BTCC Season Starts: Thruxton May 8-9

[The Wookie]

DanielSan said:

Imagine hiding behind your Mrs Facebook profile to try and have a very public go at Tim Harvey and then expecting it to go well. I know Wookie has said on here before that's he's supposedly OK as a person but he either puts a very different persona on in the paddock or Wookie has a terrible judge of character

He’s not shone himself in glory this weekend and has a lot of fences to mend in the team, particularly with Timmy his number 1 and Rob his engineer

He clearly wasn’t enjoying being back at Thruxton, right from the start of the weekend, unfortunately I think he was winding himself up into making a big mistake at some point and unfortunately he collected two others with it.

What’s a shame is that while he was behind me he was actually absolutely fine in terms of pace and hanging onto me. All of the fast corners he was matching me.

He can clearly do it he just needs to calm the f down when things aren’t going his way

[grumpy52]

The main problem with the BTCC is they run to a different set of rules and certainly a very different set of parameters for driving Standards.
All in the name of keeping the TV viewer entertained. They have a far different set of criteria and interpretation of the rules of motorsport. It was because of the BTCC that the position of Driving Standards Observers was introduced to marshalling . The standards of driver behaviour tolerated on the TOCA package is very different to the rest of motorsport. How many have noticed that the behaviour of visiting formulas to a BTCC weekend is very different to that of the regulars . Like much of modern life , introduction of the TV cameras and big budgets and the standards of behaviour slip .
Sadly those drivers that we have praised in the past for being clean are slowly getting more and more edgy in their behaviour.

[DanMalkin]

Good reply OJ.. great driving yesterday mate! Difficult conditions and that left at Noble must be properly brown trouser with cold rear tyres given how edgy the BTCC cars are.

Ref Andy Neate, There’s a saying ‘ you can’t educate pork’ that’s probably fitting..

[Truckosaurus]

The BTCC being an amusing banger race was fine when it was funded by factory teams, but now it is mostly 'independents' with varying degrees of pocket depth they need to be a bit more professional about it.

I doubt the BTCC organisers care, they've got full grids and everyone is talking about the series on the Monday morning. (Relatedly, I have no idea who won the F1)

[rscott]

[redacted]

[egor110]

Truckosaurus said:

The BTCC being an amusing banger race was fine when it was funded by factory teams, but now it is mostly 'independents' with varying degrees of pocket depth they need to be a bit more professional about it.

I doubt the BTCC organisers care, they've got full grids and everyone is talking about the series on the Monday morning. (Relatedly, I have no idea who won the F1)

How does a season on gt's compare to btcc ?

I guess the cars are more expensive but they seem to race cleaner so less crash damage.

[DanMalkin]

Impossible to directly compare. GT's are nowhere near as closely matched.
The racing due to this is far less aggressive on the whole.

Any series where there are significant numbers of cars with similar/ the same performance and drivers 'on the whole' of the same level results in much closer racing and therefore more regular contact.

In addition - BTCC, unlike club racing - is entertainment. Look at the attendance(when we can again) to BTCC compared to club races, British GT's etc - night and day difference due to the closer, more entertaining racing.

[emicen]

Sprint Racing will always be more elbows out than endurance.

Anyways, the problem has now been resolved, someone has started a 38degrees petition for Neate to be banned. There’s no coming back from that...

Edited by emicen on Monday 10th May 12:11

[DanielSan]

The Wookie said:

He’s not shone himself in glory this weekend and has a lot of fences to mend in the team, particularly with Timmy his number 1 and Rob his engineer

He clearly wasn’t enjoying being back at Thruxton, right from the start of the weekend, unfortunately I think he was winding himself up into making a big mistake at some point and unfortunately he collected two others with it.

What’s a shame is that while he was behind me he was actually absolutely fine in terms of pace and hanging onto me. All of the fast corners he was matching me.

He can clearly do it he just needs to calm the f down when things aren’t going his way

I know like every drive on the grid he's funding it in one way or another but if he keeps throwing the feam under the bus how long will they put up with it before it's decided enough is enough and they just find a way out of the contract?

[rscott]

DanielSan said:

The Wookie said:

He’s not shone himself in glory this weekend and has a lot of fences to mend in the team, particularly with Timmy his number 1 and Rob his engineer

He clearly wasn’t enjoying being back at Thruxton, right from the start of the weekend, unfortunately I think he was winding himself up into making a big mistake at some point and unfortunately he collected two others with it.

What’s a shame is that while he was behind me he was actually absolutely fine in terms of pace and hanging onto me. All of the fast corners he was matching me.

He can clearly do it he just needs to calm the f down when things aren’t going his way

I know like every drive on the grid he's funding it in one way or another but if he keeps throwing the feam under the bus how long will they put up with it before it's decided enough is enough and they just find a way out of the contract?

They'll probably start adding zeroes to the end of the repair bills if he carries behaving like a dick..

[HustleRussell]

So the whole ‘brake failure’ bit was bks then?

[The Wookie]

DanielSan said:

I know like every drive on the grid he's funding it in one way or another but if he keeps throwing the feam under the bus how long will they put up with it before it's decided enough is enough and they just find a way out of the contract?

Not my business to talk about really, especially not publicly

[p4cks]

HustleRussell said:

So the whole ‘brake failure’ bit was bks then?

Entirely.

[The Wookie]

HustleRussell said:

So the whole ‘brake failure’ bit was bks then?

In fairness to Andy, it’s an understandable mistake to make especially at the start of the season when you’re still a bit rusty and you haven’t quite regained being instinctive with some of the routines you need to do.

You obviously use the clutch to launch the car then for anyone that left foot brakes you then switch to the brake pedal once you’re rolling.

During the launch there’s a lot of process to follow, you typically apply the brakes with your right foot, activate the line lock, then load the car against the brakes with the throttle and clutch until the lights go out then release the brakes, then change feet once you’re rolling and fully off the clutch

I actually did it the opposite way round coming into the pits in free practice, I’d been scrubbing slicks on a damp track and was right foot braking so I could use the clutch and heel-toe to avoid locking the wheels and damaging the surface of the new tyres. Came towards the pits at low speed and went to brake with my left foot which was still on the clutch.

I was only going slowly in a low pressure situation so just switched to my right foot, no issue. The start of the race is a different matter, it’s a stressful situation and the margin for error is much smaller.

As for what he said getting out the car, he’s had a big shunt, emotions and adrenaline are high, he probably didn’t realise what he’d done. If you’re going to criticise anything it’s actually not having the presence of mind to question himself and find out what actually happened before saying anything publicly

ETA - typo and to make it a bit clearer

Edited by The Wookie on Monday 10th May 12:31

[Munter]

p4cks said:

HustleRussell said:

So the whole ‘brake failure’ bit was bks then?

Entirely.

I saw a suggestion he stood on the clutch. Which would explain why he thought the brakes had failed, because no matter how hard he pushed the pedal nothing happened. It's quite common in the general population to hit the wrong pedal, and therefore believe the car was somehow faulty. Old people in autos can often be heard to say "The harder I pushed the brake, the more it sped up", after they park inside a house/swimming pool/shop window.

On the other hand. "Elite competition" race driver. Not really a good enough excuse for having the crash, even if it does explain his comments immediately after the crash.

[AndrewGP]

The Wookie said:

HustleRussell said:

So the whole ‘brake failure’ bit was bks then?

In fairness to Andy, it’s an understandable mistake to make especially at the start of the season when you’re still a bit rusty and you haven’t quite regained being instinctive with some of the routines you need to do.

You obviously use the clutch to launch the car then for anyone that left foot brakes you turn switch to the brake pedal once you’re rolling. During the launch there’s a lot of process to follow, you typically apply the brakes with your right foot, activate the line lock, then load the car against the brakes with the throttle and clutch until the lights go out then release it.

I actually did it the opposite way round coming into the pits in free practice, I’d been scrubbing slicks on a damp track and was right foot braking so I could use the clutch and heel-toe to avoid locking the wheels and damaging the surface of the new tyres. Came towards the pits at low speed and went to brake with my left foot which was still on the clutch.

I was only going slowly in a low pressure situation so just switched to my right foot, no issue. The start of the race is a different matter, it’s a stressful situation and the margin for error is much smaller.

As for what he said getting out the car, he’s had a big shunt, emotions and adrenaline are high, he probably didn’t realise what he’d done.

Ollie, that's all well and good, but in that case Neate should simply have said 'I don't know what happened' instead of going straight for 'not my fault, the car had a mechanical issue'.

Regardless of whether he continues or not in BTCC, his professional credibility is now zero.

[The Wookie]

AndrewGP said:

Ollie, that's all well and good, but in that case Neate should simply have said 'I don't know what happened' instead of going straight for 'not my fault, the car had a mechanical issue'.

Regardless of whether he continues or not in BTCC, his professional credibility is now zero.

Like I said, if you’re going to criticise him for anything it’s that

[Munter]

AndrewGP said:

Ollie, that's all well and good, but in that case Neate should simply have said 'I don't know what happened' instead of going straight for 'not my fault, the car had a mechanical issue'.

Regardless of whether he continues or not in BTCC, his professional credibility is now zero.

If you stood hard on the brake, and the car rear ended someone. As you get out the car would you be likely to say "My brakes didn't work". I think you would. A short time later when you get back in and find the brakes do work, then you might change your statement. But initially you'd be fully in the belief your brakes failed.

[t400ble]

If he pressed the clutch instead of the brake, would that not show up on the data?

[HustleRussell]

Thanks for going to the trouble Wookie. I had in my head that these are two pedal cars for some reason.

I was sceptical of the ‘brake failure’ thing just because total brake failure occurring between the green flag lap / stopping on the grid and the first corner is so improbable.