Right, that was a bit of a farce

Nerf 'em Neal's total under utter wreck of Tom Onslow-Cole in race 1 was a joke, maybe we should send the idiot to NASCAR where that would be tolerated. Someone needs to remind Neal that he shouldn't expect people to take a stupid line to yield to a blue flag. It is HIS responsiblity to pass, but T O-C should not slam the door on him. A great race by Colin Turkington though - first win for a beemer in the BTCC for 11 years.

Race 2 saw a copycat attempt by Jason Plato on Colin Turkington. What was worse was the team tactics. Daz Turner did a stomp on the brakes to let JP through to lead a lap, and then on the line JP did a manouvre reminicient of an Austrian GP. It was a ploy to gain the leading lap point, which is a rather silly idea.

Mike Jordan came third, quite good for an Integra.

Race 3 was rather dull, but 2 BMWs on the podium was rather unsual in the BTCC, Gio, T O-C and Mat Jackson.

What was worse was the stupid tyres, I hope that putting tyres too near corners got banned. FWIH in the Cupras one left a tyre sized dent in a windscreen.

Without having even seen the race Duke I would say you're trying to stir up another anti-NASCAR thread. To be fair they are far cleaner and have a lot less deliberate or easily avoidable accidents than BTCC

Just seen race highlights for race 2 (hey no work for me on a Monday )

Jason Plato is a C**K in my view, wanting the point for leading the most laps, or something like that, then giving up the race win, beacuse aparently you don't take a drivers first win!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well you don't let the driver win his first race like that imo. God do I wanna hit him so baddly.

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Jason Plato is a C**K .

nuff said

Quote from anttt69 :

nuff said

+1

Never liked Plato, he can't seem to overtake without first hitting the guys rear bumper. If he really didn't want to ruin Turners first race then they wouldn't have done the stupid lead lap thing, but if they were doing team orders for points then just let plato take the win. Turner let him past in quite a subtle way, but of course you knew he had done it it was just less of a blindingly obvious way of doing it than Plato.

At least I now know why the Clio Cup is often so violent, they showed all the cars lined up in the paddock and all the drivers watching...good way to set an example to the younger guys isnt it.

Well I am a Jason Plato fan, not because he hits everyone, but because he can overtake people - and he's a very nice down to earth bloke too! Yes seeing the highlights from Croft yesterday he did drive into the back of Turkington. But we don't have access to the telemtery and sometimes the sound sync is well out with the picture, so you don't know what happened.

To be honest, there's 1 guy 10x worse than JP, and that is Matt Neal. I've lost count of the amount of people he blatantly shoves out the way, then acts innocent/blames someone else.

I was at Croft yesterday for the 10th year running, and I really enjoyed it, I was sat at Sunny and watching the cars through the Esses and Barcroft is amazing, especially the speeds they go!

Worst part of the day was my hayfever, the pollen filter on the air con in my Yaris is knackered, so coming back home on the A67/A68 I had to pull over until my hayfever calmed down a bit.

I also wonder (a bit o/t) why people decide to drive at 45-50mph on the A68 at 8.15am when there's no other cars around? one guy was a bit cheesed off that he had a Yaris overtake him and magically went back to 65mph keeping up with me after I passed him.

anyway, I'll end this now

JP gets more flack. He's not the best amongst the field, but he's in the middle.

But who really needs to get submitted to the Wrecker Barricade is Matt Neal. He think's he's some form of messiah and blames other people for his accidents. The BTCC would be better of without him.

Quote :

At least I now know why the Clio Cup is often so violent, they showed all the cars lined up in the paddock and all the drivers watching...good way to set an example to the younger guys isnt it.

I hope you appreciate that with the Clio Cup they have 40 or so cars, at Thruxton they had two heats on Saturday (like they do on some tracks) - on Sunday the final race was running literally at the maximum the circuit was licenced for.

The BTCC is a great series, probably the strongest S2000 based series in the world (on a par with the WTCC in strength of field, a BTCC versus WTCC race would be a great thing to see ). It seems like anyone who admits to liking it round here has to justify their existance ...

It shows that some rules in the BTCC can be exploited, I wouldn't be surprised (and I hope they do) if the lead lap points go.

Quote from mr_x :

Well I am a Jason Plato fan, not because he hits everyone.....

To be honest, there's 1 guy 10x worse than JP, and that is Matt Neal. I've lost count of the amount of people he blatantly shoves out the way.....

No Plato does'nt hit everyone just people who are in front of him. He pushed Neal off at last years Croft & wacked Turkington up the rear this time around. Plato is actualy a good driver he just needs to clean up his act, a lot.

How anyone can be 10x worse than Plato is beyond belief, infact I cant even remember the last time Neal pushed anyone off. IMO Plato's head is way to big for those tiny little boots he wears.

Quote from duke_toaster :

Matt Neal. He think's he's some form of messiah and blames other people for his accidents. The BTCC would be better of without him.

Absolute rubbish.

Quote from duke_toaster :

What was worse was the stupid tyres, I hope that putting tyres too near corners got banned. FWIH in the Cupras one left a tyre sized dent in a windscreen.

Yeah I also watched the race, the tyres were a really silly idea putting them so close to the chicanes. It reminded me of LFS with people running through the tyres and causing accidents. I personally have had a number if accidents from tyres hitting my car when some n00b runs through them behind me.

Onto Mr Plato..... well ever since Toca 1 (the game) i never liked him he was always a n00b in the game as he is in real life. He is has terrible race etiquette. The number of times he has pushed drivers off, hit their rear bumper, or wrecked them is just ridiculous.

He then ruined the race by letting his team mate through to win after he which he came on camera to explain his actions. I was filled with rage listening to that twat though!

Shame BTCC has turned into a banger racing series, back in 1999 it use to be a good series actually to watch. *sigh*

Well, I thought all three races where quite enjoyable. I don't get this "banger racing" thing. Ive been watching WTCC and V8 super cars and I'm still preferring BTCC.

I watched the BTCC 1994 season review yesterday, and I have to say, there's as much contact there (and as bad) as there is now.

I think the only reason it's being highlighted more now is because of very much increased TV coverage and higher popularity of nay-sayers.

Quote from mr_x :

I watched the BTCC 1994 season review

Yes touring car racing started going down hill in the late 80s and the 2 litre series have never recovered from it.

Quote from ajp71 :

Yes touring car racing started going down hill in the late 80s

Oh really , what was wrong with 90's touring car racing?

Quote from anttt69 :

Oh really , what was wrong with 90's touring car racing?

Driver standards were in some cases appalling, it may have been a huge commercial success but at the expense of proper racing in touring/saloon car championships at professional level. I doubt professional touring car series will ever be taken seriously again. Look back to the 60s/70s/early 80s, there's some fantastic racing and the contact that does happen really is just accidental rubbing, it does have to be admitted the reasons for the driving standards being higher were influenced by the fact the tracks were very fast but not exactly safe by modern standards so the current BTCC crash rate would be producing fatalities, thankfully touring cars have been slowed sufficiently so they are fairly safe to banger race on modern tracks.

Actually, the 94 Season review mentioned that the 1994 Ford Mondeo Touring Car was just as fast around a track as the old RS500s (I am right with RS500 aren't I? - it's before I was born)

If I'm not mistaken these days touring cars are just as fast, if not faster than they were back in 1994.

Also what's interesting is that everyone here says it's not as good/clean as it is in the mid-90s which I just watched the season review of ('94), and saw there what we see today contact wise - I have '96-'06 season reviews on VHS/DVD and I'd say all those seasons are as rough as each other. You're the first one, Alex, who's said it's actually better in the 80s.

I'm sick of these F1 bashers constantly having a go at touring cars. You like F1, we like touring cars/tin tops. Leave it be, and stop butting in with these arguments all the time.

My view of F1 is - full of Politics, overpaid drivers, boring racing, drivers who are too scared to overtake.

Yes touring cars are rough, but it also produces overtaking and some of the best racing (IMO) in the world.

Quote from mr_x :

Actually, the 94 Season review mentioned that the 1994 Ford Mondeo Touring Car was just as fast around a track as the old RS500s (I am right with RS500 aren't I? - it's before I was born)

I'm fairly sure it would have been the supertourers were pushing out over 300bhp and still had works teams with huge budgets behind them. The RS500s had silly power outputs but still suffered turbo lag and were relatively less sophisticated with proper gearboxes.

Quote :

If I'm not mistaken these days touring cars are just as fast, if not faster than they were back in 1994.

I think you'll find the BTCC cars have never been as fast since in 2001 they entered the cost reduced new format, following the pathetic turn out of the 2000 season, the last season of supertourers.

Quote :

Also what's interesting is that everyone here says it's not as good/clean as it is in the mid-90s

It was dirty in the mid-90s but it managed to remain exciting, in a large part due to a large number of works teams, big grids, faster cars, big drivers, less of this stupid bitching that we see today and still some good racing. All of this was wrapped into a package by Alan Gow that was sold to motorsport fans rather than the current mass market. Unfortunately it couldn't last and the money ran out, resulting in smaller grids and less action and in 2001 they reformatted it and contact was tolerated if not secretly encouraged, watch the 2001 season review, it's a crash fest.

Quote :

You're the first one, Alex, who's said it's actually better in the 80s.

I think you may have missed the point when I said it was more dangerous and this made people behave, I wasn't really talking about the cars, although they weren't as safe, but the tracks, many of them were ridiculously fast and safety hadn't really been invented.

I know I use it a lot but this lap kind of illustrates what was so great about touring car racing, a big name, in a (physically ) big car, that makes a gorgeous sound whilst being driven brilliantly far far faster than it should be able to round a dangerous track, note the complete lack of crash barriers down the Conrod straight

http://video.google.com/videop ... 244029&q=twr+bathurst

Could someone get rid of the blatent anti-BTCC trolling that appears whenever someone mentions it?

Alex: all you have to remember is those days are really over. As much as I'd like to see them for myself I can't - videos/dvd's/any media from those days are long gone. Bloody safety, who invented it?

For now we're stuck with what we have in tin-top series. Although it wouldn't suprise me if touring cars got more powerful as car development continues and safety increases

Quote from duke_toaster :

Could someone get rid of the blatent anti-BTCC trolling that appears whenever someone mentions it?

+1

But Alex wasn't too bad, at least he's explained himself and given his opinion in a fair(ish) way.

but my opinion is that BTCC is the best thing since cheese (I'm not a sliced bread person)

Quote from duke_toaster :

Could someone get rid of the blatent anti-BTCC trolling that appears whenever someone mentions it?

To be fair you started this thread by branding Nascar as a dirtier series than BTCC which is the pot calling the kettle black to say the least, especially seeing as the general consensus would probably be the other way round.