BTCC 2009 - Oulton Park - Rounds 10, 11 & 12

[MattL]

The sun is shining at Oulton Park and it looks like being a great weekend of racing.

VX Racing's Fabrizio Giovanardi was quickest in the first free practice session, ahead of Jason Plato and Matt Neal. There's much more to come!...

[AndySpeed]

Absolute scorcher of a lap by Fabrizio! It's baking at Oulton, track temp of 40 degrees. Wonder if this excellent weekend weather could help to bring record crowds in tomorrow...

[VkmSpouge]

Adam Jones fastest in second practice with Turkington in second, worth nothing that Turkington's time is set with 36kg of ballast so he's looking really good.

[MattL]

The track was a lot slower in the second session. Tough to know who's doing what with setups and tyres in the morning, but the track temperature for qualifying looks like it will be more like FP2 than FP1.

[VkmSpouge]

Qualifying Times:
1. Jason Plato 1m27.186
2. Mat Jackson 1m27.597
3. Colin Turkington 1m27.637
4. Adam Jones 1m27.711
5. Jonathan Adam 1m27.777
6. Fabrizio Giovanardi 1m27.792
7. Stephen Jelley 1m27.848
8. Andrew Jordan 1m27.957
9. Rob Collard 1m28.006
10. Matt Neal 1m28.061
11. Harry Vaulkhard 1m28.132
12. James Thompson 1m28.145
13. Paul o'Neill 1m28.277
14. Tom Chilton 1m28.658
15. Alan Morrison 1m28.819
16. James Nash 1m28.840
17. Dave Pinkney 1m29.051
18. Martyn Bell 1m29.698
19. Dan Eaves 1m30.234
20. John George 1m30.461
21. Martin Johnson 1m30.485

Jason Plato taking pole with a stunning lap, completely trouncing the opposition. Mat Jackson makes it a front row lock out for Racing Silverline.
I wonder what has gone wrong with Dan Eaves' car this time?

[MattL]

Great lap from Plato - even quicker than Giovanardi managed this morning!

[Sarah]

Thought Giovanardi would get pole so that's a real surprise.

[vfj]

Just had a cracking day at Oulton, well done to Jason Plato me thinks its going to be a humdinga of a Sunday afternoon.

[vfj]

Just had a cracking day at Oulton, well done to Jason Plato me thinks its going to be a humdinga of a Sunday afternoon. Why do all those old men with the big cameras stand in front of everyone i counted dozens at old hall; in fact they were all over the place' annoying everyone Rant over

[stevevxr]

Chevy's looking quick !!! but wots there race pace going to be like... BMW on the hunt tomorrow for sure !!! VXR well who knows..... are they playing the waiting game ???? This season is wide open !!! Roll on tomorrow....

[BTCC2]

Can't wait for the first corner tomorrow. The BMW of Turkington will be quick off the line but with Oulton Park being such a narrow track Old Hall could be a very tight squeeze indeed!!!

[VkmSpouge]

Race 1 Result:
1 Colin Turkington
2 Jason Plato
3 Jonathan Adam
4 Fabrizio Giovanardi
5 Stephen Jelley
6 Adam Jones
7 Matt Neal
8 James Thompson
9 Rob Collard
10 Andrew Jordan
11 James Nash
12 Paul o'Neill
13 Tom Chilton
14 Alan Morrison
15 Dave Pinkney
16 Dan Eaves
17 Martin Johnson
18 Martyn Bell
19 Mat Jackson
DNF Harry Vaulkhard
DNS John George

Not the most exciting of races, once the Chevrolets' tyres had worn down Turkington had the win wrapped up. Shame for Mat Jackson to suffer a puncture at the end. I hope John George can take part in race 2.

[AndySpeed]

I love Oulton Park photos, there's some up at BTCC Action now and the weather makes them look so bright and the cars stunning!

[Allyc85]

Wasnt a bad race. Was a shame there had to be contact with Collard and Jordan as I was enjoying that close battle until then.

[VkmSpouge]

Race 2 Result:
1 Colin Turkington
2 Fabrizio Giovanardi
3 Jason Plato
4 Matt Neal
5 Jonathan Adam
6 Andrew Jordan
7 James Thompson
8 Adam Jones
9 Paul o'Neill
10 Alan Morrison
11 Dave Pinkney
12 Tom Chilton
13 Dan Eaves
14 Stephen Jelley
15 Harry Vaulkhard
16 Martin Johnson
17 Martyn Bell
DNF Mat Jackson
DNF James Nash
DNF Rob Collard
DNS John George

Colin Turkington moves into the championship lead after a comfortable second win of the day.

I enjoyed the battle between Jason Plato, Matt Neal and Jonathan Adam, that was entertaining especially with the three crossing the line less than a quarter of a second apart.

Rob Collard and Mat Jackson's championship chances fast falling away.

Well done to Alan Morrison for scoring his first point of the season!

EDIT: James Thompson gets pole for race 3.

[BTCC2]

Great defensive driving from Plato in that second race!

[VkmSpouge]

Race 3 Result:
1 James Thompson
2 Andrew Jordan
3 Matt Neal
4 Rob Collard
5 Jason Plato
6 Fabrizio Giovanardi
7 Adam Jones
8 Mat Jackson
9 Paul o'Neill
10 Alan Morrison
11 Colin Turkington
12 Harry Vaulkhard
13 Jonathan Adam
14 Dan Eaves
15 Martyn Bell
16 John George
DNF Dave Pinkney
DNF Stephen Jelley
DNF James Nash
DNF Tom Chilton
DNF Martin Johnson

Well done to James Thompson for scoring his third race victory in the BTCC this season.

Rob Collard put in a really good drive in that race to go from 20th to 4th, his move on Jason Plato was quite impressive.

I wonder what happened to Colin Turkington at the end? He seemed set for 7th place and in the last couple of laps he really dropped back.

[christophulus]

Great day out and very sunburnt now. Nasty crash in the Ginetta G50s though, any news on it?

[71minus2]

Great day out and very sunburnt now. Nasty crash in the Ginetta G50s though, any news on it?

It did look a very hot day up there! No news on the G50 crash yet but the commentators did confirm that both drivers were ok but taken to hospital for checks.

It was a nasty looking incident.

[nicemms]

Just seen the G50 crash and it looked bad. The car was hit full on the side at high speed. Looked awful.

[nik]

I watched it live on TV. Mark Proctor hit Carl Breezes car square on the drivers side at about 120mph. Nasty accident.

As for the BTCC....I thought it was a dull 3 races.

[BTCC2]

As for the BTCC....I thought it was a dull 3 races.

No such thing! OK there was probably less overtaking than at your averge BTCC meeting but that doesn't take away from the amount of superb close racing that we saw with some world class defensive driving at times by both Plato and Neal.

[Wasted Talent]

No such thing! OK there was probably less overtaking than at your averge BTCC meeting but that doesn't take away from the amount of superb close racing that we saw with some world class defensive driving at times by both Plato and Neal.

Agree with Nik - dullest meeting this year by a long way.

Okay, good defending by Plato, and usual dirty move by Neal, but not a good advert for the series

WT

[Bezza]

I was at Oulton, baking. I was the only person wearing a Preston North End shirt, so you'd have been able to spot me quite easily ;)

Thought the BTCC races were fairly dull apart from Race 3 which seemed close and Collard was going through the field.

Support races were good except that they kept red-flagging them all! Understandably in the Ginetta G50's but not sure about the Junior's. Very frustrating.

[LiamM]

I was at Oulton, baking. I was the only person wearing a Preston North End shirt, so you'd have been able to spot me quite easily ;)

Thought the BTCC races were fairly dull apart from Race 3 which seemed close and Collard was going through the field.

Support races were good except that they kept red-flagging them all! Understandably in the Ginetta G50's but not sure about the Junior's. Very frustrating.

Juniors were only red flagged cos they needed to clear up and they were running tight for time to get race 3 on ITV4. From what I saw, there's no reasons why the marshalls couldn't have done that under waved yellow - the Juniors lap is pretty long anyway so no real need for the SC

[tintin]

Juniors were only red flagged cos they needed to clear up and they were running tight for time to get race 3 on ITV4. From what I saw, there's no reasons why the marshalls couldn't have done that under waved yellow - the Juniors lap is pretty long anyway so no real need for the SC

Juniors were red flagged because there was an injured driver trapped in a car at Cascades, and they needed to extract her in safe conditions, not with cars racing past.

[Bezza]

If the guy in the Juniors was injured then they need to sort them cars out. The contact was fairly minimal and on the rear of the car!

[LiamM]

If the guy in the Juniors was injured then they need to sort them cars out. The contact was fairly minimal and on the rear of the car!

If you watch the footage you'll see that one of the cars backed into the side another - I didn't realise it was as bad you said tintin, the contact didnt seem that bad, in alot of other series might have seen a lot of cars drive off from that type of impact.

[tintin]

It was the three-car incident at Cascades where Louise Richardson was trapped, not the incident at Hill Top which brought out the safety car.

[Bezza]

It was the three-car incident at Cascades where Louise Richardson was trapped, not the incident at Hill Top which brought out the safety car.

Yes, I saw that I was stood on the inside of Cascades. My point is those cars aren't strong as the contact seemed minimal to me.

[Eurotech]

It made a big bang when the cars collided though, I heard it from Knickerbrooke.

[Marc W]

If the guy in the Juniors was injured then they need to sort them cars out. The contact was fairly minimal and on the rear of the car!

As it turned out the girl (rather than guy!0 in the Juniors wasn't hurt (ither than a lot of brusing) but it's far better to take precautions and do things carefully than to let a driver get on with it and risk causing permenant damage to themselves, especially at such a young age.