD brands.

The tyres are different at Thruxton to those used at all other rounds. This is based on the high degredation due to kerbs and high speed loading at the track.

Could the TD Civic tyre wear be due to driver's preferred setup? Maybe this year's drivers might be set up in a kinder configuration.
IIRC, Mike Jordan used to regularly set his car up in a manner that would be quick early on, but admitted that it would suffer through the tyres late in the race. The TD Civics have maybe suffered through similar set-up configurations, if they have suffered abnormal tyre degredation at all?

[andy_b]

Thruxton (and beyond?) guide now online @ www.spotterguides.com

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Could the TD Civic tyre wear be due to driver's preferred setup? Maybe this year's drivers might be set up in a kinder configuration.

That is definitly a factor yes. But generally also, the more aggressive settings you have, the quicker you go as well. The trick is to find what settings and what changes are needed to the car itself to enable you to go both fast but also for long. Volvo C30 had exactly the same problem first half of the season in STCC 2008, but during the summer break they managed to fix things on the car to lower the tire degradation problem. They still were as quick as before so it's wasn't just less aggressive tire settings.

However if you buy a BMW, they already did all that development work, and "all" a team has to do is get the settings optimal. That's why I'm a bit sad they reduced the S2000 spec weight for the sequ BMW with 20kg in BTCC. It makes it very very hard for a team to develop their own competitive FWD car in BTCC.