[BTCC] BTCC 2023 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Collard via Autosport:

"But the sport’s changing a lot – there’s a reason why people like Jason [Plato] are retiring.
“I’ve raced against some of the best people in the world in karts, British F3 and GT – I’ve won in pretty much every championship I’ve done but I haven’t been able to do it in touring cars.
“Coming back here, I’ve had an absolute blast, but this is where I’m at.”

Basically sounds like he can't handle losing. Off to join Oliphant in Australia, slowly becoming a BTCC retirement home!

[BS FILTER] I got beaten in karts despite having a top budget, I couldn't hack it in single-seaters, I tried GTs but got let go and now it's clear I'm not good enough to win here either [/BSFILTER]

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

I'd say he would prefer to be in a better team/car, judging by his double door slam this afternoon.

Not the car - the engine how many MSport TOCA engine failures has there been shocking

[porsche962fan]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Not the car - the engine how many MSport TOCA engine failures has there been shocking

which makes it the more ironic that a Swindon engined team won the the title a nice little "beep" to TOCA

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by SSmith

I believe ITV said at Croft that Boardley was unwell rather than there being any car shenanigans. The car did the Friday shakedown, and then Boardley withdrew. I must say though that this weekend did seem a bit NASCAR "start-and-park" at points.

If by 'did the Friday shakedown' you mean he left the pitlane. then that's correct. The car ground to a halt on the out-lap. From memory it may well have been before the second corner.

I don't know which car is being run using which TBL, but it may well have been in Boardley interest to at least start the car at Brands.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Not the car - the engine how many MSport TOCA engine failures has there been shocking

Not really surprising though. Was a lot of surprise when they were awarded the contract.

[S griffin]

With Collard retiring it seems he is not enjoying his racing atm and that is fine. There's been plenty of young drivers who have found racing isn't as fun as they thought it would be and decided it wasn't worth the effort

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by S griffin

With Collard retiring it seems he is not enjoying his racing atm and that is fine. There's been plenty of young drivers who have found racing isn't as fun as they thought it would be and decided it wasn't worth the effort

Yeah, a very recent example is Maxi Buhk who retired at the age of 29 and is arguably much more successful than Collard.

[touringlegend]

Collard retiring got me thinking about when Ingram left Speedworks for Exceler8. Many thought it was the wrong move, but here we are and it’s proved the right move for Ingram.

[Evantra]

Parfitt gives a scathing review of HARD!

https://www.reddit.com/r/btcc/commen...tm_name=iossmf

...also in a facebook video he pretty much confirms he won't be on the grid next year, unsurprisingly.

[touringlegend]

Isn’t there an element of blame to be laid at his door.

After all he says “if you pay what I did, you get what I got” so he knows it’s cheap.

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

A bit of HARD. bashing going on again. Is it really justified?

They put a car together for Thompson that saw him bag more points than any Infiniti or Vauxhall driver.

Before the season, everyone was telling us how good Ash Hand is, and the Infiniti was a championship winning car with a race winning driver in the team.

But Autobrite finished ahead of Laser Tools, PMR and Apec Racing in the Teams'.

3rd and 7th in the Independents' title suggests the car has merit?

Wouldn't be the Internet without a bit of HARD bashing! Interesting that the CUPRA is a dog despite Thompson managing to drag it to a Jack Sears win and 3rd overall in both Independent driver and team championships. Think people need to remember the resources that some teams have compared to others. Taylor-Smith has a multi year deal, Thompson is looking to continue and Boardley is still involved either as a driver or a TBL holder. What do they all know that others don't? Admittedly Thompson has been consistently quicker than his team mates all year, no one seems to notice that Ingram and Sutton have as well.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Isn’t there an element of blame to be laid at his door.

After all he says “if you pay what I did, you get what I got” so he knows it’s cheap.

And there is an interesting description of a car that was being run by the same team last year for a drivers' title?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Parfitt gives a scathing review of HARD!

https://www.reddit.com/r/btcc/commen...tm_name=iossmf

...also in a facebook video he pretty much confirms he won't be on the grid next year, unsurprisingly.

Something about that post seems odd.

It only shows as an image (not a thread) on my phone, and the username and avatar are not consistent with Rick's other online presence.

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Something about that post seems odd.

It only shows as an image (not a thread) on my phone, and the username and avatar are not consistent with Rick's other online presence.

Its a screenshot of a Facebook post, posted on Reddit.

[porsche962fan]

isn't HARD considered the "entry level" of BTCC ? if you don't have money for a better team you go to HARD, you get what you paid for

[CaptRustyNail]

Looking at Rick's post suggests the same engine issue with the laser cars too? They were pretty awful most of the season and Laser admitted they didn't give the drivers what they deserved. But yeh, if you bring budget to Hard you will probably get the engineers and components, if you bring a basic budget you get what you are given. It must work as Hard have been in the championship god knows how many years yet the same debates always appear online...

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

And there is an interesting description of a car that was being run by the same team last year for a drivers' title?

How much involvement did HARD actually have in running the car? I mean the hands-on engineering bits rather than the logistics / garage space / hospitality bits.

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Something about that post seems odd.

It only shows as an image (not a thread) on my phone, and the username and avatar are not consistent with Rick's other online presence.

Name and avatar are from https://www.facebook.com/rickparfittjnrracing

[thetool]

It's always psychologically tough to go from being a big fish in a small pond (GT4) to being an also-ran in a much, much more competitive series.

[antnee]

Parfitt might end up in TCR UK - although Lines told him the cars are too reliable for his liking

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by redshoes

How much involvement did HARD actually have in running the car? I mean the hands-on engineering bits rather than the logistics / garage space / hospitality bits.

HARD have run all 3 Infinitis for the whole year. Last year Boardley ran his car and prepared it at his own premises.

It's not easy adapting from a big powered, high downforce GT car to a BTCC car, Rick himself has admitted that. And it's also not easy trying to fit in test dates and race weekends around a busy calendar of gigs.

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by Pickles

HARD have run all 3 Infinitis for the whole year. Last year Boardley ran his car and prepared it at his own premises.

It's not easy adapting from a big powered, high downforce GT car to a BTCC car, Rick himself has admitted that. And it's also not easy trying to fit in test dates and race weekends around a busy calendar of gigs.

I thought Laser ran the two "Scottish" Infinitis from Livingston, pretty much after the first round of the season.

[SSmith]

An interesting article about ROKIT - seems like a very dodgy company and its in massive debt.

https://variety.com/2022/biz/news/ro...es-1235398095/

One does have to wonder how much longer they will be sponsoring racing teams.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

I thought Laser ran the two "Scottish" Infinitis from Livingston, pretty much after the first round of the season.

That was my understanding as well...

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by Pickles

HARD have run all 3 Infinitis for the whole year.

Using the chief engineer that Sutton bought to the team, and took with him to Motorbase.

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

I thought Laser ran the two "Scottish" Infinitis from Livingston, pretty much after the first round of the season.

They've been up there a couple of times throughout the year but have been in Kent for the majority of the year