BTCC at Brands Hatch - A Fan's Point of View of the Weekend
Lesley Hayes shares her views about the first BTCC weekend of 2008 at Brands Hatch.
01-04-2008
When Dave Bartrum asked if I would write a column on the first BTCC weekend of 2008 I thought wow how lovely to be asked. Then it hit me that I am useless at race reports and that this could just end up as a 'we tested, we qualified, we raced and we went home'. Then he said it didn't necessarily need to be about Motorbase but it would be nice and then he said 'from a fans point of view' - well that I could write about.
A fans' point of view of the weekend....
Where do I start? Sunday when 80% of the fans turn up, Saturday when the diehards made the journey down to Brands Hatch or even before that? 2008 preparations started at the end of last year and for the last 6 months (or more) loads of drivers have been getting the necessary sponsorship together and the teams have been trying to buy or build cars and the info structure to run them. In some cases the money didn't come, in others the cars weren't built in time but for 14 teams and 25 drivers Brands Hatch was the start of the season.
Even then there were last minute hiccups with Aircool only getting their Seat at the last minute and In-Tune Racing fitting an engine to their Civic. In each of the garages the cars were lovingly polished and shown off while the drivers re-acquainted themselves with the TOCA bus and signing on and team briefings. In some garages this is a very laid back affair but in others it is a way for the team boss to make sure everyone knows what they are doing, when they should be doing it and where.
First practice can see some drivers getting their hands on the car for the very first time, others it is a re-acquaintance with an old friend. For Jason Hughes it was the MG from last year rather than the expected Honda. For each driver he has a list of jobs to perform from bedding in brakes, scrubbing tyres to finding the best race and qualifying set up.
For teams like Motorbase with 2 drivers they could start the session from different set ups - one damp, one dry. As each driver brings in feedback the cars are tweaked over the two sessions. Of course all this could be irrelevant if conditions change before qualifying.
As it was Steven Kane started 0.2 seconds off pole in session one improving to 0.11 in session 2 whereas Rob Collard stayed consistent at 0.9 seconds off pole. Steven with a background in Porsches is probably more used to the rear wheeled BMW than Rob who didn't race very much last year. But what would happen in qualifying?
Slicks take a while to heat up to optimum stickiness and then only last for a couple of laps before deteriorating (or going off as they call it). Most drivers go out on older tyres, warm up the car, brakes and their brains and then swap onto brand new slicks, do a couple of laps and then bang in a fast one. Timing is everything. The weather may change, the track may get crowded and they get impeded or incidents happen. And it did. A lot of cars did their fastest lap when the yellow flags were out because of a car stranded in the gravel (this is not allowed in the WTCC but is in the BTCC). Others were caught out when the red flag ended the session prematurely.
Most did between 20-24 laps in 3 sessions using 3 sets of tyres. Again they improved with Steven in 8th and 0.4 off pole and Rob in 13th and only 0.3 seconds behind.
For the fans this is the end of the day but now the drivers go over again all the data from the cars looking for where they lost or gained time. Here a two car team like Motorbase have an advantage with 2 sets of data and 2 viewpoints. Final tweaks are made to cars for the race tomorrow and then everyone can relax.
Sunday started damp but then the sun came out and dried the track. The car parks were getting full as were the grandstands and the popular areas and race 1 started in changeable conditions. Steven lost places at the start where as Rob gained some and the two of them ended up driving around together. Steven swapped places with ex-champion Matt Neal a couple of times and finished a strong 8th with Rob finishing in 12th.
Race 2 saw Rob in the wars after he was hit at Paddock Hill Bend, "I had an alternator problem, which meant I had slowed along the straight", said Collard. "I pulled right over going into Paddock but I got a tap from behind from Stephen Jelley. I really thought I was going to hit the barrier, so it was a relief when I stopped short."
Steven had it worse when he was turned into the pitwall and ended up having to sit out the third race with a damaged sub-frame.
Rob had to start race 3 from near the back but fought his way through to an encouraging 11th.
At that point most of the fans went home after fighting to get their cars out of the car parks but for some of us now is the time to get the post mortems and final few photos from the drivers.
A very encouraging start to the season, some lessons learnt, some surprises and some great racing. Roll on Rockingham.
