[ETCC] the cup to be split into 4 race series

[Jon411]

Flash, Perfection and ROAL all missing then.

Looks like its pretty much Thompson vs Engstrom with Campanico, Poulsen and maybe Colak and the SUNRED guys behind then so far unless we have any last minute additions.

[Hazard]

Originally Posted by Jon411

Flash, Perfection and ROAL all missing then.

Looks like its pretty much Thompson vs Engstrom with Campanico, Poulsen and maybe Colak and the SUNRED guys behind then so far unless we have any last minute additions.

Looks more like Thompson vs. nobody.

The rest can fill in behind him

[JMeissner]

Originally Posted by PorscheFanNo1

Werent the Flash cars supposed to be there Meissner?

The changes of dates gave the team too little time to sort everything out for the premiere. But the two final races are still interesting.

[PorscheFanNo1]

Originally Posted by JMeissner

The changes of dates gave the team too little time to sort everything out for the premiere. But the two final races are still interesting.

Cool, thanks for the info

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by PorscheFanNo1

Nice feild there... will be a craker to watch.

If you think thats a nice field and will be a cracker to watch then your very easily pleased.

[PorscheFanNo1]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

If you think thats a nice field and will be a cracker to watch then your very easily pleased.

Well ofcourse my dear

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by Hazard

Looks more like Thompson vs. nobody.

The rest can fill in behind him

Well, anybody can have eg a first corner incident, and Engström isn't that bad (he qualified ahead of Tommo last year eg and went from last on the grid to 3rd in race 2). But of course, being from the same team they won't exactly knock each other of the track fighting for position.

But yes, the rest of the field doesn't look to be very much to write home about. But who knows, maybe there is a star with a proper car hidden somewhere among half the names I havn't even seen before.

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by JMeissner

The changes of dates gave the team too little time to sort everything out for the premiere. But the two final races are still interesting.

I was fearing exactly that would happen when FIA(?) pulled that insane "lets move the date this late before the start" move. Do you have any inside hints about how many others could have jumped off the bandwagon for exactly the same reason?

[Pettersson]

Results from the first test session at Braga:
http://www.fiaetcc.com/html/uploaded....Testing_1.pdf

The track was wet after early morning showers, so times are not 100% accurate.

[Alfa Fan]

I'm sure the times are accurate, whether they are representative is another matter. Looks like a ridiculously uncompetitive series nevertheless.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Pettersson

Results from the first test session at Braga:
http://www.fiaetcc.com/html/uploaded....Testing_1.pdf

The track was wet after early morning showers, so times are not 100% accurate.

13 cars covered by 14 seconds?!
LOL
Stunning!

[Alfa Fan]

There is only 10 cars! Some 1.6 litre cars came out by mistake to create the illusion of more!

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Alfa Fan

There is only 10 cars! Some 1.6 litre cars came out by mistake to create the illusion of more!

The 1.6 cars are in the same race. They allowed them in to fill out the field a bit more. The ETCC is a complete joke and they should kill it after this year as its got no credibility anymore.

[c8nay]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

The ETCC is a complete joke.....

Agree there. They should of made some of the European rounds of the WTCC include the ETCC using the same conditions for entry. At least they would of got possibly 12 more entries to the wtcc grid at certain events.

[JMeissner]

No surprise as Thompson claims pole:

http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=4569

[Hazard]

Originally Posted by JMeissner

No surprise as Thompson claims pole:

http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=4569

At least it was close.

[helgi]

First race was better. At least there was some action between top 4 drivers, as Tommo had to defence and did it brilliantly. All the action during the second race was at the start and some jumping and stunts (autorodeo) from Engstrom. Of course, glad to see Timur on 5th, but I suspect there were some mech problems with Marin's car - his pace was better.
It's pitty there's no stream from Superstars. So I had to watch ETCC. Not so bad as it predicted to be, but could be much better.

[FIRE]

Have only seen 2nd half of race 1. Battle for podium was quite entertaining.

[Andy77]

Originally Posted by helgi

First race was better. At least there was some action between top 4 drivers, as Tommo had to defence and did it brilliantly. All the action during the second race was at the start and some jumping and stunts (autorodeo) from Engstrom. Of course, glad to see Timur on 5th, but I suspect there were some mech problems with Marin's car - his pace was better.
It's pitty there's no stream from Superstars. So I had to watch ETCC. Not so bad as it predicted to be, but could be much better.

There was one but only available with a really good proxy

[Icebaby]

Thompson proving the BTCC and WTCC teams were wrong to over look him for a works drive in 2010, he is in my view the best touring car driver at present.

[Jon411]

Does anyone know the official reason why the Hondas had +30 kilos of ballast? I thought they both did well in Race 1, but stood no chance in race 2.

Hopefully the weights are looked at for Salzbergring - if a team like Flash turn up then I presume the Honda stands no chance with the ballast as it is at the moment. No offence to Poulsen and Campanico as they did really well today and made race 1 interesting, but if 2008 is anything to go by - they weren't really on the pace of the two Flash cars and Engstler during the races.

[PorscheFanNo1]

Originally Posted by Jon411

Does anyone know the official reason why the Hondas had +30 kilos of ballast? I thought they both did well in Race 1, but stood no chance in race 2.

Local homoligation gets you +30 kilo I belive.

[Hazard]

Originally Posted by PorscheFanNo1

Local homoligation gets you +30 kilo I belive.

That's interesting, since they're using the old JAS Honda Accord's - which surely have WTCC homologation?

[Jon411]

In the press release that was on the ETCC website about Engstrom in the second car, he said they were using the Hartmann cars rather that his cars as they were built to the DTC homologation regs, rather than FIA S2000 which meant they could take advantage of a few things that they couldn't do with the Engstrom Motorsport cars, the only difference between the cars was that Thompson was using the Neil Brown engine that Hartman normally use, and Engstrom was sticking a Mugen engine in the car he was racing and bringing an engineer with him.

You have to wonder if they made the right choice considering the 30 kilos of weight for the locally homologated cars, maybe they would have been better with Engstrom's Hondas. Seems strange that they have done that, as I wouldn't have thought Hartmann have normally had to race with +30 kilos when they've raced in ETC Cup.

[PorscheFanNo1]

Originally Posted by Hazard

That's interesting, since they're using the old JAS Honda Accord's - which surely have WTCC homologation?

Nope. The Hartmann Accords have local DTC homoligation, the Engström Accords has the same FIA homoligation as JAS, but Engström where using the Hartmann car with his Mugen engine in this race, and for the rest of the season.