Grand Prix Rejects

dr-baker wrote:I remember Cammish being fairly dominant in FFord, and he seems to have done alright in Porsches since. Cammish for BTCC Champion 2018?

Wasn't there an incessant running gag that swarmed this forum about Cammish's Formula Ford domination a few years back or was it just my imagination?

peteroli34 wrote: Just whoever going to be in the MG's is a mystery.

To be honest, it isn't really a surprise that those are the last two seats to be filled, is it?

And silly season has officially been ruined for me. Motorbase go screw yourselves for dumping Jackson so late in the off-season for no apparent reason, thats basically left him stuck with the MGs if anything.

http://www.btcccrazy.co.uk/btcc/motorba ... t-jackson/

That is very odd. The only explanation I can think of is that either Jackson's sponsors or Jackson himself have some kind of clash with Tordoff that we don't know about.

I'm sorry, Mat Jackson...

A very talented driver, and a rather successful partnership with Motobase. Shame he can't now go and join Team Dynamics - that could have been a good partnership?

Sponsors, 100% sure. That's the only reason I can think of this. Quite honestly, some insane bullshit here, leaving Jackson stuck with the MG's if anything....

I think he's got too much pride to want to pootle around in an MG! Maybe he'll see if there are any Porsche seats left, and wait for another BTCC seat to come up mid-season instead? Still a few seats left to be filled in WTCR as well, of course....

Team Parker confirm both Jelley and a switch to a BMW 1 series. A good move as Jelley has spent most of his career with RWD. Hopefully he will be a regular points scorer now.

Tom Boardman is the lastest returning driver as he will drive one of the MGs.
http://www.btcccrazy.co.uk/btcc/tom-boa ... tuning-mg/

And of all the avaliable drivers they could have chosen to replace Jackson, Motorbase goes with James sodding Cole.

http://www.btcccrazy.co.uk/btcc/james-c ... rformance/

Looks like the comedy team behind the PARAS team from a few seasons ago is back, they've entered the new TCR UK series and they have somehow got Aiden Moffat involved. Derrick Palmer Jr. drives the other car. They are running Alfas.

BTCC Media Day is next Tuesday at Donnington Park, with public access from 12:30 pm. I am considering going.

Rory Butcher has been unveiled as the second MG pilot. I thought he did really well at Motorbase, it's a shame his first full season of BTCC is going to be in an awful car. Word on the street is that the current MG livery is just a placeholder for testing. I damn well hope so, it's easily the worst livery on the grid so far.

The final seat on the grid is apparently at BMR, although there are rumours that Warren Scott's mob are only fielding Sutton and Plato this year and may have sold the TBL on. I guess we'll find out at Media Day.

Is it too much to ask that the final TBL belongs to Mat Jackson's old family team and he goes on to dominate the season in a BMW? Screw Motorbase etc etc.

East Londoner wrote:Rory Butcher has been unveiled as the second MG pilot. I thought he did really well at Motorbase, it's a shame his first full season of BTCC is going to be in an awful car. Word on the street is that the current MG livery is just a placeholder for testing. I damn well hope so, it's easily the worst livery on the grid so far.

The final seat on the grid is apparently at BMR, although there are rumours that Warren Scott's mob are only fielding Sutton and Plato this year and may have sold the TBL on. I guess we'll find out at Media Day.

Is it too much to ask that the final TBL belongs to Mat Jackson's old family team and he goes on to dominate the season in a BMW? Screw Motorbase etc etc.

I'm almost as disapointed that Ant Whorton-Eales is out of a ride as I was for Jackson especially in favour of Sam Smelt who will be laughably out of his depth this season. Even Butcher I found a little meh outside of his home round last season. But hopefully the MGs will be better now that they are with a team that might give them attention rather than left to gather dust between races in that small corner of the BMR shop.

As for the third BMR I have had a feeling BMR would be down to two since the Cole to Motorbase reveal. If it is there than realistically it will probably be Josh Price again though of course my heart wants Mat Jackson to be the surprise reveal before going on to dominate even worse than Sutton last season.

Josh Price is confirmed in the 3rd BMR completing the grid. I believe that is the first time all the driver lineups have been revealed before Media Day (okay its only a day before but still). I'm fine with Price getting another season, he showed flashes of promise even if he rarely got the results to back it up, particularly at Croft, Knockhill and Rockingham. In fact other than Sam Smelt and maybe Matt Simpson this is a very strong grid driver-wise, just replace Cole with Mat Jackson and Smelt with Whorton-Eales and it would be near perfect.

On another note, BMR have had to switch to the Swindon engines, rumour is Mountune dropped them for failing to pay for last seasons engines.

Move over Prost, Senna's a BTCC race winner!

Yeap that's right, Senna Proctor just won the craziest BTCC race you'll ever see. A wet/dry track, the front runners dropping like stones as their wet tyres overheated, and a bunch of lower midfielders gambling on slicks and coming up top trumps. Who'd have thought we'd have a podium consisting of Proctor, Jake Hill and Ollie Jackson? All three men are in tears.

Meanwhile, Matt Neal and Jason Plato need to hang up their helmets, they've looked like amateur plebs today.

Quote of the day over the circuit tannoy: "Senna, your mum is over there. SENNA, YOUR MUM IS OVER THERE!"

What a crazy second race. Three previous winners lead ans struggle to finish in top ten. And three drivers on the podium have zero previous podiums between them!

Senna first, Hill second. Is it 1993?

And Plato is defo now useless. Off the pace last year, nowhere this year.

BTCC race won by Senna, following race (F4) won by Ayrton. Wonder if there are some F1 fans amongst the fathers of these drivers?

And Billy Monger is being interviewed trackside by circuit commentator.

dr-baker wrote:And Plato is defo now useless. Off the pace last year, nowhere this year.

Oh, what sweet sounds to my ears.

takagi_for_the_win wrote:

dr-baker wrote:And Plato is defo now useless. Off the pace last year, nowhere this year.

Oh, what sweet sounds to my ears.

And what horrible sounds to the ears of everyone in his team who aren't half going to cop a load of it.

dinizintheoven wrote:

takagi_for_the_win wrote:

dr-baker wrote:And Plato is defo now useless. Off the pace last year, nowhere this year.

Oh, what sweet sounds to my ears.

And what horrible sounds to the ears of everyone in his team who aren't half going to cop a load of it.

Ash Sutton might be to differ?

So the main thing to take from Brands is, wet-dry races are the best kind of races.

My prediction for the championship, it should be between Goff, Ingram, Turkington and maybe Sutton if BMR can sort themselves out further into the championship. Jordan, Morgan and the TDRs should be outside contenders.

Infinite Improbability Award
The entire podium in race two, Bushell in race three, Simpson for finally getting top tens, Austin for getting the Alfa on the podium on its first weekend and Butcher for a surprisingly great race day in the MG. Also Moffat for somehow finishing fifth in race two with all that damage.

Rejects
Neal, Tordoff, Collard and especially Plato all had shockers, Plato started the season as he left off 2017, limp, lifeless and tooling around amongst the scrubs. Motorbase for splitting with Fat Jackson and Pirtek's new livery.

Matt Neal, at Thruxton, is showing he's not totally useless. Plato, however...

dr-baker wrote:Matt Neal, at Thruxton, is showing he's not totally useless. Plato, however...

Has been bad for Plato he has struggled with the Subaru. Surprised he stayed for this season. There does seem to be issues with BMR, Speculation that Plato wont be there for Oulton Park and that BMR wont see out the season.

Its been a bit of a strange start to BTCC this year, who the hell would have thought Chris Smiley would be in the top 10 in the championship

BTCC continues to be strange this year - Matt Simpson has just secured pole at Oulton Park having blitzed the field.

The top three in the championship are starting P19, P20 and P17 respectively, while Jason Plato continues to embarrass himself by qualifying P29.

The BTCC is at Croft today, where somehow the shithouse Subarus have locked out the front row of the grid. Meanwhile the Eurotech Hondas are 26th, 27th and 28th on the grid. These cars have been solid top 10 all year and suddenly they're nowhere while, coincidentally, the Subarus are suddenly frontrunners again. What the flying bathplug is Alan Gow playing at.

Ah well, could be worse. It could be WTCR where this happened in Villa Real yesterday, courtesy of Mehdi Bennani.

East Londoner wrote:The BTCC is at Croft today, where somehow the shithouse Subarus have locked out the front row of the grid. Meanwhile the Eurotech Hondas are 26th, 27th and 28th on the grid. These cars have been solid top 10 all year and suddenly they're nowhere while, coincidentally, the Subarus are suddenly frontrunners again. What the flying bathplug is Alan Gow playing at.
]

I had to look up how many points Plato scored before race 1 today. It was fewer than I thought. I assumed he must have scored at least one or two. He hadn't even scored that! IIDOTR for the Greek philosopher, given his performance this year?

BMR aero updates + a bit more boost + RWD friendly track + no ballast = BMR suddenly being fast again.

And the Civic has always run like crap at Croft, its usually their worst track.

AmD have done a Derek Palmer and sacked Boardman via social media. Wonder who the replacement will be.

https://www.autosport.com/btcc/news/137 ... fter-split

East Londoner wrote:The BTCC is at Croft today, where somehow the shithouse Subarus have locked out the front row of the grid. Meanwhile the Eurotech Hondas are 26th, 27th and 28th on the grid. These cars have been solid top 10 all year and suddenly they're nowhere while, coincidentally, the Subarus are suddenly frontrunners again. What the flying bathplug is Alan Gow playing at.

2nd year in a row that the Subarus have 'magically' become about 1000% better at a race meeting. And winning by a mile in the 2nd race with full ballast and being competitive once again in race 3 - also with full ballast - didn't look in any way dodgy, did it?

Samster wrote:AmD have done a Derek Palmer and sacked Boardman via social media. Wonder who the replacement will be.

https://www.autosport.com/btcc/news/137 ... fter-split

A slightly odd decision - OK, he hasn't scored a sackful of points and Rory Butcher is more consistent on that front, but he's leading the 'Forever Forward' standings which proves that he's not exactly a Josh Price or Stephen Jelley either. Oh, and let's not forget the terrible machinery that he's been driving.

Hill and Price have left as well now.

BTCC set to adopt hybrid technology from 2022: https://www.autosport.com/btcc/news/137 ... technology

It should be an optional alternative in my book, just as diesel and LPG were 10+ years ago, to control costs for those who can't afford it, but it looks like it will be compulsory.

Interesting....

Ricky Collard is set to make his BTCC debut for WSR at Rockingham this weekend subbing for Rob who has been ruled out of the next two meetings on medical grounds. If this turns out to be Rob's final season and Ricky replaces him full time next season then it wouldn't shock me. And Jordan, the other junior Collard is doing well in the Mini Challenge this season maybe we could see a Collard super-team in a couple of seasons.

Also returning is Glynn 'DUI' Geddie in the second AmD MG. I don't recal Geddie racing in anything since United Autosports sacked him from his previous stint in the series.

And the other debut driver is Ollie Pidgley for Gilham's merry-go-round. Pidgley has so far raced in F4, Clios and Minis and done bugger all in any of them so battling Sam Smelt for the wooden spoon awaits him.

I'm looking forward to be in the grandstand there tomorrow.

Cammish has to get a penalty, there was absolutely no way he was making that corner without wiping someone out.

I swear to bathplug god, if BMR end up winning this title.

Happy to see Colin Turkington ('Turkey' as I heard another spectator refer to him yesterday...) take the lead of the championship yesterday, and to see Ingram in second!

Well it looks like the writing is on the wall for Rockingham as its sale has officially gone through and it doesn't look like the new owners are interested in keeping it as a racing venue past this year. At best it will only be used for track days and festivals. Shame as for a 'roval' it was a pretty good layout. Honestly though I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did after ASCAR failed to take off and died a decade ago leaving the oval itself with very little action. I'm suprised the NASCAR Euro Series never tried to go here. In any case Rockingham's best days are certainly behind it.

Hopefully Lake Torrent will get a place on the BTCC calendar once its complete.

What I enjoyed about Rockingham is that from the grandstands, you could see 98% of the infield and 100% of the oval. And normally, the grandstands were unallocated seating (although seats were allocated for last weekend's BTCC event). Wish I had been to the Champ Car races there in around 2001. And whenever I have been to the Euro NASCAR at Brands Hatch on the Indy loop, I have always thought the Rockingham oval would have been better. Would have been better if Brooklands had still been an active oval alongside Rockingham. Still a travesty that not the whole oval has survived at Brooklands. Hope Rockingham doesn't go the same way.