BTCC rd1 brands hatch

[speedking31]

My brother's company sponsors one of the cars so he was lucky enough to get in the pits and on the grid.

Here's a topical pic with the ph sticker.

Edited by speedking31 on Thursday 3rd April 09:04

[The Wookie]

LiamM45 said:

Hope you get the mapping sorted and get the car competitive, it certainly looks the part in pics. Out of interest are they mapped 'on the track' or on a dyno?

Cheers

It's actually done on both but once a baseline is set it's pretty much all on track. All of the transient stuff has to be done on the track as there are only a couple of transient dynos in the UK, and controlling the boost as it comes in and through gearshifts is very difficult to do on a dyno.

[andy97]

VladD said:

I think Ingram thought there was room to close the door, but misjudged it a touch. I don't blame Menu at all. He could have lifted, but BTCC is big boy stuff.

Motorsport is meant to be non contact (unless you are at Wimbledon or Hednesford etc). Big boys stuff should not mean putting someone in the wall and causing £thousands worth of damage.

[Munter]

andy97 said:

Motorsport is meant to be non contact (unless you are at Wimbledon or Hednesford etc). Big boys stuff should not mean putting someone in the wall and causing £thousands worth of damage.

That would be for Ingram to remember. He's the one who side swiped Menu. If he'd left menu a cars width then he'd not have collided.

[The Wookie]

Easily done, they're not the easiest things to see out of, the Toyota is a big old beast and if you're used to a smaller car and/or people backing out when you've cut it close then you can see how it happened.

No-one will ever back out in that situation in BTCC and the lesson he's learnt is to leave a car's width if you have any doubt... or my preferred option of moving across slowly so you can 'feel' whether someone's there or not before they actually punt you off!

[cupofbeans]

As much as I quite like Rob Austin, his "fans" scare the crap out of me. The team posted his rating from Motorsport News on their Friendface page in a light-hearted manner and they're all ripping in to Matt James for it. Bunch of Muppets. At least Matt has the sense of humour to like the harsh comments!

[Vocal Minority]

The trouble with trying to keep the fans involved, like Rob Austin does, is that the sort of people who get involved are the super keen ones who like to 'feel a part' of it all - and they tend to get rather fawning and sycophantic. They want to feel like mates with Rob....

(I am a member of the facebook page (I rarely if ever say anything), and this is just my brief impressions!)

[NailedOn]

A cracking weekend of BTCC racing. I think I prefer the longer Brands circuit but the closeness of the cars pretty much all the way round was mad!
I fell asleep during the Grand Prix and really enjoyed this start to the Touring Cars season. Couldn't turn away from the screen for a second and top marks to ITV4 for wall to wall coverage.

[Thundersports]

I thought Menu was in the wrong. In his day if you were half a length on the inside you kept your foot in if not you backed off (he was nowhere near that either). If his rules were used across Motorsport in general there would be carnage especially in Single seaters.

Edited by Thundersports on Friday 4th April 00:49

[andy97]

Munter said:

andy97 said:

Motorsport is meant to be non contact (unless you are at Wimbledon or Hednesford etc). Big boys stuff should not mean putting someone in the wall and causing £thousands worth of damage.

That would be for Ingram to remember. He's the one who side swiped Menu. If he'd left menu a cars width then he'd not have collided.

It's both drivers responsibility to avoid contact. Menu could have lifted and waited for the next opportunity, instead he continued at full pace and he is experienced to know full well what the consequences of that are likely to be.

Several times last year commentators on the ITV4 coverage made the point that the RWD BMWs were more susceptible to going of after a nudge from behind than there FWD brethren, and that they were essentially being targeted for a tap as a result. Unacceptable.

[thiscocks]

mattsayle said:

8. And again


Roll on Donington!

Great livery on that. The best looking together with the BMW. Most of the others are pretty meh...

P.S. Good to see Marc Hynes on track again

[Munter]

andy97 said:

It's both drivers responsibility to avoid contact. Menu could have lifted and waited for the next opportunity, instead he continued at full pace and he is experienced to know full well what the consequences of that are likely to be.

Several times last year commentators on the ITV4 coverage made the point that the RWD BMWs were more susceptible to going of after a nudge from behind than there FWD brethren, and that they were essentially being targeted for a tap as a result. Unacceptable.

Menu wan't going to take the place. Ingram didn't need to play billy big balls and try and chop him off. Menu had already moved over to the line to avoid Ingram. Ingram moved on him again and hit him. So what did Ingram do to avoid the collision? He'd moved Menu off line, and would have come out ahead onto the start finish if he'd left space.

So driver A makes an unnecessary move, causing a collision with driver B who's already moved to avoid the collision. I'd say driver A takes the fault. I can't see it any other way.

[gruffalo]

Just seen the coverage on ITV4 and Manu did nothing wrong that I can see. Shame for Ingram budget is tight so they cannot afford to many repair bills.

[andy97]

Munster, we are going to have to agree to disagree. In my view it was an avoidable accident and Menu did not have to keep his foot in.

[MG CHRIS]

Menu should have pulled from that move and ingram shouldn't have moved the way he did 50/50 I would say. Racing accident.

Also caught up on the last race and what a race good moves throughout the field jp getting back up to 2nd and pulled off some good moves especially on shedden.
Jordan had a shocking 3rd race though the ballest really hurts the Honda more than the other.

Shaping up to be a good year very close between the top 6 and hopefully the likes of menu/gio/Jackson can become more competitive and with rising new talent think we will see a record number of drivers still in the hunt for the title come the end of the year.

[VladD]

andy97 said:

VladD said:

I think Ingram thought there was room to close the door, but misjudged it a touch. I don't blame Menu at all. He could have lifted, but BTCC is big boy stuff.

Motorsport is meant to be non contact (unless you are at Wimbledon or Hednesford etc). Big boys stuff should not mean putting someone in the wall and causing £thousands worth of damage.

I know the conversation has moved on elsewhere, but what I meant is that the colision was Ingrams fault. If they'd be gentleman racers in historics then you may expect the car behind to lift if they see someone coming across. However this is BTCC, people don't give way if you make a bad decision, which is what Ingram did. It was only a tiny mistake and pretty much a "racing incident", but it was a mistake. I'm sure if the situation had been reversed then Ingram wouldn't have lifted either.

[VladD]

Thundersports said:

I thought Menu was in the wrong. In his day if you were half a length on the inside you kept your foot in if not you backed off (he was nowhere near that either). If his rules were used across Motorsport in general there would be carnage especially in Single seaters.

Edited by Thundersports on Friday 4th April 00:49

I think that may be true going into a corner, but they were on the straight. Ingram tried to pull across in fromt of Menu to defend and misjudged it, simple as that.

[andy97]

VladD said:

andy97 said:

VladD said:

I think Ingram thought there was room to close the door, but misjudged it a touch. I don't blame Menu at all. He could have lifted, but BTCC is big boy stuff.

Motorsport is meant to be non contact (unless you are at Wimbledon or Hednesford etc). Big boys stuff should not mean putting someone in the wall and causing £thousands worth of damage.

I know the conversation has moved on elsewhere, but what I meant is that the colision was Ingrams fault. If they'd be gentleman racers in historics then you may expect the car behind to lift if they see someone coming across. However this is BTCC, people don't give way if you make a bad decision, which is what Ingram did. It was only a tiny mistake and pretty much a "racing incident", but it was a mistake. I'm sure if the situation had been reversed then Ingram wouldn't have lifted either.

Of course people do make mistakes and contact is sometime unavoidable - been there, done that - however the fact that BTCC is "professional" level motor sport makes no difference whatsoever, the rules are the same; this form of racing is meant to be non contact and where contact can be avoided it should be, in my view, no matter who made the original mistake.
Ultimately the racing would be better for it and the budgets might even be a bit lower, encouraging more people/ teams/ manufacturuers to take part.

[cjslator]

I'd have said that it was an avoidable incident, however Tom Ingram was trying to overcrowd Alain Menu (which is not acceptable behaviour iaw MSA Blue Book), something he would never back out of. That was the risk taken by Tom, alternatives were: a) move over slower, thus have chance to respond to soft contact, b) leave enough room for a car or c) move over to bully AM in the hope he'd back out.

I suppose it was an expensive lesson and I hope we don't see any more this season.

[Reardy Mister]

VladD said:

Thundersports said:

I thought Menu was in the wrong. In his day if you were half a length on the inside you kept your foot in if not you backed off (he was nowhere near that either). If his rules were used across Motorsport in general there would be carnage especially in Single seaters.

Edited by Thundersports on Friday 4th April 00:49

I think that may be true going into a corner, but they were on the straight. Ingram tried to pull across in fromt of Menu to defend and misjudged it, simple as that.

I'd call it 50/50. Ingram moved across to protect that line but Menu had a bit more speed than he had anticipated. Youthful exuberance on the part of Ingram however Menu opted to keep the boot in and teach the young fella a lesson and hook him up, where he could have lifted.

Next time Ingram will probably think twice. As it was, he didn't need to move left anyway as he had the line for the next corner. He could have just kept it nailed and left Menu no more than a cars width for the left kink before Hanging him out to dry through Clearways.