Has BTCC completely lost it?

In the 90's and early 2000's the BTCC was the fun part of motorsport. A serious competition with close action and the odd bit of controversy, as an aside to F1 for us Brits.

F1 is now streets ahead in terms of enjoyment for me.

The BTCC is mildly embarrassing - three short races, pathetic rules, pathetic drivers (bar the odd exception) and dangerous amounts of contact.

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Originally Posted by Bezza

In the 90's and early 2000's the BTCC was the fun part of motorsport. A serious competition with close action and the odd bit of controversy, as an aside to F1 for us Brits.

F1 is now streets ahead in terms of enjoyment for me.

The BTCC is mildly embarrassing - three short races, pathetic rules, pathetic drivers (bar the odd exception) and dangerous amounts of contact.

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By exactly the same token, I find DRS mildly embarrassing.

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

By exactly the same token, I find DRS mildly embarrassing.

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DRS has been embarrassing is some races such as Turkey, but I can't help but wonder how exciting last years Abu Dhabi finale would have been with DRS. Alonso and Webber wouldn't have had their races ruined.

The quality of the BTCC field seems to be lower than I can remember for a while. The championship needs the likes of Thompson, Turkington, Giovanardi.etc

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Originally Posted by Brown, Jon Brow

The quality of the BTCC field seems to be lower than I can remember for a while. The championship needs the likes of Thompson, Turkington, Giovanardi.etc

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Not really. A loss of 2 key drivers but we've gained one, maybe two who have a bright future.

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Originally Posted by Brown, Jon Brow

DRS has been embarrassing is some races such as Turkey, but I can't help but wonder how exciting last years Abu Dhabi finale would have been with DRS. Alonso and Webber wouldn't have had their races ruined.

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To me, that's not the point. Such is racing sometimes.

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Originally Posted by Brown, Jon Brow

The quality of the BTCC field seems to be lower than I can remember for a while. The championship needs the likes of Thompson, Turkington, Giovanardi.etc

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Not sure about that. Frank Wrathall in particular is a great up-and-coming prospect. And while many may criticise the 'gentleman drivers', let's not forget that one in particular, Nick Foster, proved to be rather better than that in 2011. The BTCC was only full of international superstars for a fairly short time — it was the exception to its history rather than the rule.

Oh, and watching the supefyingly dull DTM finale yesterday made me again realise why, despite all its faults, I'd take the BTCC any day.

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

To me, that's not the point. Such is racing sometimes.



Not sure about that. Frank Wrathall in particular is a great up-and-coming prospect. And while many may criticise the 'gentleman drivers', let's not forget that one in particular, Nick Foster, proved to be rather better than that in 2011. The BTCC was only full of international superstars for a fairly short time — it was the exception to its history rather than the rule.

Oh, and watching the supefyingly dull DTM finale yesterday made me again realise why, despite all its faults, I'd take the BTCC any day.

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While I think Frank has driven well this year I don't think we can really rate him untill he races against some better competition in NGTC cars. I think in parts of this year he has had a car advantage. I remember at Rockingham he was missing apexes but was still setting fastest laps.

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Originally Posted by Brown, Jon Brow

While I think Frank has driven well this year I don't think we can really rate him untill he races against some better competition in NGTC cars. I think in parts of this year he has had a car advantage. I remember at Rockingham he was missing apexes but was still setting fastest laps.

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This is true, but one can only judge on the basis of what one sees, and when the equipment was on a par with the front-runners he was able to race well with them, and cleanly. Whether his car was actually even faster than that, who can say? It's one of the irritations I have with the modern BTCC — we don't truly know the relative performance of each car, because there are so many variables (weight penalties, different technical regs for NGTC as opposed to S2000-spec cars, boost pressure changes, etc) that come into play.