views on the production race at brands

[beef cake]

whats your views ov the production race it lookt like beentwood and hines were in another class i could see it changing 4 the next race

[Claire]

It's a shame there is only 7 of them, at the moment it seems like Michael and the BMw are the ones to beat, that car is very fast. Luke is adapting really well to the car and the championship after being in a single seater. Alan Blencowe is a good driver but is having problems with an unreliable gear box and poor Tom doesn't seem to be having much luck with his 307. I have been quite surprised by the Alfa's and the Accord, for older cars they aren't doing all that badly. Will be interesting to see how the other 307 goes and if we see Hyla out in the Accord out at Thruxton.

[Jamie P-E]

If blencowes gearbox was not playing up he would have been right up there with luke and michael.

[cos]

Bentwood seemed to domiante pretty impressively... how long before Toca slap a weight penalty on him?

[lauz]

the battle between hines and bentwood in the first race was good to see but in the second race bentwood just drove away.

[Craig]

I don't think there should be a weight penalty on the BMW - why should a team be penalised for doing a good job? Were Triple Eight penalised? No.

[Jonny Apex]

Originally posted by cos
Bentwood seemed to domiante pretty impressively... how long before Toca slap a weight penalty on him?

The BMW did have a weight penalty for Brands following Bentwood's second round win at Mondello. His car carried 42kg more than those of Hines, Blencowe, Ryan, Wallace and Boardman. Jim Edwards was the only other driver to go to Brands with a weight penalty after finishing second in class in round 2 at Mondello. All the others went to Brands 'light' after each failed to finish round 2 (Jim actually held the lead briefly on lap one of the first race at Brands but a misfire halfway into the lap allowed the others to easily drive by - see race report on www.tocatour.co.uk)
Michael's win in round three at Brands ensured he remained at maximum ballast for round four, with Hines, second in that first race, taking on ballast for the second, whereas someone like Edwards, who finished fifth in class, had it taken off ...

Bentwood will continue to carry maximum ballast at Thruxton where he expects the BMW to struggle as it is a power circuit ...

[Jonny Apex]

Originally posted by Craig Antill
I don't think there should be a weight penalty on the BMW - why should a team be penalised for doing a good job? Were Triple Eight penalised? No.

Yes, they were. James Thompson's car carried maximum ballast following his second round win at Mondello. Muller's Astra was next heaviest, after he finished second at Mondello. Bear in mind, thay had to begin the weekend - that includes practice and qualifying - at Brands carrying that weight, making their qualifying performances all the more extraordinary.

By dint of their 1-2-3 in race two at Brands, the three works Astras will be the three heaviest cars going into Thruxton's fifth and sixth rounds (again, that includes right from the first lap of practice).

Weight is then redistributed for race two of a weekend depending on the results of race one.

[redshoes]

Jonny, I think Craig isn't refering to the variable success ballast but the sort of extra penalty given to James Kaye's Civic last year (and to the Triple Eight Astras 2 years ago)

[Craner Curves]

Blencowe's Honda is a waste of a good car.

[cos]

I was referring to the extra ballast handicap put on to the Vauxhall's in 2001 and Kaye's Honda (briefly) last year... which is directly 'penalising' good cars and artificially interefering with the racing (mind you, you could say the same about success ballast...)

[AndyF]

Originally posted by cos
I was referring to the extra ballast handicap put on to the Vauxhall's in 2001 and Kaye's Honda (briefly) last year... which is directly 'penalising' good cars and artificially interefering with the racing (mind you, you could say the same about success ballast...)

I don't think they should bother with the extra handicap. They are being penalised for building a good car.

[Claire]

Originally posted by Craner Curves
Blencowe's Honda is a waste of a good car.

No it isn't, he made a blinding start to get up ito 2nd in the 2nd race but it's hard to keep that going when you don't have 5th gear. Once the problems are ironed out I'm sure we will see him up there with Michael and Luke.

[Jonny Apex]

Originally posted by Claire
No it isn't, he made a blinding start to get up ito 2nd in the 2nd race but it's hard to keep that going when you don't have 5th gear. Once the problems are ironed out I'm sure we will see him up there with Michael and Luke.

I agree. Anyone at Brands could hear the car was in trouble. He was having to come off the power way before the braking point into Paddock because he was on the limiter in fourth!

[Jamie P-E]

I agree with Claire & Johnny you could hear that he was having trouble selecting 5th gear and thruxton should suit the civic better as it's a power circuit and providing the gearbox co-operates there should be no reason that Alan and Luke will be setting the pace,.

[KPC]

Perhaps weight penalties will close up the field and make the few proddies on the track get down to the kinda close racing we saw from them during the previous two seasons? This year has thus far been, unfortuantely, DULL. It will be interesting to see if the additions at Silverstone will liven things up, but you can only feel that they will be under-developed compared with those already out there...?