[BTCC] BTCC Rounds 22/23/24 Rockingham 2017

[redshoes]

Quick word of warning for anyone going to Rockingham this weekend

http://www.rockingham.co.uk/event/du...-championship/

Spectator Information:

Following a recent Safety Advisory Group required inspection of the Turn 1 Grandstand, we have been informed that we are unable to open it for this weekend’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race event.

We realise this will be disappointing news for some spectators who use this grandstand, however unfortunately these circumstances are beyond our control.

The Rockingham Building will be fully open over the weekend, providing ample unreserved seating for spectators.

[luckn002]

Hopefully Rob Austin will get his first win of the season having gone well here before.

HARD / TAG should be strong too, no reason why Hill & Epps can't fight for podiums.

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Quick word of warning for anyone going to Rockingham this weekend

http://www.rockingham.co.uk/event/du...-championship/

Might make finding space in the main stand tougher, bit of a shame, oh well.

[BertMk2]

Rockingham is a strange place (although to be fair I've only been there once and visiting in December probably doesn't show it at its best). What's access like at the BTCC meets? Can you get onto the pit garage roof or are you stuck in the grandstands?

[Greem]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

Rockingham is a strange place (although to be fair I've only been there once and visiting in December probably doesn't show it at its best). What's access like at the BTCC meets? Can you get onto the pit garage roof or are you stuck in the grandstands?

Well, given the spectator announcement you'll be limited in terms of grandstands to the Rockingham Building this weekend. However, from the lovely website:

As always at Rockingham all tickets include access to a grandstand seat offering panoramic views of the entire circuit, the pit garage roof and race paddock, which means there are no hidden costs

So you're all good there.

[S griffin]

Bit unfortunate those circumstances

This is gonna be a hard one to pick a winner. It could go anybody's way.

Would love to see Jelley doing well on a circuit he has won twice at

[The SpeCTator]

Its not like Rockingham are short of grandstands!

Personally I hate the place and would not venture there to view.
The only decent place to watch is the approach to the hairpin and of course you are not allowed stand or sit there.

[thlbtcc]

Great drive by Cole there, well done!

It's so close, that extra half tenth makes all the difference.

[porsche962fan]

if Cole can take pole on a suppsoed FWD track you know they have too much advanatge no matter how you take it

[BobJones]

Great session that because just look at the timings, not so much the positions. We're all in for some close action tomorrow.

Nice driving by Cole there, getting better and better.

[Craner Curves]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

if Cole can take pole on a suppsoed FWD track you know they have too much advanatge no matter how you take it

Don't worry. Your precious Hondas will still win the title. 5 out of 6 NGTC driver titles remember!

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

if Cole can take pole on a suppsoed FWD track you know they have too much advanatge no matter how you take it

If a mixture of FWD and RWD make up the front of the grid, and less than half a second separates the top 14, you know that no one has a significant advantage and the BoP is about right.
Cole has been improving a lot lately, putting in some impressive performances and did the best job today. You seem to find it hard to give credit to Cole for his drive, if they had too much advantage wouldn't Price be up there too?

[Akrapovic]

I think porsche962fan has jumped to a conclusion far too early, but it is quite amusing that after Knockhill people kept saying RWD would be no where at Rockingham and it's actually all fine. Well...lol.

[Steel Wheels]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

If a mixture of FWD and RWD make up the front of the grid, and less than half a second separates the top 14, you know that no one has a significant advantage and the BoP is about right.
Cole has been improving a lot lately, putting in some impressive performances and did the best job today. You seem to find it hard to give credit to Cole for his drive, if they had too much advantage wouldn't Price be up there too?

Hats off to Cole, great lap! If those who are knocking him consider the fact JP in the same car couldn't match him & neither could Price! Ash has weight on board and was not far behind Cole. Seem's he's found his Formula Ford form

[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

if Cole can take pole on a suppsoed FWD track you know they have too much advanatge no matter how you take it

What Advantage?

[Akrapovic]

Not sure what relevance a top speed chart has when discussing lap times? Wouldn't it be better to show a lap time chart?

[BillWiskins]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Not sure what relevance a top speed chart has when discussing lap times? Wouldn't it be better to show a lap time chart?

Wasn't the complaint last time that the Subarus were too fast in a straight line? I suppose that's the relevance.

[Jiiiiiiim]

Originally Posted by BillWiskins

Wasn't the complaint last time that the Subarus were too fast in a straight line? I suppose that's the relevance.

Pretty sure that's what the speed chart is getting at! The moans have been about the Subaru's straight line speed.........

[Akrapovic]

Oh right. I was assuming it was all about the driven wheels. I think mr porsche has jumped to a conclusion far too early, but Knockhill was clearly a RWD circuit and we did keep reading that it'll be different at Rockingham. So it does look a little silly when a RWD car is on pole after those comments.

Although it does backup that the Honda is massively pegged back. And I did say that Newshams car was underpowered at Knockhill and I was told I was clearly wrong and it wasn't, yet on that chart it's pretty bad. So yeah, that chart just backs-up the obvious observations from Knockhill.

[porsche962fan]

why the heck did TOCA strangel the Hondas so much ? do they really want an all RWD title battle between Sutton and WSR ? because every other FWD car is out of it

The car feels great. It’s the best car we’ve ever had


I was absolutely wringing the neck out of the car, but to explain where we are, you just have to look where we are in the speed traps. Over the finish line we’re 30th and 31st (with Shedden and Simpson)

We’ve just got to make sure we don’t get the thing smashed up in the midfield – when you consider who we’re surrounded by. We just can’t live with them on the straights at the moment. I wish I could paint it better than that – it’s the same car I stuck on pole twice at the beginning of the year, but we can’t fight in it

[porsche962fan]

and seems Jack Goff also thinks the Subarus have too much boost

All credit to James for putting it on pole, but if you were to take the weight out of Ash’s car in P4, he’d have been three or fourth tenths of a second up the road. I’m interested to see how they police it

BTW should we really for Colin to be champ ? as each time it happened he lost his seat with WSR....

[Alfisti]

As I see it there really is not that much between the fastest and the slowest car on that chart.

Go forth and compare the gaps between fastest and slowest in F1 or Nascar for example and they are much much bigger.

Cole really does seem to have come on in leaps and bounds. Has he really improved his driving or has he learnt how to get the best from the car? Or indeed both these things? I've been critical of him in the past and am now taking it back. Go on young man, get it on the podium tomorrow morning!

[Rob877]

Surprised to see how low down the speed trap charts the Subaru is there. I think a bit more respect should be shown to James Cole, he's up there on merit and has closed the gap to Sutton and Plato rather than enjoying an advantage due to boost. As the speed trap data shows on the first page. All credit to him, he seems to have really got a handle on that car.

Top 27 cars covered by less than a second on a pretty long track, looks like TOCA are doing a pretty decent job of equalizing the cars to me. The only anomaly being the Hondas who shouldn't be as low as they are, although the gap isn't as big as their drivers like to make out (as all drivers do I hasten to add).

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

why the heck did TOCA strangel the Hondas so much ? do they really want an all RWD title battle between Sutton and WSR ? because every other FWD car is out of it

The BMW's and Sutton are all in the bottom half of the speed trap times, so TOCA aren't strangling Honda in favour of the other title contenders.

The simple thing about today's qualifying is that the Subaru and BMW carried their ballast better than the Honda.

[luckn002]

Any predictions for today? I'll guess...

R1 - Sutton
R2 - Goff
R3 - M. Jackson

....with a podium for HARD