[BTCC] Knockhill, 12th-13th August 2023 - Rounds 19, 20, 21

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by pimmy

A good day of racing, from what little of it was actually shown. It always amazes me how relatively few incidents there are in wet races, you'd think far more mistakes would be made than that.

ITV seriously need to give some respect to the support package. This weekend we saw:

F4 - 1 of 3 races
Minis - 1 of 3 races
Porsches - 1 in full and a few laps of the other
Legends - 2 of 6 races

These series are paying a premium to be on the package, and for what? Worse coverage than a lot of club racing gets. No doubt the apologists will proclaim it as wonderful.

My reply is a little bit off-topic given this is a specific Knockhill thread.

This year we have had 8-9 live races shown on TV (8 at Donington, 9 at Brands Indy, 8 at Snetterton, 9 at Thruxton, 8 at Oulton, 9 at Croft (would have been 10 but for all the delays), 8 at Knockhill).

When this topic was discussed in the past ("How to improve the BTCC" thread?), I think someone may have provided statistics that proved the viewing figures and economic impact of only one televised race on ITV/ITV4 outweighed the impact of all races being streamed on YouTube. I think a few solutions/ideas/theories were shared - chiefly ITV streaming on YT on Saturdays, timetable changes on Sundays etc.

Obviously we want to see more racing, but if the commercial impact is still good (and on ITV4 they get considerably more people viewing from a wider demographic than a YouTube stream would get) then Porsche, F4, and Mini and all the sponsors will probably be happy regardless of whether 1 race is shown or 3.

[Evantra]

Hill will take a 3 place grid penalty for Donington for the Jelley contact (pretty sure he’s hit Jelley at least three times since being teammates!)

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...-Jake-Hill.pdf

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by pimmy

ITV seriously need to give some respect to the support package. This weekend we saw:

F4 - 1 of 3 races
Minis - 1 of 3 races
Porsches - 1 in full and a few laps of the other
Legends - 2 of 6 races

These series are paying a premium to be on the package, and for what? Worse coverage than a lot of club racing gets. No doubt the apologists will proclaim it as wonderful.

But then there wouldn’t be room for them to show the same three adverts at least forty times!

We must be seeing the Caterhams next time out?

[pimmy]

Caterhams will be at Silverstone. No guest support at Donington.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by Evantra

We must be seeing the Caterhams next time out?

Donington GP is F4, Carrera Cup, Caymans, Mini Trophy

Silverstone is Caterhams, Carrera Cup, Caymans, Mini JCW

Brands GP is F4, Carrera Cup, Caymans, Mini JCW

[mick bennett]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

Someone is going to put Collard in the fence before long unless he stops his nonsense.

Petulant little child , only there because of Daddy.


Good sign on his cars rear end. Collard Demolition.


His Brands antics will never be forgotten.

[SR18]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Hill will take a 3 place grid penalty for Donington for the Jelley contact (pretty sure he’s hit Jelley at least three times since being teammates!)

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...-Jake-Hill.pdf

Why didn't He receive a time Penalty?

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Donington GP is F4, Carrera Cup, Caymans, Mini Trophy

Silverstone is Caterhams, Carrera Cup, Caymans, Mini JCW

Brands GP is F4, Carrera Cup, Caymans, Mini JCW

Ok, thank you, lots of Porsches to look forward too then…

[porsche962fan]

Originally Posted by mick bennett

Petulant little child , only there because of Daddy.


Good sign on his cars rear end. Collard Demolition.


His Brands antics will never be forgotten.

at least he is better than the usual corporate drone

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by SR18

Why didn't He receive a time Penalty?

If he had finished immediately in front of Jelley then he would have got a time penalty big enough to put Jelley back in front.

As that wasn't the case, giving Hill a time penalty to move him back one place would just promote Taylor-Smith, which isn't fair.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

HARD makes Huff look average at best

Just out of interest I've been looking at the fastest lap comparisons for the 3 races. I hadn't realised just how slow all the Cupras were.

[AnnoyedMoose]

Originally Posted by pimmy

These series are paying a premium to be on the package, and for what? Worse coverage than a lot of club racing gets. No doubt the apologists will proclaim it as wonderful.

Don't they still do that Motorsport UK program where they show all the other races?

[Adamcas87]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

that's it

2023 champion Sutton

Does that mean you will stop watching it and moaning cos my god you love a good moan….

[pimmy]

Originally Posted by AnnoyedMoose

Don't they still do that Motorsport UK program where they show all the other races?

They've never shown all of the other races on Motorsport UK.

[Adam43]

OK, but is there a similar program or channel where you can watch the other races?

[thetool]

Originally Posted by SSmith

(and on ITV4 they get considerably more people viewing from a wider demographic than a YouTube stream would get) then Porsche, F4, and Mini and all the sponsors will probably be happy regardless of whether 1 race is shown or 3.

Exactly. Most UK motorsport on YouTube it watched by four dogs and a sloth. Not a single TCR UK race day has achieved more viewers online than a typical BTCC raceday has trackside.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Obviously we want to see more racing, but if the commercial impact is still good (and on ITV4 they get considerably more people viewing from a wider demographic than a YouTube stream would get) then Porsche, F4, and Mini and all the sponsors will probably be happy regardless of whether 1 race is shown or 3.

I doubt too many are seriously bothered if it’s on at all. It just isn’t really relevant.

[Adam43]

Sponsors probably aren’t really a consideration. It’s a different type of sponsorship and not really about telly. Sometimes there are parallels with the top draw motorsport that you’re involved with peebee as it can just be a chance to be close can be part of it. But promoting your brand to national telly isn’t really it.

Whatever, the competitors get giddy when it’s on telly. Means you can pretend to be a proper race car driver.

[S griffin]

That was a great 3 races. Shame Tingram failing the ride height means Sutton has edged away a bit in the title race, but it can just as easily swing back the other way in the next meeting.

Hill was doing so well till his R3 mistake. Needs to start cutting them out

[Mike Harte]

This stuff about TV and sponsors seems to come up on these pages about twice a year, and the answer is still the same - the sponsors are not, for one minute, really relying on TV coverage, it's just an opportunity for corporate massaging of clients, customers and potential ones.

Both of my sons have been involved in this, one when he was a partner in a firm of an international lawyers who sponsored a team in British GTs and the other one is a partner in one of the big 4 accountancy firms who like all of them has private facilities at major sporting events for entertaining clients, etc.

More often than not, those clients, etc. never even get out of the private facilities to watch the proceedings because they are to busy stuffing their faces and quoffing the alcohol on offer.

[AnnoyedMoose]

Originally Posted by pimmy

They've never shown all of the other races on Motorsport UK.

OK, haven't watched it for years as I've no interest in the support races but from memory there were more races on there than on the live package.

As has been said I bet they get massively more viewers for one race out of three than they would for all three on YouTube. It's all about sponsors at the end of the day. If they just want to their friends and family to see them driving round and round then they should save a fortune and join a club series that streams.

[Evantra]

In an ideal world they’d extend the qualifying stream to show the Saturday races. Even when they usually do at the final weekend, if the champion has already been confirmed they don’t bother.

[S griffin]

Have to say I was impressed by Patterson in R3. Local knowledge helps, but it was still probably the best drive I’ve ever seen from him. Nice to see Jelley having a better weekend, but a disaster for Turkington. Collard looked good, but could do with driving a bit cleaner. Pearson looked good, shame he couldn’t hold onto that podium

R1 dry/wet certainly was exciting, but the 2nd SC meant it was a bit of an anti climax. The incident between Sutton and Cook was a racing incident. Two drivers not wanting to back down leading to minor contact which they probably would have got away with in the dry, but slicks on a wet track lead to big consequences

[AnnoyedMoose]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

This stuff about TV and sponsors seems to come up on these pages about twice a year, and the answer is still the same - the sponsors are not, for one minute, really relying on TV coverage, it's just an opportunity for corporate massaging of clients, customers and potential ones.

But the sponsors still have to be drawn in to start with and seeing the cars on TV can't be anything other than a massive help in that regard.

All the sponsorship proposals I've seen from people on the TOCA package spend a lot of time talking about viewing figures, audience reach etc etc.

[steve_r]

That was a bit more like the BTCC of the past. Generally the racing this year has not been the greatest, but the combination of the great Knockhill circuit and some dodgy weather gave us 3 good races.