BTCC 2004 - Croft Race 18 Results Up

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 22 Mar 2013, 17:51

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
takagi_for_the_win wrote:
BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Maybe if Jordan was less rubbish that wouldn't have happened!?
Running solid midfield in a 2-year old car is hardly rubbish I'm sure he'd whup Turk's arse given equal equipment

Oh yeah? I'd be willing to arrange for Jordan to drive one of our SEAT's in a test to settle this little rivalry...

Your on mate

Although Mike has a dicky hip y'know, and doesn't like SEAT's, and is afraid of Northern Irish people, and...

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 25 Mar 2013, 18:32

Oulton Park Saturday Race 10 Results

AKA, the crash fest edition. Seriously no less than six safety cars! Not fun to sit through when you are driving one of the cars yourself. :evil:

Still at least it gave the field a chance to mix up as nearly everyone pitted during the first SC so it was partially decided by who has the fastest pit crew. Plus as an added bonus, James Thompson finally falls foul of some awful luck.

So at the start, Matt Neal manages to get around Jason Plato through Old Hall and takes the lead. A few laps later Dan Eaves makes a pit stop, likely unscheduled as its still a few laps short of being able to make the finish from there. We manage to get through six laps cleanly until Colin Turkington and James Thompson collide at Old Hall, the SEAT attempted to pass the Honda only to spin Thompson into the barriers. The safety car is called out and everyone except Eaves and Sam Hempsall (me) decides to take their only stop of the race. This results in me getting to lead from Eaves.

Jason Plato managed to win the battle of the pitstops with Fabrizio Giovanardi jumping to 2nd ahead of Matt Neal, Alain Menu and James Kaye who improves on an already great qualifying result with a good pitstop. On the other hand, Tom Chilton and the Vauxhall pair of Warren Hughes and Robert Huff have poor stops and drop through the order. Thompson meanwhile manages to rejoin at the back without going a lap down though he would be off the pace for the rest of the race.

On the restart, Hempsall immediately plummeted like a rock down the order while Plato managed to sneak past Eaves for the lead where he would stay for the rest of the race. A couple of laps later though, Satoshi Motoyama in the second works Civic was pitched into the wall at Druids while attempting to pass Hempsall. The safety car was called out again while Motoyama managed to rejoin and suffer the same fate as his teammate. Eaves took his pitstop and dropped back to the tail end of the field.

On the second restart trouble began again immediately as Robert Collard looses control of his BMW coming out of Old Hall and tags Tom Chilton's SEAT. The pair bounce off the outside barriers and back into the following pack. Collard takes out Andy Neate who in turn spins out Gavin Smith who is then rear ended by Mat Jackson. Collard is out on the spot while Jackson managed to drag his SEAT back to the garage despite a mangled front end. Neate, Smith and Chilton would all require repairs in the pits but manage to continue on.

Yet again, we don't even complete a lap before the SC is needed again. This time Warren Hughes drop kicks David Pinkney into the gravel at Lodge Corner leaving his MG stuck in the kitty litter causing Pinkney to loose a lap. Then the next restart saw John George spun around by Mark Larkham though the Island Bend. George's Astra takes a bite out of the barriers on both sides of the track and someone avoids being collected. Unfortunately he wouldn't be so lucky after the next restart as just ahead of him, Gavin Smith looses control and whacks the barrier at Druids, bouncing his Astra back onto the track into the path of his teammate. Both Smith and George are out on the spot and to add insult to Tech-Speed's injury, Menu drops out a lap later with a piston failure.

Thankfully that would be the last of the many SC periods as the field finally managed to behave itself for the final 8 laps. Well besides Huff spinning around Hempsall through the Dear Leep before the restart (bastard!), earning himself a drive through. Plato lead the restart, closely followed for the rest of the race by Giovanardi and Neal. James Kaye restarted 4th from the Synchro pair of David Leslie and Alex Wurz from Anthony Reid and Turkington. The Proton pair of Gareth Howell and Gavin Pyper rounded out the top 10. Kaye impressively held on to 4th as Reid only gets by Leslie for 5th on the final lap while Turkington gets up to 7th. Carl Breeze scores a good result for GA by knocking Pyper out of the top 10 with a few laps left.

With huge damage to both cars, the Tech-Speed pair of Gavin Smith and John George will have to sit out Sunday's race. And spare a thought for poor Mat Jackson who not only looks likely to miss the Sunday BTCC race but also his own Development Series race where he has a championship lead to defend. Part of the risk of competing as a wildcard.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 25 Mar 2013, 19:41

Well, that's it for wildcard appearances for Jackson.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 25 Mar 2013, 19:58

I think I am going to cry.

Tech-Speed has the worst luck in BTCC this year. Absolutely awful luck. We cannot catch a break. Menu has retired from the lead more than once I believe, he has retired at other times, our other cars fail to finish all the time...getting rid of the Astras at the end of the year at this rate!

FloProAct · Post by **FloProAct** » 25 Mar 2013, 20:18

Good to see the pace of the Protons steadily increasing across the season: I can see us hopefully getting a podium this year, and Jackson potentially screwing over his BTCDS campaign is just the icing on the cake... :twisted:

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 25 Mar 2013, 21:28

FloProAct wrote:Good to see the pace of the Protons steadily increasing across the season: I can see us hopefully getting a podium this year, and Jackson potentially screwing over his BTCDS campaign is just the icing on the cake...

Jackson's been top 4 every race he's started - even with this, Blencowe will still be hard pressed to be him.

FloProAct · Post by **FloProAct** » 25 Mar 2013, 22:45

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
FloProAct wrote:Good to see the pace of the Protons steadily increasing across the season: I can see us hopefully getting a podium this year, and Jackson potentially screwing over his BTCDS campaign is just the icing on the cake...

Jackson's been top 4 every race he's started - even with this, Blencowe will still be hard pressed to be him.

Oh, I'm aware, but this development will hopefully mean his championship challenge will last a bit longer - besides, we're not even halfway through the season yet: more than enough time for things to change...

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 26 Mar 2013, 14:09

Huzzah! Another decent race for Mike

it would appear that Pinkney is not up to much, but seeing as he pays the bills, I can't complain really.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 31 Mar 2013, 22:25

BTCC Oulton Park Sunday Race 11 Qualifying Results

Dan Eaves takes his second pole of the season, will he finally turn his luck around and at least make the podium in the up coming 250 km race. Robert Huff lines up alongside while Jason Plato and Matt Neal make it four different cars in the top 4. James Thompson again struggles in qualifying but so does Warren Hughes, one of his main championship rivals.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 31 Mar 2013, 22:53

Jordan in 13th, get in!

BCS, what was that about him being crap? :lol:

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 31 Mar 2013, 22:55

takagi_for_the_win wrote:Jordan in 13th, get in! BCS, what was that about him being crap?

I didn't say he was crap, just not good enough to get the hell out of Turkington's way.

HonoraryNortherner · Post by **HonoraryNortherner** » 31 Mar 2013, 23:12

All in the top 15, can't argue with that. Fingers crossed Hines doesn't hit anything, he could be on course for a good result. Hopefully.

FloProAct · Post by **FloProAct** » 01 Apr 2013, 11:51

Back to earth with a bump...

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 02 Apr 2013, 15:40

BTCC Oulton Park Sunday Race 11 Results

Finally, the field have learnt how not to collide with each other at Oulton Park. Only one safety car, sadly for Dan Eaves' stricken MG after he broke his wheel bearing on the curb at Druids having managed to lead from pole for the first 29 laps despite having Jason Plato, Matt Neal and Fabrizio Giovanardi all over him the entire time. Eaves just cannot catch a break this season, the second time he's qualified on pole only to retire in the race. He is now down in 24th in points.

So the first half of the race saw great, close, clean racing throughout the field, the top 11 remained within 10 seconds throughout. The order of the group just before Eaves' DNF was Eaves, Plato, Neal, Giovanardi, Robert Huff, Colin Turkington, Alain Menu, Warren Hughes, James Thompson, Anthony Reid and Tom Chilton. Since everyone had opted for a one stop strategy, the safety car had come at the exact right moment, yet Hughes, Thompson, Reid and Chilton made the odd choice of staying out until their tank was near empty a few laps after the restart. This would drop them down into the midfield where they were unable to make much progress through the field.

After those four finally came in for their stops, Plato was the leader from the SEATs of Neal and Turkington, then the Vauxhalls of Giovanardi and Huff, then Satoshi Motoyama who gains positions thanks to a great pitstop, then Menu, Darren Turner, Luke Hines and Mike Jordan rounded out the top ten. But it wasn't long until Plato fell victim to a puncture which dropped him to the tail end of the lead lap in 24th. Therefore Neal and Turkington would take over a 1-2 which they would maintain for the remainder of the race from Giovanardi. The battle for 4th was a different story as Huff who had been struggling for race pace all day was holding up Menu, Motoyama and Turner. On lap 44, Huff ran wide coming out of Shell Oil Hairpin and dropped to 7th but tried to fight back on Motoyama the next lap at Old Hall only to cause the Honda driver to spin around and drop to 8th. Turner would eventually win out the battle for 4th by sneaking past Menu on the final lap.

Luke Hines managed his best result to date with a 7th to complete a good weekend for Team Dynamics despite Plato loosing out on taking a possible double victory. Further back Mike Jordan held on to take 9th despite eventually heading a train of cars which went back to David Leslie down in 18th! Chilton was the winner of those on the wrong strategy just edging out Thompson for 11th while Warren Hughes tripped over the lapped Lexus of Sam Hempsall, the Lexus having to pull off the track a little further while Hughes pulled into the VX garage with suspension damage a few laps later.

The Protons went back to reality today as James Kaye and Gareth Howell came 14th and 16th, though Howell ran as high as 10th before being forced wide by the Hughes/Hempsall collision which dropped him to the back of the Jordan train. Meanwhile Gavin Pyper struggled in the second stint as he found himself stuck behind Mark Larkham. Synchro were another team that scored big on Saturday only to run in the lower midfield all day Sunday, only 18th and 19th for David Leslie and Alex Wurz. Finally Robert Collard deserves a mention for his second top ten of the season making a good comeback from his Saturday DNF.

So despite still yet to take a win, Giovanardi is now within 50 points of Thompson's championship lead while Neal is up to 4th just one point behind Hughes, his teammate Turkington is up to 7th after a great weekend for SEAT.

You may now make requests for upgrades for Mondello Park, our final meeting before the summer endurance season.

FloProAct · Post by **FloProAct** » 02 Apr 2013, 15:50

Meh. Small reliability upgrade for Proton please.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 02 Apr 2013, 16:22

Excellent. That's more like it - if Neal and Turkington keep driving like that they'll keep their seats for sure. I'll leave upgrading the car for a bit and see how this form continues at Mondello Park. Probably not as good as this, but solid top 10's would be nice.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 02 Apr 2013, 16:25

Another day, another mediocre points haul for Tech-Speed. Smith being out of the action all weekend hurts...

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 02 Apr 2013, 16:56

Small speed upgrade please.

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 02 Apr 2013, 17:41

Is it possible to make the car more reliable

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 02 Apr 2013, 17:59

andrew wrote:Is it possible to make the car more reliable

Yes you just request a reliability upgrade.

Categories are Aero, Engine, Chassis and Reliability.

FMecha wrote:Small speed upgrade please.

You sure, your over £200K in debt already?

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 02 Apr 2013, 19:54

medium Reliability upgrade

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 02 Apr 2013, 20:29

Wonderful race by Jordan, capitalising on the misfortune and mistakes by others and then resisting the huge pressure he was under from those 8 cars, if he carries on like this, he'll be driving for me next year. Pinkney again doing nothing of any interest unfortunately however. Could we have a small aero upgrade?

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 02 Apr 2013, 21:09

Tech-Speed will take a small Chassis and Reliability upgrade each.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 04 Apr 2013, 18:07

Mondello Park Preview

Entry List - 30 Cars

Schedule

Friday
Race 12 Qualifying

Saturday
Race 12 (200 km, 58 laps)

Saturday
Race 13 Qualifying
Race 13 (200 km, 58 laps)

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 04 Apr 2013, 19:01

BTCC Mondello Park Saturday Race 12 Qualifying

Colin Turkington dominates qualifying and takes SEAT's first ever pole position in the BTCC. Fabrizio Giovanardi leads the Vauxhalls in second. Charlie Butler-Henderson impresses by dragging the oldest car on the grid into seventh on the grid while the Honda Civics all struggle, especially the works Civics who are both behind all three Dynamics Civics, surprisingly lead by Luke Hines. James Thompson looks likely to loose a large chunk of his points lead if he doesn't improve from 15th in the race.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 06 Apr 2013, 17:35

BTCC Mondello Park Saturday Race 12 Results

Mondello Park proved very difficult to overtake on as even lapped cars took quite some time to overtake. Colin Turkington lead the whole way, being helped by Anthony Reid getting the jump on Fabrizio Giovanardi at the start and keeping the Vauxhalls at bay for the first stint. Nick Leason brought out the races' only safety car by spinning off into the gravel at Devaney's. Everyone took the opportunity to take their first pitstops where Giovanardi got the better of Reid to take over 2nd.

Turkington and Giovanardi spent the rest of the race, closely battling though there would never be a serious opportunity for the Italian to get past. Reid remained in third with Warren Hughes and Alain Menu right behind until the second round of stops came by with a dozen laps remaining. Hughes gained third in the pitlane while Menu got by on track a lap later. Jason Plato also managed to gain a few positions thanks to good pitstops and he would end up beating out Matt Neal and Dan Eaves for 6th, Eaves finally getting in a completely clean race to record his best finish of the season despite a mid-race assault from behind from Robert Huff as the Vauxhall driver out braked himself at Dunlop, tearing up the front of his car.

GA Motorsports had a strong race as their gamble on pushing ahead with development despite currently being over budget. Charlie Butler-Henderson spent the entire race in the top ten, eventually coming home a career best 10th while Carl Breeze was solid in 12th, just fending off James Thompson, the works Hondas really look in trouble now as not only have they been overhauled by the other front running teams but here they have slid into the midfield. Not helping by a circuit that proved difficult to overtake on. Thompson will have to hope for a better qualifying session for Sunday's race.

Gareth Howell took a solid 11th for Proton, splitting the GA cars and well ahead of James Kaye while Gavin Pyper suffered a mechanical failure. Mark Larkham saw his best race so far with a great run to 16th, doing well to fend off a recovering Huff. Meanwhile like Huff, Luke Hines and Tom Chilton also had to make extra stops from damaging their cars.

So Thompson's lead is now down to 22 points over Giovanardi who still hasn't won a race yet despite now having seven podiums. Turkington jumps up to sixth in the title race after his second win of the season while Huff is down to seventh. Third through seventh are now split by 35 points.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 06 Apr 2013, 17:42

That race couldn't have gone much better. Hopefully both Colin and Matt can keep this form up.

FloProAct · Post by **FloProAct** » 06 Apr 2013, 18:18

Happy with Howell in 11th: That's his second best result this year, but annoyed about that suspension failure, as that's our first retirement since Thruxton, and drops us to 9th in the teams, and last in the highly-important battle for sixth...

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 06 Apr 2013, 18:34

200k in debt? :oops:

Fine, I will stop upgrading from this moment on.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 06 Apr 2013, 19:57

Waheey, both cars in the top 20! Maybe my constant Pinkney-bashing is having some effect? :lol:

WaffleCat · Post by **WaffleCat** » 06 Apr 2013, 22:53

Synchro Motorsport will finally invest in an upgrade,going for a small aero upgrade.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 06 Apr 2013, 22:58

Even at his age, Larko's still got it :mrgreen:

Just out of curiosity, what is the grid size for Spa and Cadwell?

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 07 Apr 2013, 07:14

Medium upgrades on chassis and engine power, please.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 07 Apr 2013, 07:38

Small upgrade on everything but Reliability. (The car is reliable enough atm)

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 07 Apr 2013, 10:08

Menu's luck surely has to turn around at the enduros. I can't think of a better pairing than Menu/Aïello. Although to be fair, Neal/Rydell is a very strong duo as well.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 07 Apr 2013, 12:07

Wizzie wrote:Even at his age, Larko's still got it

Just out of curiosity, what is the grid size for Spa and Cadwell?

At the moment, 31 for Spa. Cadwell will have a grid limit of 42 with 50+ entries. All wildcards will have to go through pre-qualifying on Friday with all full time entries being garentee'd a start. By the way, I've decided to allow your main drivers to pair up in the same car if you wish, so if you want to take that route then let me know here.

No upgrades will be made until after Mondello's Sunday race.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 07 Apr 2013, 12:09

Stramala wrote:Menu's luck surely has to turn around at the enduros. I can't think of a better pairing than Menu/Aïello. Although to be fair, Neal/Rydell is a very strong duo as well.

Muller and Tarquini will be pairing up for Alfa too, they will be strong as should Dirk/Jorg Muller for BMW.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 07 Apr 2013, 14:32

Stramala wrote:Menu's luck surely has to turn around at the enduros. I can't think of a better pairing than Menu/Aïello. Although to be fair, Neal/Rydell is a very strong duo as well.

Yeah, it's a shame Rydell was in BTCC for the few seasons that he was, that pairing would have a good chance of podiums in all 3 enduros, and securing 2nd in the Team's Championship. van de Poele shouldn't be too bad either, hopefully...

Samster wrote:By the way, I've decided to allow your main drivers to pair up in the same car if you wish, so if you want to take that route then let me know here.

That's absolutely excellent. In a few years, the field will tremble as the Turkington/Jackson pairing walks away with every enduro they can! :twisted:

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 07 Apr 2013, 22:20

BTCC Mondello Park Sunday Race 13 Qualifying Results

Fabrizio Giovanardi takes pole position, can he finally take his first BTCC win? Anthony Reid will line up alongside with his best qualifying performance since Cardiff while the works Hondas seem to have finally got their act together again as James Thompson lines up third and even Satoshi Motoyama makes the top ten for the first time.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 18 Apr 2013, 22:46

BTCC Mondello Park Sunday Race 13 Results

Fabrizio Giovanardi takes his first BTCC win after dominating the entire race. He immediately pulled away from Anthony Reid in 2nd, only interrupted by the one safety caused by a collision between Gareth Howell and Charlie Butler-Henderson which left the latter having to be towed out of the gravel. Reid on the other hand suffered an awful race. First suffering a puncture in the early laps which dropped him to the back of the field, then about halfway through the race a mechanical issue consigned him to the garage for two laps. Finally in the closing stages he was punted off into a barrier by Butler-Henderson as the pair battled over the wooden spoon.

In the other WSR MG, Dan Eaves had by far his best race which resulted in him ending up in second after several drivers ahead ran into troubles. Robert Huff outbraked himself and rear ended his teammate Warren Hughes, Huff would have to retire his car in the garage on the following lap while Hughes would have to make an extra stop a few laps later. James Thompson had a similar collision with Matt Neal where only the Honda driver would be delayed by having to make a stop for repairs. Tom Chilton also benefited from these incidents and wound up on the podium. Neal on the other hand having spent the first half of the race in second ended up loosing out on a few positions thanks to being boxed in by back-markers during the second half.

The safety car period came at the exact wrong time in the race for a few midfield drivers who had made their pitstop just before. Carl Breeze and the Proton pair of Gavin Pyper and Gareth Howell ended up stuck a lap down while their rivals all got to pit under the SC. Finally a shout out is deserved for Alex Wurz and Robert Collard who achieved their best results of the season in 7th and 9th respectively, thanks in part due to faster cars hitting troubles.

The endurance season will begin next so request your upgrades now. I still need to know who will be Collard's co-driver. Also for the Cadwell 1000, your main drivers may pair up in the same car if you wish, so if you want to use that strategy let me know now. This won't apply for the Spa 500 which will feature a format similar to that of the Sandown 500 where both the main drivers and co-drivers will each get their own qualifying race to decide the grid for the main race. These two races won't count towards the title but prize money will still be offered.

On a side note I'm heading into exam season so expect the pace of the series to slow down over the next few weeks. I may get the Spa 500 in during that time but the Cadwell 1000 certainly won't be run till after May 10th.