BTCC 2013 - Any thoughts??

[CarsCarsCars]

Well. 2012s over. Lets get the downright silly rumours going...

[Benny1664]

Please please please no Andy Neate! Yet again today he took out several other innocent drivers and still managed to finish the race whilst their cars were in bits and out for the rest of the day. Im sure he has more hits and bangs than any other driver in the series?!

[Craner Curves]

More hits than Rock Around The Clock, more rolls than Joe's Cafe? To borrow Dave Brodie's infamous rant from years ago.

Neate will be back next year, there's an interview out there somewhere and he says he will return.

[Icebaby]

[QUOTE=Craner Curves;3155491
Neate will be back next year, there's an interview out there somewhere and he says he will return.[/QUOTE]

I can't see him back at MG so where could he go?

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by Icebaby

I can't see him back at MG

Why not? He's got the money. 888 always took on a pay driver, whether they were good or not. Gavin Smith anyone?

[jsmee]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

Why not? He's got the money. 888 always took on a pay driver, whether they were good or not. Gavin Smith anyone?

A shame they don't take on Dave Newsham. He could pay some cash if needed I'm sure with his sponsors!

Are there still rumours of a second 888 run MG team? Maybe Dave can get a drive with them? Could be a title contender in 2013.

James

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by jsmee

A shame they don't take on Dave Newsham. He could pay some cash if needed I'm sure with his sponsors!

Are there still rumours of a second 888 run MG team? Maybe Dave can get a drive with them? Could be a title contender in 2013.

James

Not Andy Neate-levels of money I'm sure.

[ckBrenneke]

Originally Posted by jsmee

A shame they don't take on Dave Newsham. He could pay some cash if needed I'm sure with his sponsors!

Are there still rumours of a second 888 run MG team? Maybe Dave can get a drive with them? Could be a title contender in 2013.

James

Been saying for ages 888 should be talking to Newsham, but I think Dave's feelings towards JP at the moment might make that difficult, given his comments on Twitter.

[Craner Curves]

Also, would Plato really want a competitive teammate? I don't think so. His priority is the drivers championship, he's not interested in team glory.

[Mike Sheraton]

I think any driver would like an 'experienced' or 'quick' driver as a team mate when chasing the title...... Think about the 3 Honda's today in formation.. If plato had the pace to challenge I'm pretty sure atleast Neal, if not Jordan would have made it extremely hard for Plato to get anywhere near Flash.
Think Harvey and Soper in 92 against cleland.

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by Mike Sheraton

I think any driver would like an 'experienced' or 'quick' driver as a team mate when chasing the title...... Think about the 3 Honda's today in formation.. If plato had the pace to challenge I'm pretty sure atleast Neal, if not Jordan would have made it extremely hard for Plato to get anywhere near Flash.
Think Harvey and Soper in 92 against cleland.

Look at his teammates since he had the frosty relationship with Muller in 2001.

2004: Huff (competition winner)
2005: Pickford (competition winner), Hines (paid for the drive)
2006: Turner and Thompson. Both were very competitive.
2007/08: Turner. Won races and has probably been the best teammate he's had since Huff.
2009: Jackson and Nash, although they weren't proper teammates with their own sponsors and Nash got him riled up after Silverstone that year for having the audacity to nudge him a few times.
2010/11: MacDowall (paid lots for the drive)
2012: Neate (paid lots and lots for the drive)

Only Seat were serious about the manufacturers and teams awards, which they won in 06 and 07 after having a good driver lineup. How they lost 08 with the TDi, I'll never know.

[gregc]

Tony Hughes to step down from driving next year, and hoping that they can get O'Neill out in the car - http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=8324

No real surprise there, but now it's official. Fair play to Tony, he's lived the dream (I know I'd give it a go if I had the money!) and now he's stepping aside and hopefully will be getting Paul out there where he should be. Good man.

Regarding MG - I can't take them seriously as a works team while they only field one competitive driver, just as I couldn't with Chevy the last couple of years. I understand why they're doing it this way but a works effort that doesn't put itself in a realistic position to at least challenge for the constructors title is half hearted at best.

[markreeves]

Originally Posted by gregc

Regarding MG - I can't take them seriously as a works team while they only field one competitive driver

The reality is they are not really a works team, there is one works team in Btcc which is Honda, All MG have done is supply 2 shells and the rest is down to Tesco money, Tesco pay for Plato's drive, Neate pays for his own through Ceravision, no MG funding. It just looks a lot better from Alan Gows perspective to say there are 2 manufacturers as he doesnt want a repeat of '09 when Vauxhall were on there own and said one of their reason for leaving was lack of manufacturers as well as the financial times.

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by markreeves

It just looks a lot better from Alan Gows perspective to say there are 2 manufacturers as he doesnt want a repeat of '09 when Vauxhall were on there own and said one of their reason for leaving was lack of manufacturers as well as the financial times.

Yep. All looks good for next year's propoganda leaflet doesn't it!

[markreeves]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

Yep. All looks good for next year's propoganda leaflet doesn't it!

Haha indeed

[Craner Curves]

Is anyone else thinking Tony Gilham bought the Insignias purely so he had something NGTC to race or offer to other drivers to rent? It was awful again yesterday.

[trebor901]

i personally think the bad results and crashes or spins are more down to the driver....

[Nigma]

He was fine in the Civic, midfield at best with the odd decent finish here and there (3rd at Donington) - so it has to be something to do with the Insignia. :/

[trebor901]

But what? surely if it was something that big it would have been sorted by now

[Benny1664]

I thought it was the car as thats what John Thorney seemed to say when he pulled out of racing it to concentrate on testing but if thats the case why would Gilham buy 2 of the cars from them? It does look evil handling though! Im just amazed that it always manages to spin without hitting other cars or the wall which is at least a little bonus!

[Sodemo]

Don't know what it is, but that Insignia just really doesn't want to be a racing car. Not sure if its the looks, or the fact that its a fair bit bigger than the rest of the cars, but it just never really looks settled. Then again, I could say that of some of the other NGTC cars, they all kinda roll around and don't look like they want to corner without toppling over.

[auroan]

Originally Posted by markreeves

The reality is they are not really a works team, there is one works team in Btcc which is Honda, All MG have done is supply 2 shells and the rest is down to Tesco money, Tesco pay for Plato's drive, Neate pays for his own through Ceravision, no MG funding. It just looks a lot better from Alan Gows perspective to say there are 2 manufacturers as he doesnt want a repeat of '09 when Vauxhall were on there own and said one of their reason for leaving was lack of manufacturers as well as the financial times.

So you know that for a fact do you ? Do you work for MG or 888 ? Were you there when the contracts were signed ?

Why the heck would the team spend the fridays of race weekends at MG dealerships pushing the PR wagon ? Why would MG have a mobile salesroom with models from their range at each event ?

Yes... Tesco are putting a lot of money in.... But MG are doing more than just giving 888 two shells.

[jsmee]

To be fair to Tony, I heard an interview on the tannoys at Brands where he said there are 1/2 major issues which need correcting which he hasn't had the time to sort pre-Brands. He knows what they are and will be replaced over the Winter. He only got the cars around a week before Brands, there's a limit to what can be done!

James

[CarsCarsCars]

The Insignia looked quite good at Snetterton.

Plus, the weather was crappy. Lets remember, the MG is stunning in the dry but damn average in the wet. So it follows that the Insignia could be average in the dry but terrible in the wet.

[markreeves]

Originally Posted by auroan

So you know that for a fact do you ? Do you work for MG or 888 ? Were you there when the contracts were signed ?

Why the heck would the team spend the fridays of race weekends at MG dealerships pushing the PR wagon ? Why would MG have a mobile salesroom with models from their range at each event ?

Yes... Tesco are putting a lot of money in.... But MG are doing more than just giving 888 two shells.

No I don't work for either but id say that it is common knowledge really that MG are not putting much money in the pot, My guess (and it is a guess) is that the deal was we will supply you the cars as long as you let us use the big name driver for marketing purposes, and as for the mobile showroom, during 2008 I remember BMW had a stand with several of their cars on and the closest they were to a works team was Mat Jacksons RBM supported 320si