Oulton Park BTCC - 21st April

[Stacy]

Originally posted by Peter Mallett
Blimey.

I noticed Stacy DNF'd on the MST site. I hope he's ok. They don't seem to be showing the results of today's events at the mo. Did he make it for the second race?

Yes, fine. One of those things, spent Saturday's race making up for an awful start (rolling) and it actually became one my best races.. Ended up working my way through the field of Astons, a Falcon and a Jag to be 500yrds in the class lead on the penultimate lap - then the propshaft rubber came adrift and a big vibration rattled the transmission. I pulled off to save damage, since it wasn't a championship event.

After fixing it, todays race was much more mundane, had a couple of early battles (the Classic Thunder/ICS Mini) but once the pit stops had ironed out I ended up with a reasonable lead over the Aston which had won class Saturday. Only problem was fuel which was borderline, it started hesitating and coughing but short changing and slowing up without the Aston passing me allowed it to survive to the flag. Ended up with a cup of fuel left in it - luck of the devil.

Now I have to get the champagne out of my overalls for Croft next weekend! Mind you, I've had worse problems.

Fastest lap time over the weekend was 1.41 something - have to check what the Group 1 times are, but having a 400bhp Aston with Fibreglass panels and perspex to chase gives you that bit of extra incentive..

Cheers

Stacy

[Dave Brand]

Originally posted by Carrie
Eeeekkkkk!!!! Should we replace 'when viewed from Island' with 'when viewed from a nice safe distance'

Exactly - a nice safe distance! It dropped off right by the Hill Top marshals' post, & the cars were so spread out that there wasn't a safe gap for somebody to go out & retrieve it; it was somewhat flattened by the end of the race!

[TimD]

Stacy, you are a focused man. Ten-tenths cheered you on throughout Saturday, and were there in the paddock as you set off for the Sunday race, not to mention on the straight between Druids and Lodge, cheering you on.

Just wanted you to know that we wuz looking out for you!

Great performance.

[Stacy]

Originally posted by TimD
Stacy, you are a focused man.

Oh blimey, sorry. Hope I didn't ignore you. Wasn't intentional if so, just had my mind on other things I'm afraid. Hope you enjoyed Saturday's race, I was mildly gutted about the prop but had a good time until that happened.

Twas an eye opener with the Astons, the RX7 is far from slow in a straight line but they had some Serious Go. Must admit to feeling somewhat of an orange imposter in such company, and the car was even worse..

Cheers

Stacy

[Peter Mallett]

So to repeat an earlier question Stacy. Are there any more of these races and where do I get the deets.

Well done BTW. I saw on MST later that you got class fastest lap.

[Stacy]

[i]Originally posted by Peter Mallett

The answer is that there is more races, but the problem is that they are invite only. The set up is run by the Aston Martin lot at Stratton Motor Company. I was given a late call purely because the grids were low, and I thought it was an opportunity to do a TOCA meeting.

I won't be asked again I'd imagine.. If you want the full run down I'll speak to you at Croft or email - best not post it here.

I don't think Capri's is what they are after, more something largely reflective of an AMOC meeting than a 70's Touring Car grid.

Stacy.

[Peter Mallett]

Thought it might be invite only. I'm not at Croft but will be at Brands. Good luck.

Cheers.

[TimD]

I don't know that they're necessarily trying to replicate the AMOC grids, although they naturally went for those cars they were familiar with. All the publicity bumf from both before the meeting, and the programme itself, was talking about classic touring and Grand Touring cars including Dolomite Sprints, Cortinas and the like.

It would be interesting to see how some more of the regular CSCC cars, as Championship-ready and sorted as they are, would match up with the AMOC specials.

And as the Aston V8 blew itself asunder before Gerry Marshall could get his hands on it, and the Mustang dropped a wishbone one lap into Andy Rouse's stint, perhaps some of the later cars might be quite welcome if it meant that the event's star turns actually got to do some racing. It strikes me that Messrs Rouse and Marshall would be perfectly at home sharing - say - Grp 1 Capris, and perhaps another name entrant could make all the difference.

[Peter Mallett]

I remember Rouse in the Capri in '79 and '80. Gerry Mmarshall built Graham Scarborough's Capri which Graham campaigns in Group 1.

[Stacy]

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you. However, my impression was formed on talking to them over the course of the weekend. It's not that they are trying to create AMOC grids per se, but a number of the people connected with the organisers have those cars..

[redshoes]

My only complaint is that there was too many Astons (is it actually possible to have too many Astons?) and not enough variety. A few Dolomites, Capris, etc wouldn't have gone amiss. Surprised to hear the grids were low. At the BTCC media day they claimed to have 70+ entries and had accepted about 35 cars.

Well done on the class win Stacey. With hindsight we shouldn't really have expected you to be looking at the crowd and waving on the run up to Lodge.

[Stacy]

Originally posted by redshoes
With hindsight we shouldn't really have expected you to be looking at the crowd and waving on the run up to Lodge.

I would have had I known, you should have said hello during the day sometime. I knew people were at Druids, so I needed to make sure I looked OK through there.. ;-)

I think I did a couple into Lodge on the Saturday, so hopefully you saw some action. My favourite pass would have to be Old Hall though - they don't expect it quite so much.

Cheers

Stacy

[Peter Mallett]

On the subject of variety of cars, of course we don't want grids full of Capri's or Dolomites but the idea of this series seems to me to be to provide an insight into the history of Touring Car racing in this country. I know they mention GT's as well. The point id though that it wasn't always exotica that won. Remeber Lanfranchi's Moskvitch? Bet they wouldn't allow one of those in this company.

And as has been pointed out, Rouse, Hall, Marshall and many others raced the venerable Capri.

[redshoes]

It's billed as Grand Touring rather than Touring, although quite how a Mini Cooper classes as a GT I'll never know. Not that I'm complaining you understand.