2008 British Touring Car Championship

Bell happy after Astra debut

Martyn Bell enjoyed a solid debut for his new Arkas Racing with Sunshine.co.uk team at Brands Hatch as the 2008 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season kicked off at the Kent circuit.
The weekend marked the first time that Martyn has raced using front-wheel drive after spending his entire car racing career running in rear-wheel drive BMWs and he went into the season opener looking to continue his education with the Tech-Speed run Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch.


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Unfortunately for Martyn, qualifying didn't go to plan when he was caught out by tricky damp conditions at Paddock Hill Bend and went off into the gravel trap, which left him 24th on the grid for the opening race. His luck didn't improve when the race got underway, when rival Alan Taylor suffered a spin coming out of Graham Hill Bend and collected the Astra, putting Martyn into retirement.

However, from the back of the field for race two, Martyn came through to finish 17th, right behind team-mate Erkut Kizilirmak, and then finished one place higher in race three, with his fastest race lap being barely a second slower than defending champion Fabrizio Giovanardi.

"It's no secret that I've been ill and I'm still not feeling 100 per cent, but I'm getting used to the car now and I'm happy with how it's gone," Martyn said afterwards. "Practice on Saturday went ok for us, but we got it wrong in qualifying. I didn't come in when I should and we paid the price. In the first race, Taylor wiped me out but I don't have a problem with it as there was nothing else he could have done; it's just one of those things and he apologised afterwards.

"In race two, I got into the groove a bit and went formation flying with the boss and then in the last race we made a change to the car and it took a second a lap off my times. That is the first time I've made any real changes to the car so it's given me confidence going forward that I can make a change and it will do something.

"The object this weekend was to run close to Erkut and to get into the 50secs on the lap-times, so I'm going back to Lincolnshire a happy man as we did that. Now we can go to Rockingham looking to move forward and try to get towards the top ten, as to get into the points for an Independent team like ours is almost as good as a podium."

(TouringCarTimes.com)
 
Jamie @ Brands Hatch (Rounds 1-3)

Finally, I've been to a race meeting. Brands is pretty much (i.e. not counting Arlington, a tiny oval used for banger racing that I went to once) the first track I've ever been to, and man I enjoyed it.

I've done hundreds of laps around Brands in R07 but to be walking closer and closer to the track from the car park and seeing little bits of the track from funny angles in doing so is mighty strange. Once I got 'in' it was incredible to see it laid out in front of me; just as if I was in free-cam mode.

Nothing says 'Welcome to British Motorsport' more than a healthy dose of this stuff all over your shoes (and this was only 9:30am!)

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Thankfully it was 'fresh' mud, not the nastier kind, and Brands was actually much cleaner and tidier than I expected after hearing so much about the state of the country's racing circuits.

We (myself, my brother, and a friend of ours rather into photography) set ourselves up on the outside of the Druids exit, just after where the green painted concrete strip after the curb ends - there's a little hill you can stand on a little bit back from the fence, where you can get good over-the-fence shots of people late-apexing at druids itself. Not a bad view of the first bit of Paddock either, and Graham Hill bend if you turn around.

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I should point out that I'm not particularly good at this whole photography thing, but you'll see that I started the day as a noob and ended up being 'not shabby'. I was still screwing around with the settings for the first couple of races.

Apart from the Doctor's car ("scrreeeeeeeeeeeeecch!" Perhaps there should be a 'Formula Doctor'), the first racing of the day was the Formula Renaults. The first thing that struck me was the sound, or perhaps I should say, the *sound!*. Most of the cars on the day made the sort of noises that make your whole body vibrate and your hairs stand on end, and for the first couple of minutes I was completely dumbstruck by just how ****ing awesome it was to be standing there, hearing and feeling everything bellow, pop, and roar past.

It was starting to get a bit chilly and there were some rather ominous clouds about, while the Doctor tested the adhesion properties of his tyres:

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On the first or second lap of the morning Formula Renault race (which wasn't televised in the ITV4 broadcast unfortunately), one of the cars ran wide onto the green painted strip and span, ending up stationary facing the wrong way with most of the field bearing down on him. Unfortunately I only got the start of it - my instinct as a non-photographer was to go "woah!" and look with my eyes rather than with the viewfinder :p. I apologise for positioning myself in such a way that I got some bloke's bonce right in the way.

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These made a cool noise too. And one of them was the most orange car I've ever seen:

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Now, these make a sound - The pop you get from the back of a touring car when it changes gear is really .. quite loud, and when you get a field of about 30 going past you at once (and a Lexus that went "vrrRRROOOOWWWAAARRRRR POP gurglegurgle POPPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPPOPOPOP vrRRWOOAAAR POP GURGLEGURGLE" because it was broken), it's really breathtaking. The old style Honda Civic of Michael Doyle was the best sounding though, with a very raspy ROOOAAAAR each time it went past; I think I'll have to wait until the E46s show up to beat that. Images:

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Matt Neal was pushed over the curb on the exit, throwing the front end of the car in the air which ripped the front left bit of the splitter off on landing. I didn't get a shot of it ("WooooooaaaaAAAH! *thunk* "Ahah, wow!" syndrome) but I did shots of the damage...

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After a footlong (... hot dog) we headed around to the other end of the circuit for the afternoon. There's a little bit in the corner of Clark/Clearways where it meets the GP track with no catch fencing which seems to magnetically attract photographers, so we set up there:

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Back to the racing:
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I guess the best views are on this thing:
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One of the Motorbase cars had a bit of an escape on the formation lap:
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The Vauxhall boys having a bit of a moment amongst themselves:
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There were plenty of these during the day:
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Bit smoky over there. Later it emerged that one of the Motorbase BMWs had scraped backwards along the pit wall:
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Tim Harvey, 1992 BTCC champion, and ITV co-commentator doesn't restrict himself to the commentary box:
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This'll be expensive:
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Unfortunately I fell into the trap of attaching myself too much to the camera and not actually watching what was happening, so next time I'll borrow a 1080p camcorder one of my friends has :p.

After all that, we headed back to the car park and promptly got absolutely wedged in the mud...

Only in Britain will you find marshalls that after all the hard work they do all day, run out to the car parks to help people out, screaming the A-Team theme tune as they run to each one. :D

I know a few guys here on the forum are going for the WTCC in July; I can now confirm that I'll be meeting you there. :)
 
Impressive coverage Jamie, looks like a great event. I watched it on streaming webcast and it was exciting. I know from my trip to the WTCC Brands event how uebercool real touring cars sounds. It is just awesome ain't it :)?

Thanks for sharing those great pictures
 
I need to find out when the WTCC is and see if I'm working because I would love to go. Brands is also such a fantastic track to view from, plus I've got a new camera that really needs using.

Excellent Pics by the way. A full days action for very little money :)

Edit: Just me luck, I'm not working on the Saturday but I am on Sunday. Maybe next year
 
Great post Jamie, I really enjoyed reading it. I particularly like the sound effects (kept turning up the volume but it didn't make much difference).

The photo's are pretty special, you were certainly getting the hang of it.

We used to get TV coverage of the BTCC many years ago in Australia (it's what got me interested in Touring Cars) but sadly no more.
 
Jamie, if you really enjoyed this meeting... you need to go to the DTM at brands :D nothing sounds like the DTM cars... they shake the ground when they go past :circuitzolder:
 
Awesome! Ive not been to a race this year yet but im getting ready for a good season!
I know a few guys here on the forum are going for the WTCC in July; I can now confirm that I'll be meeting you there.
Fantastic!!! I will see you there chap, its a bit of a drive for me (144 miles) WTCC is going to be great!

As for the photos, top quality stuff, I hope you dont mind but they are going in my race car images folder :)
 
  • Andy Marsden

Really nice pics mate, catches the atmosphere for sure! Brings back memories of Oulton Park when I went there in 2002....standing down at Kinickerbrook as Matt Neal decided to play 'ram the armco' with his egg Astra!
Should be going again this July so I will make sure to take my camera and get some pics for you all :D

Andy
 
  • Wido Rossen

Quali Results Rockingham

1 52 I Gordon Shedden Honda Civic 1m24.327s 16
2 4 Matt Neal Vauxhall Vectra 1m24.554s 16 +0.227s
3 21 I Adam Jones SEAT Leon 1m24.654s 15 +0.327s
4 12 Darren Turner SEAT Leon TDi 1m24.662s 14 +0.335s
5 11 Jason Plato SEAT Leon TDi 1m24.760s 15 +0.433s
6 10 Tom Onslow-Cole Vauxhall Vectra 1m24.770s 14 +0.443s
7 5 I Colin Turkington BMW 320si E90 1m24.804s 15 +0.477s
8 9 I Tom Chilton Honda Civic 1m24.869s 16 +0.542s
9 7 I Mat Jackson BMW 320si E90 1m24.981s 11 +0.654s
10 1 Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall Vectra 1m25.019s 14 +0.692s
11 24 I Steven Kane BMW 320si E90 1m25.091s 13 +0.764s
12 77 I Mike Jordan Honda Integra 1m25.104s 9 +0.777s
13 50 I Stephen Jelley BMW 320si E90 1m25.405s 14 +1.078s
14 26 I Matt Allison Chevrolet Lacetti 1m25.441s 14 +1.114s
15 78 I Andrew Jordan Honda Integra 1m25.732s 15 +1.405s
16 25 I Robert Collard BMW 320si E90 1m26.172s 15 +1.845s
17 16 I Harry Vaulkhard Chevrolet Lacetti 1m26.459s 14 +2.132s
18 55 I John George Honda Integra 1m26.485s 14 +2.158s
19 28 I Jason Hughes Honda Integra 1m26.648s 15 +2.321s
20 15 I Martyn Bell Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch 1m27.211s 15 +2.884s
21 90 I Erkut Kizilirmak Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch 1m27.596s 14 +3.269s
22 32 I Alan Taylor Honda Integra 1m27.827s 15 +3.500s
23 42 I Stuart Oliver Lexus IS200 1m29.377s 17 +5.050s
 

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