BTCC Brands Hatch - Rounds 1, 2 and 3

[Mp3 Astra]

Very interesting opening three races.

Jason Plato back to his old self, and despite what I think was perhaps a penalty-worthy incident in race 1, you can't fault his efforts in bringing that MG to the top step of the podium in Race 3. Andy Neate was nowhere for most of the weekend, so you must say that a lot of that performance must have been from Plato himself (although it could be argued that Neate's car was the less prepared of the two). But, as I said, his move at Paddock in Race 1 was almost a rookie error; the kind of thing you might have seen Nash and the like getting punished for a few years back.

The Hondas have proved very interesting; they do lack the straight line speed but I'm sure with a bit of turbo re-balancing we will see them win plenty more this season. Shedden couldn't have had worse luck this weekend; I'm really rooting for him this year as he is the one driver on the grid this year who really should have won a championship by now.

Fair play to team eBay and WSR for winning the opening race; in a race without safety cars those machines are really quite fantastic just about everywhere on the circuit, but warming up their tyres after restarts is still a problem that seems to plague them. Collard could be a dark horse this season. Although, we've seen Collard perform well at the start of seasons before and gradually drop back. Hopefully WSR can squeeze every last drop of performance out of the old chassis and new engine to keep themselves in the running.

A special mention has to go to John 'Businessman not racing driver' Thorne who managed to throw his car at every piece of grass at Brands Hatch. I don't know if it's the car or if he is really struggling, but either way a lot of work needs to be done there!

Oh, and Toby Moody: He seemed very much to be sticking to his notes while commentating. If I hear him say 'the 888 guys have done a great job to get that (squeaky voice) BRAND NEW car on the grid this weekend' we may have a falling out. I'm sure he'll improve over the season, but whoever made the Alan Partridge comparison has got it spot-on for the moment!

[BDunnell]

Fair play to team eBay and WSR for winning the opening race; in a race without safety cars those machines are really quite fantastic just about everywhere on the circuit, but warming up their tyres after restarts is still a problem that seems to plague them.

I found Collard's performance in race three in particular very odd. Same goes for Rob Austin, for that matter. In the past the rear-wheel-drive cars have always looked after their tyres much better to the end of the race — witness Collard and Foster rocketing through the field at Rockingham last year. For whatever reason, that wasn't in evidence at Brands at all. Maybe there's some more set-up work to do.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I found Collard's performance in race three in particular very odd. Same goes for Rob Austin, for that matter. In the past the rear-wheel-drive cars have always looked after their tyres much better to the end of the race — witness Collard and Foster rocketing through the field at Rockingham last year. For whatever reason, that wasn't in evidence at Brands at all. Maybe there's some more set-up work to do.

Probably the cooler conditions later in the day played against them.

[Eurotech]

But, as I said, his move at Paddock in Race 1 was almost a rookie error; the kind of thing you might have seen Nash and the like getting punished for a few years back.

Johnny Adam 2009 anyone? I think that if anything, punting someone off and out of the race entirely is much worse than a tap on the rear that got saved and Plato still finished in second in that race in 2009 (pre-DSQ for Adam). Jason should definitely have got punished for that.

As for Thorne, I'm sure he just needs some time to get used to the car and get the car up to speed. As has been seen from Thorney Motorsport's Dunlop SportMaxx adventures in the past, they do know how to engineer a racing car.

[Wasted Talent]

Johnny Adam 2009 anyone? I think that if anything, punting someone off and out of the race entirely is much worse than a tap on the rear that got saved and Plato still finished in second in that race in 2009 (pre-DSQ for Adam). Jason should definitely have got punished for that.

Agreed - if Newsham had tapped Plato into retirement there would have been hell to play

WT

[IceWizard]

Just finished watching the action at last. A very exciting and intriguing opening weekend, although some questionable driving and marshalling. The oil at Druids might have caused problems for the tourers but the prize for causing the most carnage has to go to the Clio guys.

[Darlo]

[quote="HondaRacingFan"]great job by Newsham, cant say the same for ass of a team mate james for blocking Jordon. Hope TOCA see sense and do something about that.

Seems like Chris James is showing himself up even further by giving Andy some foul mouthed abuse on Twitter and having to be warned about such conduct by Alan Gow

[Allyc85]

What is Chris James saying roughly? It was him who convinently cocked it up in qualifying, and Jordan who im sure will go onto achieve things Chris can only dream of!

[Darlo]

Although Jordan deleted some of his tweets pretty quickly, the gist I got was that he and Wrathall were having a bit of a laugh about Chris James' constant use of the phrase 'AV IT'. James reacted with some pretty abusive tweets about Jordans appearance and that the two were spoilt daddy's boys.

Agree though - they'll both achieve far more than James can ever dream of.

[m.lowe]

Hopefully the word "parity" will be wiped from Plato's brain this season now he has equal machinery
well for now that is until the Hondas start trouncing again