BTCC 2004 - Croft Race 18 Results Up

[DemocalypseNow]

With a lineup as strong as Menu - Aiello, we had hoped for a podium finish. However, 4th & 7th for our lead cars are at least solid points. Given they were in a three year old car, George & Burt did a reasonable job to bring the car home 17th. At times Tech-Speed have had solid DNFs across the board, so to have all three cars reach the end in such a long race is a promising sign.

[Samster]

The Jurassic Coast 600 will be run next week. You may request upgrades until this Sunday. Since its been a while, I'll provide the upgrade rules below.

Avaliable Upgrades.
Large - £500K per category.
Medium - £250K per category.
Small - £100K per category.

Categories.
Aerodynamics
Engine
Chassis
Reliability

Also, I've looked into each member that currently runs a team and some of you (FloProAct, Honorary Northerner and Grovey) haven't been active on the forum for many months now. So I will make their teams available to anyone currently without a team who is interested.

So GA Motorsports, Team Dynamics and Kartworld are officially up for grabs. Until someone takes them I will run those teams myself. Proton however won't be made available since they will move to Asia from next season, so I shall run them until the end of 2004.

Finally there will be a few announcements later in the week regarding next season's calender. Plus I am considering reviving the A1 Grand Prix series in the new year, though I will be skipping to the present day and running the season in the same time span as if it were actually taking place in the real world. Each event would happen on or close to the date they actually represent.

EDIT - Forgot to mention. I still need co-drivers for the JC600 from VX Racing's #88 (eurobrun) and Collard Racing (ferrarist). Co-drivers for this event, cannot have competed full time in the BTCC in the past. WSR (andrew) will also need to sign someone else to the #2 as Winkelhock has DTM commitments on the same weekend.

[HawkAussie]

I would like to be the new Dynamics manager

[TomWazzleshaw]

TH-Larkham will not put any further upgrades into this year's car, as we need to save some money to build our new Mondeo for Halliday in 2005. The Leason car will be sold at the end of the year to VIP Petfoods Racing, with Larkham's STI becoming the #73 entry.

[OsellaFA1L]

I an interested in taking Kartworld

[Onxy Wrecked]

I guess I will take GA.

[Samster]

TH-Larkham will not put any further upgrades into this year's car, as we need to save some money to build our new Mondeo for Halliday in 2005. The Leason car will be sold at the end of the year to VIP Petfoods Racing, with Larkham's STI becoming the #73 entry.

I'll be dealing with these after 2004 ends but I'll keep your plans in mind.

I guess I will take GA.

I an interested in taking Kartworld

I would like to be the new Dynamics manager

All confirmed. Welcome to the series.

[Samster]

BTCC Jurassic Coast 600 Entry List - 29 Entries


It's finally time for the inaugural Jurassic Coast 600, held on the new Poole Bay street circuit in the sunny seaside resort of Bournemouth. Hope you like the track I've designed below. The track runs clockwise and is expected to see the longest lap time of the season as its a long one. In case its not obvious from the map, there is a chicane halfway down the long straight much like those seen at Surfer's Paradise, at the northern end of the circuit in order to further enhance overtaking into the hairpin at the end. Also there is a corner on the west side of the track hidden by the Wessex Way expressway (the big ribbon of grey crossing the middle of the image), its actually on a road directly beneath rather than on it, the track will also cross above the Wessex Way twice on already existing road bridges.

I'll be simulating these races on the Surfer's Paradise circuit though due to the difference in track length, every two laps of SP will represent one lap of the Poole Bay circuit.

Track Map


Weekend Schedule
Friday
BTCC Practice
BTCC Race 16 Qualifying

Saturday
BTCC Race 16 (300km, 55 laps)

Sunday
BTCC Race 17 Qualifying
BTCC Race 17 (300km, 55 laps)

I expect both races to require two stops (so three stints). Both drivers must run a minimum of 18 laps each. If you have any specific requests for your strategies, let me know by tomorrow evening.

Race 16's grid will be set by the co-drivers while Race 17 will be set by the regular drivers. I'll have Race 16's qualifying results up later tonight.

[Samster]

Also I'd like to announce the 2005 calender. There will be a change in the regular race format which will see two 100km sprints on the Saturday followed by a 200km feature on Sunday, meanwhile the enduros, the two street race meetings and the overseas meetings will retain the same format. There will be a slight revision in the points system which will allow a maximum of 200 points to be available at every meeting bar the 1000. Each sprint race will take the normal 50 point max system while the features will have double points available.

There will also be a non championship meeting supporting the British Grand Prix at Silverstone with a four race format similar to the V8 Supercar event at Albert Park.

Finally, I've decided to give Cadwell Park the 500 instead of the 1000, (don't worry Spa will return in a future season as one of the regular overseas rounds). The 1000 will instead go to two new venues which will alternate each season. Both will make use of rural public roads, modified to be safe enough to race on, and their tracks lengths will be somewhere between the length of Spa and the Nordschleife. The two tracks are located in the Mendip Hills of Somerset (Mendip 1000) and the Ashdown Forest of East Sussex (Ashdown 1000).

2005 Calender

1. March 18-20 - Races 1-2, Cardiff Bay 500
2. April 8-10 - Races 3-5 Donnington Park
3. April 29-May 1 - Races 6-8 Thruxton
4. May 13-15 - Races 9-10 Nurburgring
5. May 27-29 - Races 11-13 Croft
6. June 10-12 - Races 14-16 Oulton Park
7. June 24-26 Races 17-18 Mondello Park
NC July 8-10 - British Grand Prix
8. July 22-24 - Race 19 Cadwell 500
9. August 5-7 - Race 20 Mendip 1000
10. August 19-21 Races 21-22 Jurassic Coast 600
11. September 9-11 -Races 23-25 Snetterton
12. September 23-25 - Races 26-28 Knockhill
13. October 14-16 - Races 29-30 Magny Cours
14. October 28-30 - Races 31-33 Brands Hatch
15. November 11-13 - Races 34-35 Birmingham Superprix

Colour Codes
2 x 200 km
2 x 100 km + 1 200km
1 150 km + 1 250 km
2 x 250 km
Enduro Event

[DemocalypseNow]

Tech-Speed want John George in the #79 for as few laps as possible (a few more than 18 is ok if it gives a better strategy), leaving Craig Baird to do most of the driving. From what I understand one driver will get two stints and the other one stint in every car. So, the #77 should be Alain Menu twice, and the #78 Uwe Alzen twice.

[TomWazzleshaw]

TH-L would like Mark Winterbottom to do as many laps in the #73 as possible. Therefore, we'd like him to do the first two stints in the car, before handing over to Leason for the final 18 or so laps.

[Salamander]

SEAT Sport UK want our regular drivers to do as many laps as possible.

[Samster]

BTCC Jurassic Coast 600 Race 16 Qualifying Results


Nicola Larini offers up a surprise by taking Tech-Speed's first ever pole position. Garth Tander is the lead Vauxhall alongside.

With co-drivers setting the grid for this race, we ended up with a generally mixed up grid regarding the usual pecking order. Synchro Motorsports saw one of their better performances of the season after a tough run in the enduros so far. Sascha Maassen making the top ten while Alan Gurr was solid in 15th. Darren Manning also performed miracles by putting the Kartworld MG up in 17th, by far the team's best ever grid position. Among the disappointments were Ryan Briscoe, Uwe Alzen, Jos Verstappen, Alan van der Merwe, Mika Hakkinen and the two WSRs with the inexperienced Bertrand Baguette qualifying plum last on merit.

[TomWazzleshaw]

JASON! MARK! What the hell are you two doing? I put you two in the cars because you're both supposed to be good!*

*Oh and you drive the Larkham Falcons in the V8s as well, which certainly helps

[Samster]

JASON! MARK! What the hell are you two doing? I put you two in the cars because you're both supposed to be good!*

*Oh and you drive the Larkham Falcons in the V8s as well, which certainly helps

Or your cars are that bad?

[TomWazzleshaw]

JASON! MARK! What the hell are you two doing? I put you two in the cars because you're both supposed to be good!*

*Oh and you drive the Larkham Falcons in the V8s as well, which certainly helps

Or your cars are that bad?

Hey, Larko's usually able to get something out of those crapboxes, and he's like 40

[Samster]

Warren Hughes and Jason Bright win the first race of the weekend after Hughes got by longtime leader, Alain Menu on the final restart. Although Nicola Larini had skipped away during the first stint in the #77, the first safety car on lap 15 wiped out an 8 second lead built up over Johnny Herbert's SEAT. With most of the field switching to the A-drivers from then on, Menu had much more pressure from the two Vauxhalls of Robert Huff and Warren Hughes during the second stint.

Fabrizio Giovanardi had a slow race made worse by him having to wait behind Hughes in the pitstalls for both stops. This meant he spent most of the race stuck behind the likes of Alex Wurz and Tom Chilton. Still, thanks to Matt Neal never getting to step into his car after co-driver, Eric van de Poele was punted into a wall by Caca Bueno, Giovanardi's lead in the championship now exceeds 100 points. This brought out the safety car for the first time. Immediately after this, the second SC period was triggered by a pile up at the chicane. Giovanardi spun off Darren Turner triggering a chain reaction behind when Darren Manning collied with Gavin Pyper, spinning the Proton into the wall and into retirement. Luke Hines then brought out the third SC on lap 37 by crashing out from a suspension failure, suspected to be a result of Bueno's earlier collision with van de Poele.

A number of driver pairings had a great showing, Darren Manning impressed for Kartworld running their first two stints, building on starting from 17th to get as high as 11th before an engine failure left him out of the race. Synchro had a good result with Wurz and David Leslie 9th and 11th, Wurz running as high as fifth midrace. Carl Breeze put in an impressive two stints, dragging the GA Alfa into the top ten from a lowly grid position. David Pinkney had his best result in many races, finishing 12th with good pace shown from him and Ricardo Zonta. Even TH-Larkham saw good race pace, at least when Mark Winterbottom and Jason Bargwanna were at the wheel only for Nick Leason to hold up Mark Larkham when he got in for the final stint.

On the other hand, Team Dynamics had another disaster with the #55 the first car out from a mechanical issue for the second race in succession while Turner had been left a lap down after being spun out by Giovanardi. Dan Eaves also had a miserable race aftter Bertrand Baguette qualified his car in last. Eaves was one of only two regulars to run the first stint in order to take advantage of his experience over the co-drivers to move up only for progress to prove difficult, Winterbottom's Focus proving particually difficult to topple. What little progress he had made was negated by Baguette's slow pace in the middle stint and then a mechanical issue forcing an extra pitstop towards the end of the race put the final nail in the coffin.

BTCC Jurassic Coast 600 Saturday Race 16

[Samster]

BTCC Jurassic Coast 600 Sunday Race 17 Qualifying Results


Warren Hughes follows on from his Saturday win by qualifying on pole for Sunday, just ahead of Fabrizio Giovanardi. Jason Plato will hope for some dignity as he starts from 4th while Alain Menu will be disapointed to only qualify 11th after nearly winning on Saturday.

So make your requests regarding which of your drivers start, I hope to run the race sometime next week.

[TomWazzleshaw]

Since it worked fairly well for us last time, TH-Larkham will run the same driver plan that we did in race 1.

EDIT: As part of our preparation to getting Halliday into the BTCC next year, would it be possible to enter the VIP Petfoods #37 car as a wildcard for Knockhill and Snetterton?

[Samster]

Since it worked fairly well for us last time, TH-Larkham will run the same driver plan that we did in race 1.

EDIT: As part of our preparation to getting Halliday into the BTCC next year, would it be possible to enter the VIP Petfoods #37 car as a wildcard for Knockhill and Snetterton?

Yes that would be fine.

[Samster]

Race Report will be up tomorrow where I'll explain how on earth John George got to stand on the podium. I will say that Turkington's victory was the result of a Singapore crashgate-esqe situation, only not deliberate. His teammate brought out the safety car when only a few drivers including Turkington had made their final stops meaning that they got to catch back around and overtake the rest when they pitted under the SC.

EDIT - Race Report
A strange race was eventually won by the pairing of Colin Turkington, although it appeared that the majority of the leading cars were doing their best to throw away a potential win. All codrivers except for Craig Baird started the race this time and it was Mark Skaife that got the best getaway immediately getting past Jason Bright for the early lead. Further back, things got messy as Alan van der Merwe bogged down at the start and then got himself caught between Eric van de Poele's SEAT and Dario Franchitti's WSR causing damage that required pitstops for all three as well as Bertrande Baguette in the 2nd WSR who picked up a puncture. Franchitti would end up losing a lap from the start and he and Anthony Reid would stay stuck there for the rest of the race.

This left the top 5 as Skaife, Bright, Jan Magnussen, Ryan Briscoe and surprisingly Ron Fellows in the GA Astra! However things would not go so well for long for the latter two as Briscoe picked up some kind of mechanical fault which rendered him over 5 seconds off the pace and gradually built up a hilariously long Briscoe train. The Australian eventually gave up and made a pitstop where the issue was resolved but by then he was nearly a minute down on the leaders. Meanhwile Ron Fellows gave up a top 5 position when he was forced to pit for a puncture. Eventually we finally got the first scheduled green flag pitstops of the weekend as everyone came in with the majority switching their drivers, only Darren Manning and Mark Winterbottom staying in their cars for another stint. Soon after the pitstops had cycled through Alexander Wurz brought out the safety car when he spun his Accord into the wall. Fabrizio Giovanardi would lead off the restart on lap 23 but then it would be his turn to suddenly hit mechanical troubles when his Astra suddenly dropped off the pace. The Italian quickly made a stop for repairs and this left James Thompson in the lead from Alain Menu (up from 11th already) Warren Hughes and Robert Huff. Gareth Howell would bring out the next safety car when his radiator grenaded it self, spilling water onto the track and squeezing Carl Breeze into the wall. Everyone bar one driver made their 2nd pitstop under the SC, allowing for an incredible feat, Mark Larkham in the lead for the restart! Ironically and indirectly caused by Jason Bargwanna earlier spinning the #10 Focus, damaging the car and putting them a lap down. This lap was regained when everyone else made their green flag stops and now being the only driver not to stop under SC means that he leadfrogs everyone and leads.

Of course Larko's lead would not last, especially with the oldest tyres in the field and he would quickly plummet towards the back of the field, but not before bulking Thompson enough to cause the Honda to loose out to Menu and Huff. Larko's interference allowed Menu to enjoy a huge 10 second lead for this next stint. Eventually Thompson would suffer an ignition failure meaning that he would join his teammate Motoyama into retirement. The Japanese driver's end came about when he drove into the back of Colin Turkington at the chicane, damaging his engine which would eventually cause it to fail while Turkington would require an unscheduled stop. Eventually the safety car would be brought out for the final time today on lap 43 when Matt Neal's engine expired causing him to slide on his own oil into the barriers. This ended a decent recovery up to 6th at that point, but more significantly, since he brought out the safety car in the middle of the final stops, this meant that those who had already stopped before the SC were now in a position to leap frog the field like Larko had done earlier. (The joys of a long lap where even making a pitstop won't put you a lap down). So for the restart we had the incredible top 5 of Craig Baird, the co-driver of gentleman driver, John George (who in fairness was already running well in 11th), then Colin Turkington in 2nd, Jason Hughes in 3rd (he and Nick Leason had to make their final pitstops early in order to complete their lap requirements), then Luke Hines in 4th, Mark Larkham back up to 5th then we finally have the first of the pre-SC leaders with Menu in 6th. The big losers from the situation were Giovanardi and Jason Plato who both had to sit behind their teammates in the pit booth, as well as David Pinkney who looses out on an excellent 9th place before the safety car came out.

So because of his teammate bringing out the safety car, Turkington finds himself in a great position to win since Baird shouldn't provide too much of a challenge. Sound familiar to a certain Singapore F1 race? Well Turkington managing to get by Baird fairly quickly while the Kiwi managed to hold off Luke Hines for 2nd. Hines, Menu and Warren Hughes all quickly disposed of Jason Hughes and Larko. Menu however struggled to get by Hines, only doing so by lap 53 of 55 by which point Turks already had an 8 second lead. Even if Baird let him through, there was no way Menu could catch Turks for the win so the two Tech-Speed drivers were allowed to battle it out for 2nd place with the Kiwi holding off the Swiss.

BTCC Jurassic Coast 600 Sunday Race 17 Results

[Peteroli34]

Now that must have been some strange race John George on the podium and a Focus in the top 10

[DemocalypseNow]

Race Report will be up tomorrow where I'll explain how on earth John George got to stand on the podium. I will say that Turkington's victory was the result of a Singapore crashgate-esqe situation, only not deliberate. His teammate brought out the safety car when only a few drivers including Turkington had made their final stops meaning that they got to catch back around and overtake the rest when they pitted under the SC.

BTCC Jurassic Coast 600 Sunday Race 17 Results

1. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
2. GEORGE, Y U NO LISTEN TO TEAM ORDER?! MULTI 13! MULTI 13!

[Salamander]

... at least Turkington won, I guess.

[Samster]

Race report is finally up, sorry that took so long, I've been too tired from work up until today.

You may request upgrades for Croft until Wednesday as well as any driver changes or wild card entrys.

[OsellaFA1L]

My shitbox got up to 8th, glad that Neate is now gone

[Samster]

BTCC Croft Races 18 and 19 Preview

Now that the enduro season is complete, its back to the regular season for the home stretch of the season. Despite just one victory and his least successful weekend to date at the JC600, Fabrizio Giovanardi has a huge lead in the title race, can anyone catch him? Also we see the glorious return of Richard Marsh and John Whatever Sponsor He Sold His Soul To This Week's Barmy Army after they elected to skip the enduro season.

Entry List (30 Entries)


Track Map


Weekend Schedule
Friday
BTCDS Race 9 Qualifying
BTCC Race 18 Qualifying

Saturday
BTCDS Race 9 (75 km, 23 laps)
BTCC Race 18 (150 km, 45 laps)

Sunday
BTCC Race 19 Qualifying
BTCDS Race 10 (75 km, 23 laps)
BTCC Race 19 (250 km, 74 laps)

[Peteroli34]

I thought I had entered Shaun Watson-Smith and his Alfa 147 as a wildcard for the remaining BTCC rounds as a wildcard

[Samster]

I thought I had entered Shaun Watson-Smith and his Alfa 147 as a wildcard for the remaining BTCC rounds as a wildcard

Took me a while to find that original request since it was on the BTCD thread but yes so you did. Consider him added to the entry list.

[TomWazzleshaw]

I know there's still five sprint rounds to go before the end of the year, but how much would it cost us at TH-Larkham to build a half-decent Mondeo for 2005?

[Samster]

I know there's still five sprint rounds to go before the end of the year, but how much would it cost us at TH-Larkham to build a half-decent Mondeo for 2005?

I'm going to introduce a tier based system for any new build cars, much like Ataxia's in his F1 series. A mid-tier car would likely cost around £400K each with the top being around £700K. I'll release more details about this when I eventually start the 2005 thread along with a list of eligable cars you can use. I'm also considering including E-Class cars (which would make the Ford Falcon eligible, something I think you'd consider given your team's Aussie heritage).

[Samster]

BTCC Croft Saturday Race 18 Qualifying Results


Dan Eaves takes his second pole of the season from Jason Plato, two drivers really in need of a good result. VX Racing meanwhile had a shocker with Fabrizio Giovanardi their top driver only managing 8th.

[Samster]

Jason Plato immediately got the jump on Dan Eaves to take the lead while Alain Menu did the same to James Thompson to take third. It wasn't long until the safety car was brought out due to a collision between the back-markers. Richard Marsh tagged the back of Nick Leason going into chicane spinning the Focus into the tire bails hard enough for it to flip onto its side upon impact. Most of the tailenders would take the opportunity to make a pitstop which would prove to be a mistake thanks to the slow Marsh staying out, especially considering they would still be a few laps short of making the finish.

On the restart Anthony Reid spun around coming out of the hairpin dropping him down to the back. The leaders remained relatively calm for this part of the race other than Matt Neal suffering a mechanical fault which put him out of 5th place and into the garage for two laps, sadly this would only be the start of SEAT's downfall. Later on lap 19 Satoshi Motoyama who had been overly aggressive all race spun off Marsh into the infield coming out of the chicane. In the chain reaction Motoyama got tagged around by James Kaye who was subsequently hit up the rear by John George. By this point only Charlie Butler-Henderson and Rob Collard had managed to get past Marsh of the drivers that earlier made a pitstop. The rest were still bunched up behind Marsh's snail slow pace, contributing to the carnage. Needless to say the safety car was called out again to clean up the debris. Everyone came in for their pitstop except for Tom Chilton, Luke Hines and Gavin Smith leaving them the new leaders while Plato would be restarting fourth from Thompson, Darren Turner, Robert Huff, Fabrizio Giovanardi, David Leslie and Carl Breeze. Meanwhile Dan Eaves and Colin Turkington both suffered awful pitstops which meant they would be restarting at the back. Strike two for SEAT and also for WSR who now had both cars amongst the back-markers.

On the restart Plato immediately managed to get past Smith and was soon waved past into second by his teammate Hines. Further back, Giovanardi's race pace was proving to be even worse than his qualifying as he managed to loose out to both David Leslie and Charlie Butler-Henderson, the latter of whom he would remain stuck behind for the rest of the race. On lap 32, Chilton, Hines and Smith finally came in for their pitstops, their strategy gamble clearly failed as the three of them would drop down amongst the tailenders. Strike 3 for SEAT as now all three of them were outside the top 20. This left Plato in the lead from Menu, Turner, Thompson and Huff which would be the order they stayed until the finish. Further back though, the carnage was not over as to the relieve to the rest of the field, Marsh's Peugeot finally gave up with a camshaft failure, and then got tagged around by John George coming out of the hairpin.

So Jason Plato would take his second victory of the season having been the class of the field all day. Alain Menu continued his recent string of podiums in 2nd while Darren Turner backed up a strong day for Dynamics with his maiden podium. Also of note were David Leslie matching his best result of the year in 6th while GA Motorsports took a double top 10. Jason Hughes backed up his 8th at Bournemouth by finishing a strong 11th today while Mark Larkham took another top 15. On the other hand Giovanardi had arguably his weakest race of the season thus far yet still extends his championship lead thanks to SEAT's utter disaster.

BTCC Croft Saturday Race 18 Results


Standings and Budgets have been updated on the wiki.

[Furinkazen]

Hey Samster, love the work on this, it's brilliant. Sent you an email

[Samster]

Hey Samster, love the work on this, it's brilliant. Sent you an email

Thanks but I haven't been able to receive PMs from this forum. You'll have to send me a message directly to my email [email protected] or just post on this thread.

[pi314159]

I have decided to give up Team Honda in this series. You're running this series well, but I've lost interest due to several factors, mostly not following BTCC much in real life and dropping back in the championship fight. So Team Honda is available now.

I'm also withdrawing my entry in the development series.