[BTCC] BTCC 2018 - Rounds 4, 5, 6 - Donington Park

[CroftPilgrim]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

how do you know what they changed when the car was in the pits getting its ride height raised? they might have had to also change some settings so wanted to see how it went.

Exactly. We don't know. We shouldn't presume to know more than those in the teams actually making these decisions

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

how do you know what they changed when the car was in the pits getting its ride height raised? they might have had to also change some settings so wanted to see how it went.

Originally Posted by CroftPilgrim

Exactly. We don't know. We shouldn't presume to know more than those in the teams actually making these decisions

We don't know what they changed and yes they'd want to see how it went - but I'd still prefer to get a lap time on the board to get the car off the back of the grid. It makes no sense to say "yep that's fine now" when you don't have time to put a lap in that actually counts - you've changed it and you're happy with it - but can't use it because the session is over. I'd rather "go with what I've got" in terms of setup and just get a time - you can go over your data after qualifying and work out what to do with the setup.

[AdrianM]

They'd only need one lap to see if the tiny change in ride height had affected anything and I expect they've got a huge amount of data already on exactly that type of change. It's not as though these are new cars on a new circuit.

The most likely explanation is that they just plain forgot about the regulation.

[BLiTZ]

Cammish looked better, but still seemed to tail off towards the middle of the race, almost as if he's losing the tyres too quickly. I expected the Civic to go better than it did, but saying that, a few of the usual 'high speed nature of the circuit favours the X Y or Z' suspects (Ingram, Hill etc) seemed nowhere at times.

Race 2 was quite processional made more apparent by the fantastic scrap in the Clios, even the Porsches put on a good show which is rare for Donington IMHO.

I can see Proctor getting a ban this year (Bushell too if he's not careful), far too aggressive at times.

As a final couple of points, whoever was in charge of deploying the safety cars needs a talking to. The deployment in the Porsches was ridiculous, at least half, if not a full lap too late, the cars had been past the scene of the accident at least twice and when it did come out it messed up half the field's race. Similar story in the F4's.

Secondly, recovery trucks. Watching the hash that was being made of recovering the two stricken G55's from Hollywood after the second race was a joke. The driver of one of the two Ginettas was doing most of the work and then seemed to be the only one trying to keep the car level whilst it was being lifted.

It seems pretty poor that in a series that has seen the same support races for the last few season that neither the marshals or recovery drivers seem that au fait with how to actually recover the cars. Surely there's got to be some basic training provided by TOCA or the support series leaders on how to safely/efficiently recover the cars, simple things like where the panel release clips are etc, and how to sling a front engined car so the nose doesn't stay pinned to the ground - its simple physics but they must have tried lifting the car 3 times before they thought to move the strap closer to the pivot to shift the COG!

Other than that, after spending all of Monday in bed with a raging temperature and flu-like symptoms I think I’ve just about recovered from the cold!

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by BLiTZ

It seems pretty poor that in a series that has seen the same support races for the last few season that neither the marshals or recovery drivers seem that au fait with how to actually recover the cars. Surely there's got to be some basic training provided by TOCA or the support series leaders on how to safely/efficiently recover the cars, simple things like where the panel release clips are etc, and how to sling a front engined car so the nose doesn't stay pinned to the ground - its simple physics but they must have tried lifting the car 3 times before they thought to move the strap closer to the pivot to shift the COG!

Could be worse - they could have dragged an expensive GT3 McLaren right along the pit straight at Rockingham when it was only on two wheels as during the British GT meeting...

[luckn002]

To be fair, since watching a few other race series recently (WTCR, PWC, Goodwood MM) - and I know they all have different types of car and recovery systems etc -, it really struck me how long it took to recover cars compared to the BTCC. Maybe it's just me, but, in terms of being quick, I think the BTCC weekends do very well.

[BobJones]

Originally Posted by luckn002

To be fair, since watching a few other race series recently (WTCR, PWC, Goodwood MM) - and I know they all have different types of car and recovery systems etc -, it really struck me how long it took to recover cars compared to the BTCC. Maybe it's just me, but, in terms of being quick, I think the BTCC weekends do very well.

Agreed, you could say they have more practice

But really, I think it's down to the hook system just above the windscreen on the cars, which also means the cars aren't dragged along the ground causing further damage.

[Craner Curves]

I was wincing when I saw one of the Motorbase Fords swinging from a telehandler at Starkeys during 3.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

because it was so near the end of the session they didnt have the time to come back in get it checked and then go out again get the tyres up to temp and set a time. so they just kept going around

He had time to do three flying laps. If he'd gone for a ride height check at the end of his out lap, he'd still have been able to put in one flying lap which would have counted, and maybe two.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

I was wincing when I saw one of the Motorbase Fords swinging from a telehandler at Starkeys during 3.

Yeah. It was as if he was being dared by his buddies to bounce it off the armco!

I still think the marshalls at Monaco GP weekend are the best and by some margin. Slick and quick.

[geordiecriag101]

Just a quick one from me, here's my vid from Sundays action if anyone interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0kIsEd68x4

I don't think I've seen the touring cars so well behaved for a long time, just shows that it is possible!

[Craner Curves]

Thanks Criag, lovely stuff.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by geordiecriag101

Just a quick one from me, here's my vid from Sundays action if anyone interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0kIsEd68x4

I don't think I've seen the touring cars so well behaved for a long time, just shows that it is possible!

Thanks for this video. I now see what happened at the start of race 3, Cole touched the kerb, went out of shape and caught Tordoff. Yes there was a lot of hard but fair racing. Also loving the sound of the cars which you never hear on TV

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Thanks for this video. I now see what happened at the start of race 3, Cole touched the kerb, went out of shape and caught Tordoff. Yes there was a lot of hard but fair racing. Also loving the sound of the cars which you never hear on TV

Are you sure Cole wasn't pushed from behind ? He seems to accelerate off the kerb