[BTCC] 2024 BTCC Rds. 13/14/15 Oulton Park

[SSmith]

Oulton Park is this weekend.

Will we see Jake Hill and WSR BMW repeat their 2023 successes at Oulton Park (and continue their 2024 streak), will Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram fight back, or will we get a surprise?

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Entry List TBA

Supports: MINI JCW, Porsche Sprint Challenge GB, Radical Cup UK, Caterham Seven Championship UK

BTCC Qualifying [YouTube] = Saturday, 15:35 - 16:30

BTCC Raceday [ITV4] = Sunday, 11:45 - 18:15

[Evantra]

I’m quite looking forward to the Caterhams, they looked good last year at Silverstone but only a got a few laps on the televised race. Oulton is a far tighter circuit of course.

Hoping Thompson gets back in at the last-minute, although I’m assuming it’s highly unlikely.

[codename_47]

Yaaaay Catherhams!

Boooooo! Radicals!

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by codename_47

Boooooo! Radicals!

Radleys or Radicals? Wake up.

[S griffin]

There's nothing wrong with the Radicals. They usually produce good racing

[Sodemo]

Personally id be happy if every support series was all tin-top racing.

Fiestas, Clios, Porches (I guess), Ginetta Junior, Minis

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

Personally id be happy if every support series was all tin-top racing.

Fiestas, Clios, Porches (I guess), Ginetta Junior, Minis

I think the support packages have suffered with Ginetta joining the SRO support package.

[Matt K]

I'd say another double win by Hill is on cards.

[MarcusH26]

Think the Beemers will take some stopping, kind of resigned to it just being the 3 of them on the grid though.

[TinTopGrumpy]

Ingram had a bit of dig in his latest video about Thompson appearing for one meeting and taking points from him and Sutton but not Hill.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by TinTopGrumpy

Ingram had a bit of dig in his latest video about Thompson appearing for one meeting and taking points from him and Sutton but not Hill.

Fair point maybe one round messers should be erased if they default

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by Evantra

I’m quite looking forward to the Caterhams, they looked good last year at Silverstone but only a got a few laps on the televised race. Oulton is a far tighter circuit of course.

Originally Posted by codename_47

Yaaaay Catherhams!

Boooooo! Radicals!

After a red flag strewn weekend for TCR UK, plus a lot of safety car interruptions and slow recoveries during the British GT weekend, I just hope this weekend we see some clean racing at Oulton Park.

I am looking forward to seeing what the Caterhams can do. With the Radicals and the nature of Oulton Park, I can't see great racing occurring. Also, Lulham really is the class of the field, and if he is racing at Oulton this weekend then I can't see anyone beating him.

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I think the support packages have suffered with Ginetta joining the SRO support package.

The Ginetta Juniors are definitely missed, and I did enjoy the GT4 Supercup. That being said, I've enjoyed the variety of supports we've had over the past two years.

Next year we should have a more consistent support line-up. Provisionally F4 are doing all 10 TOCA meetings in 2025 (unlike 2023 and 2024). The existing meetings arrangement for Porsche (8 PCCGB, 6 Sprint) and MINI (7 JCW, 3 Trophy) will likely stay, plus TOCA Juniors at (presumably) all 10 meetings. Given that there will be an increased number of regular supports that will eat into track time, I can't see guest series appearing much.

Having seen some of the Ginetta racing on YouTube since the beginning of last year, Ginetta Juniors is doing really well (although it will be very interesting to see if the entry dips once the TOCA Junior series starts next year). With the Ginetta GT and Ginetta GT Academy the jury is out - there can be some good racing, but there are some quite sparse/weak fields especially in Ginetta GT.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by TinTopGrumpy

Ingram had a bit of dig in his latest video about Thompson appearing for one meeting and taking points from him and Sutton but not Hill.

Presumably more of Ingram's slightly tongue-in-cheek style, but I think he does have a point - in lots of series one-round wonders are invisible for points (even though Thompson and WSR didn't intend on being a one-round wonder).

Hypothetically, if you take Thompson out of the equation the points would be thus:

Sutton 171 (+2 points)
Hill 165 (+1)
Ingram 157 (+2)

Sutton's points lead over Hill would increase by 1, Ingram wouldn't close in on Sutton at all but would gain 1 point back on Hill.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Presumably more of Ingram's slightly tongue-in-cheek style, but I think he does have a point - in lots of series one-round wonders are invisible for points (even though Thompson and WSR didn't intend on being a one-round wonder).

Ingram and Sutton lost more points from a poor tyre choice in race 2 than they did from Thompson being there.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Ingram and Sutton lost more points from a poor tyre choice in race 2 than they did from Thompson being there.

Absolutely yes, both screwed up. And with Hill driving relatively well this season, those lost points from the tyre choice screw up could cost them the title (which is presumably a reason why Ingram brought it up in the first place).

I thought he had a point worth making (being that guest drivers or one-off entries can interfere with the points). The hypothetical proves that it would make very very little difference to the points had Thompson been a guest entry anyway.

[coffinpilot]

I suppose you couldn't 'retro delete' Thompsons points. I suppose a fair position is that it may have influenced a number of drivers - not just the championship contenders - to adjust their strategy in racing against him across the weekend - for example Moffat in Race 2.

I know a number of club championships, have a guest rule that ensure there are no points scored for a one-off, TCR have that and for if they just appear for the final round to avoid any interference in the championship showdown, like when Adam Morgan raced a Ciceley run Cupra in the final 2019 to support James Turkington and Will Neal ran a BTCC FK8 to support Henry Neal.

Does the BTCC have such a rule? If not does that open up for a backer of Turks or Hill to pay a little extra to bring him in as a 'ringer' at Brands considering he's shown he has the performance to get make an impact?

On the Radicals/Caterhams. I find the Radicals to be brilliant cars, they must be a blast to race, but to watch at a premium event? Not for me. I can handle that for a club meeting, but not when paying BTCC ticket prices. Caterhams I normally get sick of - usually because when you go to a BRSCC Caterham round there's about six championships, which gives you a full day of them racing, which becomes a bit meh, but as a one off on a BTCC support, I think they'll be much more fun around Oulton than Silverstone last year if they can avoid any reds!!!

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by coffinpilot

Does the BTCC have such a rule? If not does that open up for a backer of Turks or Hill to pay a little extra to bring him in as a 'ringer' at Brands considering he's shown he has the performance to get make an impact?

BTCC already has rules to cover late entries. They need to run with reduced hybrid deployment, which Thompson had as Snetterton. Previously they needed to carry success ballast. That was done many years ago to discourage the last round 'ringer'.

That said, the current TBL rules also mean that a one-off entry wouldn't normally be possible, and as the intention was for Thompson to complete the rest of the year this wasn't going to be a one-off. In theory the TBL should have been forfeit as soon as the 4th WSR missed the first 2 rounds, but clearly TOCA/Gow took the more pragmatic approach.

[Protonman]

Originally Posted by coffinpilot

I suppose you couldn't 'retro delete' Thompsons points. I suppose a fair position is that it may have influenced a number of drivers - not just the championship contenders - to adjust their strategy in racing against him across the weekend - for example Moffat in Race 2.

I know a number of club championships, have a guest rule that ensure there are no points scored for a one-off, TCR have that and for if they just appear for the final round to avoid any interference in the championship showdown, like when Adam Morgan raced a Ciceley run Cupra in the final 2019 to support James Turkington and Will Neal ran a BTCC FK8 to support Henry Neal.

Does the BTCC have such a rule? If not does that open up for a backer of Turks or Hill to pay a little extra to bring him in as a 'ringer' at Brands considering he's shown he has the performance to get make an impact?

On the Radicals/Caterhams. I find the Radicals to be brilliant cars, they must be a blast to race, but to watch at a premium event? Not for me. I can handle that for a club meeting, but not when paying BTCC ticket prices. Caterhams I normally get sick of - usually because when you go to a BRSCC Caterham round there's about six championships, which gives you a full day of them racing, which becomes a bit meh, but as a one off on a BTCC support, I think they'll be much more fun around Oulton than Silverstone last year if they can avoid any reds!!!

In previous years if a team missed more than one round it forfeited its TBL but the points earned before still stood. TOCA are proving reluctant to call time probably because of the low numbers and who the driver/team are . However it does suggest that if he can’t return this weekend others will kick up a stink should he try to return later. Shame as he adds to the quality

[MarcusH26]

I've got no problems really with the Thompson situation, I don't think him or WSR expected anything to go wrong after Snett and they expected to be there for the rest of the season. Hopefully he's back this weekend but I severely doubt it.

[codename_47]

Originally Posted by S griffin

There's nothing wrong with the Radicals. They usually produce good racing

Don't think I've witnessed it yet, and they want to run pit stops in a 40 minute race?

No thanks!

Give me the Clio Cup any day....proper racing.

[BtccLee]

Given the teasing, I think it is likely that we are going to see the TOCA Junior car at Oulton. Will give us a more stable support line-up for 2025, with one Porsche series, one Mini series, F4 and TOCA hopefully at every meeting.

Can certainly see F4 taking two rounds out, but otherwise that will be a decent line-up. Odd guest series (Legends, Classic '66 Tourers) and I think that will maybe allay concerns over the quality of the package.

I also think, given the grid is 4 short of Gow's target, we will maybe see one new team and a couple (Restart/PMR/WSR) maybe expand. New regs should probably become clearer at the end of this year, and if they aren't dissimilar maybe we will see team's prepared to invest in newer machinery that can be tweaked to accommodate the new rules.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by BtccLee

Given the teasing, I think it is likely that we are going to see the TOCA Junior car at Oulton. Will give us a more stable support line-up for 2025, with one Porsche series, one Mini series, F4 and TOCA hopefully at every meeting.

Can certainly see F4 taking two rounds out, but otherwise that will be a decent line-up. Odd guest series (Legends, Classic '66 Tourers) and I think that will maybe allay concerns over the quality of the package.

I also think, given the grid is 4 short of Gow's target, we will maybe see one new team and a couple (Restart/PMR/WSR) maybe expand. New regs should probably become clearer at the end of this year, and if they aren't dissimilar maybe we will see team's prepared to invest in newer machinery that can be tweaked to accommodate the new rules.

PMR ran 3 last year and 2 this......

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

PMR ran 3 last year and 2 this......

And they could easily run 3 again

[SSmith]

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...d-20-06-24.pdf

Entry List

BTCC - 20

Porsche Sprint Challenge - 22 (8 RS Pro, 7 RS Am, 3 CS Pro, 4 CS Am)
Same grid as Snetterton, minus Caitlin Wood

Caterham Seven UK - 21

Radical Cup UK - 16 (9 RS3, 7 RS1)

MINI Challenge UK - 21 (15 JCW, 6 JCW Sport)
Seems to be regular grid, with Josh Price in for the rest of the season. Harvey Riby is presumably in the guest JCW Sport entry.