[R5CPD]

Ha-Ha-Ha!! Well done Phil, I knew you could do it.

Yep, there should be no probs in getting the advance tickets now. I've still got to get mine yet! :shock: It's Ford Fair 2002 all over again!! :wink:

[R5CPD]

Ok then. I'm about to send off a PM to Jason to set-up the 'usergroup' and photo section for this up comming meet. Once this is in place, then please sign up to the group and register your planned attendance.



See you at Thruxton!!

[sky]

Usergroup created:

Sign up to THIS usergroup to register your attendance

[R5CPD]

Meet Update

Here's the provisional timetable for events at Thruxton during the day:

Monday 26th May

10.00 Heritage Grand Touring Car Challenge Qualifying (20 Mins)
10.30 Pitlane walkabout/Autograph session 1 Hour
11.40 BTCC Drivers Parade 10 Mins
12.10 BTCC Race 1 (25 Laps)
13.10 Elf Clio Renaultsport UK Cup Race (14 Laps)
13.45 Formula Ford Race (16 Laps)
14.40 Porsche Carrera Cup Race (30 Mins)
15.25 Formula Renault UK Race (18 Laps)
16.25 BTCC Race 2 (25 Laps)
17.25 Heritage Grand Touring Car Challenge Race (30 Mins)

As you can see, there's plenty happening early on. Hence the 08.45 meet start time!! Sorry!

[CTR-motor]

Count me in Chris, 8)

CTR/00779
Lee D :twisted:

[R5CPD]

Well done Lee!!

You will be most welcome to come along and cheer on the Honda's!!

[R5CPD]

British Touring Car Championship R1 + R2 - Mondello Park.

Monday saw the start of the season at Mondello Park in the Republic of Ireland. Wet conditions provided two incident packed races. Defending champion James Thompson came out on top in both of the races. Highlights can be seen next Saturday at 14.00 on ITV. Here are the results for the first two rounds:

BTCC Mondello Park Race 1 Results
Pos Driver Team/Car Time
1 James Thompson VX Racing/Vauxhall Astra 25 laps
2 Yvan Muller VX Racing/Vauxhall Astra +6.130s
3 Alan Morrison Honda Racing/Honda Civic +10.562s
4 Warren Hughes MG Sport/MG ZS +11.041s
5 David Leslie Team Petronas/Proton Impian +33.983s
6 Rob Collard Collard Racing/Vauxhall Astra +1m03.690s

BTCC Mondello Park Race 2 results
Pos Driver Team/Car Time
1 James Thompson VX Racing/Vauxhall Astra 25 laps
2 Yvan Muller VX Racing/Vauxhall Astra +1.152s
3 Tom Chilton Honda Racing/Honda Civic +1.232s
4 Paul O'Neill VX Racing/Vauxhall Astra +3.976s
5 Alan Morrison Honda Racing/Honda Civic +7.091s
6 Gavin Pyper GA Motorsports/Vauxhall Astra +21.160s

[kevin ritson]

Saw the race live on Motors TV (Well, my mate videoed it whilst we were at Brands Hatch) and it was a stunner. Looks like being a great season, it wasn't just a Vauxhall benefit, the other teams suffered some bad luck and besides, there looks to be a lot of aggro between Thompson and Muller this year.

When you do see the highlights, check out the embarrassing pit-lane accident where the podium truck gets hit!!! :oops:

[R5CPD]

Hi Kevin!!

I also watched the races live on Motors TV. Great coverage, especially being able to see the support races as well!! However, I'm not so sure about that cheesy music they kept playing during the race 'highlights' section. Also, I felt that Ben Edwards and Tim Harvey worked well together, giving some excellent commentary. I still miss Charlie Cox and John Watson though!

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I saw the incident in the pitlane. I've no idea what VX-R / 888 were thinking when they let O'Neill out! :? Whatever, it certainly made a mess of the back of the podium truck!! Good job it did'nt happen further up the pit lane, otherwise it would have been another pit crew that Fabulous Phil would have careered into! :shock: Knockhill last year, and now this. Let's hope TOCA's got the message. :wink:

Another moment of drama / comedy for me, was the aftermath of the collision between Gavin Pyper and Matt Neal in the first race!! I think Matt reminded Pyper who was sponsoring his Astra!! :wink: Pyper certainly looked a bit sheepish afterwards. Pyper can be a bit impulvise sometimes. I remember him demolishing James Kaye last year at the Thruxton Complex. He needs to calm down a fair bit, especially now he's with the 'big boys' in the Touring class.

Anyway, a great couple of races. Can't wait for Brands Hatch!!!

[kevin ritson]

Must be a dilemma for you if the Vauxhall boys come out on top again, Chris. With your loyalty to the much-missed John Cleland, who do you root for? He didn't get on with either of them when they were his team-mates, especially when Muller effectively elbowed him out of the team.

As for O'Neill, perhaps he can paint his car white and pretend it's an independent runner

[kevin ritson]

Diesel??!!!!!! :evil:

I don't care how good the VWs and Beemers are, what sort of noise are they going to make at 4,000rpm tops?

What we need is a couple of Focus entries, get Plato driving one (criminal waste of talent driving an independent Astra, once they get some money), then he can give Muller hand signals when he overtakes :twisted:

They should get Radisich back from Oz, when the Mondeos were up to it, he was pretty handy at winning races (just don't get me onto Alfa and their dodgy wing extensions...)

[R5CPD]

Mmmmm!! The Alfa Romeo 155 Silverstone :wink: Now that was a 'special' edition. I remember that they came with a poly bag in the boot full of rivets and bits to jack up the standard rear spoiler. If I recall, it didn't even come with any instructions on how fit all the bits!! :shock: To adjust the front spiltter, you had to drill out all of the rivets that held the bottom section of the front bumper on and then move it forward, before riveting it back into it's new position! :roll: No wonder Andy Rouse wasn't too impressed with it all!!

Ok, so the noise of the TDCi engine is hardly going to match the lovely wail of the old Mazda based V6's in the Mondeo, but a turbocharged diesel engine could hold many advantages over a NA 2-litre engine. Also, it would prove a bit of marketing coup for Ford!! :wink: Here's a link to the Autosport report for the rumoured BTCC Focus TDCi.

http://www.autosport.com/newsitem.asp?id=20502&s=6

[R5CPD]

Now then, I've been giving plently of thought of who to put in my 'fantasy' Ford Focus ST170 BTCC team. Given other current line-ups in BTCC, ETCC, and DTM, I'd go for these three. :wink:

Jason Plato.
As you say, totally wasted in ASCAR. Would be a good works driver again, due to his aggressive on-track style and media friendly image. Was always thought very highly of within the team when at Renault, but less so at Vauxhall. Our friend Mr Muller again perhaps? :wink:

Rickard Rydell.
Again, what is he doing driving a year old Volvo in the ETCC? Proven driver who should be in a top BTCC or DTM team. :wink: He will always score points consistantly and be a front runner in the right machine. However, we will have to give him a Volvo V70 as a company car in order to tempt him back to the Blue Oval!!

Daniel Buxton / Paul Rivett.
I would want to give a young driver a go in the third car. So it would have to be one of these two ex-Fiesta / Clio Cup drivers. Both have performed well in these competitive championships and deserve a chance at a higher level. I would believe that they would have the experience to compete in the BTCC Touring class. :wink:

Ray Mallock Ltd. don't seem to be doing much at the moment. So I'd get them to design and run the cars. Given RML's success with the BTCC Cavalier and Primera over the years, I would think that they would be able to come up with another championship winning car!! :wink:

[kevin ritson]

Hmmm, so the story was first reported 6 months ago...going by Ford's usual motorsport record, they should green-light this by March 2004, ready to roll for the season! :roll:

I guess drivers will be cheap, so step forward Paul O'Neill!

Nice piccy of Bennet's spin on www.tocatour.co.uk, now I can see why they had to use a picnic table from the local pub!

[puma_driver]

Remember Phil, think 'on topic'!!  :D

Hummmm........

Guess its just warming us up for the big day

[R5CPD]

Ha-ha-ha!!!! I've not heard anything since that story. However, I would hope that corporate pride would want to stop Vauxhall from winning everything. Perhaps the Ford WRC program is the main priority at the moment.

[R5CPD]

Hummmm........  :lol:  

Guess its just warming us up for the big day  :P

This is just all part of your Touring Car education prior to Thruxton. :wink:

I've been following this championship since I was about 10. Back then, it was all Sierra RS Cosworth's and BMW M3's. There was even a street race through Birmingham in those days. Please forgive us for having a bit of a Touring Car gossip!! :wink: :arrow:

[puma_driver]

Please forgive us for having a bit of a Touring Car gossip!!  :wink:  :arrow:

Your forgiven Chris! Was only joking. I occasionally watch the Touring Cars if i'm around Seems like i'm either on a puma run or at work though :x . I'm more of an F1 fan myself but love all aspects of motor racing, including bikes!

Carry on the education lessons....... :wink:

[kevin ritson]

Rounds 3 and 4 update:

Before Chris can get in with the results, I thought I'd deliver a scoop on rounds 3 and 4, 'cos I've been catching the rays at a gloriously sunny Brands Hatch 8)

Looks like being a good race tomorrow, Matt Neal nearly stole pole from James Thompson and Paul O'Neill did suprisingly well, especially since he sat out half the session after stuffing it at Paddock - got some nice shots of this but my SLR isn't digital (I don't have a spare grand!!), so you'll have to take my word for it...

Following this, Tom Chilton, who'd been attacking the Paddock kerbs all weekend, as if he was playing TOCA Race Driver, managed to get it all sideways and thumped the tyre wall on the inside of the circuit, causing him to roll and causing me to get another one for the photo album!! Unfortunately he's done too much damage to his car to race but apart from that it looks like being a great race.

And that's only the support race, 'cos the US Champ Car series is taking top billing with British eyes on Darren Manning, who's been showing the others a thing or two. If you're able to get to Brands tomorrow (and I know the weather forecast says it won't be the scorcher today was), then don't hesitate, there's a lot of other things going on, plus if you're a Touring Car fan the best news of all is that as they're the support race the cars are kept in the Paddock which means you can get closer to the cars than usual - got some good shots of some of the drivers chatting to race engineers on Saturday, you don't normally get that without a big lens.

[R5CPD]

Ahh, you beat me to it!! :wink: I wanted to tell the world about Tom Chilton's flying display in the Civic!!!



Anyway, here's the results for both of yesterdays races. :arrow:

BTCC race 1, Brands Hatch
POS, DRIVER, CAR, TIME
1 Matt Neal, Honda Civic, 35 laps
2 Yvan Muller, Vauxhall Astra, +1.271s
3 Paul O'Neill, Vauxhall Astra, +1.618s
4 Anthony Reid, MG ZS, +4.704s
5 James Thompson, Vauxhall Astra, +7.504s
6 Colin Turkington, MG ZS, +11.222s

Production Class
1 Michael Bentwood, BMW 320, 34 laps

Race one saw plenty of action with Matt Neal taking victory on the final corner. An aggressive move by the Honda driver, pushed Paul O'Neil into a half-spin and back down to finish third.



BTCC race 2, Brands Hatch
POS, DRIVER, CAR, TIME
1 Yvan Muller, Vauxhall Astra, 35 laps
2 James Thompson, Vauxhall Astra, +4.929s
3 Paul O'Neill, Vauxhall Astra, +5.167s
4 Anthony Reid, MG ZS, +6.817s
5 Warren Hughes, MG ZS, +6.922s
6 David Leslie, Proton Impian, +10.764s

Production Class
1 Michael Bentwood, BMW 320, +47.711s

The second race of the day was also an eventful one. The podium ending up with a Vauxhall lock out of Muller, Thompson, and O'Neill.

Don't forget, highlights of these races will on shown on ITV next Saturday afternoon!

See you at Thruxton!!