[BTCC] BTCC 2020 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by Thundersports

Yep he had a unit in the 20/20 estate. The crowd funding thing was in 1990/91 and yes the car was scrutineered without an engine. Last seen in TLDs hands at the Interserie meeting at Brands in 1991, he borrowed an engine from Joest but had to run with his own ECU which he didn't have! Val Musetti had already handed over 20k for the drive the ECU never appeared and the car was towed up to a spot behind the Brabham centre by Tims rusty Honda to carry on selling space on the car...........

Worth a read....

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/a...-tim-lee-davey

[Peter Mallett]

Thanks for the reminder. Wonder what he's doing now. His son used to post on here back in the early days.

And apologies for taking this thread waaaay off topic.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

At the end of the day motor racing is 'discretionary spend', a luxury and the brutal truth is that if you can't afford to cover every eventuality of which almost wiring off the car is not that unlikely, then don't do it....

This is the very conversation I've had with my son about trackdays - basically don't take a car onto a race circuit unless you can afford to throw it away. His response was "well I'm not going to crash" - ignoring the overconfidence of youth/inexperience I pointed out that other people might crash and take him out in the process or something might fail on the car causing him to crash.

It reminded me of one of the public track sessions at Rallyday at Castle Combe - a car ran wide coming out of the final corner, got on the grass, hit the barrier and rolled several times. The driver got out and his first words were "my dad is going to kill me, it's his car and he doesn't know I've taken it on the circuit." Oh dear.

[porsche962fan]

from Neal regarding the title bid

When it comes to a championship bid, you need allies on your side and a strong team behind you, which is what we have

wonder who those "alies" are

[S griffin]

I guess the answer you are looking for is BTC racing.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

wonder who those "alies" are

I don't think it's a specific reference to any team, more a case of having other drivers playing nice or at least not getting in your way. Think back to 2015 when it was Shedden vs Plato in the final round - one of those two definitely had more 'allies' on the day.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

wonder who those "alies" are

Five things we learned from the BTCC at Knockhill:

'The failure caused his Honda Civic Type R to pirouette into the barriers, causing a lot of damage and casting a large question mark over the remainder of his day. Cue a phenomenal repair job from the BTC mechanics – with a little help from the Team Dynamics squad.'

[S griffin]

BTC are kind of a satellite team to TD. Reminds of the time when you had the Eccurie Ecosse Vauxhalls alongside the works DC cars

[HopAlong]

Even if BTC would be allies, would Cook? Given he and Sutton are good friends.

[WestHam92]

How much of a thing are team orders in the BTCC? Could BTC tell Cook to let Cammish pass him and Cook be in breach of contract if he doesn't?

Depending on who lets who past and who blocks who, it will be a good indicator of who are friends in the BTCC.

[S griffin]

Well we always remember Brands 2015 where it seemed everyone would rather Flash won the title rather than Plato. But I think that has been discussed enough times on here

[porsche962fan]

so who is in "plato" role this time ?

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

so who is in "plato" role this time ?

Are there any drivers on the grid who are so unpopular that even their own team mates don't want them to win championships?

[Pickles]

Glynn Geddie in at HARD:

https://www.team-hard.com/glynn-gedd...ith-team-hard/

[thetool]

http://www.btcc.net/2020/10/15/glynn...ith-team-hard/

Hope they've got the breathalyzers on standby!

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

so who is in "plato" role this time ?

In recent years, BTCC seems to have gone away from having a 'villain', so I don't see why there would be such a role this season.

[CarfanLUFC]

I thought Geddie did a pretty decent job in his appearances in 2018 in the MG, especially at Knockhill when he picked up a point.

Those CC's are on life support right now though so can't see him doing much this time.

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Are there any drivers on the grid who are so unpopular that even their own team mates don't want them to win championships?

I actually just spat my tea out reading that 😂

[flatapex]

Depends how you define allies. The way I see it there are people that should actively help, people that largely stay out of it and people that will hinder.

BTC might either be asked or take it upon themselves to do Dynamics a favour, especially if it means they will have their back scratched when it comes time to put an order in.

Most drivers won’t get involved, too much at stake. Very few drivers are on multi year deals and wouldn’t want to upset a potential future teammate or boss. Any driver wanting a chance of a front running car wants to be seen to be the perfect teammate

[Peter Mallett]

I tend to agree, but my competitive side says, if this is what we are doing then why bother?

[SR18]

I expect Jelley to team up with WSR as he did last year. Not sure if Boardley will join them as well.

[S griffin]

Good luck to Geddie this weekend, Bushell did a decent job with the car at Croft, so we’ll see what Glynn will do

[porsche962fan]

Turkington (still) being pals with Jordan seems if you look at twitter as Turks also drives in historic racing

[Matt K]

Matt Neal now openly says what we've all been thinking of for quite some time - a possibility to retire after this season. However, it's rather 50:50 now.
What made me curious, reading the story on Motorsport.com was this part:

"It is understood that Neal’s deliberations stem from the commercial issues facing Honda, for which Neal’s family-owned Team Dynamics squad runs the official team in the BTCC, in the current economic climate."

I wonder what's behind it really.

[thetool]

No Honda money next year so team will need someone who can pay the bills. Probably can't justify spending money from the wheels business on his BTCC exploits so step up to team boss and bring in a suitable replacement with money. (A Shedden, Butcher or Cook for example, not a Neate or Pinkney).