BTCC Donington Park (Derbyshire) - Rounds 16-18, July 15th 07 - Page 2

**touringlegend** · 14 Jul 2007, 18:44 (Ref:1963211)

Quote:

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

Plato was half a second slower than Turner.

With 36kg of ballast on board..

Chilton's car was 2kg underweight.

rdjones · 14 Jul 2007, 19:52 (Ref:1963246)

I am not sure you will be seeing Miss Leggate tomorrow after she put her car in the tyre wall right under my nose at the old hairpin during qualifying. The car has quite a lot of front damage.

Hazard · 14 Jul 2007, 21:34 (Ref:1963275)

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdjones

I am not sure you will be seeing Miss Leggate tomorrow after she put her car in the tyre wall right under my nose at the old hairpin during qualifying. The car has quite a lot of front damage.

The camera's rarely go that far back anyway, so I'm not sure it makes a difference

Steevp · 14 Jul 2007, 21:37 (Ref:1963277)

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdjones

I am not sure you will be seeing Miss Leggate tomorrow after she put her car in the tyre wall right under my nose at the old hairpin during qualifying. The car has quite a lot of front damage.

She picked up 3 points for taking Matt Allison off during practise too.. bad weekend for Fiona.

Super Hans · 14 Jul 2007, 23:22 (Ref:1963333)

If Gio has his engine woes sorted by tomorrow, I imagine he'll carve his way through the pack pretty quickly. And Plato is only a few cars ahead. Could we finally get to see the two title protaganists go door-handle to door-handle?

Hazard · 15 Jul 2007, 09:48 (Ref:1963478)

Great first race, some good driving in horrendous rain. Win for Shedden, 2nd for Adam Jones well earned, and a brilliant run from the back for Neal for 3rd!

Knowlesy · 15 Jul 2007, 14:50 (Ref:1963636)

Hell of a weekend for Jason Plato, championship wise.

**touringlegend** · 15 Jul 2007, 15:23 (Ref:1963658)

Yeh didn't see that double coming at all.

What on earth was Chilton up to in the 1st race !

Super Hans · 15 Jul 2007, 16:25 (Ref:1963710)

Quote:

Originally Posted by touringlegend

What on earth was Chilton up to in the 1st race !

Starring in an am-dram production of Bambi on Ice, it appeared.

I do feel sorry for Tom this year. Things just aren't going very well.

UNiiQU3 · 15 Jul 2007, 16:55 (Ref:1963720)

Well im glad I only went on the saturday looking at how wet it was today! Although the racing was top quality from a spectators point of view.

Also I met John Surtees while I was there, seems he has a relation who races in F-BMW, is it his son or other relation?

gregc · 15 Jul 2007, 17:17 (Ref:1963730)

Just back from a very soggy Donington, some really entertaining stuff despite the weather though. Good, clean scraps right through the field too. I was surprised at Plato's pace, especially after his moaning a week or two ago about the car being too slow. Looks like the Seat boys have managed to find some extra performance at last. Vauxhalls very disappointing, BMWs likewise (I thought Donington was supposed to suit them) and the Civics continue to impress. Shedden beating Neal again is interesting, he's starting to look like the no.1 at Dynamics...

Really chuffed for Adam Jones, great drive in race 1.

Oh - and Henry Surtees is indeed John's son.

rdjones · 15 Jul 2007, 18:14 (Ref:1963751)

Been home about hour, I think I have just about dried out now. That was one wet day. A good result for Adam Jones, I thought Mike Jordan was on for a win in Race 3. Let's hope the weather is better at Snetterton in 2 weeks time.

Sodemo · 15 Jul 2007, 18:21 (Ref:1963758)

People must have been watching different races to me.

All I saw was three largely very dull BTCC races, the second one was ok with the Neal and Plato battle, though for me sitting at Craners / Old Hairpin, the racing was largely very stale.

Its odd, as wet races usually = much excitement, but I saw none of that really.

To top it all, the event scheduling was controlled by some lunatic, who decided to postpone or red flag all the early races, then bring lunch forward by two hours, so then we had a clear track with no rain falling for well over an hour with no track action, its almost like they were waiting for the torrential rain to start again before sending cars out (only to get red flagged and sent back to parc fermé).

Once again, the Clio's saved the day at the 11th hour at the end, by far the most entertaining thing of the day, I for one will think twice about spending £25 plus extras again trackside.

rdjones · 15 Jul 2007, 18:42 (Ref:1963765)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sodemo

To top it all, the event scheduling was controlled by some lunatic, who decided to postpone or red flag all the early races, then bring lunch forward by two hours, so then we had a clear track with no rain falling for well over an hour with no track action, its almost like they were waiting for the torrential rain to start again before sending cars out (only to get red flagged and sent back to parc fermé).

I think that may have been something to with live TV, so you can thank ITV for that one. Even the rain was pretty bad they could have raced on through it IMO.

gregc · 15 Jul 2007, 18:52 (Ref:1963768)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sodemo

People must have been watching different races to me.

All I saw was three largely very dull BTCC races, the second one was ok with the Neal and Plato battle, though for me sitting at Craners / Old Hairpin, the racing was largely very stale.

Its odd, as wet races usually = much excitement, but I saw none of that really.

Well, I watched race 1 at Craners and there wasn't much excitement, but races 2 and 3 offered plenty of action at the chicane - maybe I got lucky with where I was watching.

Agreed on the scheduling - according to one of the guys in the paddock the Clios were rescheduled for safety reasons, but I suspect the real reason was to make sure the ITV schedule wasn't disrupted.

Alan · 15 Jul 2007, 19:30 (Ref:1963792)

Overall given the conditions I thought it was a good meeting - my only gripe is the lack of any traffic management. It took me longer to complete the last couple of miles than it did to get from Sheffield.

BootsOntheSide · 15 Jul 2007, 19:36 (Ref:1963798)

The BTCC races loooked pretty good on TV, with plenty of overtaking and relatively few crashes considering the conditions. Great to see Adam Jones getting a big result in race one.

Super Hans · 15 Jul 2007, 19:44 (Ref:1963802)

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregc

Looks like the Seat boys have managed to find some extra performance at last. Vauxhalls very disappointing, BMWs likewise (I thought Donington was supposed to suit them).

Had we had a dry meeting, I imagine the Seats would have floundered, and the BMWs excelled as expected. However, as the races were conducted in near-biblical conditions, it's no surprise that the rear-wheel drive Beemers suffered.

Alan Raine · 15 Jul 2007, 19:51 (Ref:1963811)

This time last year - Me included - would have been complaining about bad driving - Plato was a prat - Neal was an idiot etc, etc.

Considering the conditions, Donington is difficult in the wet at the best of times, I thought (on the TV) it was pretty good.

Mind you, I watched the Superbikes at Oulton afterwards. Now that was something different

Super Hans · 15 Jul 2007, 19:55 (Ref:1963815)

Plato in particular has cleaned up his act this year. He seems to have adopted Matt Neal's successful title-winning gameplan of staying out of bother and finishing every race in a points paying position.

redshoes · 15 Jul 2007, 20:04 (Ref:1963821)

I hate to do this but I fear I must have a rant about TV.

As a number of posters have already pointed out, various races were postponed and the scheduled generally messed about with at short notice, but noticeably all the BTCC races started on time. I realise the conditions were terrible, I should know, I was stood in it, but at times it seemed farcical. After the Clio race got moved there was no reason why BTCC race 2 couldn't have started 15-20 mins earlier to relieve what was clearly going to be an ever more over-running timetable. Same story with race 3 - BMW's get called off and we sit for an hour waiting for the next race to start. Although it was never explicitly said it pretty obvious that live TV was calling the shorts.

As I've said, I realise it was difficult circumstances but this isn't the first time it's happened and not always because of the weather, and won't be the last.

reggiev · 15 Jul 2007, 20:09 (Ref:1963824)

i have just about dried out from marshalling today, i was at the old hairpin. I thought the 2 days were fantastic. The weather did upset things today but plenty of hard work from the dedicated crew at the old hairpin to try and get rid of the newly formed swimming pool the racing went ahead after the torrential downpour. Just to bring home the dangers of our chosen hobby, in the porsche race the marshall post (No 9) took a direct hit from one of the entrants at some rediculous speed, thankfully no injuries to the marshalls that were stood at the post at the time and the driver thankfully was just shook up. The concrete wall infront of the post was moved back about a metre as was the post itself. All in all a great weekend ruined by our great british weather.

rdjones · 15 Jul 2007, 20:14 (Ref:1963827)

The driving standards today where spot on, IIRC I don't think we had a safety car in either race 2 or 3.

Having said that Mr Stringfollow nearly managed to crash the safety car on the sighting lap before race 3 at Schwantz Cerver, for me it was save of the day !!!

**touringlegend** · 15 Jul 2007, 20:20 (Ref:1963835)

I think that Cayenne's at it's limit most the time. Would hate to pay for the tyres on that.

As for the TV, surely leaving an hour is slight overkill on the scheduling part. Perhaps they could have shortened the races like Oulton Park.

rdjones · 15 Jul 2007, 20:25 (Ref:1963840)

Quote:

Originally Posted by touringlegend

I think that Cayenne's at it's limit most the time. Would hate to pay for the tyres on that.

It wasn't the Cayenne this time it was the 911.

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