BTCC 2004 - Croft Race 18 Results Up

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 25 May 2013, 15:19

I will therefore reserve Fast Tech for '05.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 25 May 2013, 21:43

Report now up on the same post as the results. I tried a team by team report with a rating for each car's race. It took forever and I'll only do this for the enduros.

You may request upgrades for Cadwell now.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 09 Jun 2013, 18:22

2004 BTCC Cadwell 1000 Entry List (53 Entered)

Track Map

Weekend Schedule

Friday
BTCC Pre-Qualifying (1 Hour, both drivers must set a flying lap)
BTCDS Practice 1 (1 Hour)
BTCC Co-Driver Practice (1 Hour)
BTCC Main Driver Practice (1 Hour)
BTCDS Qualifying (1 Hour)

Saturday
BTCDS Race 7 (75 km, 22 laps)
BTCC Qualifying (2 Hours, both drivers must set a flying lap)
BTCDS Race 8 (75 km, 22 laps)
BTCC Top Ten Shootout

Sunday
BTCC Warm Up (1 Hour)
BTCC Cadwell 1000 (1000 km, 288 laps)

So we are finally here, the inaugural Cadwell 1000 held at a slightly upgraded Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. A brand spanking new pitlane and paddock has been built on the left hand side of the main straight to accommodate the huge entry list we have received. 53 cars have entered including 29 regulars and 26 wild cards from all over Europe! Since only a grid of 42 will be allowed to start the race proper, a pre-qualifying session will be held for all of the wild card entries to fight for the 13 grid spots not already held by our regulars who will be locked into the race.

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 09 Jun 2013, 18:53

One thing I dont understand - why Cadwell for the endure? Why not one of the more established tracks like Brands or Silverstone?

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 09 Jun 2013, 18:55

pasta_maldonado wrote:One thing I dont understand - why Cadwell for the endure? Why not one of the more established tracks like Brands or Silverstone?

I wanted something as close to Bathurst as possible and Cadwell is the closest we have in Britain.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 20 Jun 2013, 21:29

I plan to run the Cadwell 1000 meeting during the middle of July. I still need to make the wildcard liveries before then. You still have time to request upgrades before then.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 20 Jul 2013, 21:51

Samster wrote:I plan to run the Cadwell 1000 meeting during the middle of July. I still need to make the wildcard liveries before then. You still have time to request upgrades before then.

Should hopefully be starting this event on Monday, finally. Just a few final things to sort with the car files.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 23 Jul 2013, 01:15

BTCC Cadwell 1000 Pre-Qualify Results

The inaugural Cadwell 1000 meeting is finally underway with the pre-qualifying session. All 24 wildcard entries must go through this session with the fastest 13 making it through to join the regulars for the rest of the weekend.

BMW's ETCC effort dominated the session with only Frank Diefenbacher for SEAT and a strong Tommy Rustad for Opel Team Sweden spoiling their party at the top of the times. The big surprise however was Lehtonen Motorsports from the largely unrecognised Finish Touring Car Championship who qualify thanks to their last minute signing, Mika Salo. Toyota Castrol Racing will be happy that their token Corolla made it through, while DTC rivals, Peugeot Sport just barely missed out after looking safe earlier on in the two hour session.

So for the first time since 1998, Audi are represented in a BTCC race, while Toyota haven't been seen here since 1996. Opel meanwhile will be represented in the series for the first time ever thanks to Rustad's and Moen's efforts.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 23 Jul 2013, 06:28

Well, that's one less Focus for us to worry about then.

Peteroli34 · Post by **Peteroli34** » 23 Jul 2013, 11:22

Samster, you put in a good effort getting within 6tenths of a second of qualfying for the race in that lexus

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 23 Jul 2013, 16:13

peteroli34 wrote:Samster, you put in a good effort getting within 6tenths of a second of qualifying for the race in that lexus

I used Sears Point to represent Cadwell since it isn't available for NR2003, its similar in size and has quite a few hills too even if it doesn't have nearly as much forest around it. Sears happens to be a track I do well on, (one of the few road courses I can actually drive competently with a keyboard, Oulton being another of those). Plus the fact that NR2003 doesn't take car ratings into account when you are driving certainly helped. So I'd have set that time even in one of the Vauxhall Astras. Still I beat my co-driver who has solid driver ratings. Looking forward to running in the BTCDS races which should be my best performances of the season.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 28 Jul 2013, 23:34

BTCC Cadwell 1000 Qualifying Results

Fabrizio Giovanardi puts the #5 VX Racing Astra on provisional pole following the main qualifying session. Of the wildcards all three of the Schnitzer BMWs make SuperPole along with incredibly, Kristoffersson Motorsport thanks to an fantastic lap by Fredrik Ekblom. On the other hand, the Alfas and Civic aren't looking very suited to the track so far this weekend, defending champion Yvan Muller will be extremely disappointed to be starting all the way down in 27th despite being a part of one of the two pairings in the field featuring two former champions.

SuperPole Contenders

So like the Bathurst 1000, a superpole shootout will be held to decide the top ten. Teams must nominate one of their drivers to set their entry's only flying lap. The cars will run in reverse order so the #42 BMW will run first and the #5 Astra will run last.

So I need driver nominations from the following members by the time I run Superpole on Wednesday.
Eurobrun, Blindcave Salamander, Andrew and Stramala.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 29 Jul 2013, 00:17

Matt Neal and Colin Turkington will set the times for their respective pairings.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 29 Jul 2013, 07:53

40th and 42nd? Whelp, looks like it'll be a long day for our guys.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 29 Jul 2013, 10:03

Uh, Tech-Speed will nominate Alain Meu and Nicola Larini.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 29 Jul 2013, 14:45

62nd and 72nd? That takes talent...

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 31 Jul 2013, 14:28

Reid please

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 31 Jul 2013, 21:53

Just need EuroBrun's nominations. I'll give him till Friday.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 02 Aug 2013, 09:12

All the full time drivers will do it

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 07 Aug 2013, 22:17

BTCC Cadwell 1000 Top Ten Shootout Results

Andy Priaulx set a scorcher of a qualifying lap to take pole position for BMW for the inaugural Cadwell 1000. Despite going out fifth of the ten drivers, none of the following drivers could take advantage of a more rubbered in track to knock the Guernsey man off the pole. The other big gainer from the shootout was Robert Huff who went from 8th to 3rd. Conversely, Matt Neal drops from 2nd to 8th. With the gap from 2nd down to 8th only being just over two tenths, there was little room for any errors.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 08 Aug 2013, 22:23

I will aim to start the race next Wednesday, you have until then to tell me who will start in each car. I will then work out the strategies for each car as the race goes on myself since they are subject to change depending on how many safety cars we get. You can however state how many stints you want each driver to run. I'm expecting a nine stint race in the extremely unlikely case of a full green race (more if we get many safety cars), the minimum laps that each driver must run will be 100 laps (roughly three stints).

I will be running the race with safety cars turned off. Instead if I see a situation that I deem worthy of a safety car I will stop the race run, record the current leader-board, start a new race with qualifying redone then with NR2003 Save Game Editor I will reset the grid to match the leader-board and restart the race with the laps already completed being taken away from the total distance. This is my way of getting around the caution happy system of NR2003 which has tended to throw out the safety car for things as little as cars being spun around or mechanical failures regardless of whether they actually continue or not. I will also take this opportunity to make driver swaps. Any 'swaps' under green conditions won't actually be done though for the sake of realism I will be stating so in the report.

Also with this system I can split up the running of this race into three or four parts, as it is extremely unlikely I would get the opportunity to run a 6-7 hour race in one go. I'll be posting updates of the current leader-board as well as a review after each part. Finally I was going to provide a live commentary but I have finally ditched my old laptop since I've figured out how to get my new one to run NR2003 properly. So I only have one laptop now which of course means I can't get online while running a race. Hopefully the updates after each part will be sufficient coverage for you.

WaffleCat · Post by **WaffleCat** » 08 Aug 2013, 23:49

Sascha Massen and David Leslie will start the Cadwell 1000 for Synchro Motorsports.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 09 Aug 2013, 03:00

Samster wrote:...I will be running the race with safety cars turned off...

Boo! Where's the fun in that? All the real fun is when the SC starts producing weird shite anyway

Anyway, for TH-L, Larkham will start the #10 car and will alternate driving stints with Halliday for the entire race. For the #73 car, Leason will double-stint the first segment, Doble will double stint the second, and so on and so forth until they inevitably crash the car.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 09 Aug 2013, 05:42

Wizzie wrote:
Samster wrote:...I will be running the race with safety cars turned off...

Boo! Where's the fun in that? All the real fun is when the SC starts producing weird shite anyway

Not when the AI keeps screwing up so you consistently get runs of 1 green flag lap. Why do you think Cynon runs TMMC road course races without cautions?

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 09 Aug 2013, 05:46

Salamander wrote:
Wizzie wrote:
Samster wrote:...I will be running the race with safety cars turned off...

Boo! Where's the fun in that? All the real fun is when the SC starts producing weird shite anyway

Not when the AI keeps screwing up so you consistently get runs of 1 green flag lap. Why do you think Cynon runs TMMC road course races without cautions?

Ah, fair enough then.

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 09 Aug 2013, 07:04

Reid and eaves will start

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 09 Aug 2013, 09:23

Hughes will start #6 due to poor qualifying. The other two cars will have the co drivers starting

SUPERSPRINT~!

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 09 Aug 2013, 11:19

Jordan and Harvey will start their respective cars

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 09 Aug 2013, 16:41

Turkington, Rydell, and Herbert will start.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 19 Aug 2013, 19:45

Finally I have this race underway and got 68 of the 288 laps in before our first SC worthy incident.

Andy Priaulx lead the first two stints from the start, spending the first gradually pulling away from Marcel Fassler and Colin Turkington, while behind Timo Scheider would lead a train of cars that made up the rest of the top ten. Finding themselves stuck in the Scheider train were Alain Menu, Anthony Reid, Rickard Rydell, James Thompson, Jorg Muller and Warren Hughes once the latter got by Tommy Kristofferson's Audi who led the next group of cars. Further back on the opening lap, Johnny Herbert made contact with Augusto Farfus and Sascha Maassen through Charlies sending him wide and into the path of Thed Bjork. Herbert was fired off into the grass as a result which put him at the back of the field.

But the main controversy in the opening laps surrounded the Checkers and Wreckers Racing Lexus of Sam Hempsall. Having failed to qualify for the race on Friday, the team weren't going to let a silly thing such as qualification rules get in the way of their dream of running in this race and shocked everyone by somehow managing to sneak Hempsall out of the paddock and pitlane around ten seconds after the field had already started. All the officials could do about this 43rd car illegally circling around was furiously wave the black flag at it until Hempsall eventually broke his gearbox after just 16 laps. But by then he had already picked off Nick Leason's Focus (easily the slowest car on track) and was closing in on Duncan Huisman's Proton in 40th.

The next car out would be Jason Plato's TDR Civic which blew its camshaft on lap 27 and ending a miserable weekend for the 2001 champion and his co-driver, Darren Turner who hadn't even had a chance to drive in the race yet. Plato had failed to make any progress from his awful qualifying position, still in 20th and stuck behind Markus Winkelhock when his car went up in smoke on the Park Straight. Shortly after came the first pitstops where the top three remained the same, though Fassler jumped out of the #5 to allow Fabrizio Giovanardi into the car. The extra time taken meant that Turkington was right on his bumper after the stops though the Italian managed to pull away again as the leaders began to catch the kind of traffic that is more of a challenge to pass than Leason. Scheider did the same and got out of the #88 to let Robert Huff in which caused them to loose 4th to Thompson who stayed in the #7. The #2, #77, #17, #42 and the #6 also made driver swaps along with the majority of the rest of the field.

The top ten after the first round of stops was Priaulx, Giovanardi, Turkington, Thompson, Huff, Laurent Aiello, Matt Neal, Dan Eaves, Dirk Muller and Luke Hines, the latter along with the #78 right behind had made some quick drivers swaps and gained time on the cars in front having run just inside the top 15 in the first stint. Warren Hughes meanwhile suffered an awful stop which dropped him down to 12th despite no driver change.

Not alot happened positions wise at the front, though Giovanardi, Turks and Thompson all managed to regain some time on Priaulx. Meanwhile, Neal managed to get by Aiello for 6th while Eaves became the new cork in the bottle for this stint as he led the battle for 8th-12th. A number of cars have had to make an extra stop to fix car issues, the worst of which befell the #23 Edenbridge of Mike Jordan in the early stages, costing them two laps. The #25, #67, #64 and #10 also had mechanical issues in all cases loosing around a lap. TH-Larkham were especially disapointed as their issues spoilt a great start by Mark Larkham who jumped from 40th to 36th at the start while Edenbridge already find both of their cars out of sequence, following up their double DNF in the Spa 500.

After 62 laps, the second round of stops began, during which Eaves clumsily slid into Jens Edman's Corolla at Mansfield just after his pitstop. Both cars spun out but managed to continue on to make repairs, but a few laps later Satoshi Motoyama tried an ambitious move on Gavin Pyper going into Copice, possibly desperate to avoid going a lap down. Motoyama's Honda was speared off into the tire barriers and out of the race while Pyper's Proton was forced to cut the corner, escaping with minor damage. The safety car was called out for the first time today, with only Huff yet to make his stop. The current order for the restart is shown below along with who has done each stint shown by the driver initials on the right.

Cadwell Running Order After 72 Laps

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 23 Aug 2013, 23:31

Good lord, TH-L are being even more useless than usual. We're gonna need attrition to go our way if we want to walk away with some points.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 12 Sep 2013, 00:17

Since I ran the part over two weeks ago its about time I posted it on here. Giovanardi and Fassler still lead but are now chased by the two SEATs while the #7 and #11 have dropped down the order during Boullion and Mollekens' stints. Further down the #1 Alfa has finally made some progress through the field and Yvan Muller now finds himself in 8th after some great pitstops by N Technology.

Though there hasn't been nearly enough attrition for my liking, there have been a few incidents. Dirk Muller suffered a puncture in the #42 BMW which briefly dropped the Muller duo off the lead lap until the rest of the field made their scheduled stops. Gordon Shedden found himself getting rear ended by Alan Gurr almost immediately after stepping back into the TDR #57 forcing them to pit again and dropping them a lap down. Most significant was the collision between Alessandro Balzan and Tommy Rustad which caused the latter's retirement from the race and bringing out the safety car for the second time. Below is the order for the second restart.

Cadwell 1000 After 149/288 Laps

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 12 Sep 2013, 01:17

That's it. We're getting the paydriver with the most money and build a Mondeo next year. Surely it has to be faster than this piece of shite Focus.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 12 Oct 2013, 21:50

I aim to get this restarted again on Monday with the final two parts of the Cadwell 1000 over this next week. From there I'll try and stick to a routine of one race meeting per week schedule and then I might actually get to 2005 before Christmas.

It's been too long.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 13 Oct 2013, 07:16

Sorry Samster, but I have to withdraw from your series. I don't have the required commitment for this series.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 14 Oct 2013, 21:17

Fabrizio Giovanardi lead from the restart till the fifth round of pitstops but SEAT's Rickard Rydell kept him honest by keeping within a second of the lead Vauxhall all the way. Colin Turkington in the second SEAT lacked the leading pace in this stint and lead a train of around half a dozen cars. Andy Priaulx and James Thompson both managed to demote Turks to 5th and set about hunting down the leaders. Making up the rest of the top ten by the pitstops were, Robert Huff, Yvan Muller, Jorg Muller (really flying in this stint having restarted 15th), Alessandro Zanardi and Warren Hughes (lacked pace all race). Laurent Aiello meanwhile suffered a puncture which put his TechSpeed Astra a lap down until the pitstops where he would regain his lap.

Giovanardi suffered an appalling stop and lost the lead to the #17, now driven by Matt Neal and almost lost out to Priaulx too. Thompson retained 4th from Dirk Muller (taking over from Jorg), Tom Chilton (taken over from Turks), Yvan Muller, Timo Scheider (Huff), Antonio Garcia (Zanardi) and Warren Hughes. The race would be interrupted for the third time by the safety car on lap 197 when John Cleland lost control of his TDR Civic coming out of Coppice and backed into the tires on the outside of turn 2. Cleland is uninjured but he and Alan van der Merwe are out of the race, leaving just one TDR remaining in the race.

For the first time, the safety car came out in the middle of a stint, creating a split in strategies.

Option 1 - Pit now and switch drivers to fulfill the minimum laps for both drivers but loose track position. This will allow teams to only risk having to make one (or even no more if one of their drivers has already completed their minimum laps) driver changes under green rather than two and ensure that they can make the finish on two more stops.

Option 2 - Stay out and gain track position but this will leave them to have to make at least one more driver change to fulfill the minimum laps for both drivers. This is especially costly if the remainder of the race remains green. Also since they will have to make their next stop in around 15 laps, they will be at risk of not making the finish on just two more pitstops. If the race stays green then some fuel management will be necessary. This option also allowed lapped cars to regain a lap by passing the cars that make a pitstop.

So in the running order shown below, the top 11 chose option 2 while the rest on the lead lap chose option 1. Several lapped cars took the opportunity to regain a lap by staying out and getting waved past the safety car. However they weren't able to catch up to the cars in front by the time the safety car came in and therefore restart nearly a minute behind the rest. 21 cars are now on the lead lap when only 17 were before this latest safety car. Matt Neal will lead the restart.

Further down the order Markus Winkelhock also hit mechanical troubles which cost the #3 a lap while James Kaye was delayed slightly when he was tapped around by Carl Breeze at Coppice. Mike Jordan's #23 finally retired after a miserable race after hitting yet more troubles while Robert Dahlgren's Volvo suffered a clutch failure on entry for his pitstop.

After 201/288 Laps

And since FMecha has given up, this leaves GA Motorsports available if someone wants to take over. I'll be running them myself until then.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 14 Oct 2013, 23:10

The distinct lack of attrition has absolutely sunk our weekend here at TH-L Motorsport.

Also, if Halliday is able to complete the minimum laps during this stint, we will put Larkham in the car until the end at the next stop.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 04 Nov 2013, 00:14

Finally complete. I'll post a report of this final part tomorrow. Saved the best action till the final stages which ended up with a nice 6 car battle for the win in the final stint.

Matt Neal lead off the restart and lead until he and the other drivers who didn't stop under the safety car made their pitstops. Dirk Muller managed to keep up with the lead SEAT while Tom Chilton in the second SEAT remained in 3rd, holding up the rest of the top five.

Soon after the cars on the alternate strategy made their stops just moments before Phil Bennett binned his GA Astra coming out of the Gooseneck causing him to flip over a few times. This brought out the safety car again.

The next run of green flag laps was interrupted by a sudden burst of rain, which caught out Warren Hughes as the Vauxhall driver entered the Hall Bends. Hughes spun around, hitting the wall then bounced back into the path of James Thompson and Sascha Maassen. All three were knocked out of the race giving Thompson his first DNF of the season. The safety car was brought out for the fifth time allowing the rest of the field to stick the wets on. Everyone except for Rob Austin in the third SEAT who stayed out on dries and gained the lead. This was definitely a bold gamble but the rain had stopped again by the time the Hall's corner pile up was cleared away. If he could survive the half a dozen or so laps it would take for the dries to gain an advantage over the wets this could put him near the front on merit, though he would still have to stop again for fuel since it had been nearly 20 laps since his last stop. Meanwhile Alain Menu pitted just a couple of laps before the SC came in to top up for the final run to the finish and decided he might as well put the dries back on. Since he was just barely within the fuel window, he would not have to pit again.

Around 8 laps after the restart after the former initially got swamped by the entire field, Austin and Menu were soon easily the fastest cars on track once the track had dried enough. The rest of the field gradually responded by pitting for dries and filling up till the flag, the SEATs and the Tech-Speeds making the switch first, being the first teams to know when the track would be dry enough thanks to their teammates gambles. By then though, Austin and Menu had both made up almost all of the time they lost when the track was still too wet. SEAT now had all of their cars in the top three with Rickard Rydell and Colin Turkington (now in their cars for the final stints) were split by Austin while Menu was now 7th behind Fabrizio Giovanardi, Robert Huff and Anthony Reid, the latter having made an excellent comeback since the #2 WSR managed to get back onto the lead lap. Austin let Turks by for 2nd just before Huff brought out the sixth and final safety car of the day. Huff had been stuck onto the outside of turn two by Reid when the Scot made a pass on him and Menu followed him through into Charlies. Huff put his two left tires onto the still damp grass causing him to loose control of his Astra and bin it in the tire barrier.

Austin would make his final stop to top up with fuel and a driver switch during the SC period, the #19 SEAT being the only car still in danger of running out. With Herbert now in the car, they dropped down to 14th. The top ten for the final restart was, Rydell, Turks, Giovanardi, Reid, Menu, Gavin Smith, Gabriele Tarquini, Andy Priaulx, Jorg Muller and Gordon Shedden. The final stint of the race ended up being a brilliant six car train for the lead when before whoever had been leading had usually had little pressure from behind. In the end the only changes amongst the top six was Priaulx managing to break back into the lead group while Reid had dropped from 4th to 6th. Meanwhile further back Tarquini will be disapointed to drop from 7th down to 11th having been boxed in on the restart by Mike Doble making a nuisance of himself despite being 9 laps down.

Here are the results. The standings and budgets on the wiki have been updated.

BTCC Race 15 Cadwell 1000 Final Results

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 04 Nov 2013, 00:27

#73 ended up nine laps down on pure pace alone :lol:

In all seriousness though, 26th and 28th was probably the best we could have hoped for, considering how god-awful the Focus is

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 04 Nov 2013, 19:34

Pinkney finished!