TCR UK 2023

[coffinpilot]

Was quite a fun race that. Works out fairly decent watching the cars come through Luffield, then the delay on Youtube on the phone lets you see what happened along Wellington beforehand!

I think the Veloster is running low on parts from what I gather this afternoon. I know they had a decent spares package at the start of last season, but there is bodging to keep the car going. I know they've still got at least one of the three i30s they had, wonder if Bradley Kent would be better switching to that?

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Shepherd seems to get taken out of every race with a problem

Never mind, it was his first retirement of the season!

Second race a bit of a mess.

[redshoes]

A decent couple of races from trackside, baring the second race red flag of course. Not a huge amount of overtaking, but I that seems to be often the case for modern touring cars at Silverstone. Certainly the field was a lot closed and less strung out that the last time I went to see them.

[Larsen]

First time at Silverstone since 2019 and first time altogether for TCR

Gotta say the noise and pops the cars make sounds much better in person than when you hear it on stream. Racing was pretty good to be fair, fair amount of incidents in the 2nd race though, stayed at Luffield for both.

I do feel that TCR UK needs to be on the British GT roster though...not sure if thats a SRO problem or just BRSCC wanting to run them seperate.

As for Silverstone circuit itself...the less said the better

[Alfaholic]

Second time I've seen the TCRs from Trackside this year and, I know it's the way car design is at the moment, but by the time the body kits & wings have been added they all seemed to look alike to me (apart from the booted Audi obviously) - or am I just getting old?

I agree with the posts above that they're much better sound wise trackside and the racing wasn't too bad, but they really need a much better package than a couple of Fiesta championships, FFords and less than a dozen Welsh visitors or, as suggested, to join the GT package.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by Larsen

I do feel that TCR UK needs to be on the British GT roster though...not sure if thats a SRO problem or just BRSCC wanting to run them seperate.

I think it's more that TCR UK themselves want to run as a stand-alone 'package' rather than BRSCC decision.

The Fiesta races pretty good. Again I'll put the lack of overtaking down to Silverstone rather than the cars. Perhaps my only complain would be a lack of variety with both junior and senior series running visually identical cars.

I think part of the problem is what else do they add to the package? If you look at BRSCC's roster of series, there's not much that stands out as being a suitable addition.

[antnee]

Having TCR as the headline act gives a lot of advantages for a series trying to grow. They get the use of the garages which makes it look a lot more professional. They define the timetable allowing for activities like grid walks. The organizers (eg BRSCC) and circuits then promote the events as 'TCR' getting exposure to a wider audience.

The VW Cup was a great support series for it, the rule set allowed for newer generations of vehicles to come through. But this died off as the push for TCR came about. The Civics have been put in as a replacement, but they seem to favour the EP3 which is 20 years old now. The struggle for a suitable support series is always finding the right cost level - allow costs to spiral and people will just end up going straight into TCRs, too low and it can 'cheapen' the support bill.

[annasto]

I saw the Civics at Snetterton and they were great but as said they used such an old model, I think there was maybe 2 FK8s which are also 15 years old!

Sent from my moto g62 5G using Tapatalk

[coffinpilot]

Originally Posted by Larsen

First time at Silverstone since 2019 and first time altogether for TCR


I do feel that TCR UK needs to be on the British GT roster though...not sure if thats a SRO problem or just BRSCC wanting to run them seperate.

TCR were originally billed to support British GT this season, but when SRO decided to take Ginetta on after the falling out between Gow/Tomlinson, TCR got the boot.

I think the back quarter of the grid want the Touring Car experience with garages and what not (and a couple of other outfits with sponsors) otherwise they could just run out of an awning with a club car for a lot less money!! A couple of them have said that they only made the move because of that.

[coffinpilot]

Originally Posted by Alfaholic

Second time I've seen the TCRs from Trackside this year and, I know it's the way car design is at the moment, but by the time the body kits & wings have been added they all seemed to look alike to me (apart from the booted Audi obviously) - or am I just getting old?

I agree with the posts above that they're much better sound wise trackside and the racing wasn't too bad, but they really need a much better package than a couple of Fiesta championships, FFords and less than a dozen Welsh visitors or, as suggested, to join the GT package.

Got to agree with the support thing. Fiesta 240, Civics and Fiesta Jrs at every round would be a good start. More Formula Ford if they stay with the Formula Ford festival next year. I didn't go on Saturday, would have loved to make a weekend of it, but I'm not sitting through four hours of FunCup. It's only 'Fun' for the drivers - as the majority of club endurance championships are.

Similar with the BTCC - sorry I don't want to pay full whack ticket prices for Caterhams and Radicals - I can see that level any weekend of the year. Legends are fun and the crowd likes them - well placed at the circuits they've been on with TOCA - Mini Se7ens the same. Carrera Cup and F4 are fine, Porsche sprint series I can see why it's there (burger or toilet time for me) but the BRSCC roster of CityCar cup, 3,000 MX5s Funcup and Clubsport again for Donington means I'll skip the Saturday thee too.

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by Evantra

That Honda is getting worse…

Even the established teams running it in the USA are struggling.

[coffinpilot]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

Even the established teams running it in the USA are struggling.

When I got back and watched the stream they seemed to confirm Sumpton has an FL5 lined up for next year. His i30 from last season is still for sale on racecars direct! Seems like a deep hole if he doesn't sell the FK8 (unless it's leased?)

Looking back though, some interesting stats from Honda history in TCR UK/TCT, the most successful individual car is the BTCC machine that Henry Neal drove.
The TCR FK2 had two wins, Backman at Croft in a one-off in 2018 and Josh Price.
The FK8 has six wins, Ollie Taylor and Ash Sutton took two each in 2018, and Smiley took two last year.

The FL5 does not look good at all. It's going to need some serious work from JAS over the winter.

[jsmee]

Good to see a couple of returnees this weekend, Mark Smith in his old Cupra (used to have a striking livery, will be interesting to see if its the same livery again), and Alistair Camp. Camp impressed at Snetterton, and interesting I think he's the first to suggest competing in 2024.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by jsmee

Good to see a couple of returnees this weekend, Mark Smith in his old Cupra (used to have a striking livery, will be interesting to see if its the same livery again), and Alistair Camp. Camp impressed at Snetterton, and interesting I think he's the first to suggest competing in 2024.

Yes, the entry is pretty solid this weekend with 22 cars.

I also noticed that Brad Hutchison is entered in a CUPRA Leon Competicion as opposed to the Gen 1 Audi RS 3 (presumably the Leon he and Steve Gales have driven elsewhere and that Gales raced at Oulton Park).

Mark Smith's Cupra seems to have been for sale on RaceCarsDirect since April!

[jsmee]

Ah good spot on the Hutchison Cupra! I missed that entirely. Yes, surely the Gales/ex-Jaxon car.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by jsmee

Good to see a couple of returnees this weekend, Mark Smith in his old Cupra (used to have a striking livery, will be interesting to see if its the same livery again)

He posted a picture on Facebook a few days ago, car is still in the same livery.

[jsmee]

Is this Mark Smith the same Mark Smith who ran Alfa 156s in BTCC?

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by jsmee

Is this Mark Smith the same Mark Smith who ran Alfa 156s in BTCC?

yes

[coffinpilot]

Originally Posted by jsmee

Ah good spot on the Hutchison Cupra! I missed that entirely. Yes, surely the Gales/ex-Jaxon car.

He'll have the 20kg engine change penalty I presume.
Good that he's had running in it this year too.

[coffinpilot]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Yes, the entry is pretty solid this weekend with 22 cars.

I also noticed that Brad Hutchison is entered in a CUPRA Leon Competicion as opposed to the Gen 1 Audi RS 3 (presumably the Leon he and Steve Gales have driven elsewhere and that Gales raced at Oulton Park).

Mark Smith's Cupra seems to have been for sale on RaceCarsDirect since April!

Darron Lewis has had his AUdi up for sale there since the Snetterton test in Feb!

[Evantra]

Some penalties from qualifying: https://bit.ly/460Sla8

“Brad Hutchison was a solid sixth and only 0.002s down on Marshall, with series returnee Alistair Camp only 0.001s further back in seventh. However, both drivers would be excluded from the results after the session, with Hutchison failing the ride height test and Camp suffering from excess boost on his Hyundai. The pair will now start from the back for race one with a ten-second delay.

A penalty carried over from the last round at Silverstone will see Winfield drop to eighth on the grid for race one, with Alex Ley carrying a similar five-place drop that will see him drop from P11 to P16.”

[coffinpilot]

When are we going to get a winner who is the first person to take the chequered flag?

I get the punishments yesterday, but I bet a bunch of other cars could have gotten SC infringements, and I bet if they did ride hieght checks on the rest of the field half of those would get a DSQ too.

TCR is becoming a farce with lack of consistency in penalties and punishments - and that's the key. They - or the BRSCC - only seem to have the manpower to check those at the front and a couple of randoms. Not good enough considering the money that's in there now.

[coffinpilot]

I see Brickley has put his car up for sale - has he had enough?
Sargeant has both of his cars for sale.
Townsend has his for sale.
Lewis has had his for sale for a while.
Wilmot has his car up for sale.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by coffinpilot

I see Brickley has put his car up for sale - has he had enough?
…
Wilmot has his car up for sale.

Seems a bit odd if he has given he’s high up in the championship order. Wilmot seems to go through a new TCR car every week…


Perhaps a concerning situation for Restart Racing too given Bert Taylor’s tweet at the weekend (or what can be deciphered of it):

“Enough’s enough know with this ! They need to do something to keep umm in this championship atm we can’t even get of our own way blown away down every straight ! Sad but that’s the facts !“

https://x.com/berttcr/status/1701123...T11pmdgnSSDQzA

…but then today he posted he was “enjoying life” with photos of the cars, so who knows!

[Petoli]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Seems a bit odd if he has given he’s high up in the championship order. Wilmot seems to go through a new TCR car every week…!

Brickley Ad says the car will be available after the season finale

It is getting towards the end of the season it is not unusual to put the car up for sale

Driver may have offers else wear for next year

Some drivers have had their cars up for sale pretty much all year