[BTCC] Round One - Donington Park April 22-23 (Races 1, 2, 3)

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by AnnoyedMoose

Never get the negativity around Nic. There was one driver today who was in the gravel three times over quali and the races but not a peep out of anyone on the BTCC FB page. If that had been Nic then they would have been going crazy about him being a liability etc.

That’s the other Nick!

[The Fat Clerk]

I only watched the third BTTC race but in my opinion the standard of driving is still very poor.
The Stock Cars @ Nutts Corner have less contact.

[Matt K]

True, driving standards are not the highest but as long as the grid will be partially amateurish (and that will probably be always) the driving standards will remain appalling especially during some races. There's a thin line between aggressive touring car racing and a pointless amateurish destruction derby and BTCC crosses that line from time to time. But still I'd rather watch this than an artificial racing of washing machines aka Formula E.

[JDMROB]

Good racing today I thought. Better than I expected to be honest.

Excellent to see Watson straight on the pace. He looked a class act in race 1. The Astra in the whole looked fairly quick today but it always went well in them conditions. Taylor smith looked a lot more comfortable in that than he has done in the Cupra the last couple of seasons. Doble was no slouch either.

Looks as if HARD have a bit of work to do still. Happy to see Nic get a good result though.

If todays anything to go by then I think we are in for an exciting season.

[The Fat Clerk]

But still I'd rather watch this than an artificial racing of washing machines aka Formula E.[/QUOTE]

Fair point.

[Evantra]

Verbal warning only for Thompson, keeps the result.

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...y-Thompson.pdf

I guess we didn’t really see how hard the contact was, but think he got off lightly!

[TuteZaek]

Originally Posted by JDMROB

Looks as if HARD have a bit of work to do still.

Doesn't matter when you read this.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

Hill pretty much replaces him as leading BMW driver

I think that happened last season tbh.
The question now is what Morgan can do. I wouldn't be surprised to see him finishing above Turkington consistently.

[porsche962fan]

Originally Posted by AnnoyedMoose

Never get the negativity around Nic..

Without darkness light would be an endless blinding abyss

[SSmith]

All in all a decent day's racing. All series produced some good racing (interspersed with moments of madness and questionable driving standards). Agree with a lot of the other comments on here. Some interesting calls from officials regarding the Sutton/Hill clash and Thompson/Rowbottom clash but they have a lot more data at their disposal. Very impressed by Watson and Pearson. Doble showed some pace as well. Disappointing performances from Butcher and Turkington. I expected Halstead to be a little off the pace, but crashing three times this weekend is not a good look. Woeful reliability on Edwards' car - a '22 Parfitt-esque season will probably ensue.

Its interesting that 23 of the 27 drivers have scored points already this year - only Butel, Powell, Pearson, and Edwards are yet to score. Of those, Pearson will probably score next time out - the other three will need some luck.

[Evantra]

A little hard to see what’s what with no real dry running and race 2 throwing a spanner in the mix, but nonetheless…


The NAPA Fords look the car to beat at the moment. The top three all seem very close which could perhaps lead to some friction or taking points off each other.

BMW not far off with Hill looking quickest. Turkington up in the top group but not seeming to have that little bit extra that Hill has, much like last year, not able to make a move on Ingram in R3 for example. Jelley getting pushed around again.

Hyundais seem a little behind though still a good weekend for Ingram. Pearson deserved more points on the board. Maybe Chilton fluked into the win but he was unchallenged out front and held on in R3.

Not great for the Hondas, Cook making a couple of storming drives back up the field at least. Moffat very anonymous.

Collard had a good race one but after that the Toyotas weren’t really challenging up the front. All 3 drivers seemed very even, expected a lot more from Butcher though, looks like it’s the early season lull for the Corolla again.

Think PMR were flattered a bit by the greasy conditions but regardless an excellent showing from Watson and hopefully that form continues, had the legs on Taylor-Smith.

Lloyd seemed to be going ok in R1 but dropped off as the day went on, must’ve had a problem in R3. Thompson the other way round, nice to see him get a top result and put some great moves down the Craners in R3 though it seems like the car is struggling. Edwards got the full last-minute Hard experience, must’ve done about 5 laps all day!

-

Supports were a bit bland, although again we’re judging on one or two races. F4 was, unusually, the best of all I thought, nice full grid and Louis Sharp looks very quick.

The Minis were very amateur, lots of spins and few racing laps, hope Zelos and Smith are ok physically and accident damage doesn’t force them out. Seems like Zelos is going to dominate.

Porsches just went on too long I felt, doesn’t seem like enough in the running for wins in Carrera Cup at the moment. Best we’ve seen from the Caymans, though that isn’t saying much!

-

Couldn’t really judge the hybrid changes with the changing weather and, happily, we got off having the option tyres. Didn’t seem to be any track limits concerns on race day as some predicted. Hill penalty in R1 wasn’t really a good start.

[Evantra]

Doesn’t say for who or where, but Rowbottom has a 3 place grid penalty next time out for gaining an unfair advantage.

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...-Rowbottom.pdf

[Greem]

Sam Smith is reported by his team to be in hospital but talking. That was an incredibly forceful crash with the amount of rotation, FHRs are good for frontal impact but he experienced a lot of very rapid rotation and rotational impacts. At the very least I expect concussion, hopefully nothing more.

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by SR18

Once again disappointing race from Turkington

Looked like his rear tyres were shot after maybe half the race. This seems to have been a trait with these beemers, it’s not something WSR have seemingly improved much.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Looks like their stuff is generic Napa Racing rather than specifically BTCC branded.

Some people are never happy…

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by Trebor902

Hope Osborne gets the book thrown at him for taking Morgan off before they even reached the line. Dirty tactics from Thompson were stupid too.

Morgan went off all on his own…. And took Osbourne with him

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

And he took advantage of this.

The fact that half of the grid was too incompetent to pull off a pit stop in less than 3 minutes does not undo Nics drive.

Looking at Tsl reckon Motorbase we’re right on it. I heard they practiced stops in testing

[pimmy]

The BTCC races were the best of the day by a clear margin. Nice to see Cammish having a strong start to the year after a comparatively poor 2022. Speedworks have work to do if they want to contend this season, they weren't really there today.

F4 was surprisingly the best of the support package, it does happen from time to time!

Fake charity classes in Porsches continue to evade my interest, those races were just sessions of cars going around for me. However, one thing stuck out:


This "performance" is worthy of a trophy, apparently. Pathetic.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Some people are never happy…

It wasn't a complaint, simply a comment on why they are able to run their own merchandise stand when we haven't seen other BTCC teams do that for many years. Napa Racing UK covers more than just BTCC, they also run in Porsche Cup, Mini Challenge (both Trophy and JCW), Truck racing and even BRISCA. By making their merchandise non-BTCC specific it opens it up to a bigger fan-base, and potentially more sales, and means running a dedicated merch store more viable.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Supports were a bit bland, although again we’re judging on one or two races. F4 was, unusually, the best of all I thought, nice full grid and Louis Sharp looks very quick.

The Minis were very amateur, lots of spins and few racing laps, hope Zelos and Smith are ok physically and accident damage doesn’t force them out. Seems like Zelos is going to dominate.

Porsches just went on too long I felt, doesn’t seem like enough in the running for wins in Carrera Cup at the moment. Best we’ve seen from the Caymans, though that isn’t saying much!

F4 does seem to be on the up. Whilst Sharp and Lisle are very quick, there's a strong lead group.

The Mini JCW grid is slightly disappointing this year, I'd hope the conditions were partly to blame and the vast number of rookies should hopefully mature with time. I also hope all is well following the incident. Autosport mag said last week that Tanner is only confirmed for the first few rounds at the moment, so Zelos only has a couple of other challengers.

PCCGB has great grid numbers but proved a little static at points. The class balance was interesting - Bird may find himself reclassified as a Pro if he keeps up the good performances. I'm of the view that if the entries (and quality) of the Ams doesn't go up then Porsche need to consider scrapping that class for next season, Sherwood just drove around in no man's land all day. Caymans are benefiting from a bigger field. There's a few Cayman drivers that may find themselves reclassified I think given the top 3 Ams were comfortably ahead of a few Pros.

Unbelievably, the next time all 4 of the main support series are together is the Brands Hatch finale in October. The various guest series starts with the Legends in place of the Caymans in two weeks time

[touringlegend]

Originally Posted by Greem

Sam Smith is reported by his team to be in hospital but talking. That was an incredibly forceful crash with the amount of rotation, FHRs are good for frontal impact but he experienced a lot of very rapid rotation and rotational impacts. At the very least I expect concussion, hopefully nothing more.

Spectating from Hollywood I heard the commotion from the commentary and turned around in time to see Smiths car entering the scene, that was a massive accident and how the car didn’t end up rolling or in the catch fencing I don’t know

[JDMROB]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Spectating from Hollywood I heard the commotion from the commentary and turned around in time to see Smiths car entering the scene, that was a massive accident and how the car didn’t end up rolling or in the catch fencing I don’t know

Horrendous impact. Zelos was very lucky to walk away relatively unscathed.

Do we know the cause yet? Looked a strange one. He just slowly veered right, before the braking zone.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Doesn’t say for who or where, but Rowbottom has a 3 place grid penalty next time out for gaining an unfair advantage.

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...-Rowbottom.pdf

"Dan Rowbottom penalised by means of a three place grid penalty for the next round of the Championship for an incident involving Aiden Moffat"

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Spectating from Hollywood I heard the commotion from the commentary and turned around in time to see Smiths car entering the scene, that was a massive accident and how the car didn’t end up rolling or in the catch fencing I don’t know

The gravel trap at Redgate is very deep, and did exactly what it was designed for. Seen some big accidents there in my time and very few rollers.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by JDMROB

Horrendous impact. Zelos was very lucky to walk away relatively unscathed.

Do we know the cause yet? Looked a strange one. He just slowly veered right, before the braking zone.

Must’ve been brake failure? Very lucky it wasn’t left-hand drive, that impact was right on the passenger door.