Heritage Grand Touring Car Challenge -BTCC

howdy

Its tough being a classics or racing fan in Ireland, other than keeping the newsagent in bizness buying Motorsport we get little actual action. I've made a couple of trips to Goodwood which will live long in the memory but this weekend the BTCC is coming to Mondello park just outside Dublin. So we're off.

The Heritage Grand Touring Car Challenge is supporting this, all that I do know is that superbike racer Aaron Slight is guesting a Mustang GT350 - do you guys know any other of this line up - I can't wait to hear REAL engines at full tilt!!!

"sideways to victory"

Welcome to the forum. Yes, I'm looking forward to the Heritage Challenge race this weekend too. The last one at Oulton Park was awesome.

No idea which of the entrants are planning to make the trip, but the grid is very heavy with Aston Martins, so expect some quick, well set-up DB4s and V8s. At least three Mustangs are regular visitors, 1964 notchbacks as well as Ralph Avis' GT350, and there are also examples of Sunbeam Tiger, Lotus Cortina. Jag Mk2 and Mini Cooper. One of our forum members, Stacy Vickers, ran his Mazda RX-7 at Oulton. Doing the trip, Stacy?

great, that sounds like a nice mix in the lineup, any Alfa GTAs in there,a personal fav.

I hope yee enjoy the trip and the weather improves a bit, its been atrocious over hear all summer...oh and that the racing can cheer yee all up when Brazil win 2moro :D

c ya there

Simon Drabble is yer man for the Alfa. He races an example (not sure if its a GTa though) in the Top Hat challenge).

Originally posted by green-blood
..oh and that the racing can cheer yee all up when Brazil win 2moro :D

c ya there
Just noticed this.

I'm currently working in a pretty remote part of the world. We have All races from the British Isles (which geographically includes Ireland). We were all - English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish rooting for Ireland the other day and yet I find it pretty small minded of our fellow islanders that because its England who are the only ones left with any kind of chance the only supporters are the English.

I'm sure you only meant it in jest but I'm personally fed up with jibes like that. England is now representing the British Isles and we should all be supportive.

Off topic sorry.

eh sorry

my mistake I shouldn't bring up football on a motorforum - twas a "joke", d'ya remember them, BL, Maestro, stuff like that....

The British Isles are also part of Europe - but no chance of any of yee supporting Germany against USA... If I was so anti British would I be going to the British Touring Car Championship this weekend...take it easy have a caramel...

Green-blood, did you realise that a large contingent of the Maestro Enthusiasts Club are making their way to Mondello on Saturday???

And you think I'm kidding.....!

Back on topic, I don't think Simon was planning to run in the Heritage Challenge series the last I heard. His Alfa (GT Junior, I thought - help me out here Simon) is very straight, very stock, very pretty, and I'm not sure some of the other rock-apes out there would look after it terribly well. The Top Hat is what it does best in at the moment.

I gotta stop making enemies....

No worries, mate - Hey, you joined 10-tenths and the first thing you did was post in the Historic department.

That's what I call class.

That's Maestro and Montego Owners Club to you, Tim, and Chris and I are merely 1/100th of the membership :p

I promise to bring an extra large pack of filler so you can patch them Montegos up for the journey home!! can there really be 300 of them on the road still!!!

I assume yee are camping over here - be warned Mondello is out in the country a bit, not a huge amount of local ammenities...

Me I'm a classic nut, I want an Alfa Guilia GT Junior, I'm negotiating a Minor, I have a 1986 Saab 900 in the Garden being repaired to become a daily driver and I drive around ina Fiesta (ok no-ones perfect, them Maestro boys will love that) Motorsport is my bible and Amazon.co.uk are the main reason my credit card is maxed...so thats me

That's Maestro girls to you :D And at least one of mine (I have 3!) certainly does NOT need filler! Can PM proof if required!

You are in for a treat Green-Blood! Those historic cars are great! A lot of them were in action recently at the AMOC Snett meeting. I was fortunate enough to watch from the post on the inside of Coram - loads of sideways drifts!!
As usual we are spoilt for choice - it's the HSCC Superprix at Brands but I have committments at the F3/GT Combe meeting
but want to do both. Then there is the Snetterton classic next week. Can't wait!

Peter, at the risk of hijacking this thread and just to compound your annoyance with the footballing comment, particularly as it is also something that REALLY p*sses me off aswell, last night on BBC1 news they showed a pub in Scotland full of Scots cheering the Argies against England - not in kilts, but actually wearing Argentina shirts with Maradona on the back !! Unbelievable !! BTW I was cheering my socks off for the Irish on Sunday against Spain.....:banghead:

Originally posted by TimD
Stacy Vickers, ran his Mazda RX-7 at Oulton. Doing the trip, Stacy?

There's some fantastic kit there of all shapes and sizes, so should be a good show. Some of it is ludicrously quick too, and I can say it was an honour to have my doors blown off by Andy Rouse in a monstrous Camaro..

Bear in mind it's invite only, and I was only asked to the meeting because they were short of numbers - they really want older cars, or even better cars owned by customers of the organizers. Some of them were grim mind you, not the standard of prep one expects at a BTCC meeting.

So a mixed bag really, good cars, **** cars, and more of an organized competitive procession for an old boys network than a real race I think - but entertaining anyway.

They treated us well though, hospitality, timed test day, two races, two qualifiers, champagne on the podium and a trophy, and all for free. Can't be bad.

No, entertaining it was, but I can't see me getting another call.

Instead I've been testing at Snetterton playing with suspension mods - and found another decent lump of time. Couldn't quite believe the homework on graph paper told the truth!

Looking forward to the Snetterton Classic on the Saturday at the end of the month where I'll find everyone else has found 2s..

Stacy

Ah Testing and all that time. It'd be nice to do that myself. ;)

Anyway. Your point about a procession for an "old boys" network reflects my thoughts about the old Silverstone Historic Festival. Once it evolved from its original VSCC (ish) weekend to its international meeting status I felt that most wins were based on the person/owner than the ability of the car/driver.

No need to bang on about the football I'm not even a fan of the game but when you're a long way from home you do get caught up in the event. Anyway, I'm off to the pub at 11.30 (6.30 BST) for a free curry and a few scoops whatever the result.;)

A member of the Queensland Historic Racing Car Club spent 12 months towing his '59 Lister Jaguar around Europe competing at major Historic Race meetings and at Monaco he was advised that all compettiuors had to agree to let Stirling Moss win or they would not be allowed to take part. Now this does no good for the PAYING public who expect to see a RACE and it certainly does no good for Moss's reputation.

Slightly off topic, but interesting enough, at another meeting, he was refused an entry becasue they already had too many Lister Jaguars! Too many, wow we get excited if we see one.

You surprise me about Moss but the story certainly rings true.

If there are too many cars why not run more races?

I was asked to do the Mondello race but sadly it clashes with Brands where I have both the Alfa's out on Sunday. I will be peddling the new one but I dont expect it to be massively on the pace and am treating it more as a testing session.

good luck anyways...yours isnt the one fetured in a magazine, was it EVO a couple of months back??

no that was Richard Evans. my GTA replica is up for sale now and has been active in HSCC and Top Hat but the new one is an FIA Giulia Sprint GT which I will be doing the Spa 6 hour as well as Top Hat and hopefully Goodwood next year. Look at my website for the old one and I hope you enjoy the Mondello meeting

yours looks cleaner for some reason!!! "Somewhere over the rainbow"...you know the rest

Originally posted by simon drabble
no that was Richard Evans. my GTA replica is up for sale now and has been active in HSCC and Top Hat but the new one is an FIA Giulia Sprint GT which I will be doing the Spa 6 hour as well as Top Hat and hopefully Goodwood next year. Look at my website for the old one and I hope you enjoy the Mondello meeting

See you at Brands Simon....
We should have an extra second or two because we've just powder coated the wheels :)

see you there, I am not sure what to expect out of the new car as we have never run in anger with it, in fact it is going on the rolling road tomorrow morning to set up carbs and see what the power is like so we shall see!!

Originally posted by TimD


That's what I call class.

:laugh:

Yep and don't worry about the Brasil thing either, you called it spot on!

a bit of a review:-

The touring cars were pretty damn impressive, especially the production class that saw 2 BMWs defeated by (shock) front wheel drive Alfa 156s (whata sound) and a couple of buzzy Jap Honda Civics!!! oh and can Muller drive or what!!!

Anyway, the historics had a field brought together mainly by the Aston Martin Owners club, stunning DB4 and DB5 racers with a couple of 70s V8s and a simply gorgeous Vantage Zagato...mmmm these were joined by earth shatteringly loud Mustang and Camaros - one such driven by ex touring car hero Andy Rouse - wha hooooo, mixing it with these beasts was a lightweight E-type, a Lotus Elan, a Lotus Cortina, Anglia and the absolute star of the show a fully prepped Austin A35 - the tinyest wheel base you could imagine, but boy was he having fun, huge slides around the back of the circuit, and the public loved him for it....A bit of crude stopwatch timing showed the top BTCC lap time about 1'46", the quickest Aston a stunning DB5 about 1'58" and the wee A35 at 2'13" - not too bad at all..

A pity about the sunshine and showers, I got a sunburned face and a cold - only in Ireland...

Oh and well done Brazil (come on lads tis a joke!!!)

I WANT AN A35!!!!

The big rumblers are really impressive, but that A35 had everyone cheering for it by the end, and having had a good look round it in the paddock, it was well enough prepped to eat your dinner off! Gorgeous! That orange Aston had amazing singing brakes too, and the tail-out slides it was getting into turn 2 were something else!

MagnetON took some great pix of the A35 - a fab car with an absolute sweetie of a driver - I'll see if I can get him to post.

I nearly cried when I saw the damaged Sunbeam Tiger though. :(

Here it is - the car you've all been waiting for... :)

:laugh: :laugh: Myself and WW thought this little car was fab ! Great fun to watch these fantastic cars - the silver Aston Martin, No. 55 (the "James Bond" car) was my favourite though ;)

just for info.

The Classic Touring Car Racing Club has A35's, Mustangs, Falcons, Capris, Rovers, Anglias, Classics and many other saloon and tourng cars in its four Championships.

Perhaps you could get us an invite to Mondello?;)

....and just to add to PM's comment there are 2 A35's entered in this weekends Classic Package at Snetterton one of which is running in the 1 hour on Sunday.....

Originally posted by Maisie
That orange Aston had amazing singing brakes too, and the tail-out slides it was getting into turn 2 were something else!

Rumour has it that one of the Astons (and I've been told it was the orange one) did a little bit too much during testing and left some very nice headlamp imprints in the bank at Turn 3, in the same place that Annie T left her mark on Saturday.

Originally posted by Peter Mallett
just for info.

The Classic Touring Car Racing Club has A35's, Mustangs, Falcons, Capris, Rovers, Anglias, Classics and many other saloon and tourng cars in its four Championships.

Perhaps you could get us an invite to Mondello?;)

LOL - I doubt if I could get anyone an invite to the opening of an envelope!

However, I can give you the contact for the Historic class over here and he's probably the best person to contact as we'd LOVE to see you guys!
Class Co-ordinator is Mr. Edmund Cassidy, Green Oak, Kilsallaghan, Co. Dublin, Ireland or email Stephen Boden - bodenste@ie.ibm.com

Don't forget Kirkistown as a potential venue either! :)
500 MOTOR RACING CLUB OF IRELAND: Mr. Richard Young, Kirkistown Circuit, Rubane Road, Kircubbin, Co.Down BT22 1AU. Phone: 0044 28 42771325 (race days only), Fax: 0044 28 42771894.

Come and play! :)

Thanks Ms P.

I'll make sure it gets to the necessary peeps. ;)

Another racing A35

A couple of years ago I say an a35 racing at Phillip Island driven by Graham Hill.

This one is a recent build, debuting at Wakefield Park earlier this year.