[BTCC] 2010 rumour mill

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Do you mean "Touring Cars has people by Jason Plato and Matt Neal, who the crowd love."

Interesting, if not necessarily accurate

nope this bit

The driver is already trying to plan for next season and revealed that he had been in talks with British Touring Championship team Bamboo Engineering.

[BootsOntheSide]

Nathan Freke would be a great addition to the series. It'd be a shame to break up the "Freke Breeze ends Wrathall" name combination in Ginettas though...

[Icebaby]

Freke is just one of many drivers who deserve a place in BTCC but budgets are what hold them back as many have found out.

In terms of fans favourites Neal and Plato do have a fan base but if you had been a Snetterton all the fans were for Paul O'Neill and rightly he has picked up an award for being the most liked this year, great chap

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

What about the Jetta?

That would need developing, with the Scirocco they could just get customer cars from Sweden.

[mark_l]

Anyone got any ideas as to where Adam Jones will end up for 2010.

[Icebaby]

One can hope he ends up back with GR Asia which served him so well in the past, I understand he owns the car and has good personal backers therefore he does have options. He may be able to piggy back onto the club Seat with Shedden and would be suprised if he is a no show in 2010.

[kristof14]

I was quite surprised it was Shedden who turned up with Club Seat backing when you consider how long Jones has been driving Seats!

[redshoes]

SEAT do a fair amount of sponsorship and branding at Knockhill, so I'm guessing Shedden already had a lot of contacts to call on when the need arose.

[gregc]

Looks like we'll know about Honda in the next 10 days - http://www.crash.net/btcc/news/15320...cs_return.html

Fingers crossed...

[touringlegend]

Anyone see Hondas robot 'Asimo' on ITV4 yesterday? I reckon they should let it drive rather than Neal.

[Icebaby]

I used to be a huge Matt Neal fan but am not now and I think his fan base is now small judging by Brands reaction to him.

If Neal Snr is looking to pay a driver then Neal Jnr should not even get a test, there are far better and his results in the second half of this year are poor.

However it is highly likely he will drive for them only based on his family connections, Dynamics are very much a team in decline, should Honda want to invest other teams will be wiser choices.

I do wonder what Neal Snr would do if Honda were to invest but said it was on the basis of not signing Matt Neal.... ummm

[duke_toaster]

It depends if they want a big name or a young gun that would be great with a little more experience. Or if they have a huge chequebook and get Thommo, Gio or Turkington ...

[Icebaby]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

It depends if they want a big name or a young gun that would be great with a little more experience. Or if they have a huge chequebook and get Thommo, Gio or Turkington ...

I dont think any of these three drivers would want paying any more than Matt Neal but are more "Catogery A" in terms of skill.

Thommo did a remarkable job with the Civic this year and would be the best bet for the Dynamics drive, I am suprised they are testing Matt Neal so soon in the car, the reality is it is proberbly his only option to remain in BTCC.

[crmalcolm]

For me, if I had to draw up a list of drivers, in order, for TD to pursue it would be:

1. Thompson
2. Giovanardi
3. Turkington
4. Eaves
5. Coronel
6. Jones
7. Neal

with both Herbert and Pinkney bringing in sponsorhip and finance.

[BertMk2]

From the way Steve Neal was talking it sounded like there would effectively be two teams:

Honda - Fielding top line drivers (Eg Thompson)
Dynamics - Amateur drivers (Eg Pinkney)

(Amatuer was the word Steve Neal used before anyone accuses me of bashing Pinkney )

So if that's right there could be 4 Civics assuming 2 for each.

[redshoes]

Steve Neal says a lot of things. I tend to take most of them with a large pinch of salt.

Having a lot of drivers ask about running a car and actually running lots of cars are two very different things. Lets give it a couple of months before getting too carried away.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Steve Neal says a lot of things. I tend to take most of them with a large pinch of salt.

Good point!

[crmalcolm]

If TD were to go down the 2-team route, I can't see a place for Matt in either.

Honda would undoubtably pull the strings with regards to drivers in a factory team and IMHO would not have M.Neal anywhere near the top of their shopping list.
A second team would need significant funding over and above the existing setup and so would need all drivers to be paying for their seats I feel.

[Alfa Fan]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

For me, if I had to draw up a list of drivers, in order, for TD to pursue it would be:

1. Thompson
2. Giovanardi
3. Turkington
4. Eaves
5. Coronel
6. Jones
7. Neal

with both Herbert and Pinkney bringing in sponsorhip and finance.

There is more chance of Steve running Plato than Eaves after what happened in the winter of 05/06

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

If TD were to go down the 2-team route, I can't see a place for Matt in either.

Honda would undoubtably pull the strings with regards to drivers in a factory team and IMHO would not have M.Neal anywhere near the top of their shopping list.
A second team would need significant funding over and above the existing setup and so would need all drivers to be paying for their seats I feel.

What if Honda run three rather than two cars and don't nominate Matt Neal for teams. Besides, I think Matt might have a better year this year back at the "family business". The only issue being what to do with Johnny Herbert - great headline generator but will he mature in to touring cars?

If I was setting up a Honda factory team I'd go for Thompson, Jackson and either Neal or a complete wild one (Takuma Sato might make the jump to touring cars well and Honda might be looking for a job for him?) - assuming Turkington will stay at WSR. That way Dynamics Two could be Pinkney and someone else. I feel sure with Honda money for the first three and pay drivers for the second two they could realistically operate five cars (advantage being a hell of a lot of data on those cars) - T8 did in 2001 with Egg Sport or whatever they were called and the Vauxhall team.

[Jamesy-18]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

From the way Steve Neal was talking it sounded like there would effectively be two teams:

Honda - Fielding top line drivers (Eg Thompson)
Dynamics - Amateur drivers (Eg Pinkney)

(Amatuer was the word Steve Neal used before anyone accuses me of bashing Pinkney )

So if that's right there could be 4 Civics assuming 2 for each.

I think Honda if they came in as a manufacturer would field a different car than the Civic. It's not exactly the fastest car on the grid and Honda would go in wanting to win. But we'll see.

But I agree with the sentiments of nearly everybody else, Dynamics would be best off signing Thommo A.S.A.P. Drop Pinkney. He may have money, but his performances have been nowhere near as good as his team mate's for this season, whether it was Thommo or Herbert in.

[werner]

The civic may not be the ideal Honda for touringcarracing, for that honour would probably go to the Accord. But I can imagine that Honda wants to promote the Civic type R as sporty fast car, and thinks the Accord does not need that kind of promotion, then the Civic it will be.

[duke_toaster]

They could start with the Civic for the first few months and then swap over to a NGTC spec Accord when they are finished and if Alan Gow would let them go in early...

[FIRE]

If I would be a manufacturer I would develop a NGTC car and wait until 2011 before entering. Being the first with a NGTC car you get maybe some extra help from BTCC to be competitive against the S2000 cars. I assume BTCC wants to be the NGTC entries competitive from the start. If not it could discourage teams/manufacturers to develop NGTC cars.

[duke_toaster]

However, Honda have the Civics as a stop-gap measure, and of course Alan Gow might decide to allow NGTC cars in a little sooner (last 3 meetings in 2010?).