BTCC 2014: Croft
Mark Benson watched the action at Croft and spoke to a few drivers as well. Read everything here!
In the minds of many, we may not be seeing the 'golden era' of Touring Car racing in the UK, but the crowds at an overcast Croft demonstrated that the BTCC can still pull in the punters.
Menu and Plato getting reacquainted...
With Colin Turkington taking pole and continuing a run of success that sees him topping the leaderboard for the first time since his 2009, it looked like another good Croft meeting for the BMW driver (he took two wins at the circuit last year). Plato, Shedden, Neal and Jordan slotted in behind on the grid. A flying Adam Morgan narrowly missed a third place grid slot, a red flag bringing the Saturday session to an early close meaning he had to settle for eighth.
Croft demands a careful setup, especially for front-wheel drive cars as the circuit has a wide range of corners meaning there's no 'one size fits all' solution. On Sunday morning, I spoke with PHer and STP driver Ollie Jackson about his approach to the race: "Croft is hard on tyres and we've had to make compromises on setup, I'm getting wheelspin through the Jim Clark Esses which hurts my overall lap times, but the settings should mean I can preserve my tyres". He was hopeful of making up places later in the race: "Dan (Welch) has a different driving style which seems harder on his tyres, so I'm hoping to make a place or two over him in the latter stages of the race".
Three cars into one corner doesn't work
A retirement on lap one after contact with Rob Austin meant Morgan's weekend continued to frustrate, while Hunter Abbott gained his best result so far, moving the Audi up from 17th on the grid to a top ten finish. Ollie Jackson meanwhile did exactly what he had aimed for, making up five places on his grid position during the race, two places ahead of Welch in the sister car.
Between races I managed to grab ten minutes with Adam Morgan and ask him what he thought of the weekend so far; did he feel that fate had denied him what qualifying seemed to promise? "I sat there on the grid for race one and right ahead of me were the Hondas, BMWs and MGs, so we're just where we need to be with regard to pace. We're effectively up there with what passes for works teams so I'm pleased with the progress we've made this season".
Sometimes they all kept it on track
How does he feel about starting from the back of the grid? "In many ways it's easier, the pressure is off and the guys in front are there to be passed, it's a lot of fun - and what's the point of doing this if it's not fun?" Adam then went on to have a whole lot of fun, making up 17 places in race two, coming from 29th to finish 12th.
Turkington once again led the race from lights to flag, a second victory never really looking in any doubt. Likewise Shedden took another strong second, finishing six seconds behind the Ulsterman. Teammate Neal followed thanks to two perfectly executed passes under braking into Sunny to pass Plato, a move which seemed to have started way back at Tower. Neal flew through the Esses and Barcroft, then got Collard with an almost identical move a few laps later. Andrew Jordan made a similar move on Plato who was by then seemingly struggling with tyres to move into fifth. Plato however, never far from controversy, was involved in a last-lap coming together with old rival Menu, resulting in a DNF for the Swiss driver who had looked strong until that point and a ten place grid penalty for Plato in race three.
Plato made his MG very hard to pass
Ingram's words proved prophetic as the reverse draw put him behind Goff at the front of the grid for race three. At the start of what proved to be an action packed finale to the day's racing, Goff ran wide through Clervaux allowing Ingram the run up the inside, only for Goff to come back across the front of Ingram giving Giovanardi the narrowest of openings alongside into Hawthorn, however the gap wasn't wide enough for both cars and the Speedworks driver was sent sideways across the grass and into retirement by the time the pack reached Tower. The Italian's hold of the lead lasted all of a couple of corners until the Airwaves driver ended up in the tyres at Barcroft, resulting in an eventual retirement and bringing out the safety car. From the restart, Jordan built up a healthy lead, while Turkington seemed to slow and eventually retired with clutch issues, possibly exacerbated by the long hold at the start of race one. Neal had been demoted to the back of the grid owing to a ride height infringement in race one and early after the restart was involved in a three car tangle as Austin made an optimistic lunge through Clervaux, taking both Neal and Warren Scott off. Only Scott was to survive, with Neal limping back to the pits and Austin being pushed off the circuit by the marshals.
Gravel at Clervaux served its purpose!
As the sun set on another Croft BTCC meeting it wasn't hard to see what the crowds love about the series, whole families come out to see the racing which is accessible and offers drama and spectacle with a fascinating cast of characters. Paddock access for spectators is immediate and uninterrupted, you're likely to bump into a top driver walking across from the hospitality area to the pit garages and as often as not they'll stop and have a photo taken. There's no doubting the BTCC still offers great entertainment.
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You can watch the races here. I missed it on the telly too.
It wasn't my choice to have it like that so I made a few changes for Race 2 which got rid of it at the expense of a little more tyre degradation.
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