BTCC - Snetterton - Rounds 16, 17, 18
Discussion
rscott said:
bordercontrol said:
Is it just me or is Ollie Jackson having a really rough time at the minute?
He's always a target it seems, but even more so than usual today.
king Audi'Yesterday was a piss take though, five times I got punted off or out of the way and it's no ones f
king fault. Usually I'm pragmatic about these sort of things but it's getting stupid and I'm genuinely starting to wonder if Alan Gow hates me for some reasonThe Wookie said:
Adrian W said:
Sheddon at it again, I hope Ollie buts in a complaint
Apparently he didn't hit me, the kerb that I'd hit more or less every lap on the test day, free practice, Qualifying and the laps leading up to that moment suddenly made the back of my car lift a foot off the ground when there was a Honda behind it 
Edited by Adrian W on Monday 31st July 07:45
Adrian W said:
Interesting that one Ollie, its not often that the camera is pointing straight at you when it happens, there is no doubt that sheddon rammed you, as he rammed every other car he overtook, that Honda must have a huge piece of metal behind the bumper, if it wouldn't be such a waste of effort and money it must be tempting to salmon the brakes when he's behind you on the straight.
I know, the daft thing is I wouldn't have cared a fraction as much if he'd done it on a slower corner where I might not end up barrel rolling at 100mph if I failed to catch it. I don't mind a bit of argy bargy if it's in sensible places with a proportional amount of forceEdited by Adrian W on Monday 31st July 07:45
Pointless causing more damage to the car, yesterday probably cost me 10 grand anyway, all of it pointless too.
There's a big chunk of the field looking at TCR because of all of this b
ks, they need to crack down on it.It wouldn't be the first time a race series ran to a script.
Need to promote a round ?
Get the local driver to the top of the championship .
Just to make sure slow the leader down .
Oh wait launch a missile at him just to make sure .
Cynical? Maybe
Conspiracy? Probably
Happened before? Certainly.
Need to promote a round ?
Get the local driver to the top of the championship .
Just to make sure slow the leader down .
Oh wait launch a missile at him just to make sure .
Cynical? Maybe
Conspiracy? Probably
Happened before? Certainly.
Austin yet again demonstrated why it's completely unbelievable that he has such a following from quite a large group of fans.
Do they still believe they own part of his team even though he doesn't run his own cars anymore and is just using their cash to help fund his drive in the Toyota?
Do they still believe they own part of his team even though he doesn't run his own cars anymore and is just using their cash to help fund his drive in the Toyota?
The Wookie said:
I know, the daft thing is I wouldn't have cared a fraction as much if he'd done it on a slower corner where I might not end up barrel rolling at 100mph if I failed to catch it. I don't mind a bit of argy bargy if it's in sensible places with a proportional amount of force
Pointless causing more damage to the car, yesterday probably cost me 10 grand anyway, all of it pointless too.
There's a big chunk of the field looking at TCR because of all of this bks, they need to crack down on it.
Like you say - the front runners don't seem to have cottoned on to the fact you have gone from a chubby funster in an unsorted donkey, to a streamlined athlete (sort of Pointless causing more damage to the car, yesterday probably cost me 10 grand anyway, all of it pointless too.
There's a big chunk of the field looking at TCR because of all of this b
ks, they need to crack down on it.
) in a top 10 bothering car. TCR looks like a good shout - when it first came along I didn't think it had much chance of taking off, now it looks great, with cool looking cars, a diverse mixture of manufacturers and potentially about half (ish) the cost. It will be a good fit between Clio Cup level and BTCC and there is definitely room for it. TV coverage and promotion will be key. Chin up, in a few years you can stick on the BTCC 2017 season review and show the kids daddy in action. And being punted up the arse every few corners
DanielSan said:
eastlmark said:
got to wonder it this whole Plato/ Sutton car thing is a team effort at not getting the cars slowed down by the MSA so Sutton can take the title and the others taking a hit for the team.
Boost reductions and the like go off the fastest car not a team average. Rob Collard is the reason the BMW long first gear penalty was so severe, the car obviously gets off the line well due to physics but he's usually the fastest starter on the grid full stop so the effect was always more dramatic when compared to his team mates. eastlmark said:
I get that but they could hide behind the story that Sutton is an exceptional driver (whether true or not) in a bad car hence avoiding too much attention being place on the cars performance.
It'd be an elaborate way of trying to get some more performance though, it could be argued it worked if that was the case given the massive straight line advantage the car had from Oulton Park upto this weekend, Collard did have a point regarding the Subaru boost levels, it drove away from the BM's down the straight. It wasn't a surprise it got pegged back after that point. Can't have one car running away with the championship and it not going to the final round. 
just wish sheddon had been booted off aswell!The Wookie said:
Pointless causing more damage to the car, yesterday probably cost me 10 grand anyway, all of it pointless too.
Genuine question Olly - why do you race in the BTCC? I've never understood why privateers enter, as it's just a load of badly driven shopping cars. Why not go into something better*? Or do you do it to be in front of the crowds? I'd much rather be in British GT or ELMS or whatever.
Glad to see the Audi is getting there, but not sure why you bother.
(* By better I don't mean faster - I appreciate that the BTCC cars are pretty quick)
Altrezia said:
Genuine question Olly - why do you race in the BTCC? I've never understood why privateers enter, as it's just a load of badly driven shopping cars. Why not go into something better*? Or do you do it to be in front of the crowds?
I'd much rather be in British GT or ELMS or whatever.
Glad to see the Audi is getting there, but not sure why you bother.
(* By better I don't mean faster - I appreciate that the BTCC cars are pretty quick)
fair points, and a good question, but by recent standards British GT is at times not much better in terms of driving standards!I'd much rather be in British GT or ELMS or whatever.
Glad to see the Audi is getting there, but not sure why you bother.
(* By better I don't mean faster - I appreciate that the BTCC cars are pretty quick)
Altrezia said:
Genuine question Olly - why do you race in the BTCC? I've never understood why privateers enter, as it's just a load of badly driven shopping cars. Why not go into something better*? Or do you do it to be in front of the crowds?
I'd much rather be in British GT or ELMS or whatever.
Glad to see the Audi is getting there, but not sure why you bother.
(* By better I don't mean faster - I appreciate that the BTCC cars are pretty quick)
Sorry for the essay but it's not a straighforward answer...I'd much rather be in British GT or ELMS or whatever.
Glad to see the Audi is getting there, but not sure why you bother.
(* By better I don't mean faster - I appreciate that the BTCC cars are pretty quick)
Well I'm a sprint racer at heart and I like close racing and whatever people say about driving standards I think BTCC is one of the most competitive in the world at the moment, the problem isn't that the drivers aren't capable it's that they're too aggressive, if not desperate. Plus although BTCC is more expensive than some of the feeder series, because of the profile the team and I can pull in enough sponsorship to mean that I have to find less than I do in other lower series.
British GT I found just as political (if not more cliquey too) and the budgets for GT3 cars are absolutely astronomical, some of the figures that Shaun has mentioned with the AMG properly give me the fear; you're talking about hitting a single kerb heavily being equivalent to a moderately bad weekend's worth of damage in BTCC. Although I'd be categorized a pro and I believe I could compete near the top of the field in BGT, I also don't have the status or the time for self promotion to pick up a paid for drive.
I've had some good weekends in other stuff, for instance last year I had a great weekend at Mugello in VdeV sharing a Ginetta G57 with a mate who is a strong am driver. We won the class and came second overall in a big field, it also felt good for me at a time when I was getting a proper slagging off on social media to jump in a car with double the power to weight ratio and ten times the downforce of anything I'd even sat in before to be within a few tenths of the Ginetta factory drivers. The only downsides were that I felt a bit vulnerable being as big as I am in a car travelling that quickly, I also royally screwed up my neck and back with the lateral G-force (in fact I still suffer from it every now and again) so would need to train a lot more to drive that type of car regularly.
This year I decided to focus on BTCC more as I felt like we had a better chance of some good results with the way things were going last year, I think that's already been vindicated and I believe we've got some more good results in store for the remainder of the season too.
I said to Shaun at the start of the year that depending on how things went this might end up being my last year in BTCC. There's no point carrying on if I don't feel I can progress and move forwards, but as it stands I am still moving forwards. It gives me a lot of pride that we've gone from tugging the bottom end of a less competitive field to genuinely being in the hunt in a tight field with some well respected drivers in cars which have been developed or are being run on much bigger budgets than ours.
I must admit TCR does look tempting, I know a lot of the paddock are talking about it at the moment too, the level of crashy shenanigans is a large factor in it for most too.
Aside from any of that though I really enjoy my weekends with the team, they're a great bunch of guys, I've considered Shaun a mate since our days with the Golf, our sponsors Cobra Exhausts are lovely people too and a pleasure to spend time with, and although there's a lot of b
ks to dislike about BTCC there's more than enough to keep me happy on a weekend. I just wish that there was a bit more respect for each other on track.lucido grigio said:
Good detailed answer Ollie.
I saw you in the Lotus in BGT at Brands bitd.....
Seems a loooong time ago now!! We had some good weekends in that too, it never ran well on the Avons in BGT but I used to have some good runs in the Euro GT4 stuff on the Michelins! I saw you in the Lotus in BGT at Brands bitd.....
Although weirdly we did win at Spa when they combined the two and managed to beat all the Michelin runners at the same time!
I think it would be worth a few people who have commented here to take a moment to read Simon's post on Facebook....
https://www.facebook.com/simon.belcher.161/posts/1...
I've known Simon a lot longer than I've known Rob and had the pleasure of working closely with him and the team for a number of years now. Simon is a completely no-nonsense guy, there's never an agenda with him, he's most certainly not one of the BTCC whingers and will always call a spade a spade.
https://www.facebook.com/simon.belcher.161/posts/1...
I've known Simon a lot longer than I've known Rob and had the pleasure of working closely with him and the team for a number of years now. Simon is a completely no-nonsense guy, there's never an agenda with him, he's most certainly not one of the BTCC whingers and will always call a spade a spade.
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