[BTCC] BTCC 2020 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[thetool]

You can release as many calendars as you like. Why not have a new one each week? Look at the DTM, they've already announced their full revised calendar for 2020. Will they actually be able to run all those dates as announced? Unlikely.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by thetool

You can release as many calendars as you like. Why not have a new one each week? Look at the DTM, they've already announced their full revised calendar for 2020. Will they actually be able to run all those dates as announced? Unlikely.

The first one is a definite no.
They might get away with three of the next four.

[medius]

A "provisional revised 2020 calendar" is a fancy way of saying "guessing in a fluid situation".

Gow won't want to say its not happening for so so many contractual reasons, but I'm sure with a rational head on most people will see realistically motorsport in 2020 is pretty much a DNS in the history books.

[bella]

the rational head that says nothing will happen this season also says that rationally, they'll lose a lot of teams and staff by not holding at least something. there's only so much money in drivers pockets for endless testing, if we're allowed to do that.

it costs money to keep the lights on, and with nothing to pay for that all year there's going to be teams that simply don't return. much like the general economy, the amount of time these teams can survive with no real income is finite.

[Mike_Powell]

Originally Posted by Greem

Of course the counterpoint to that would be Zanardi at Lausitzring; horror crash, FIV and medics deployed, life saved.

Anyhow: there's already been a "thinning" of marshal numbers across the country over the last few years, as you say, for many reasons. I've done many meetings across the Midlands in recent years where I've been the only one on a post, I've felt lucky if there's been two or more of us, and that's not just been clubbies.

The BTCC is an outlier as it always gets plenty of volunteers, which feeds the numbers problem at other meetings in the country or local region which happen to be on the same day.

It's going to be a stretch for a lot of folks when we get back to racing again, that's for sure.

We've always been made welcome when doing away trips, especially at Donington, which is why we keep making the 360 mile round trip, and the 3 of us will still be there. Normally we cover post chief and flags but I agree about numbers, despite MUK telling us every year we have record numbers of marshals.....

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by medius

A "provisional revised 2020 calendar" is a fancy way of saying "guessing in a fluid situation".



Gow won't want to say its not happening for so so many contractual reasons, but I'm sure with a rational head on most people will see realistically motorsport in 2020 is pretty much a DNS in the history books.

TOCA won't come out with a calendar until they know what is happening with the British GP and if that is being postponed and the new date - if need be.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

[S griffin]

I think that's a good point, as usual the BGP will dictate how the national calendar will look

[deley]

Originally Posted by Mike_Powell

......despite MUK telling us every year we have record numbers of marshals.....

Don't forget that circuit racing is but one discipline under Motorsport UK that has marshals .... there are hundreds of marshals registered with them who never marshal at race meetings and have no interest in doing so.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

TOCA won't come out with a calendar until they know what is happening with the British GP and if that is being postponed and the new date - if need be.

Or dates, as I've seen one source suggest that F1 will run three GPs at Silverstone this year. I don't know what they have been drinking but I want to try it.

I would be surprised if we see a British GP this year at all, even as a behind closed door event. As for BTCC, well I doubt we'll see that again before 2021.

[Matt K]

If BTCC is non-existent in 2020, I can see it in a very poor condition in 2021. It's the same as economy - you can't keep everyobdy and everything in lockdown for a most part of the year because once it all is over, we'll have Great Depression 2.0. I believe it's sort of vital for motorsports (and all sponsors, teams, partners etc) to have some reward this year. Otherwise, it may be difficult to keep it the way it should be next year.

[3marinadrive]

Originally Posted by Matt K

If BTCC is non-existent in 2020, I can see it in a very poor condition in 2021. It's the same as economy - you can't keep everyobdy and everything in lockdown for a most part of the year because once it all is over, we'll have Great Depression 2.0. I believe it's sort of vital for motorsports (and all sponsors, teams, partners etc) to have some reward this year. Otherwise, it may be difficult to keep it the way it should be next year.

Even if the UK directive ends up being the same as some other European countries - i.e. no mass gatherings until end of August - I am certain as Matt says that for all sorts of commercial and sporting reasons there will be SOME sort of BTCC season - even if it ends up being 6 or maybe 8 events...BUT if we are able to start at the beginning of August, then it may even be possible to complete the four events currently scheduled in that period (from Croft onwards) and potentially do some 'back-to-back' events to complete as much as possible. Let's be honest, it's beyond anyone's guess!

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Matt K

If BTCC is non-existent in 2020, I can see it in a very poor condition in 2021. It's the same as economy - you can't keep everyobdy and everything in lockdown for a most part of the year because once it all is over, we'll have Great Depression 2.0. I believe it's sort of vital for motorsports (and all sponsors, teams, partners etc) to have some reward this year. Otherwise, it may be difficult to keep it the way it should be next year.

To be honest Great Depression 2.0 is my current thinking. I think the great white hope of a vaccine as a way back to normal is just that - a great white hope.

Why am I so set in this thought? Simply put, viral mutation. As we see year on year new strains of cold and flu viruses, and this covid beast is similar in make up: fair odds it will mutate and vaccine makers will end up trying to play catch up. Repeatedly.

Heck, whether you believe it came from a bat or not, one thing is certain - it has successfully jumped species from human to tiger in a NYC zoo. So it's a nifty little virus that will take clever boys and girls to get a handle on.

I say we take off and nuke it from orbit. Is Elon Musks one way ride to Mars ready yet?

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by 3marinadrive

Even if the UK directive ends up being the same as some other European countries - i.e. no mass gatherings until end of August - I am certain as Matt says that for all sorts of commercial and sporting reasons there will be SOME sort of BTCC season - even if it ends up being 6 or maybe 8 events...BUT if we are able to start at the beginning of August, then it may even be possible to complete the four events currently scheduled in that period (from Croft onwards) and potentially do some 'back-to-back' events to complete as much as possible. Let's be honest, it's beyond anyone's guess!

I think the key will be whether teams will accept races on consecutive weekends, which they have traditionally been against.

But if the season doesn't start until mid-August, they may not have a choice.

[S griffin]

At the end of the day needs must. They have to use what time they have if they want to get something done this season, so they can then focus on 2021

[medius]

One big factor is wreck a car on weekend 1 there will be not enough time to turn it around for the second/third weekend within a fortnight Some suppliers just couldn't cope with the influx of work. Never mind the teams running on skeleton skilled staff midweek.

Back to back weekends are non starters for a variety of reasons.

More likely (to me) is a couple of BTCC weekends with heat races leading to a 10 car final like the old shoootour days limited supports, limited distance races so time for repairs.

Not everyone will be allowed to go back to work at the same time. It seems like current working plan is for the youngest demographic first, then slightly older and so on.

[redshoes]

This is all a little hypothetical, but lets do the maths and see where we end up.

Many teams don't have a lot of full time staff, so will find a one week turn-around a real struggle. You need to consider not just BTCC teams but all the support race team as well. Lets assume that at best we can have one event every 2 weeks.

Currently the final event is scheduled for 11th Oct. As we know from previous years, it's always been a battle to get the last race done before the light fades completely. Potentially you could move that one week later but no further. Clocks go back on 25th Oct, at which point you would struggle to get a truncated raceday program done. So lets say the final round is on 18th Oct and start counting back 2 weeks from there.

18 Oct
04 Oct
20 Sep
06 Sep
23 Aug*
09 Aug*
etc

The question is now, how far back do I go and at what point do we expect racing to re-start?

Difficult to do a direct comparison with other countries as they are all at different points in the timeline and have all had differing experiences of combating the virus, however we can see some general trends.

France have banned festivals and similar events until at least mid July. Belgium have banned mass gatherings until end of August. German, who have generally seen less infections/deaths, have also banned events until the end of August. Obviously some debate over what constitutes a "mass gathering", and if there is some potential to run sporting events behind closed doors with skeleton staff, but I think we are unlikely to see anything happening in the UK before the end of August at the earliest.

That leaves us with, at best, a four round series. And event that I think is being optimistic.

[crmalcolm]

We've seen discussion in F1 about holding multiple events at the same track, and the BTCC already has two events scheduled for Silverstone.

Just a hypothetical, but (and I know a lot depends on circuits) could the BTCC hold back to back weekends at the same venue?

So, for instance:
Brands Indy then GP the following week.
Silverstone national then GP the following week.
Two different snetterton layouts.
Oulton full and short layouts.

It would mean teams don't have to pack up fully between rounds, and reduce travel costs too?

[S griffin]

Don’t forget they could use the long and short circuit at Donington

[Pdh]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

We've seen discussion in F1 about holding multiple events at the same track, and the BTCC already has two events scheduled for Silverstone.

Just a hypothetical, but (and I know a lot depends on circuits) could the BTCC hold back to back weekends at the same venue?

So, for instance:
Brands Indy then GP the following week.
Silverstone national then GP the following week.
Two different snetterton layouts.
Oulton full and short layouts.

It would mean teams don't have to pack up fully between rounds, and reduce travel costs too?

Teams will still have to strip the garages down and go back to base in between the weekends, tracks aren’t going to stop running events like track days and test days during the week so BTCC can run back to back weekends. Even if teams could stay at the tracks costs arent going to go down much because that extra days in hotel and feeding the team and other costs

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Just a hypothetical, but (and I know a lot depends on circuits) could the BTCC hold back to back weekends at the same venue?

It would mean teams don't have to pack up fully between rounds, and reduce travel costs too?

You still have only limited time to repair and re-prepare the car between events, but now you are in a pit garage with limited space and limited facilities, plus you now need to pay for accommodation for your staff for the week.

Again, you need to think of the bigger picture and consider the support teams. Being in a cramped pit garage is bad enough, now imagine doing the same in an awning next to the team truck.

[thetool]

I think a lot of you are also not factoring in what most of the drivers competing do during the time they are not racing.

Matt Neal, for example, runs the family engineering business and I fear that may be something that is hit quite significantly in the medium term.

Up and down the grid the vast majority of participants have business interests that tend towards the inessential/luxury end of things, the sort of thing that really suffers in an economic downturn.

If the BTCC does get some racing in this year, it wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't feature a significant (not necessarily the majority) proportion of the current entries.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Don’t forget they could use the long and short circuit at Donington

No they can't.

The Melbourne loop is used as the assembly area for the support races, TV compound and helipad.

There's no possibility of a BTCC meeting using the long circuit for racing.

[S griffin]

If other series can run on the long loop, then so can the BTCC

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by redshoes

This is all a little hypothetical, but lets do the maths and see where we end up.

Many teams don't have a lot of full time staff, so will find a one week turn-around a real struggle. You need to consider not just BTCC teams but all the support race team as well. Lets assume that at best we can have one event every 2 weeks.

Currently the final event is scheduled for 11th Oct. As we know from previous years, it's always been a battle to get the last race done before the light fades completely. Potentially you could move that one week later but no further. Clocks go back on 25th Oct, at which point you would struggle to get a truncated raceday program done. So lets say the final round is on 18th Oct and start counting back 2 weeks from there.

18 Oct
04 Oct
20 Sep
06 Sep
23 Aug*
09 Aug*
etc

The question is now, how far back do I go and at what point do we expect racing to re-start?

If you move the finale to the 18th, you have to find a different venue, as BSB has Brands Hatch on the 18th.

Also, if you want to keep two-week gaps, that would mean moving Silverstone and Knockhill and Croft.

So it's actually easier to stick to Brands on Oct 11th and Silverstone on September 27th. You can insert a race on Sept 13th, let's say Thruxton, and Knockhill stays on its existing date of August 30th. Except that's a Bank Holiday weekend, so you could make it a double-header running on the Monday as well.

Croft can keep its existing August 16th date, and in the event that we could restart earlier than that, Oulton Park could run on August 2nd.

France have banned festivals and similar events until at least mid July. Belgium have banned mass gatherings until end of August. German, who have generally seen less infections/deaths, have also banned events until the end of August. Obviously some debate over what constitutes a "mass gathering", and if there is some potential to run sporting events behind closed doors with skeleton staff.

The WEC says it still intends to run at Spa in August, despite the ban.

[Alfisti]

As has been said, a lot of the people who work on the cars have other employment: BTCC is not their main job.

Think also of a team like #HARD; even if all four cars came away from a meet needing nothing more than a once over, brake change, spit and polish, to be back on track for the following weekend would be a big ask.