BTCC Finals - Silverstone - 14/15 October

[rdjones]

Originally Posted by sharpy

I thought that Paul O'neill had a great race 3, he did really well to lead the race for the first 3 laps in what he described as an underpowered car. I wonder if he would be considered by a team for 2007??

I would agree with that, I thought he did really well in Race 3, in fact he did well all weekend to say that he missed the whole of free practice on Saturday due to a misfire.

Why did TV timetable change at the last mintue, when I left Silverstone on Saturday the final race was done for 16.45, I arrived yesterday to find out it had been moved to 17.15, which seemed daft IMO.

As for the car park it took me an hour get out, in fact I moved about 20 yrds in 40 mins. I understand from other forums that the police where called as there where fights breaking out in the car parks.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by Larsen

Highlight for the weekend was certainly that crazy driver in the Renault Clio deciding to suddenly veer off the track into the gravel before hitting tarmac then grass, finally spinning towards a group of Clios who he barely missed. Must say that there was alot of laughter in the granstand when that happened...i think alot of people saw that as a shortcut that didnt work out.

Sounds like more people in the grandstand need to listern to the commentary. The Clio had brake failure. There's no way he would have been able to take Brooklands at that speed so he dived for the gravel trap in an attempt to slow down. It didn't quite work as well as he would have liked but if he hadn't tried it the alternative would have been much worse.

There was also a bit of a comical act from Leason (is that how you spell it?)...dont know what happened there but i heard a great cheer from the Luffield grandstands as two tires seemed to have fell off.

Don't think it was spotted by the commentators but at Becketts on the out-lap the wheel-nut came flying off.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by rdjones

Why did TV timetable change at the last mintue, when I left Silverstone on Saturday the final race was done for 16.45, I arrived yesterday to find out it had been moved to 17.15, which seemed daft IMO.

Don't know, but the on-line TV guides on Staurday night still had ITV coverage listed as 16:00-17:30 so must have been a very late change.

Originally Posted by rdjones

As for the car park it took me an hour get out, in fact I moved about 20 yrds in 40 mins. I understand from other forums that the police where called as there where fights breaking out in the car parks.

Luckily it took me so long to get in that I was parked close to the entrance/exit so didn't take me long to get out of the car park. The timetable change didn't help. Normally most people leave after the last BTCC race but if you stay and watch the last few support races queues have gone by the time you leave. As the BTCC was the last race of the day everyone tried to leave at the same time.

[rdjones]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Luckily it took me so long to get in that I was parked close to the entrance/exit so didn't take me long to get out of the car park. The timetable change didn't help. Normally most people leave after the last BTCC race but if you stay and watch the last few support races queues have gone by the time you leave. As the BTCC was the last race of the day everyone tried to leave at the same time.

I can see what you are saying there, I arrived at Silverstone just before 8 yesterday morning, so I was on the tarmac part of the car park, which meant sadly we where the last out.

[cos]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

A crowd of 33,000 attended according to btcc.net, Silverstone's largest car racing attendance after the Grand Prix. Pretty odd that figure's been released as Alan Gow's previously said it's not their policy to release these figures.


Nevertheless thats a high figure - probably the highest for many years!

Always difficult to get accurate crowd figures but 33k would be very impressive. DTM at Le Mans yesterday claims a crowd of 34k.

[luke]

What a day I had. My first ever time at silverstone. Was in the Formula BMW hospitality for most of the time. Had a chat with Andy Prialux and everything etc at the F BMW season awards there as well.
Got my Nigel Mansell models signed by Nige himself had a good chat with him as well. Nearly managed to take home some damaged body work after the race in the pits. Great view from Luffield in the grandstand of the BTCC races.
The only draw back was the fact it took ages driving into silverstone which is never the problem elsewhere.

[Claire]

[QUOTE=rdjones]IWhy did TV timetable change at the last mintue, when I left Silverstone on Saturday the final race was done for 16.45, I arrived yesterday to find out it had been moved to 17.15, which seemed daft IMO.

The change in time was announced as part of the BTCC newsletter that arrived in my in box on Thursday so it wasn't all that last minute but still not sure why they had to do it! The traffic out was a nightmare, I waited an hour and then had no problems.

A big well done to Paul on leading the final race for a few laps, it was great to see him back in his rightful place lets hope it leads to good things for 2007 :-)

[rdjones]

Originally Posted by Claire

The change in time was announced as part of the BTCC newsletter that arrived in my in box on Thursday so it wasn't all that last minute but still not sure why they had to do it!

That same newsletter dropped into my mailbox as well and I have just doubled checked it and it says:-

ITV TIME CHANGES
ITV1’s coverage of BTCC Finals Day on Sunday has been rescheduled to run from 16.00 to 17.30. This means Sunday’s 30thand final round of 2006 will now begin at the new time of 16.45.

Which still leads me to belive that things changed on Saturday or early Sunday morning, just out of interested what was on ITV1 before the touring cars yesterday afternoon?

[cos]

Originally Posted by rdjones

just out of interested what was on ITV1 before the touring cars yesterday afternoon?

Repeat of the X-Factor

[Claire]

My apologies I only saw the time change and not the times!

The people in the grandstand may of laughed when there was the near miss with the Clios but had Adcock not been quick to avoid it there would have been a nasty accident and not so many laughs!! Mind you a lot of them pay to see cars crash and wheels fall off so I guess they where happy.

[Les]

from NickAdcock.net

"Sundays race was a difficult affair and in no exaggeration of drama left me lucky to be alive. I had noticed that Paul Rivett had made a mistake and had had an off course excursion and was pumping his brakes going down the back straight as I passed him. Turning into Brooklands, the left hand corner he was nowhere to be seen and I assumed he had pulled off. This was not the case, in fact he had experienced brake failure, had spun the car off the track and was now travelling at 100mph backwards and was just about to rejoin the circuit collecting me through the drivers door in the process. The first I knew was a flash of white in my peripheral vision as his car hurtled toward me at terrific speed, its amazing what goes through your mind at times like that as I initially thought "no, another shell" as the car had just been sold, then that I was being robbed of another finish as I instinctively threw the car off the circuit and endured a wild ride off piste as I braced for impact. I could actually hear the crowds collective intake of breath as Paul's car missed me by fractions and yet I lived to fight another day, someone was smiling on me on Sunday and even though I could then only finish fifth I had set the fastest lap of the race and therefore took some consolation that I could still actually do it!"

[phatgti]

Was Paul Rivett ok?

[White flag man]

Paul was fine, car ended in the gravel at Brooklands, but I wouldn't have been surprised if there was a nasty smell coming from around him!

[cg7aa]

Originally Posted by Claire

...Mind you a lot of them pay to see cars crash and wheels fall off so I guess they where happy...

Now then, how do I put this, I was gonna post something along those lines but I thought best not incase I came across as some elitist idiot. The last BTCC race I saw was at Brands in 2003 when the Champ cars visited. At Silverstone, I got that impression that SOME of those round me weren't really interested in the racing as such, the biggest cheers went up when they were contacts and mishaps for drivers. While I was thinking "hmmm that was unnecessary contact and a bit unprofessional" some of those around were positively delighted with the contact and with cars getting beached in gravel traps. I guess its just the way things are. I can live with that.