BTCC discussion

[Hughesy 254]

This sounds like a great idea
https://twitter.com/dunlopbtcc/status/920665932762157056

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

Well, time to sell everything I own so that I can make it to this race. That sounds awesome! I can't wait for the 2018 BTCC season.

[MBKF1 91]

Oooh nice! Would love to go along to that. Snetterton is about 3 hours away from me, so it is doable!

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

Nothing like a full grid  :). This Championship is so amazing and every other series should take lessons from the BTCC. Best racing of 2017. I can't wait for 2018 and the 60th Anniversary race. :p

http://www.btcc.net/2017/12/01/maximum-capacity-entry-list-confirmed-for-btcc-2018/

[SmokingPuppy841 0]

Their have been loads of announcements at Autosport International this weekend including WSR staying with the same lineup as last year.

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

Man! It has been to long. The new season can't come soon enough.

[f1since08 60]

Bit of a shock! Shedden has left the BTCC to apparently go and race in TCR! Let's get Plato and Neal as teammates! :p

[MBKF1 91]

Sad to see Shedden go, he's always been one of my favourite 5 or so drivers. Oh my gosh, Plato and Neal as team mates would be better than any F1 team mate rivalry!

[SmokingPuppy841 0]

She'd den was my favourite so I'm a bit sad to say goodbye to the #52.Just to throw a spanner into the works Matt Simpson was ran by Dynamics last year so if the market has all closed up but we haven't been told he could be getting a shock promotion.

[Hughesy 254]

@RevolvingPrawn is going to be gutted that Shedden has left.

Plato is staying put where he is.

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

I'm glad Plato is staying in the Subaru. I hope he has a better season this year.

[breezyskells22 17]

we now know who teaming up with Matt Neal and that is Dan Cammish

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

Hello everyone. I haven’t heard much from this thread in a while. What did you think of the first 3 races? I thought they were really exciting! The results were so different between the 3 races it was awesome! Really good racing as usual.

[MBKF1 91]

Watched all of them, and yep, in typical BTCC style, they were all brilliant! Race 2 in particular... what a brilliant decision by the guys at the back to start on the slicks. I loved the moment when Tim Harvey said, while in about 12th place, 'Aiden Moffat is going to win this race', and then he went off and had a moment!

Last year and this year we're definitely seeing a shift of power in the drivers. The old classics like Plato, Neal and Collard are starting to fall behind the new young guns like Ingram, Goff, Morgan and Sutton. And then you have another wave of true youngsters like Moffat, Hill and Proctor who are starting to come through too.

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

Ya, it’s all awesome! I also watched the opening races for the “new” WTCR. The cars looks have improved a lot. The races had exciting moments but nothing like the BTCC. The WTCR had done a lot of work to help with overtaking but why do they keep the opening round on a track that is kind of boring? It doesn’t make sense to me.

[breezyskells22 17]

I just wish Race 3 did nit clash with the F1 race at Bahrain

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

Wow, this hasn't been touched in long time. Where is everyone? Croft was absolutely amazing!!! So much action and to my delight it looks like Subaru has finally turned up to the party. I loved watching Ash take wins in race 1 and 2 (sad for Jason, he could have been up there). Then in race 3 he gets taken off the track and still finishes 7th with 75kg! Just awesome.

[SmokingPuppy841 0]

Everyone's opinions on Knockhill?

I thought it was great racing personally,but not the best for the title fight.

[MBKF1 91]

Great racing! Gutted that Ingram had a tough weekend though. He's the one I'm rooting for as my mum is good friends with his main sponsor, and I'm really pleased because they've invited me and my mate to go into the garage at the next round at Silverstone. I was going anyway just as a fan, but my mum mentioned to her that I was going and they said we could come and meet the team and have a look round the garage, so that will be brilliant!

[Hughesy 254]

Well hopefully @RevolvingPrawn and I can witness Turkington get smashed out. Never felt so many eyes on us when we started cheering and everyone around us were Turkington fans. It would be like if you went to a football match and sat in with the other teams fans. Was hilarious though.

[Hughesy 254]

The hype is real @RevolvingPrawn ! I went to sleep at 3am this morning as I was playing Fortnite with mg girl for 5 hours, yet still woke up at 7am due to excitement. At least this will mean I go to sleep early tonight.
Tonight I'll go to bed dreaming that Turkington bins it in every race aha.

[MBKF1 91]

Hope you both had a great day yesterday @RevolvingPrawn and @Hughesy! Like you guys, I was really hoping Turkington would have some bad races!

I was lucky enough to be invited into Tom Ingram's garage in the morning straight after the pit walk. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but my mum is friends with one of his sponsors, hence the invite!

The whole team were so friendly, and Tom came and spoke to me for a few minutes before he had to go off and do his media commitments, but what a true gent. Racing drivers can often come across as a bit rude or standoff-ish, but he was so friendly and genuinely interested in what I was talking about.

The whole team are just wonderful. There's only 8 of them in the whole team, a privateer entry, and they run just that one car, so it's incredible how competitive they are compared to the enormous WSR BMW team (who have about 10 people for each car over there!) I've always supported Tom as he's local to us, but meeting him and the team just brought a whole new level of respect to what they do.

We were told in the garage that he'd struggle in Race 1 due to carrying the championship ballast, and running the harder tyre, but were hoping he'd charge through in Race 2 with no ballast and the soft tyres, and that's exactly what happened. We were cheering so much when he was overtaking everyone and taking the lead!

Race 3 was a bit more tense... we were hoping Austin could keep Turkington behind but that pesky Turkington... always there and lurking, and he went side by side with Ingram through the last couple of corners! Thank goodness he kept him behind.

34 points behind going into Brands Hatch, so he's got to hope to win at least 2 of the races and score big in the other, and hope Turkington runs into some trouble. But I believe in the team, COME ON!!!

[Hughesy 254]

It was a great day. The only issue we had was cars kept running wide where we were, spraying dust at us and it wasn't nice because it seemed to stick to your eyeballs lol.

Ingram drove out of his skin, think it was race 2 where he was like a machine.

Every time Turkington was near other cars I was hoping he'd get rammed. He's going to need a terrible weekend to lose the championship now.

The drive home was a nightmare, because it avoided motorways most of the way so there must have been an accident. I hope there was anyway, because the B roads were a nightmare, thin, tight corners and bumpy. Most were at national speed limit but I couldn't on those roads, the worst part was when we went over a small bridge. If I was going 60mph we would have taken off and got air, I was only doing 30mph and wasn't expecting it, but the steering went super light so I think the fronts came off the ground slightly.

Then after dropping Dave off my e cig ran out of batteries with no way to charge it. It's a 45min drive home but I did it in less time as the M5 was empty at that point.

[f1since08 60]

I remember some of the roads from Whittleburry Park to Silverstone when I was at Formula Student, national speed limit but we were doing 80  :D 

[Hughesy 254]

Trust me, the roads we we were on if you did 80 you would be dead. There was one corner that suddenly shrank into a single lane and a van was there, if I was going fast it would have been a head on collision. We actually seen a car that was smashed to hell, so was probably going to fast or another car was going to fast and caused it.
There were roads that looked totally flat and then suddenly it nearly launches you into the air, never been on a road like it.