That would be Jason Plato then, racing a Chevrolet Lacetti in todays BTCC at Brands Hatch and managing to secure second place in the final race of the day, despite being punted quite hard into a big sideways slide and managing to hold it early on in the race.
Well impressive given it appears he was drafted in to drive the car at the last minute and had hardly any time to test and hone the car.
First place as it turns out, Adam got penalised due to that tap. Dunno why, Plato didn't look that bothered at the end of the race and Matt Neal gets away with doing the same thing lap after lap (for year after year) into Clearways without getting told off.
Hmmm, well if what he got up to yesterday was the norm, he wasn't exactly belting people into a really hard sideways slide like Plato ended up with.
That, and given it was debatable whether the Lacetti would run again due to the lack of a major sponsor, I suspect him being awarded first place in it will assist with finding one that bit easier. ;-)
Looked like quite a hard "tap" from the onboard, but accidental for sure. Looked like Plato braked a bit early and caught Adam out. Adam clipped his left rear corner as he pulled out. It wasn't a Matt Neal "dive up the inside and barge them out the way" sort of tap though.
Neal was pretty well behaved yesterday into Clearways. Much better than previous years. He's a dirty bastard who still seems to rely on robust moves than outright driving talent far too often for my liking. OK, it's BTCC but you don't have to push someone off at every opportunity
Top drive from old Plato in that Lacetti. Didn't it look shit after about 10 laps? Damn fast in a straight line though, even with poor corner exit speeds, especially out of Clearways. I hope they get funding to run the rest of the season.
Year after year, like I said :P Thing is, I don't have a problem with BTCC trading paint, door banging and driving round with your rear bumper half hanging off. It's best years (for me - early '90's) were full of that stuff but everyone gave as good as they got and the racing was intense. But Matt Neal's version is just to give someone a punt in a corner, send them wide and nip through as they have no chance of retaliating. I think if I had him in my mirrors I'd get one in first lol. Shame, because I used to respect Matt Neal in his Team Dynamics Nissan Primera days.
Yeah that's what I'm getting at; Adam's tap was pure racing incident and would have gone unpunished in days gone by. Matt Neal's deliberate barging always goes unpunished, maybe BTCC think it's what we want to see, I dunno.
Yep, I remember it well, used to watch them all. It got better after the 2 litre non-turbo class came in IMO, though the sierras were fantastic.
Same here. I kept watching and watching hoping he'd win one. IIRC his first win came at Knockhill in the pouring rain - wasn't there some huge incentive for a privateer win in those days (=A3250k springs to mind but I might be wrong). He just turned into a dirty bastard when he got a manufacturer drive. Giovanardi, Plato, Turkington and many before them aren't exactly angelic, but there's trading paint and there's knocking someone off line completely..
It looked a hell of a lot tighter in the bends throughout the last race than it had in the previous two.
Looks like they'd done well with the tweaks in between races.
Indeed... which poses the question, if they get the handling better, will it be by way of better downforce at the expense of straight line speed.
The amusing thing for me is that it was quicker than the Vectras... so whilst ballast on Matt Neals might have been a factor, you'd still expect to see something as well established in the series as these whipping the arse of a Daewoo in drag in a straight line. ;-)
So do I.
The thing is... GM own Vauxhall, as well as Chevrolet (Daewoo).
It makes me wonder, given how it looks like GM are going to offload Vauxhall soon, whether their thinking is to get Chevrolet established in the series so they can continue with it once Vauxhall is owned elsewhere.
Whatever, I wish some of the other manufacturers would field official teams like in the 1990s - at one point you had Volvo, Vauxhall and Nissan all giving their all to win it, and the racing was excellent as a result.
I believe Volvo are looking to make a return at some stage this season.
No, but it does make for far more interesting racing than say F1, especially when it becomes obvious someone is driving the arse off their car that little bit harder due to the red mist coming down. ;-)
I doubt BTCC will ever become as adept at bending the rules as F1 is to make sure the 'right result' happens rather than the true one.
His first win was at Donny I think, but yeah, £250k was paid for that win. None of the other privateers were close though IIRC, but that was '99 and I think there were only something like three other regular privateers running. Might be wrong there, but there was a time when the private entries were thin on the ground. There were seven works entries that year IIRC.
I think my favourite BTCC times were 1992-1996 though, there were some good races '97 to BTC times, when it got a bit crap and I stopped going to the races after 2001. I enjoyed last season though.
Mansell did a couple of races in a Mondeo at Donington. once in 1993 at the TOCA Shootout when he went off at the old hairpin and knocked himself out when he hit the wall. I was right there where it happened, I thought he'd died when it happened the impact was mental.
formatting link
The other was 1998 in the rain and was just awesome, frankly.
The Carina was fast in the early '90's, and Will Hoy (RIP) finished 2nd to Harvey in the 1992 championship
formatting link
?v=A8HhcQRRwz4&feature=related Is it me or did the cars look faster back then? The Carina tailed off after that year, as manufacturers come and go I guess.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.