[BTCC] Brands Hatch Rd4/5/6

[porsche962fan]

and congrats to Hamilton for his first point even if he still dead last in standings

[GT6]

Yes Nick hamilton got a point, very pleased for him.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by bella

tim harvey white knighting for hawkey in the porsche race was a bit embarassing.

Probably manages her like Cammish. I am amazed ITV stand for it

[Akrapovic]

People are just noticing now that Harvey plays favourites? Snetterton he spent the entire weekend telling us how amazing Plato was for NOT driving into other cars, and then he immediately drove into Sutton, only for Harvey to make excuses.

He should've been out the com box years ago. He isn't capable of commentating fairly.

[S griffin]

Wow, what a day of racing! Where to begin?

Turkington is looking good at the moment. He's getting the results by knowing when to push and when not to and it also helps that most of his main rivals are getting the bad luck.

Glad to see Oliphant getting his first win, under massive pressure from Ash. He is getting better as time goes on. And what a move round the outside to take the lead, even if it did require Jelley to sportingly back out after hitting Moffat. Speaking of which, apart from that spin at Donny, Jelley has had a solid season so far and seems to have got over his bad luck of recent seasons

Ash is looking good, what a recovery from his bad grid spot. I found it funny we almost had a repeat of the winners at Donny in the exact same order. Ash is looking good after a solid weekend of points like Colin

Butcher's puncture couldn't have come at a worse time for him in R1, good recovery in R2, then it happened again in R3. Cammish had all the luck in the first race, then it just seemed to desert him. And shame for Tingram, good points in a car that doesn't appear to the fastest till that incident in R3

Good to see OJ up there, Neate looked good in R2 by keeping a cool head, although what happened to him in R3? Puncture or mistake? Good to see Nic get his first point. Real races of attrition

Great mini action, nice to see AJ taking a win. Porsches looked a bit wild, but what a drive by King

[RS67]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Neate looked good in R2 by keeping a cool head, although what happened to him in R3? Puncture or mistake?

He held his hand up and said he made a mistake. He was carrying a tad too much speed and found himself about to run into the back of Cammish, he took avoiding action and the back end got away from him.

[porsche962fan]

Originally Posted by S griffin

, Jelley has had a solid season so far and seems to have got over his bad luck of recent seasons

I often wonder how well he could do in the much more potent 3 series

it will never really happen but technically if WSR need another rear gunner for Turks in the final stages would it be something to prevent them "loaning" the 3 series to Jelley/Parker for final part of season ? the car would run under Team Parker banner and in their livery but the key engineers would be WSR personal and Jelly would be forced to be rear gunner and give toe in qualy and I imagine this way TOCA couldn't slap a late season entry full ballast

[bella]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

People are just noticing now that Harvey plays favourites? Snetterton he spent the entire weekend telling us how amazing Plato was for NOT driving into other cars, and then he immediately drove into Sutton, only for Harvey to make excuses.

He should've been out the com box years ago. He isn't capable of commentating fairly.

in my defence this is the first time i've been able to watch it all live in three years, so it's a whole new world of cringe

but then i got similarly annoyed by john watson on the sro feed yesterday, which i'm aware is blasphemy punishable by exile.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by RS67

He held his hand up and said he made a mistake. He was carrying a tad too much speed and found himself about to run into the back of Cammish, he took avoiding action and the back end got away from him.

That’s fair enough, could have happened to anyone. He’s certainly keeping a cooler head than he did earlier in his BTCC career and he has so fat managed to avoid incidents with other, which also was a big problem for him in the past

[medius]

That Focus is a mighty quick car and is letting the talents of the drivers shine. I wonder if there's some sponsors phoning up Batty in the morning based on performances so far?

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by bella

in my defence this is the first time i've been able to watch it all live in three years, so it's a whole new world of cringe

but then i got similarly annoyed by john watson on the sro feed yesterday, which i'm aware is blasphemy punishable by exile.

Nah, John has become a crazy old man. They wheel him out of the home to have odd rants and wheel him back.

Tim is perfectly sound of mind, he's just not capable of commentating on a series fairly.

[S griffin]

I have to agree O'Neill that Ollie Jackson was the star driver of the day. He isn't rated much, probably due to incidents in the past, but in a good car he is actually a decent peddler.

Also got to see Gornall getting three solid points finishes

[Sodemo]

I was impressed by Neate, he kept his nose clean in race 2 and got a decent result. Fair play. Hopefully it will give him the confidence in the car for the rest of the year.

[RS67]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I was impressed by Neate, he kept his nose clean in race 2 and got a decent result. Fair play. Hopefully it will give him the confidence in the car for the rest of the year.

I believe yesterday was his first visit to a gravel trap since joining the team including preseason testing. Getting up to 8th yesterday and holding off Turkington for a lap or two, he certainly seems to have made a transformation just like Ollie. All three Fords in the top 10 for several laps, a bit of a surprise for all the doubters.

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Nah, John has become a crazy old man. They wheel him out of the home to have odd rants and wheel him back.

Tim is perfectly sound of mind, he's just not capable of commentating on a series fairly.

I particularly liked his mixed up description of Butcher's return to Motorbase because he was a "kindred son". Presumably Andy Neate is the "prodigal spirit".

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by RS67

I believe yesterday was his first visit to a gravel trap since joining the team including preseason testing. Getting up to 8th yesterday and holding off Turkington for a lap or two, he certainly seems to have made a transformation just like Ollie. All three Fords in the top 10 for several laps, a bit of a surprise for all the doubters.

The Motorbase cars showed great pace all weekend it just seems that if it wasn't for bad luck, sadly they wouldn't have any luck at all.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I was impressed by Neate, he kept his nose clean in race 2 and got a decent result. Fair play. Hopefully it will give him the confidence in the car for the rest of the year.

His entire approach seems very different to his past BTCC endeavours; long may it continue with the good solid performance and keeping his nose clean.

No one has yet appeared on my my "muppet" radar this year. Which after two meetings has to be a first...

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

No one has yet appeared on my my "muppet" radar this year. Which after two meetings has to be a first...

Maybe Chris Smiley after binning a 4th place yesterday all on his own! Still, that Hyundai will be a race winner by the end of the year, I reckon.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by CarfanLUFC

Well after Brands "not being a RWD track" it's a 1 to 5 finish for RWD cars in race 3

It's always worth putting the results into context, before a declaration of 'it's a [insert car type] track'.

Going into this event, some were claiming that Sutton is going to walk the championship - He's doing well, but it is not being handed to him on a plate.
Some were claiming that Sutton would need to push the car too hard, and his tyres wouldn't last - he managed his tyres well, and it was the FWD cars that had tyre problems. In fact, Oliphant took his race win on used tyres.

The biggest factor of the day seems to have been heat, and the ability of RWD cars to manage the heat factor better. A lot of FWD drivers commented about how different heat effects were affecting their car, but his was not as evident from RWD drivers. The only instance I can recall was Jelley talking about how he was preserving his front tyres through paddock, to avoid the exit kerb pinching the sidewall.

FP1 - FWD 1-5
FP2 - FWD 1-6
Q - FWD 1-4
R1 - FWD fastest 6 laps
R3 - FWD fastest 3 laps

The only time RWD cars were faster than FWD all weekend was in R2, when the temperatures were at their highest. FWD cars are capable of going quicker than RWD at this circuit, but it was the heat that caused the issues.
When the temperature drops later in the season, the FWD cars will start to get an ascendancy over RWD, and the conditions will come to them.

[Matt K]

Well said, RWD may have scored 1-2-3-4-5 but only on paper it looks like a total domination of RWD cars. Actually Cammish and Butcher seemed one of the fastest drivers of the weekend, which is particularly impressive given the former had quite a lot of weight onboard and still was able to be in the mix.

Honestly, sometimes I feel it'd be good to have all cars FWD or RWD in order to stop this ancient debate about who's at advantage and which track is FWD-friendly and which RWD-friendly.

[antnee]

Just before the start of R3, it was mentioned that the 2 Dynamics Hondas and 2 BTC Hondas all had steering system issues causing their retirements/dropped places in R2. Surely this must have been heat related, it can't be a coincidence that 4 of the same car (which are usually very well prepped), all get an issue with the same system in the same race...

[RS67]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

It's always worth putting the results into context, before a declaration of 'it's a [insert car type] track'.

Going into this event, some were claiming that Sutton is going to walk the championship - He's doing well, but it is not being handed to him on a plate.
Some were claiming that Sutton would need to push the car too hard, and his tyres wouldn't last - he managed his tyres well, and it was the FWD cars that had tyre problems. In fact, Oliphant took his race win on used tyres.

The biggest factor of the day seems to have been heat, and the ability of RWD cars to manage the heat factor better. A lot of FWD drivers commented about how different heat effects were affecting their car, but his was not as evident from RWD drivers. The only instance I can recall was Jelley talking about how he was preserving his front tyres through paddock, to avoid the exit kerb pinching the sidewall.

FP1 - FWD 1-5
FP2 - FWD 1-6
Q - FWD 1-4
R1 - FWD fastest 6 laps
R3 - FWD fastest 3 laps

The only time RWD cars were faster than FWD all weekend was in R2, when the temperatures were at their highest. FWD cars are capable of going quicker than RWD at this circuit, but it was the heat that caused the issues.
When the temperature drops later in the season, the FWD cars will start to get an ascendancy over RWD, and the conditions will come to them.

In qualifying, Sutton was pushing the car too hard, his lap times suffered as a result and he got slower and slower. Race day he seemed to have a whole new approach, he was more relaxed other than almost putting Butcher into the pit wall at the start of Race 3. His driving yesterday was the complete opposite of his frantic driving last week and he reaped the rewards from it.

[bella]

have dunlop.. goodyear, whatever spoken about the tyre failures yet?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by bella

have dunlop.. goodyear, whatever spoken about the tyre failures yet?

Was it just Motorbase who had failures - or did any of the other retirements come from tyres?

If it was just Motorbase, it would suggest the problem was with one team's use of the tyres, rather than a tyre problem itself?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by RS67

In qualifying, Sutton was pushing the car too hard, his lap times suffered as a result and he got slower and slower.

Could quite easily swap Sutton for Butcher in that sentence.