1988 Dunlop RAC British Touring Car Championship - Discussion & Results

[bigears]

I have recently contacted Karl Jones about the 1988 Birmingham Superprix and he said he doesn't keep records himself but the good thing is that he will ask Lee Asquith about the information about the BTCC event!

Here's to hoping...

[chunterer]

Nice one bigears, fingers crossed!!

[bigears]

It is going to be my biggest enigma to my research of the BSP, finding the 1988 qualifying and grid lineups of the BTCC event together with the final Monday timetable of the 1986 Birmingham Superprix (there was a lot of last minute rearranging and cancellations of the races ut I haven't been unable to find out what exactly happened!)

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by bigears

I have recently contacted Karl Jones about the 1988 Birmingham Superprix and he said he doesn't keep records himself but the good thing is that he will ask Lee Asquith about the information about the BTCC event!

Here's to hoping...

I think that should be Richard Asquith who ran Karls car.
Lee Asquith was the name of the team formed a few years later when Vic Lee joined up with Richard Asquith...

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by bigears

It is going to be my biggest enigma to my research of the BSP, finding the 1988 qualifying and grid lineups of the BTCC event together with the final Monday timetable of the 1986 Birmingham Superprix (there was a lot of last minute rearranging and cancellations of the races ut I haven't been unable to find out what exactly happened!)

Does the Autosport report not chronicle what went on ? I should have that copy of Autosport and may even have the race programme too.

[KA]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Does the Autosport report not chronicle what went on ? I should have that copy of Autosport and may even have the race programme too.

IIRC Autosport's coverage of the '88 Birmingham Superprix only covered the races that were actually run, plus some reporting of the cancellation of the BTCC race- I don't think it included much, if any, coverage of the actual qualifying sessions that were run, just the news stories that came out of them- the TWR Commodore, the race cancellation etc. It would be worth a look though, to check- I should have that particular issue as well, but haven't looked at it in ages

Motoring News did cover the qualifying for the BTCC race, but in typical MN style at that time, there was just a narrative report, with the qualifying times that are given just being quoted as part of the text- often in these you'll just see a mention of where a driver qualified, but with no times, or a rundown of the qualifying order for an individual class given, but not their overall grid positions- there are loads of gaps in it as well...

[davyboy]

Ah OK... because normally Autosport would have tabulated the qualifying/results etc... for a BTCC round. If anyone needs me to do a digging job, let me know and I'll launch an exploration mission into my loft

[KA]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Ah OK... because normally Autosport would have tabulated the qualifying/results etc... for a BTCC round. If anyone needs me to do a digging job, let me know and I'll launch an exploration mission into my loft

That's the problem- I won't swear from memory, but I don't think they did for this one, because the race was cancelled....If they did include anything, I think it was even more sketchy than the incomplete MN version.
I'm planning an exploration mission into my loft this weekend as well, as I'm sure I've got both the Autosport and MN issues for this one

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by KA

That's the problem- I won't swear from memory, but I don't think they did for this one, because the race was cancelled....If they did include anything, I think it was even more sketchy than the incomplete MN version.
I'm planning an exploration mission into my loft this weekend as well, as I'm sure I've got both the Autosport and MN issues for this one

You've a good memory KA... either that or its filled with all the wrong stuff ha ha ha I've just checked 1st September 1988 issue of autosport and there's a short paragraph about qualifying in the news section at the beginning but nothing more. I found my copy of the race programme though if anyone needs information from it.

So I saved you any domestic grief KA... I'll have my missus to deal with now when she sees the havoc I've created rooting through the loft

[KA]

It's definitely full of the wrong stuff....
Thanks for confirming that. If you've tracked the race programme down, it might be useful to confirm the entry list. I think we've got all of it, but there's one thing puzzling me...

A while back, in the Group A Corolla thread, someone posted this pic
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...lisCorolla.jpg
of Nick Whale's Corolla in the paddock at Birmingham- and another Corolla parked next to it.

Based on the report in MN, and this pic I reckon the Corollas present were:

61 Nick Whale/CHMS (green with Willis Faber sponsorship)
63: Tony Crudgington (blue with white stripe or flash on the sides)
69?: John Llewellyn/MIL Motorsport (white with red/grey stripes, Griffin Shopfitters sponsorship)
77: Geoff Kimber-Smith/Five Star Racing (plain white, Fotofanatics/Canon sponsorship)

Can't swear to it, but I don't think the white car in the pic is any of these, so is there another Corolla entry in the programme that we might have missed (maybe a DNQ/DNS not mentioned in the report?) or did CHMS bring a spare car?

[bigears]

Look at the bottom of page 10 for my Excel file post. I found out that Dave Loudoun entered his Corolla but didn't enter.

So it might have been his Corolla?

[davyboy]

These were the Corollas on they entry list :

#61 Dave Loudon from Pershore [CHMS] Toyota Corolla / Toyota 1600
#63 Tony Crudgington from Sible Hedingham [Tony Crudgington] Toyota Corolla / Arden 1600
#69 John Llewellyn from Banbury [MIL Motorsport] Toyota Corolla / Toyota 1600
#70 Phil Dowsett from Chelmsford [Toms G.B. Ltd] Toyota Corolla / Toyota 1600
#77 Geoff Kimber-Smith from Yarmouth [AGK Motorsport] Toyota Corolla / AGK 1600

The only other entrant in Class D was :

#74 Barbara Cowell from Hitchin [North Essex Motorsport] Ford Escort RS/ Longman 1600

[KA]

Thanks- so you've both confirmed that Whale was an addition to the original entry list and appears to have taken over the race number of the Loudoun entry that was presumably withdrawn.

So I wonder whether CHMS just brought a spare car, or was Whale originally intended as an additional entry alongside Loudoun, only for Loudoun's entry to be withdrawn at the last minute with the cars already at the circuit- Whale (maybe only a reserve entry as a late addition to the list?) then taking over Loudoun's intended race number or car?

I did wonder if the white Corolla wasn't a CHMS car-(though it appears to have CHMS lettering on the radiator grille like the green car, and similar Hella decals on the headlights). It's obviously not the blue Crudgington car, and it doesn't look like the MIL car- according to pics, both the MIL and Crudgington cars had distinctive red-painted rollcages, similar to the early white CHMS cars of 1986/7.
The race number on the bonnet appears to be 6-something, which seems to rule out the the white GK-S car (Geoff raced as no77), even without the usual Fotofanatics/Canon/Lion Tools lettering. My best guess is that it is a second CHMS car- it looks very like the plain white car they ran alongside the green car at the TT a couple of weeks later

[racer69]

Without reading back through all the posts, is it safe to assume that the Jon Dooley Alfa Romeo ran with the N/A V6 in 1988, as opposed to the turbo? Was the effort funded by Alfa UK in any way as before?

Loving these threads, filling alot of blanks

[KA]

Originally Posted by racer69

Without reading back through all the posts, is it safe to assume that the Jon Dooley Alfa Romeo ran with the N/A V6 in 1988, as opposed to the turbo? Was the effort funded by Alfa UK in any way as before?

Loving these threads, filling alot of blanks

Pretty sure it was the V6. I don't think there was any Alfa UK involvement by this stage- Dooley only appeared a couple of times at the end of the season (a DNS as a reserve entry at Donington and a DNF at Silverstone) The car was still in ARDT/John West colours I think, but was entered by Brookside Garage- an Alfa specialist from near Sandy in Bedfordshire. (They used to advertise Alfa engine conversions from roadgoing to full race regularly in the back pages of Autosport in the 80's- I think they might have been Jon Dooley's company?)

[fushion julz]

Totally by-the-bye to the racing, but Nick Mays' (Maserati driver) mother worked in the office next to ours in Newbury.

[bigears]

I wonder what Nick May is ding nowadays and how to contact him?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bigears

I wonder what Nick May is ding nowadays and how to contact him?

Funnily enough a bloke called Nick May walked into a Renault service area in Stourbridge a couple of years ago - I was told by the service manager that he was 'the boss'?!! I think it was the May because I thought he looked familiar? The dealership used to be known as Walker/Mill Lane Renault but that shut nearly 2 years ago. Looks like another one is opening, don't know if he's going to be the franchisee though.

[Jesper OH]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16788879@N02/5080361213/

This being the second placed (11th o/a) Mark Hales ex-Alan Minshaw AE86 at Oulton Park 1st of April?

Jesper

[KA]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16788879@N02/5080361213/

This being the second placed (11th o/a) Mark Hales ex-Alan Minshaw AE86 at Oulton Park 1st of April?

Jesper

Think so- it's definitely Mark Hales at Oulton, but I don't know which individual CHMS Corolla it is.

For some reason it seems to have changed race number during the season- it was #60 here, but I've got a pic from the Motoring News report showing the damaged car after it had been shunted by John Lepp's Maserati at Silverstone, and it's clearly #61- or had Hales changed Corollas (it's a black & white pic, so can't tell the colour)

[William Dale Jr]

The Oulton car would be the one he rolled at Donington in practice, so maybe there was a switch after that?

[KA]

Originally Posted by William Dale Jr

The Oulton car would be the one he rolled at Donington in practice, so maybe there was a switch after that?

That's what I was wondering about when I mentioned it- I'm pretty sure the car rolled at Donington was the same red #60 car seen in the Oulton pic, but the black & white pic in the Motoring News report for Silverstone shows a car carrying #61- the arrangement of 2 'AJG Transport' logos on the door is the same.

Back in the thread somewhere there's a pic of a green #61 with 'Willis Faber' sponsorship at Birmingham (for Nick Whale), and at the final Silverstone round, #61 was on an AJG-sponsored (single AJG logo on the doors) car for Mark Goddard- again the pic I've got is black & white, so can't tell the colour. In between, there was an appearance by Dave Loudoun at the Silverstone GP meeting, and a couple more from Hales- All the same car, with a change of colour after either the Donington or Silverstone shunts (Silverstone could well have resulted in a reshell-the whole LH door and B pillar is stoved in, and IIRC the report said it even broke or bent the rollcage), or different cars?

CHMS had 2 Corollas at the TT in September- one green and one plain white....

[KA]

Found these in a thread on the btcc.net forum- silhouettes of 1988-season BTCC cars, in the same style as the current 'Spotters Guides' that Andy Blackmore does for the BTCC, ALMS etc

http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...rint/BTCC1988/

There are individual albums for 1987 and onwards, a general '1980s' album covering 80-86, and earlier ones by decade

[LeeCS]

Originally Posted by KA

Found these in a thread on the btcc.net forum- silhouettes of 1988-season BTCC cars, in the same style as the current 'Spotters Guides' that Andy Blackmore does for the BTCC, ALMS etc

http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...rint/BTCC1988/

There are individual albums for 1987 and onwards, a general '1980s' album covering 80-86, and earlier ones by decade

Those are mine

Been using these discussion threads on here for the entry lists and drivers numbers you guys have been posting! its been a big help for identifying drivers for rare photos ive found.

just came on here today to see who drove the Ray MacDowall ''Marlboro'' sierra ive just done!

[bigears]

I have decided to do a big push for information, photos and even video footage of the BTCC cars at the Birmingham Superprix.

I have just contacted ITV Archives and ITV Central for information and even a copy of the practice session at the 1988 Birmingham Superprix.

I am wondering who is the initials of 'G.D.' who wrote the BTCC report in the Motoring News? So I can try to track him down or contact Simon Arron and I could try asking him nicely.

I will have a go contacting Aquith Autosport and see what I can dig out from the owner about the practice times. Same for Jerry Mahony as well.

Is Terry Drury still around? He got his own website: www.terrydrury.com but seems it hasn't been updated for about 10 years.

I have asked Alan Minshaw through his son but he can't remember anything at the time.


Any more team owners or even drivers I could contact?