[BTCC] BTCC 2023 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

I wonder how many times Bartercard will end up coming out as Barclaycard from the commentators !

And how many times will Starline be written as Startline? I've had to correct myself already

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD
Patterson / Edwards

I'm waiting for the day when we'll finally have a full sentence as a team's name....

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by Matt K

I'm waiting for the day when we'll finally have a full sentence as a team's name....

I'm waiting for the day when people understand how sponsorship deals work...

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Matt K

I'm waiting for the day when we'll finally have a full sentence as a team's name....

Six words is the maximum IIRC.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Six words is the maximum IIRC.

Which is a bit of a pointless rule, if words are just concatenated:

'Bristol Street Motors with Excelr8 TradePriceCars.com'

All a team needs to do is enter as - 'TheLongestTeamNameEnteredInTheHistoryOfTheBTCCIsJustOneWordInLengthRacing'

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Which is a bit of a pointless rule, if words are just concatenated:

'Bristol Street Motors with Excelr8 TradePriceCars.com'

All a team needs to do is enter as - 'TheLongestTeamNameEnteredInTheHistoryOfTheBTCCIsJustOneWordInLengthRacing'

Sounds reasonable

[mick bennett]

50 plus mph wind today at Brands , I am North of the River Thames today, so Press day is off for me . Dartford Bridge will be closed = total chaos. Gutted !!

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by mick bennett

50 plus mph wind today at Brands , I am North of the River Thames today, so Press day is off for me . Dartford Bridge will be closed = total chaos. Gutted !!

No wind at the moment, its lovely. Now doing tracking shots. Rain forecast for this afternoon.

[S griffin]

Adding in Powell as a third driver at One Motorsport is for money, but they already have Cook and Moffat, so it's not like the team's performance will go down

[Pickles]

And it's now p*ssing down

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Adding in Powell as a third driver at One Motorsport is for money, but they already have Cook and Moffat, so it's not like the team's performance will go down

All three drivers bring a budget. It's a business, it runs on and for money.

[Norwichsam]

Looking at the sticker bombed cars and the driver line up this year sadly I don’t think BTCC can be classed as the premier domestic motorsport series anymore. Yes there’s a couple of top line drivers but half the grid could be swapped with TCR UK drivers and would anyone really notice the difference? Whereas look at British GT this year, amazing cars that sound unreal, mixture of international & domestic factory/works drivers along with top up and coming talent and racing as close as you'd see in BTCC … top 4 covered by 1.5 seconds at Oulton Park last week! Actually takes me back to the BTCC’s super touring years!

[Evantra]

Looks like only 4 Cupras ready for today.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Norwichsam

half the grid could be swapped with TCR UK drivers and would anyone really notice the difference?

Yes. BTCC grid is a much, much higher level. Look at where Smiley and Boardley are compared to where they were in BTCC.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Norwichsam

top 4 covered by 1.5 seconds at Oulton Park last week! Actually takes me back to the BTCC’s super touring years!

Is that better or worse than having the top 26 covered by 1.5 seconds at Oulton Park?

[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Is that better or worse than having the top 26 covered by 1.5 seconds at Oulton Park?

Show me the BTCC race having the top 26 covered by 1.5 seconds.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Is that better or worse than having the top 26 covered by 1.5 seconds at Oulton Park?

Incidentally, regarding that point, the second BritishGT race in comparison had the top two covered by over 30 seconds!

[Norwichsam]

Don’t think I’m having a dig, i’m a BTCC fan through & through, have followed the series religiously for over 30 years and appreciate what all the drivers do to get the funding to go racing, I’m well aware the megabucks works deals and sponsors aren’t there anymore however to me it just seems, probably because of the pro/am nature of British GT, that has taken over as this countries leading race series. Getting to see drivers like Jules Gounon & Rafaelle Marciello racing wheel to wheel in some of the best looking & sounding race cars you’ll hear with different race lengths, pit strategies etc. Just seems to me to be in a much stronger place than BTCC at the moment.

[Trebor902]

Originally Posted by Norwichsam

Don’t think I’m having a dig, i’m a BTCC fan through & through, have followed the series religiously for over 30 years and appreciate what all the drivers do to get the funding to go racing, I’m well aware the megabucks works deals and sponsors aren’t there anymore however to me it just seems, probably because of the pro/am nature of British GT, that has taken over as this countries leading race series. Getting to see drivers like Jules Gounon & Rafaelle Marciello racing wheel to wheel in some of the best looking & sounding race cars you’ll hear with different race lengths, pit strategies etc. Just seems to me to be in a much stronger place than BTCC at the moment.

British GT is in a much stronger place than btcc this year but you won't get half the people on here to remove their rose tinted glasses on that.

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by Trebor902

British GT is in a much stronger place than btcc this year but you won't get half the people on here to remove their rose tinted glasses on that.

All series ebb and flow. I remember when BGT was struggling to muster mid-teens grids. At the moment BGT is doing well because the regs are right, sports car racing generally is doing well and you can buy a GT car and race it more or less anywhere in the world. If you keep it long enough, you can even bring it out at a classic festival for a 2nd stab at racing!

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Racing Harz

Show me the BTCC race having the top 26 covered by 1.5 seconds.

My mistake - I had assumed it was referring to the qualifying. I am now aware that the reference was to the race, where after the top 4 you were then looking at much larger gaps.

Not that there is much to be gained from making such a comparison, but once you look down the field the BTCC is much closer than British GT.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Trebor902

British GT is in a much stronger place than btcc this year but you won't get half the people on here to remove their rose tinted glasses on that.

The rose tinted spectacles of doom and gloom - there are many posters who are complaining about how BTCC is not long for this world.

[Adamcas87]

Any reason to why team hard sat this morning out??

Cars weren’t part of the tracking shots from what I could see?

[GT6]

Just back from wtching a couple of hours at brands, heavy rain early on but dry after that, good number of people there but very little open inthe way of shops/food and drink. Wind started to get stronger and bitter so decided to head home for lunch, looking forward to the first race in just over 3 weeks

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

All series ebb and flow. I remember when BGT was struggling to muster mid-teens grids. At the moment BGT is doing well because the regs are right, sports car racing generally is doing well and you can buy a GT car and race it more or less anywhere in the world. If you keep it long enough, you can even bring it out at a classic festival for a 2nd stab at racing!

1500 spectators verses 30,000 a bit of a way to go yet