Btcc Donington - Rounds 3, 4 And 5

[JHS18 0]

It's been two weeks since Brands Hatch, yet for me personally, I still haven't taken in everything that happened at Brands Hatch.

Nevertheless, the series moves on to my local track, Donington Park (not Donnington as it is commonly misspelled by seemingly almost everyone).

Last year, the wins were spread evenly at this venue with Matt Neal, Andy Jordan and Mat Jackson all taking victories. It turned out to be a difficult round for Jason Plato, after suffering a puncture in race one and that roll in race two, scored just a few points in the final race.

It's not out the question that could be quickly forgotten though, if the MG is as competitive as it was at Brands. Also watch out for the likes of Gordon Shedden, who suffered terrible reliability at Brands and will be keen to make amends. Matt Neal, Andy Jordan and Mat Jackson will also once again be in the fight. It wouldn't be a total surprise if the likes of Dave Newsham, Rob Austin or Frank Wrathall proved successful either. Also watch out for the BMW trio of Collard, Onslow-Cole and Foster with the BMW having always been competitive at Donington.

Overtaking is a challenge here - but predictably there will be more chances to make a move than Brands Hatch provided. Look out for Redgate, McLeans, Coppice and the last chicane in particular for overtaking action, whilst Craner Curves and Old Hairpin will once again be hotspots for incidents.

Points after one round:

1. Jason Plato 52

2. Matt Neal 48

3. Andy Jordan 45

4. Rob Collard 43

5. Rob Austin 30

6. Jeff Smith 28

7. Dave Newsham 24

8. Mat Jackson 22

9. Tom Onslow-Cole 22

10. Lea Wood 13

Timetable of events.

There's an outside chance I'll be going (due to a mixture of reasons, I probably won't sadly) so if I do go, I'll make sure to take a lot of pictures and will report back within the week. If I don't, I'll probably try and keep this thread updated throughout race day.

[JHS18 0]

Plato puts the new MG on pole, but only just.

Should be an entertaining three races. The weather looks uncertain (rained a bit in qualifying today) and plenty of people who look strong.

[JHS18 0]

Two good, clean races so far. Story of the day is Plato getting taken out in race two. He'll start the last race from the back, whilst Jeff Smith will start on pole due to the reversed grid draw.

5 different winners from 5 races...a possibility it'll be 6 by the end of the day.

Rob Austin's day is done. A problem with his car in race one and no repairs to fix it...

Race one results.

Race two results.

[JHS18 0]

Last BTCC race starts in around 10 minutes time. Some very dark clouds gathering around the circuit, but all being well it looks like it should remain a dry race.

[JHS18 0]

The race stayed dry but predictably, it all kicked off after two reasonably clean races.

Main story - Matt Neal got taken out. So one DNF each for Plato and Neal so far.

Great battle in last few laps between Jackson, Shedden and Plato as latter two closed in on the Ford Focus. Was just spoiled at the end by some classic Plato stupidity by shunting Shedden out of the way in the last chicane. Shedden furious and says Plato should be excluded from the race results. The footage will probably end up on YouTube soon.

A nice exchange between Liam Griffin and Chris James from race two has already been uploaded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEBA8qOdtu8

As you can tell, Moody's still equally terrible. He seems to like the world "electrifying" and during the first race called it a "Grand Prix." The man is annoying. Bring back Ben Edwards.

Next round in two weeks at Thruxton - the fastest circuit in the UK.

[Massa 0]

1) Like Ben Edwards wasn't annoying, too.

2) Going to go confront a driver? Take your helmet off or you're a dainty littler flower pretending to be a tough guy. Come on...

[JHS18 0]

He was considerably less annoying than Toby "electrifying" Moody, that's for certain.

Major change to race three results. Plato given two second penalty to reverse order between him and Shedden.

Meanwhile, just been reading on Twitter that Jackson's been excluded from race three for exceeded boost levels. Shedden is therefore the winner.

[JHS18 0]

Oh, and someone's been nice and uploaded the incident in question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHWQO9YJG0o

[Massa 0]

1) They don't bump draft at Charlotte.

2) That's not a penalty at all. What a bunch of pansies. I hate Plato and that shouldn't be a penalty. That's racing. I'll be the first to say when Plato does something cheap. That wasn't cheap at all.

3) The third place guy won the race? My mind is blown.

Thanks for doing these threads. Missed the race because I was watching F1 this morning.

[JHS18 0]

1. It's Moody. What do you expect when he calls a touring car race a Grand Prix?

2. We'll agree to disagree then. I'm normally lenient when it comes to contact in touring cars, but I think that was pretty ridiculous. You could tell that it was fairly deliberate by the way he turned away from the corner to keep pushing him. That's not the way you pass. Maybe if you're Jason Plato, but you don't pass someone by pushing them into the gravel on the last corner of the last lap.

3. Shedden was excluded from race three in Brands due to a similar thing, guess what goes around comes around.

Haha, no worries, glad you are enjoying reading them. Shame I couldn't be there today due to numerous reasons, but that's how it is. I'll hopefully get to a round at a later date, possibly Oulton Park or Silverstone.

[Massa 0]

Final corner, final lap, I see nothing wrong with checking the guy out of the way. He didn't spin him, he didn't make multiple swerving moves, yeah it was blatant but it wasn't a cheap shot (a cheap shot, to me, would be cutting the corner to bang into someone's door and turn him around, or something like that). Of course cheap shots require a lot of judgment calls, and judgment calls are a great way to make people frustrated with your sport.

Obviously it doesn't matter, BTCC saw fault in that, he gets the penalty, and you get to see the day I defended Jason Plato.