Lots of motor-racing to watch yesterday, and some very enjoyable racing.

First up was the WSB/WSS racing from Donington, was very exciting 1st race, James Toseland did well to keep consistantly fast at the front and it was good to watch Max Biaggi from for 9th (i think) to challenge Troy Corser for 2nd place, shame that Troy Bayliss went off so early in the race, but at least it handed Toseland a good win.

Race 2 in the WSB was again VERY exciting, Bayliss couldn't race because he fractured his hand from the fall in Race 1, Toseland went out with electrical problems early on was was clearly not happy, thumping his tank as he came to a stop , the rest of the race was dominated by the the three way battle between Haga, Biaggi and Corser, very, VERY close with Haga and Biaggi swapping places at Melbourne a lot, Biaggi took a very different line around there from everyone else, but some good racing from all of em.

The race in the WSS was very exciting too, the 3 front runners continually swapping places, and lapping only 1 second slower than the WSB riders, WSS is 600cc and WSB is 1000cc.

As for BTCC.........hmm........not sure what to think, it was very good to see Team Halfords get a win in a clearly unprepared car, new Civic Type R, and VX Racing did well in their new Vectra.

I think the driver of the day was Matt Jackson really, a newbie to BTCC he did well, but I guess when you buy Andy Priaulx's ex WTCC winning car, and obviously have enough money to chuck at it then results are what you want, shame he got disqualified in race one because he didn't "see" the black flag .

Some people don't like the amount of door banging that goes on, Race 2 was particularly "physical", but I like it, to me, thats what BTCC is all about.

As for the TV coverage of BTCC, it was AWFULL, no live coverage, only on Setanta sport with is PPV, sod that, so all we had was delayed highlights on ITV3, and the commentary team was terrible, I wish someone would tell them that you have "tank-slappers" on bikes, not in sodding touring cars...........

Right. Firstly, which utter f*cking idiot decided to black and orange flag Mat Jackson. The car was perfectly safe.

His radios were screwed up (you shouldn't need radios for this length of race anyway) and the flag was in an odd position, so he couldn't see it.

At ITV do they have some obsession with Matt Neal, it seems like half the races was onboard with him.

I've noticed that they only ever go on board with Neal or Giovanardi.

They can't pronounce his surname, so now the commentators are just calling him Erkut - he's a pay driver anyway. I hope to god that the BMW 1 series starts to improve, it looks like a sensible choice of car for tracks like Knockhill and the other twisty ones.

I feel sure that by the end of the season there will be almost no BTC-T cars left - the only ones left are some Integras, two MGs and an Astra sport hatch.

Quote from duke_toaster :

Right. Firstly, which utter f*cking idiot decided to black and orange flag Mat Jackson. The car was perfectly safe.

I dunno, his car was spewing a hell of a lot of gearbox oil onto the curcuit, I noticed in race 2 the amount of concrete dust they had to put down, I only assume this is due to the oil left by Jackson?

Quote from duke_toaster :

I hope to god that the BMW 1 series starts to improve, it looks like a sensible choice of car for tracks like Knockhill and the other twisty ones.

Yup, the only car to get lapped, shame really, I was expecting more from them.

Quote from duke_toaster :

I feel sure that by the end of the season there will be almost no BTC-T cars left - the only ones left are some Integras, two MGs and an Astra sport hatch.

Why?

Quote from danowat :

I dunno, his car was spewing a hell of a lot of gearbox oil onto the curcuit, I noticed in race 2 the amount of concrete dust they had to put down, I only assume this is due to the oil left by Jackson?

I think someone else was having problems.

Quote :

Yup, the only car to get lapped, shame really, I was expecting more from them.

It's the perfect car for the BTCC - RWD, huge powerband and tiny for tracks like Brands, Knockill and Thruxton

Quote :

Why?

Who exactly would want to drive a car that is ineligable for points and is miles of the pace anyway. With more S2K cars available, I hope - and I wouldn't be surprised - if next year there were no BTC-T cars.

Fair comment I guess, TBH, I am not 100% sure how the points system works for the different classes, clarification for me might help

I missed it, and probably will miss most of the season due to the crap TV coverage.
Shame for Eoin Murray who was going very well in practise and qual until he had suspension failure which put him in the wall.
Eoin had no pre-season testing and only arrived in Brands on Sat morning (due to budget contraints).
He only got 1 flying lap in qual and that put him only .5 off pole and 12th on the grid. With more laps he could certainly have improved on that time.
He missed the race because of a lack of spare parts
I was looking forward to seeing someone on a shoe-string budget beating some of the works drivers! Maybe next day!

Ahh....I did wonder where he was, shame that, would have been nice to see him race.

Ye, he ran as high as 6th in the practise times on sat.
Does anyone know if there is a highlights show on during the week at all?

I actually recorded it on DVD, but deleted it from the DVD-RW because I had finished watching it , I could have DIVX'd it and uploaded it for you.

I'll remember to keep it for the next round, I "think" it was repeated again last night, but I am not sure of any more repeats, it'll be ITV though.

Quote from danowat :

I "think" it was repeated again last night

It was... I was flicking through the channels and i saw the closing credits! Ah well...

Quote from danowat :

Fair comment I guess, TBH, I am not 100% sure how the points system works for the different classes, clarification for me might help

The differences in the classes pointwise? It's simple.

They can't win the driver's, titles or manufacturer's title.

Thanks to Greboth for correcting me on that

Quote from duke_toaster :

The differences in the classes pointwise? It's simple.

BTC-T cars don't score any.

Quote from btcc seat sport uk :

New regulations have today been confirmed by the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship ahead of its switch to the FIA Super 2000 formula in 2007.

Cars running to S2000 specification – the same as used in the FIA’s World Touring Car Championship – have been permitted to run in the BTCC since 2004.

But next year only those teams/drivers competing with S2000 cars in the BTCC will be eligible to win either the coveted Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ crowns. However, BTC-Touring cars, which have populated the BTCC grid since 2001, will still be permitted to compete and score points.
.

Have they changed the rules before this year then?

Bring back the glory days of audi, ford and volvo

Banger Touring Car Championship, 1st and 3rd races were good, VXR seems strong under braking but Type-R seems to accelerate faster (race 3 start, wow!).

Can't say anything about Jackson, really. He didn't drive badly for sure, but I will be careful not to underestimate the influence of his daddys money.

I don't quite know what to think about the BTCC. It strikes me as the kind of series that I would have enjoyed watching when I knew nothing about motorsport: i.e., there is lots of door-banging action. But the more subtleties of the sport that I learn about, the less appealing I find BTCC races.

I know that if I was in one of those cars, I would be freaking-out angry at the end of every race. Much of the contact seems really gratuitous. If you really want to make the series a last-man standing smashup derby, then for god's sake just be honest and say so. But pretending that it's a serious race with respect for other drivers is not fooling anyone.

Quote from frokki :

Can't say anything about Jackson, really. He didn't drive badly for sure, but I will be careful not to underestimate the influence of his daddys money.

EXACTLY

the dust was cos another driver had an engine blowup on the warmup lap

Quote from james12s :

the dust was cos another driver had an engine blowup on the warmup lap

Thanks - so it deffo was NOT all Mat Jackson's. From what I saw (on ITV), MJ's car was perfectly safe and should not have been meatballed.

Quote from jtr99 :

I don't quite know what to think about the BTCC. It strikes me as the kind of series that I would have enjoyed watching when I knew nothing about motorsport: i.e., there is lots of door-banging action. But the more subtleties of the sport that I learn about, the less appealing I find BTCC races.

I know that if I was in one of those cars, I would be freaking-out angry at the end of every race. Much of the contact seems really gratuitous. If you really want to make the series a last-man standing smashup derby, then for god's sake just be honest and say so. But pretending that it's a serious race with respect for other drivers is not fooling anyone.

then you couldnt be a touring car driver then cos one of the things you need to be a touring car driver is the sence that ok you can be annoyed with someone and maybe have an argument or to but still be able to realise that it is just racing, the btcc is so much better than f1 simply cos they take chances and do do some overtaking, with f1 people pass but there arent any overtaking, and monovers and position fights and if you find that the more you learn the less you like it then you are either being taught wrong or you are crazy as the more most learn the more you can see past the door banging to the heart of the racing beneath, the biggist problem is people compare it to f1 and sports cars, but touring cars weather it be btcc,wtcc or dtm are different and should be treated differently!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote from duke_toaster :

Thanks - so it deffo was NOT all Mat Jackson's. From what I saw (on ITV), MJ's car was perfectly safe and should not have been meatballed.

no it actually stopped (the smoke) and if i was him i would have continued especcially as the car was not at any time putting down oil

Quote from james12s :

then you couldnt be a touring car driver then cos one of the things you need to be a touring car driver is the sence that ok you can be annoyed with someone and maybe have an argument or to but still be able to realise that it is just racing...

OK, James, I can see you're a fan. The problem for me is finding the line between "just racing" and blatantly punting your rival off whenever it's convenient. I see a lot of the latter in the BTCC. What do you think?

that happens but like i said look at the dtm and tell be that doesnt happen, and yes i like close racing but i too dont like it when they are just being malisaus(spelling) but remember they dont grip and brake like formula cars so with the tight racing round a tight circuit it may seam like that, best is to watch the next round at rockingham whick is alot more open circuit and you will see a difference