BTCC 2019 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[sethmate]

Originally Posted by yellowbeard

They also have the Fosters shorter circuit at Oulton park, so they could do it like Brands and have one meeting using the Island circuit and a second meeting using the shorter Fosters.

Didn't they use the shortest layout at Oulton in the late 90s? Seem to recall something like that anyway.

As for Croft and Knockhill being too expensive for the teams! Is that really the case? Over a season with all the panel bashing and superfluous hospitality and other things going on, is an extra trip up the A1 / M1 to Croft really going to make or break budgets?

[bella]

Originally Posted by sethmate

As for Croft and Knockhill being too expensive for the teams! Is that really the case? Over a season with all the panel bashing and superfluous hospitality and other things going on, is an extra trip up the A1 / M1 to Croft really going to make or break budgets?

back of a fag packet calculation says that per truck to knockhill it's maybe an extra £400 return depending where the workshop is located, and maybe an extra night in a hotel and day's pay for the team to set up rather than travelling 6-8 hours up in a van and then doing a full set up.

knockhill at the moment ends up being the best part of 6-7 days away for the porsche teams because of pre-event testing, and a day less for the ginetta and f4 teams. the btcc guys arrive last.

as an aside, the biggest issue for me with knockhill over anywhere else is that on the test days you end up with a fair amount of truck movements whilst the f4 cars are driving around the paddock. doesn't seem very clever.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by yellowbeard

They also have the Fosters shorter circuit at Oulton park, so they could do it like Brands and have one meeting using the Island circuit and a second meeting using the shorter Fosters.

The problem with Oulton is that there are restrictions over how many times the circuit can be used. I believe the limit is now four Sundays per year. Adding a second BTCC meeting means losing either the Gold Cup or a BSB round, neither of which seems likely.

There is a work-around by copying what British GT do - run over a bank holiday weekend, qualifying on Sat, race on the Mon, with no activity on the Sunday. I can't see TOCA or ITV being keen on that idea.

[MagicBoy]

Originally Posted by sethmate

Didn't they use the shortest layout at Oulton in the late 90s? Seem to recall something like that anyway.

From memory I think they ran two races a year 1995-2001. May was usually the short Fosters layout, then Island in September. Although it did vary some years. They tried the full international with the shell oils corner one year, similar to that tried recently.

Nowadays the locals complain about the noise, so they're limited on the number of big meetings they can run. Not like they didn't know there was a racing circuit there when they moved in. It's been in use since the mid 1950s!

[Lola]

Originally Posted by btccbloke

these 2 are playing chicken, whoever announces first - PMR with Plato or Motorbase with Hamilton will be immediately trumped same day by the other when it comes to media attention

Surly the Plato news is far bigger story than Nick Hamilton. One is a multiple champion with 90 something wins and the other is the brother of somebody.

[Robin Marriott]

Depends how you look at it. Internationally, ‘Lewis Hamiltson’s brother’ is a much bigger name than ‘multiple domestic tin top championship winner’.

JP is well known within UK Motorsport but for a lot of people, motorsport stops at F1, there’s thousands of people in the UK who watch F1 and nothing else, to them, the brother of their golden boy is much bigger draw.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Lola

Surly the Plato news is far bigger story than Nick Hamilton. One is a multiple champion with 90 something wins and the other is the brother of somebody.

Depends on what news Plato has?

[btccbloke]

depends which one will make the cover of the motorsport weeklies really

I agree Plato is the bigger, more successful name and carries more weight and any announcement he makes by default will be a headline but "Hi im Lewis Hamiltons disabled brother, you may remember me from some 16th places in the Clio Cup" gathers more a lot more media attention these days because of who he is related to

[aland]

Originally Posted by bella

back of a fag packet calculation says that per truck to knockhill it's maybe an extra £400 return depending where the workshop is located, and maybe an extra night in a hotel and day's pay for the team to set up rather than travelling 6-8 hours up in a van and then doing a full set up.

knockhill at the moment ends up being the best part of 6-7 days away for the porsche teams because of pre-event testing, and a day less for the ginetta and f4 teams. the btcc guys arrive last.

as an aside, the biggest issue for me with knockhill over anywhere else is that on the test days you end up with a fair amount of truck movements whilst the f4 cars are driving around the paddock. doesn't seem very clever.

the amount of pre-event testing for the support series is crazy, most teams arrive on the monday and there is 4 days testing including the official friday. how much track time do the supports really need. as for the truck movements, have them before 9am, during the lunch hour and after 5pm. i agree moving artics whilst smaller cars are going about is not the safest, even with bankspersons and marshals

[CM388]

Originally Posted by MagicBoy

Nowadays the locals complain about the noise, so they're limited on the number of big meetings they can run. Not like they didn't know there was a racing circuit there when they moved in. It's been in use since the mid 1950s!

Copy paste for pretty much any circuit in the UK these days. Bloody nimbys! *grumble, grumble*

[HopAlong]

Guarantee if it was I Football stadium or open air music concert you wouldn't hear complaints. Its like those people on those house buying programmes that complain about being to close to the main road, from someone who lives on a main road, you barely notice it and tune it out. For those living near tracks I bet you barely hear it.


I think local councils should stop pandering to churches over race tracks on Sunday, its so wrong that legitimate businesses and livelihoods play second fiddle to, sorry I cant think of anything that wont come off nasty.


Don't understand how Nic Hamilton is a bonus for any team. How to you PR spin scoring 0 points over a season with a best finish of 23rd? or do Motorbase think they can make a killing on accident damage?

[Lola]

Originally Posted by HopAlong

Guarantee if it was I Football stadium or open air music concert you wouldn't hear complaints. Its like those people on those house buying programmes that complain about being to close to the main road, from someone who lives on a main road, you barely notice it and tune it out. For those living near tracks I bet you barely hear it.


I think local councils should stop pandering to churches over race tracks on Sunday, its so wrong that legitimate businesses and livelihoods play second fiddle to, sorry I cant think of anything that wont come off nasty.


Don't understand how Nic Hamilton is a bonus for any team. How to you PR spin scoring 0 points over a season with a best finish of 23rd? or do Motorbase think they can make a killing on accident damage?

I agree


{quote=} Depends how you look at it. Internationally, ‘Lewis Hamiltson’s brother’ is a much bigger name than ‘multiple domestic tin top championship winner’.

JP is well known within UK Motorsport but for a lot of people, motorsport stops at F1, there’s thousands of people in the UK who watch F1 and nothing else, to them, the brother of their golden boy is much bigger draw.{quote}

I couldn't care less if Hamiltons brother is driving or not. Not exactly setting the world alight in tin tops is he? But Plato being on the grid does. At least he can be competitive.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by Lola

I agree


{quote=} Depends how you look at it. Internationally, ‘Lewis Hamiltson’s brother’ is a much bigger name than ‘multiple domestic tin top championship winner’.

JP is well known within UK Motorsport but for a lot of people, motorsport stops at F1, there’s thousands of people in the UK who watch F1 and nothing else, to them, the brother of their golden boy is much bigger draw.{quote}

I couldn't care less if Hamiltons brother is driving or not. Not exactly setting the world alight in tin tops is he? But Plato being on the grid does. At least he can be competitive.

I think the description of could be levelled at JP over the past couple of years too in actual fact!

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by HopAlong

I think local councils should stop pandering to churches over race tracks on Sunday, its so wrong that legitimate businesses and livelihoods play second fiddle to, sorry I cant think of anything that wont come off nasty.

You mean the church breaks that have been in place since the circuit opened?

Anyone else see the irony here. It's wrong for new residents to complain about race tracks that were there before the houses were built, but ok for race tracks to ignore churches that were there decades (centuries?) earlier.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by btccbloke

I quite enjoyed the races at the long track, but Oulton is a awkward circult anyway, it feels too small for big touring cars and GT type cars, almost like Cadwell Park


To call it (Thruxton) a placeholder suggests it may still be replaced but that isnt the case for 2019 at least so we need to just accept that its there

No, 2019 will definitely be Thruxton. And we're running out of time for 2020 to be honest. Need to get the politicians to actually do something.

[Craner Curves]

Ashley Sutton on Twitter hoping to be back. Not exactly sounding confident.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

Ashley Sutton on Twitter hoping to be back. Not exactly sounding confident.

Work still in progress to sort the teams finances I'm told. It's going to be damned tight, so testing, development etc. will be next to zero. Let's hope they are on the grid otherwise we'll be missing quite probably the best driver of his generation.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Work still in progress to sort the teams finances I'm told. It's going to be damned tight, so testing, development etc. will be next to zero.

thats exactly the same every year for that team!

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Work still in progress to sort the teams finances I'm told. It's going to be damned tight, so testing, development etc. will be next to zero. Let's hope they are on the grid otherwise we'll be missing quite probably the best driver of his generation.

I'm sure they will be, but it might be shambolic as usual until they get to their good tracks.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Work still in progress to sort the teams finances I'm told. It's going to be damned tight, so testing, development etc. will be next to zero. Let's hope they are on the grid otherwise we'll be missing quite probably the best driver of his generation.

And, if they make the start of the season, will they see it through?

Surprised that Ash has stuck with BMR through all this, when you'd expect there to be several other offers on the table for him..?

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by Evantra

And, if they make the start of the season, will they see it through?

Surprised that Ash has stuck with BMR through all this, when you'd expect there to be several other offers on the table for him..?

You've forgotten who his personal manager is though and he might be tied to him for some considerable time.

[Alfisti]

Precisely. And over and above that Ash respects Warren and is thankful for Warrens support over the past few years. I think they'll struggle around 'til Oulton, Ash will win races on merit (i.e. not reliant on reverse grid manipulation) at Croft, Knockhill, maybe Oulton. And be in with a mathematical chance at the title come Brands.

[S griffin]

I have a bad feeling that we aren’t getting any noises of late. Is something going on that’s not right?

[jsmee]

Anyone aware of any test days planned in for teams in the next few weeks? Keen to get out and watch some testing!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Jiiiiiiim]

Originally Posted by jsmee

Anyone aware of any test days planned in for teams in the next few weeks? Keen to get out and watch some testing!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

AmD/TPR are out the end of Feb & Early March. Motorbase & Ciceley off to Spain I believe.