Quote:
Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks
Good point. I'm just looking at it from the point of the view of the teams doing whatever it takes to find a driver capable of winning the championship.
Whether's that a Kelvin van Der Linde, a Theo Pourchaire, or a Kai Allen, it doesn't matter IMO. As we know the golden era of BTCC Super Touring was full of continental and even New Zealander drivers as they were considered the best bet for championship glory, whereas now (much like the ATCC) it is full of domestic UK and Irish drivers.
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Peter Adderton made the interesting point on social media today, that the difference in absolute pace between SVG and anybody else could easily be explained away by confidence in the gear, and regardless of anything you might say about Adderton, I expect him to have some knowledge to impart in this case. What might Mostert, or Waters, or Courtney, or even an old stager like Davo do with a 888 car? They've proven themselves to be a race engineering tour de force over decades.
Super Touring was, for a time, a global formula, and so the advantage of familiarity with the instruments of war was a moot point - everybody had them... if you think back to the Good Old Days, ancient scribes such as Bill Tuckey made much of the generally poor form of internationals who would come to throw themselves at the Big Hill, and fail, ascribing it to their lack of knowledge of Bathurst.... but Group A proved the lie. Win Percy once said that Tom Walkinshaw said that if a driver couldn't get it together on any given circuit inside three laps, they weren't worth paying. When the internationals came here and competed in either the actual cars that they had been using on the Continent, or a very similar example, they were largely right amongst it - the TWR Jaguars, the Euro BMW stars, the Sierra guys - none of them lagged in the manner the likes of Johnny Rutherford, Bob Tullius, even Stirling Moss had in their brief quests in the old Group C cars. Similarly, BTCC stars like Plato looked ridiculous and dangerous in their Supercar appearances... and one car only surmise that a large amount of the fault goes to how very alien the car was to its new pilot, especially, in the case of the Rutherford/Guthrie Torana when local knowledge proved that the car itself wasn't by any means slow.
Even Ambrose, who had truly excelled here on his return from Europe, couldn't come to terms with the later-Gen car when he came back from the States.
And SVG isn't quite as dominant in GT-spec cars, although it is very apparent that he can drive most things with remarkable ability.
Quote:
Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks
So perhaps DJR should slot teenage Super2 ace Kai Allen into one of their cars as the next potential Australian Touring Car Champion? 
(You have to be the next Scott McLaughlin to return DJR to victory lane but there is no pressure, ok! At the moment, DJR have the strategy of fielding a driver who seemed like a potential champion in their cars 15 years ago yet never won a title and expecting him to win a title now, which is curious.)
I find it interesting that you think the likes of van Der Linde (granted, no Mattias Ekstrom who excelled, likewise Patrick Long) would not be quick in the cars. Surely it is less pressure to expect a renowned GT ace to compete for the championship than a teenage domestic touring car rookie? |
Granted formula car junior Liam Lawson outperformed the experienced GT aces in DTM, much to the GT aces embarrassment, leading to van der Linde executing some underhanded race tactics...[/QUOTE]DJR need to re-evaulate their car preparation expertise: McLaughlin was ascendant, and made poor Coulthard look tardy, but one might argue that neither current DJR driver is of a McLaughlin standard: Anton held a lot of promise, but Davo's been the man at Stapylton, pretty much. That in itself is interesting as you point out, as Will has ever been a "confidence" driver - if he's feeling bullish, he's quick, simple as that, and even still now in his relative dotage. If he's not feeling it, he's been a bit wobbly. If the DJR car was up to the mark, I'd probably expect to see him duke it out with at least the lowest step on the podium.
I don't know where The Next Big Hope will come from. Until Shane tires of the game, or somebody poaches the entire 888 Race Engineering brains trust, I think its merely an academic exercise.
Even so, how good is it to see Erebus performing consistently and offering resistance?