TCR UK 2024

[coffinpilot]

I'm the same, mind going all the time!

Used to love the Silverstone Classic, too much hard work at my age though!

[SSmith]

Today's TCR UK race was good but with quite a bit of contact - a common trend for the season. The strongest grid numerically of the year though, which is a good sign. Personally, I'd quite like to see Callum Newsham win the title. Shame next time out at Thruxton will probably have the smallest grid of the year!

The stream missed the start of the Boardley/Shepherd collision on Lap 1 so it wasn't completely clear exactly what happened to cause the contact. The stewards have come down quite hard on Boardley - a dsq from the results for causing the collision. In the stewards report - "The penalty reflects the continued amount of contact between cars 1 and 117 all season, with repeated warnings from the Clerk regarding driving standards." Pretty damning.

Shepherd received a 15 second time penalty for overtaking prior to the control line.

[Evantra]

Shame there doesn’t seem to be any replays on offer…

[TinTopGrumpy]

People who are there are posting that Powell didn't see the SC boards and came round the corner at full speed to find people weaving. Made side to side contact with one of them and rolled at least four times.

[v8supes]

Yeah the race 2 accident was absurd. So much damage at a relatively slow part of the circuit. Some good action this weekend but also some poor driving standards.

One thing that quite irks me is that the TCR races always seem to run earlier than they are listed on the official timetable. Race 3 for example started 30 minutes early which means its quite easy to end up missing the race.

[antnee]

They seem to have gone back a few years in the filming quality!

They even missed the contact between Boardley and Sheperd in Race 1. Thinking about it, the cameras seem to miss most of the action across all the races.

[TinTopGrumpy]

The setup is fine for general club racing but for something at the level TCR should be (and is in many other countries) it's simply not good enough to build the audience.

[coffinpilot]

It is club racing quality, because it's a club racing stream.
I was told that TCR UK had complained to Alpha earlier in the year about them not being quite up to scratch so Alpha cancelled the TCR contract, and TCR is now on the general BRSCC contract.. It's the reason why qualifying isn't on YouTube anymore.

I watched it yestarday, and switched to some of the 750 coverage from Silverstone and BRSCC from Brands. It's great that Alpha have the ability to broadcast club racing, but more is becoming less. The overall quality has dropped, some of the camera operations are all over, and the directors seem to go from valium to snorting speed in the same race!

[Sodemo]

I had free tickets so we went to Silverstone yesterday, my first race meeting in 5-6 years.

We had a walk on the grid which was great, never done one before, all very open and welcoming. We even parked right in the middle of the track near the paddock, treated like royalty compared to other series ive been to.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by TinTopGrumpy

The setup is fine for general club racing but for something at the level TCR should be (and is in many other countries) it's simply not good enough to build the audience.

Felt like the cameras were too low down, certainly for Silverstone at least. And yeah, so many passes and contact missed by the cameras and no replays at all.

I see Shephard’s luck never changes…

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I had free tickets so we went to Silverstone yesterday, my first race meeting in 5-6 years.

We had a walk on the grid which was great, never done one before, all very open and welcoming. We even parked right in the middle of the track near the paddock, treated like royalty compared to other series ive been to.

That's what I enjoyed at Knockhill last year. I could take my 6 year old on the grid and he loved it.

It's a shame because it has so much potential, but it's lacking quite a few key elements. It needs to be on a big package in my opinion, but I know the teams will not like that because they will have sold their sponsorship on having garages etc.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by TinTopGrumpy

The setup is fine for general club racing but for something at the level TCR should be (and is in many other countries) it's simply not good enough to build the audience.

But is TCR UK as a series really at a higher level that general club racing? I know it wants to be but I'm not convinced it is.

Originally Posted by Evantra

Felt like the cameras were too low down, certainly for Silverstone at least. And yeah, so many passes and contact missed by the cameras and no replays at all.

I think it's a case of getting what you pay for. Alpha run with a minimum camera setup as that's all they are paid to provide. Silverstone doesn't have any easy ways to mount the camera higher without scaffold towers or crane rental, which Alpha probably don't have the budget for.

At Brands they can get away with putting a cameraman on top of the main hospitality building and cover more than half the track. They do Brands with maybe 2 manned cameras and 2 or 3 static cameras. Silverstone layout means that the gaps in coverage are more obvious.

[TinTopGrumpy]

Originally Posted by redshoes

But is TCR UK as a series really at a higher level that general club racing? I know it wants to be but I'm not convinced it is.

That's my point. They want (I presume) to be something other than just another club series but with the package as it is at the moment I don't know why anyone would spend the money to race it in compared to racing in the Civic Cup.

[Evantra]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdF9Vy12C6Q

Footage of Powell’s crash, misses the contact but must’ve rolled at least half a dozen times. Apparently there’s onboard footage from Boardley’s car posted by Michael Crees on TikTok.

[Robin Marriott]

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe3Y8jK7/

Weird incident. Not sure why Powell was trying to pass the other car under yellows but that weave could have been retaliatory? Without seeing a longer clip it’s difficult to say, maybe Powell was trying to get a place back having been overtaken under the yellows just before?

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by Robin Marriott

Weird incident. Not sure why Powell was trying to pass the other car under yellows but that weave could have been retaliatory? Without seeing a longer clip it’s difficult to say, maybe Powell was trying to get a place back having been overtaken under the yellows just before?

Difficult to tell from that one angle but that looked more like a deliberate side-swipe rather than simply weaving to keep heat in the tyres.

[Sodemo]

Yea I am not sure why the coverage is so bad, I guess budget is part of the reason. I used to do some motorsport camera operating years back, not sure what kind of cameras they use these days, I think we used big Panasonic DVCAM type units, they were pretty heavy and getting them to spin (pan) whilst also zooming backwards, then panning, then zooming in to track the cars moving away from you required you to be some kind of contortionist, honestly the muscle aches after doing a day of that were horrendous. I was 21 at the time, i'm not sure that now i'm in my 40s I could do the same.

Part of the reason why I quit doing it was because of how physical it was, having to get up at 5am on a weekend, not able to see friends or girlfriends etc, spending all day on a grassy hill alone, coming home sunburned + windburned, I just found the whole thing exhausting.

[antnee]

The championship seems to be no different from VW Cup from around 2017 - except the competition isn't quite as close and the cars are MUCH more expensive.

[samchevron]

I've seen a lot of people complain about the livestream and heard a few drivers complaining about it on the grid walk on Sunday.

Wow, that was a busy grid too.

It seems that the BRSCC are now paying for the stream instead of TCR and I wonder if thats where the quality has gone downhill.

It's a shame as Alpha Live have done a good job in recent years, but it seems to be going downhill.

Personally, I hope that TCR UK moves away from the BRSCC for next year, I think thats whats making it look like a club championship, along with all their portfolio of club racing as well.

If they can move away and stay the headline act again elsewhere, that might be a better move for them.

Otherwise, Sunday was a great day of racing and the weather was brilliant.

[coffinpilot]

One driver on the grid on Sunday, who said they're racing elsewhere next season said that TCR is moving to BARC next year, but he won't go because it is to support truck racing for most of the rounds.

That footage being uploaded won't please the clark of the course will it? Aren't drivers supposed to have permission for that stuff? But if it was a third party is there any recourse?

[pimmy]

Originally Posted by coffinpilot

One driver on the grid on Sunday, who said they're racing elsewhere next season said that TCR is moving to BARC next year, but he won't go because it is to support truck racing for most of the rounds.

Why? The truck racing events are quite popular. They certainly get bigger crowds than Silverstone appeared to have last weekend.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by pimmy

Why? The truck racing events are quite popular. They certainly get bigger crowds than Silverstone appeared to have last weekend.

Plus sides:
Bigger crowds
Get to use the garages

Down Sides:
Timetable is "fluid" (due to inevitable delays for barrier repairs)
Circuit gets covered in assorted crap from the trucks meaning grip levels are all over the place.

[flatlandsman]

AM seeing an awful lot of TCR cars in Euro hillclimb events now and places like France, they are very competitive considering their relative lack of power. I think most of this is due to the fact they are developed very well up against largely home brewed stuff that might be more powerful and lighter but nowhere near as well developed in terms of aero, chassis and tractability

[samchevron]

Just to add to the crowds looking poor at Silverstone angle.

Silverstone only used two Grandstands for the weekend: Brooklands and Copse.

They don't open up the rest of the rest of the Grandstands for Club events, as I was told when I called to ask a few questions before the weekend.

Silverstone view all BRSCC events as club events.

Otherwise I'm all for attending events with bigger crowds and I'm sure having the garages will be a winner with drivers and teams.

[Sodemo]

I saw people in the Brooklands grandstand, my (perhaps outdated) thinking was this was reserved for BRDC members, so I didn't try and gain access. Was it open to all?