BTCC 2013 Season

Tordoff really showed Neate up today. Feel bad for Rob Austin - was doing well in the second race until Wrathall got a bit carried away and the shunt in the last race was nasty.

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I don't know what Team Hard were thinking with those Insignias, clearly uncompetitive and will spend the rest of the season back of the grid.
 
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Results:

Race 1

1 Jason Plato (MG KX Momentum Racing) 27 Laps

2 Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing) +2.168 

3 Rob Austin (WIX Racing) +6.130

4 Sam Tordoff (MG KX Momentum Racing) +7.781

5 Jeff Smith (Pirtek Racing) +8.245

6 Frank Wrathall (Dynojet) +13.622


Race 2

1 Jason Plato (MG KX Momentum Racing) 49.124

2 Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing) +0.989

3 Jeff Smith (Pirtek Racing) +4.958

4 Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing) +5.073

5 Sam Tordoff (MG KX Momentum Racing) +5.454

6 Adam Morgan (Ciceley Racing) +5.874

Race 3

1 Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing) 27 laps

2 Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa Racing) +0.083

3 Sam Tordoff (MG KX Momentum Racing) +1.216

4 Adam Morgan (Ciceley Racing) +2.171

5 Jason Plato (MG KX Momentum Racing) +3.651

6 Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing) +4.727

Driver's Championship standings:

1 Jason Plato (MG KX Momentum Racing) 54 points

2 Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing) 45
3 Sam Tordoff (MG KX Momentum Racing) 40

4 Jeff Smith (Pirtek Racing) 35
5 Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing) 34

6 Adam Morgan (Ciceley Racing) 32

http://www.tsl-timing.com/toca/2013/131303trg.pdf
 
How many cars failed the ride height check at some point this weekend? :eek:

The car will go faster with a lower ride height, but surely add a bit on to stop yourself getting a DSQ...
 
Rob Austin's accident was a big one, glad to see him walk away from that....similar sort of high speed 'side on' impact to Kelvin Burts crash at Oulton Park some years back that put him in hospital for a while!
 
Janesy B said:
I don't know what Team Hard were thinking with those Insignias, clearly uncompetitive and will spend the rest of the season back of the grid.
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Team Hard are clueless and unorganised its embarrassing. Tom Onslow-cole spent the day battling with S2000 spec cars, which is highly embarrassing when he is a proven race winner in a higher powered car!

They tweeted on Thursday morning asking if anyone had a spare trailer so they could transport one of their cars to Brands! They were due the same day...

It's a shame really as they have a decent plan and nice cars too, but they are far from technically gifted and lack any true racing pedigree as a team (excluding the drivers).
 
The cars look good and they've done well to get them ready for Brands but I think they should have done what Neate did and sit out the first round to do some proper testing as yesterday was just a waste of time really.

My pictures from the day:

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A cold and frosty start.

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Shedden and Neal giving autographs.

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Tordoff and Plato's cars.

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Plato posing with an excited young fan.

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Jordan and Smith flanked by a pair of very cold grid girls.

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Close-up of Smith's engine bay.

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David Bartrum speaking with his team.

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Rob Austin leading Plato through Graham Hill.

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Aron Smith with battle scars in race 1.

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Newsham struggling for grip on the green flag warmup laps.

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The three eBay motors BMWs battling their way through the S2000 cars of Griffin and Kaye.

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Austin being spun out by Wrathall.

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Turkington on one of his many excursions through the gravel traps in race 3.

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The aftermath of Rob Austin's A4 after clipping a sideways Dave Newsham through Hailwood.

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Plato trying to close the gap from Shedden.

More pics: http://imgur.com/a/H5cOt#0
 
rossk26 said:
Team Hard are clueless and unorganised its embarrassing. Tom Onslow-cole spent the day battling with S2000 spec cars, which is highly embarrassing when he is a proven race winner in a higher powered car!

They tweeted on Thursday morning asking if anyone had a spare trailer so they could transport one of their cars to Brands! They were due the same day...

It's a shame really as they have a decent plan and nice cars too, but they are far from technically gifted and lack any true racing pedigree as a team (excluding the drivers).
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They treated the day as a test afaik. The first time they started up the CC was on Thursday and first time it turned a wheel was in Friday practice.
 
gobbo said:
They treated the day as a test afaik. The first time they started up the CC was on Thursday and first time it turned a wheel was in Friday practice.
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Problem is with a race going on around them I doubt they got much in the way of meaningful data. I did regret turning down your offer as I was pretty frozen by 5pm!


Duke said:
Great pics, thanks for sharing.
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Cheers, not my best work because I was shivering most of the time. Next time I'm doing the pit walk in reverse, I only got up to the 4th team garage before it was over and had to leave the pits as people were going straight for Honda and MG.
 
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gobbo said:
They treated the day as a test afaik. The first time they started up the CC was on Thursday and first time it turned a wheel was in Friday practice.
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Team Hard really were foolish to run 4 cars in their opening season and not just anybody's either they have good quality guys. Tom Onslow Cole has shown before he wont put up with a poor car and Jack Goff deserves better (friend of mine)

Shame really as a race weekend is not really a test day.

Another friend of mine that I do a lot of work for has two lovely S2000 touring cars parked up, be interesting to see if he makes it back out this season given the full grid
 
Team Hard were running an S2000 Civic last year. I think Thorney sold off the two Insignias he had built on the cheap to Team Hard to cut his losses and get out.
 
Nice pics Janesy!

Just managed to sit down and watch the races. Looks like there should be a good mix of winners this year.

And ouch for Rob Austin. I hope he can get the car fixed or another rebuilt soon. Good to see him jumping straight out the car.
 
Spunkey said:
He did indeed - Team HARDs Insignias are the ones which Thorney ran last year. I think that tells you everything you need to know about those cars.
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How so? The car is the sum of the parts and the vast majority of the running gear is standardised. The ex-Thorney Insignia is running the same subframes, suspension, brakes, gearbox etc as the Hondas, and will have been entirely rebuilt in the off season.

It's not like the Supertouring days when the works teams spent epic sums designing clever suspension systems to get around the limitations of the production car while just about staying within the letter of the law.
 
MagicBoy said:
How so? The car is the sum of the parts and the vast majority of the running gear is standardised. The ex-Thorney Insignia is running the same subframes, suspension, brakes, gearbox etc as the Hondas, and will have been entirely rebuilt in the off season.

It's not like the Supertouring days when the works teams spent epic sums designing clever suspension systems to get around the limitations of the production car while just about staying within the letter of the law.
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They still need screwing together properly and setup is still important, something I think Team Hard will struggle with all season.

Hoping Rob can get that lot sorted because the Audi was looking very good.

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Anyone get any pics of the Porsche race? Interested in the Bluebeards Revenge car as a mate was racing in his first outing in the series, though had gearbox problems. Any pics of it appreciated.
 
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