2011 British Touring Car Championship

[Ben Buitendijk]

I think most people come here for simracing instead of motorsport news....

 

[Zeynel Babacan]

here is a video:

 

[Lee Palmer]

:O You were at Craner? Thats where I was didn't spot you though. Was a great event.

 

[James Fellows]

I think that's being harsh on Shedden. Despite his questionable driving so far this season, they were all bunching up pretty badly there and he had his brakes on when he hit Griffin.

I also remember you doing the same thing to me at Watkins Glen, so no one is perfect right?

 

[Chris Butcher]

Ahaaaa As if you remember that.

The thing is Shedden could see what was going on in front of him. He could've easily anticipated that. Plato and Griffins managed to negotiate the T1 chaos without any contact at all. Shedden has been in the sport long enough to know he shouldn't be doing that

 

[Nick Deeley]

Donington Park played host to Round 2 of the BTCC with 3 very action packed and closely fought races on hot sunny weather on race day.

‘Locals’ Matt Neal, Andrew Jordan and Mat Jackson shared the wins in today’s three highly-dramatic Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races on their home circuit of Donington Park in which defending Champion Jason Plato suffered a high-speed crash. But leaving the Leicestershire venue it is rising star James Nash who sensationally leads the points standings as the UK’s premier motor racing series now heads south to the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire for its next exhilarating round on Sunday 1 May.

Having achieved a second straight pole position on Saturday with another new qualifying lap record, Droitwich’s Neal went on to win today’s first race – his second victory in a row – in his turbocharged Team Honda Racing Civic. He also set a new race lap record. Second and third were the Vauxhall Vectras of Pirtek Racing’s Jordan and 888 Racing with Collins Contractors’ Nash.

In race two it was Lichfield racer Jordan’s turn to take victory ahead of Nash and Neal. But the race’s big talking point was Plato’s crash, his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze running off the track at an estimated 120mph before striking a barrier and rolling three times. Plato was unharmed but it seemed his day was done…

Warwickshire’s Jackson then avoided a pile-up ahead of him in race three to come through for his and his Airwaves Racing’s first victory with its new Ford Focus. He also became the fourth winner out of the season’s opening six races. Jordan and Nash took second and third places to impressively make it podium results in all three of today’s races. The star of the show, though, was Plato – in just 90 minutes, his RML crew had repaired his battered car and he rewarded them with an emotional sixth place.

But it is Nash, yet to win a BTCC race, who now leads the points table thanks to his consistently high scoring – indeed, he has finished in the top six in every race so far this season. But close behind him are Neal, Jackson, Jordan and Plato. Significantly, Jordan achieved the highest cumulative score of anyone today and it has helped get his title hopes back on track after a torrid opening round at Brands Hatch.

Nash, aged 25 from Newport Pagnell, said: “It feels unreal to be leading. Last year we really struggled but have transformed the car this year with the new turbo engine. I’m actually now starting to get disappointed by just being on the podium – I really want that first win.”

Former double champion Neal commented: “It was starting to look good earlier on with the win and the championship lead but my car was damaged in race three so seventh was a relief. We’re still right in there fighting. It sounds clichéd but fortunes turn around so quickly in this championship – just look at Jason today.”

Henley-in-Arden’s Jackson was left to rue what might have been, adding: “Of course victory in race three is a fantastic result for everyone in the team, particularly after the work we’ve put into improving the Focus. But I twice ended up off the track today after contact so it could easily have been us leading the way.”

And said Jordan: “We’ve really got our car singing now after experimenting with the turbo engine last season and we’re still improving. I genuinely believe we can now go on from here and mount a serious championship challenge.”

Notably, several other drivers made their mark at Donington. Tom Onslow-Cole gave the small AmD Milltek Racing.com team’s VW Golf a first-ever points finish. Pirtek’s Jeff Smith also achieved a career-best fifth and there were maiden top ten results for the Airwaves and WSR teams’ rookies Liam Griffin and Nick Foster.

Elsewhere, Honda/Dynamics leads the Manufacturer/Constructor table as does Honda Racing the HiQ Teams Championship, while Nash and 888 Racing with Collins Contractors have moved to the top of the Independent drivers and teams’ standings respectively.

Meanwhile, a number of drivers were punished today for on-track indiscretions: Race 1, Andy Neate, officially reprimanded and 2 penalty points on his competition licence; Race 2, Tom Chilton and Gordon Shedden, both officially reprimanded and 2 penalty points; Race 3, Dave Newsham, fined £500 and 3 penalty points & James Nash, 2 penalty points.

For full Donington Park race reports, results and copyright-free hi-res images visit the BTCC’s official website www.btcc.net

2011 Dunlop BTCC Drivers’ Points after Donington Park (round 2 of 10):
1. James Nash, 59
2. Matt Neal, 55
3. Mat Jackson, 54
4. Andrew Jordan, 45
5. Jason Plato, 43
6. Tom Chilton, 32
7. Gordon Shedden, 30
8. Paul O’Neill, 26
9. Alex MacDowall, 19
10. Robert Collard, 17

Manufacturers/Constructors’ Points:
1. Honda/Dynamics, 107
2. Chevrolet/RML, 106
3. Arena/Ford, 83

HiQ Teams’ Points:
1. Honda Racing Team, 78
2. 888 Racing with Collins Contractors, 66
3. Silverline Chevrolet, 59
4. Airwaves Racing, 54
5. Pirtek Racing, 53
6. Team Aon, 32

Independent Drivers’ Points:
1. James Nash, 71
2. Mat Jackson, 67
3. Andrew Jordan, 50
4. Tom Chilton, 44
5. Paul O’Neill, 40
6. Robert Collard, 27

Independent Teams’ Points:
1. 888 Racing with Collins Contractors, 71
2. Airwaves Racing, 68
3. Pirtek Racing, 50
4. GoMobileUK.com with tech-speed, 46
5. Team Aon, 44
6. WSR, 37

*All points remain provisional

 

[Harkle420]

Close Racing , but a bit of crash bang wallop!!turbo vs turbois it good what every one take on this

 

[napalmriot]

Looks like he tried to gun it through the green to make it back to the black.

Oh well... sometimes you just don't get lucky.

 

[Ross Balfour]

I watched the highlights of this on ITV4, half these guys don't know how to drive without hitting into someone, complete public server racing - stupid stupid people

 

[John Wilson]

Just love the regulations in BTCC at times. An increase of 0.08 of boost on Shedden's turbo for one instance, for a few tenths in race one makes you get dis-qualified. How does something like that lead to someone being dis-qualified?!

Just like when your front bumper gets damaged and drops the ride height by half a mm. Just silly, can we just see racing and not worry about stupid things like this.

Disagree I'm afraid, the Turbo's are annoying enough as it is being SO much faster than the N/A cars. It's nearly two tier racing as it is - did you watch at Brands??? Pulling 4-5 car lengths down the straight is ridiculous! Can't let them get away with trying to get EVEN more of an advantage....!!!

I say make all the Turbo's turn down their boosts till this season is over...!!!!

 

[Nick Deeley]

The turbo's have been pegged back for the next round in Thruxton.

It was announced today that the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship will be making changes to the regulations regarding the turbo cars in time for the next round of the season at Thruxton.
TOCA, the organiser of the BTCC has today announced that all turbocharged cars in the series will be 0.1 bar lower than that recorded by each car on the TOCA Performance Monitoring Device during Qualifying and all three races at Donington Park.
This way of reducing the power means that it’s an even penalty across the board. The change will affect Honda Racing, Pirtek Racing, Special Tuning Racing, Rob Austin Racing, Dynojet, Speedworks, Triple Eight Racing, Team Aon, Airwaves Racing and AmD Milltek Racing.com

 

[Yann Laprevotte]

I watched the highlights of this on ITV4, half these guys don't know how to drive without hitting into someone, complete public server racing - stupid stupid people

Well, this is BTCC, and this is what the public wants, touring car racing with as much action and drama as possible. BTCC has never been strict on any kind of contacts. That's the way it goes, I doubt the series would be so much popular if they began penalising drivers for the kind of stuff we've seen last week-end. And if they didn't want such races, they probably wouldn't be using the 3 race system and the race by race success ballast system anyway.

If you want more policed touring car racing, WTCC is waiting for you.

 

[Ross Balfour]

I have no issue with close racing - infact BTCC is more exciting than WTCC because of it - just some of the moves made are just insane, surely if they thought about they knew there was about a 5% chance that they would come out in one piece without crashing?

 

[Trebor901]

The turbo's have been pegged back for the next round in Thruxton.

One word for Alan Gow doing this and i wont say it because i WILL be banned, its not fair to limit them when there is 16 turbo cars and only 6 2.0 normally aspirated cars, Plato must have bribed them as usual total farce

 

[AsterPhoenix]

TBH, I don't remember them saying that the Turbo cars were to have a big straight line advantage. They would obvioulsy have an acceleration advantage out of slow corners like Clark/Sterlings at Brands, but the power rating between engines shouldn't be too high, something like 20BHP between the lowest and the highest.

Put it this way, if the engines aren't made similar in power, Silverstone will be a boring finalle (if its held on the same layout as last year).

 

[Chris Butcher]

One word for Alan Gow doing this and i wont say it because i WILL be banned, its not fair to limit them when there is 16 turbo cars and only 6 2.0 normally aspirated cars, Plato must have bribed them as usual total farce

Really? Or maybe it's just the fact they have a stupid advantage. You can't say it's the team's fault for there being 2 sets of rules

 

[Keith Peppiatt]

Just catching up on this thread.

My thoughts on Sheddon. Unfortunate bunching caused this - racing incident.

My thoughts on racing standard (esp race3). (to BTCC drivers) Get a grip guys! we don't mind contact but this is not banger racing!

My thoughts on Turbo v NA. Free choice at start of the season for all teams. Plato does moan a lot about it but never did when in the TDI. Yeah, try to keep them balanced as much as possible but the 1.6turbo is the new regs so people need to appreciate we're in a cross over window.

My thoughts on... oh no.. thats it

 

[James Chant]

Ahead of Sunday's May Bank Holiday weekend event, the excitement is growing.

Take a look back in history at a previous visit to britains fastest circuit...

Part 1:

Part 2:

Back in the days with loads of quality drivers and a massive range of cars. Count the number of current WTCC drivers in that grid!

 

[James Chant]

Ahead of Sunday's May Bank Holiday weekend event, the excitement is growing. Take a look back in history at a previous visit to britains fastest circuit.

Back in the days with loads of quality drivers and a massive range of cars. Count the number of current WTCC drivers in that grid!

 

[James Chant]

Provisional timetable can be found here http://www.barc.net/images/stories/pdfs/timetables/HQ1108_TX30040105_V3.pdf