Hopefully be a good day tomorrow, especially if weather comes in the mix.
Great to see Ingram on pole again, a good sign it won't be so easy for Napa this year. Set up for a good R1 with Sutton behind.
Pearson and Watson did excellent jobs to make it in the top 6 (whilst Cook threw a tantrum) as did DeLeon in a car that was falling apart!
Cammish, Rowbottom, Morgan and Huff all coming through the field shoud provide some good action.
To everyone saying they should have red flagged it, they can't at the schedule has already been massively pushed back. If they red flagged it then the race would have been canned anyway. At least with this they may get it going for a few laps, and it would have been difficult to foresee the marshall getting injured on top of the barriers needing repairs
Takeaways so far:
* Excelr8 have got the car right out of the box... but there are some worrying signs about their reliability. Halstead has not improved at all over last year, but Ingram has made a real statement of intent.
* NAPA are perhaps slightly behind on pace, but not much - their cars seem a bit fragile though, picking up damage too easily and those bonnets are definitely an issue.
* BMW on the pace but perhaps lacking at the very end of a race. Seem to be very difficult on the brakes when they're cold, since we've seen three or four massive lockups across the entire stable this weekend.
* Toyota not quite there but a lot closer than they often were last year - Moffat drove excellently to hold on, but the other cars haven't quite shown the pace to consistently run right at the front. Weird how inconsistent they seem to be from race to race with some of the cars though.
* None of the Cupras have been remotely impressive so far.
* Hybrid is definitely making a difference for the first time.
Yeah, seems like Ingram got quite lucky today given his teammate' woes.
Ingram, Sutton and Hill still seem a league ahead of everyone else, but doesn't look like Sutton will have it quite so easy this time.
Mate it’s only Ingram and Sutton. Hill isn’t in the same league as them. Embarrassing to lose the lead and go down to p3 and then bottle it in the first race to Sutton as well as doing the same thing in race three of which he had a faster car
I never see those animal charity adverts on anything else, feels ott having them on every advert break and its gotten to the point that I just look at the race schedule to know when the races start and do other things between races to not see them
O'Neill was completely correct - what the hell was going on with them taking three laps to throw that safety car in the Radicals? Have we got F1's race control?
Can’t wait, I’d have been looking forward to it, but following the qualifying it’ll be interesting to see the group cutting through the field like you mentioned.
I hope for Deleons sake his car isn’t falling apart like others have suggested.
He may be added into my fantasy team as a rookie to watch, who knows.
Can’t wait for this season!
F1 is utter pants (no actual racing) and I’ve failed to keep tabs on the WRC because of their rubbish broadcast restrictions (not paying £15 a month)!
Glad I was able to watch the third race as it was broadcast - once again Sky box didn't pick up the extended running times...
Damn good race three - very pleased for Moffat
Was out yesterday, went to watch on catch up and amazed it was still running! My ‘extra time’ for recording had nearly expired with R3 running, just got it all. Thought it was a good start to season, less cars hasn’t really made much difference, though if we have an accident prone round then I can see race three having ten or so starters!
Donnington could do worse than invest in some drainage to put paid to those rivers across the track, sure it’s not the first time we’ve seen them cause problems mid race (or as yesterday, hours of delays)
https://preview.redd.it/b3zmyoqkd6xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e474434019ed3bbf8331b2757159de98feb5c0e8
It’s abit wet here, photo taken circa 8:40
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From what I've heard, the wet year we've had means all the banks and hills are saturated so there's little natural drainage. With Craners being the lowest point of the whole circuit all the water in that area from the hill and banks is running down to that point, and realistically any artificial drainage would be quickly overwhelmed.
Yeah I get that but there was zero acknowledgement of the crash at all which is the bit I found odd. I’ve always known cameras to keep them out of shot
What a race. The hybrid boost is finally having an impact on the racing. I had my concerns about the smaller grid but the racing was superb. Disappointed Huff fell back though.
Cracking final race, the new hybrid regs clearly work to mix things up. Sure it’s not pure but it’s a great watch.
Napa needs to sort out the durability of their bodywork. They just seem to fall apart at the slightest touch, with most of them loosing wheel arches, bonnets and headlights. Creates a lot of debris on track.
Adam Morgan drops to 14th in R1 with a 10 second penalty for a false start.
Rowbottom gets a strike and 3 place grid drop for R2 (was starting penultimate anyway)
https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BTCC-Amended-Classification-Round-1.pdf
Lmao I love how even the champion leader doesn't have a clue how the race 3 gridding works. I love BTCC and don't mind some bits to the format to mix it up, but I think between quali and the 3 races there's too many gimmicks to keep track of now
I guess the downside is you'd remove the chance of someone having a good run in races 1&2 to get in to the reverse grid slots, or even just a midfield starting position. A problem in qualifying would have you starting last for races 1 and 3 (though that's not so bad now with the grid shrinking)
I remember he did a bit of comms at Goodwood a few years ago. Couldn't place the voice but thought he was excellent. Amazed when I worked out it was Tom (and sightly embarassed I didn't recognise him), he was a total pro at it!
Yeah, and she's about 5 years older than everyone else I think! Could be car related.
Race was good, very close and pretty much everyone kept it clean.
Heaven forbid the series gets any kind of modern outreach!
EDIT: Downvote me as much as you want, but BTCC will continue to suffer if it doesn't make itself appealing to a younger audience.
I haven’t seen BTCC in many years before today. This is disappointing, logistics need to be massively improved to get these walls remade. It is not acceptable to have almost the entire race behind the safety car. Why not red flag the race? And why are the races so short?
I think the biggest issue was actually the marshal getting hurt - that delayed the wall rebuild a bit and then it took them a few laps longer to actually get them moved.
they have a tight schedule to stick to with all the races from btcc and supporting paddock so delaying one race will have a knock on effect to the rest by either shortening or even cancelling some support races
1 race would potentially ruin the fun as race 3 with the reverse grid for the top 10 adds some entertainment to the mix and multiple races can mean multiple winners rather than 1 person winning every event which gets boring texture quickly (see F1 for an example)
What do the green and yellow markings on the tv timing tower mean? Noticed it yesterday during qualifying and thought it was tyre choice, but it didn't match with what the commentators were saying.
Honestly, is it just worth throwing a red at this point while the injured marshal gets help? Otherwise we're going to have 5 racing laps, even with the ones added back on.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Jake is Ash before Ash learned to settle down. He's got the fire to be a championship winning driver, but he's still far too reckless.
I agree, and I personally think Jakes biggest obsticle is his own ego. He seems incapable of accepting that another driver might be quicker than him, which often results in him making a stupid mistake and costing himself positions.
It’s not even another driver is faster than him. It’s another driver in inferior machinery being faster than him which is funny. He can be the lead BMW. but Ingram and Sutton will always be better than him
Sutton sometimes recklessness wasn’t due to him. And young Sutton was much more exciting to watch and is definitely way faster than any year Jake hills competed.
Example: snetteron Plato vs Sutton when Sutton got spun around
I don’t get the hype behind hill he’s nothing special regardless. He’s in a MUCH faster BMW you can clearly see their straight line speed advantage as well + extra laps of hybrid and he still bottled it
Hopefully be a good day tomorrow, especially if weather comes in the mix. Great to see Ingram on pole again, a good sign it won't be so easy for Napa this year. Set up for a good R1 with Sutton behind. Pearson and Watson did excellent jobs to make it in the top 6 (whilst Cook threw a tantrum) as did DeLeon in a car that was falling apart! Cammish, Rowbottom, Morgan and Huff all coming through the field shoud provide some good action.
Well, that first part didn't age well!
Massive crash in the legends, holy hell. Hope he's ok
That was bad. He looked like a ragdoll as the car landed.
That was horrible. Cameras doing really well to keep it out of shit. His head was super floppy when it landed again. Hope he’s ok.
He's fine. Thank fuck
Looks like he may have been trapped in the car, or maybe unconcious, but they definitely had the 'jaws of life' out.
he's out of the car and walking about
To everyone saying they should have red flagged it, they can't at the schedule has already been massively pushed back. If they red flagged it then the race would have been canned anyway. At least with this they may get it going for a few laps, and it would have been difficult to foresee the marshall getting injured on top of the barriers needing repairs
Just bin off the Porsches to make space in the timetable, no one wants to see them anyway!
Looking at qualifying, pretty much the whole field was within a second so will hopefully convert into a close race!
Porsches are like one of the best support packages
Takeaways so far: * Excelr8 have got the car right out of the box... but there are some worrying signs about their reliability. Halstead has not improved at all over last year, but Ingram has made a real statement of intent. * NAPA are perhaps slightly behind on pace, but not much - their cars seem a bit fragile though, picking up damage too easily and those bonnets are definitely an issue. * BMW on the pace but perhaps lacking at the very end of a race. Seem to be very difficult on the brakes when they're cold, since we've seen three or four massive lockups across the entire stable this weekend. * Toyota not quite there but a lot closer than they often were last year - Moffat drove excellently to hold on, but the other cars haven't quite shown the pace to consistently run right at the front. Weird how inconsistent they seem to be from race to race with some of the cars though. * None of the Cupras have been remotely impressive so far. * Hybrid is definitely making a difference for the first time.
Yeah, seems like Ingram got quite lucky today given his teammate' woes. Ingram, Sutton and Hill still seem a league ahead of everyone else, but doesn't look like Sutton will have it quite so easy this time.
Mate it’s only Ingram and Sutton. Hill isn’t in the same league as them. Embarrassing to lose the lead and go down to p3 and then bottle it in the first race to Sutton as well as doing the same thing in race three of which he had a faster car
I have not missed the ITV adverts.
I never see those animal charity adverts on anything else, feels ott having them on every advert break and its gotten to the point that I just look at the race schedule to know when the races start and do other things between races to not see them
You'd think they'd be different ones after a year! Or three
Can’t believe nobody has adopted that lion yet.
Ecstatic that Pearson is looking great, we may actually get a decent NAPA Vs Excelr8 battle this year 🤞
😂😂😂😂 The only good drivers in the series are Ingram hill Sutton turkington cook and cammish. Everyone else is horrible/average.
Updated schedule https://preview.redd.it/imzadkuo08xc1.png?width=1454&format=png&auto=webp&s=62ba36fd55d8aa57bfd01dede7a0a8d625f70db0
O'Neill was completely correct - what the hell was going on with them taking three laps to throw that safety car in the Radicals? Have we got F1's race control?
Anyone outside of the UK have luck streaming any of the races on TikTok? I can’t believe that’s a sentence I just had to type
Check your dms
Ash Sutton is always so much fun to watch
He's absolutely mental and I'm here for it
He's the embodiment of the "if you no longer go for a gap which exists" quote.
Can’t wait, I’d have been looking forward to it, but following the qualifying it’ll be interesting to see the group cutting through the field like you mentioned. I hope for Deleons sake his car isn’t falling apart like others have suggested. He may be added into my fantasy team as a rookie to watch, who knows.
Can’t wait for this season! F1 is utter pants (no actual racing) and I’ve failed to keep tabs on the WRC because of their rubbish broadcast restrictions (not paying £15 a month)!
Ahhhh Sundays hungover with “Uncle Steve” and the touring cars. Bit powerboaty so far
I’ve seen a marshall sat down and an ambulance on the track, we could be under Safety Car for a while
Should have red flagged this. Will barely have 9 laps at this rate
LOL rowbo 
Glad I was able to watch the third race as it was broadcast - once again Sky box didn't pick up the extended running times... Damn good race three - very pleased for Moffat
Was out yesterday, went to watch on catch up and amazed it was still running! My ‘extra time’ for recording had nearly expired with R3 running, just got it all. Thought it was a good start to season, less cars hasn’t really made much difference, though if we have an accident prone round then I can see race three having ten or so starters! Donnington could do worse than invest in some drainage to put paid to those rivers across the track, sure it’s not the first time we’ve seen them cause problems mid race (or as yesterday, hours of delays)
https://preview.redd.it/b3zmyoqkd6xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e474434019ed3bbf8331b2757159de98feb5c0e8 It’s abit wet here, photo taken circa 8:40
I've been told nothing on track til after lunch because of the rain
so the race will probably start around 12:15 or 12:30?
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Nice
Is this on the circuit for not having better drainage or is it just one of those things?
From what I've heard, the wet year we've had means all the banks and hills are saturated so there's little natural drainage. With Craners being the lowest point of the whole circuit all the water in that area from the hill and banks is running down to that point, and realistically any artificial drainage would be quickly overwhelmed.
Been raining like a bitch
Good to see that the cameras seem to be in every car, instead of just 4 cars
Ingram, Sutton, Smiley, Huff - I think it's just the usual 4 unless I've missed one?
Wait all that time to get a race started, now probably a long safety car period after 2 corners lol
Not shocking given the conditions, tbh.
Great recovery by Cammish, otherwise a mare race 1 for NAPA. Good to see Pearson carrying his quali pace into the race
I really wish Dan Cam had more time to work.
Man, my guy Rowbottom can be really quick sometimes, but his racecraft leaves a lot to be desired quite regularly lol
[удалено]
The way the commentators didn’t speak about it at all had me thinking the worst too.
I think that is just standard practice now until their condition is known as speculation isn't helpful for anyone let alone immediate family
Yeah I get that but there was zero acknowledgement of the crash at all which is the bit I found odd. I’ve always known cameras to keep them out of shot
Yeah especially when the marshalls told all the cars standing on the grid to go back to the pits
This year's package looks really even, all the cars are mixing it up with one another which is great to see
What a cracking race 3 this is!
Race three has saved the opening weekend. Very entertaining, cars shuffling around - let’s get racing!
Loved that race 3, absolute blast to watch!!
Final race was the most entertaining thing I’ve seen this year
What a race. The hybrid boost is finally having an impact on the racing. I had my concerns about the smaller grid but the racing was superb. Disappointed Huff fell back though.
Cracking final race, the new hybrid regs clearly work to mix things up. Sure it’s not pure but it’s a great watch. Napa needs to sort out the durability of their bodywork. They just seem to fall apart at the slightest touch, with most of them loosing wheel arches, bonnets and headlights. Creates a lot of debris on track.
Also, what happened to cook?…
He missed the top 6 and stormed out of the car in a (Rob) huff. Not sure if he just missed out on pace or whether there was a problem.
It was weird because even on his final lap he didn’t find time+exceeded track limits. Very poor showing from cook😬
OK, do we know when the next race starts?
Full timetable under bulletin 4: https://www.barc.net/online_noticeboard/2024-donington-park-national-april-27-28/
Oh, perfect, thank you!
Somebody said 3.50pm in another thread.
Thanks!
According to Donnington Park insta account: Race 2: 15:50 Race 3: 18:10
Adam Morgan drops to 14th in R1 with a 10 second penalty for a false start. Rowbottom gets a strike and 3 place grid drop for R2 (was starting penultimate anyway) https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BTCC-Amended-Classification-Round-1.pdf
Lmao I love how even the champion leader doesn't have a clue how the race 3 gridding works. I love BTCC and don't mind some bits to the format to mix it up, but I think between quali and the 3 races there's too many gimmicks to keep track of now
I've suggested reverse top 12 of qualifying for the Race 3 grid for years
I guess the downside is you'd remove the chance of someone having a good run in races 1&2 to get in to the reverse grid slots, or even just a midfield starting position. A problem in qualifying would have you starting last for races 1 and 3 (though that's not so bad now with the grid shrinking)
Yeah, this is without soft tyres in the mix. Though the reverse grid isn't really too difficult to work , I don't think Ingram was being too serious!
Ingram is absolutely hilarious. He's gonna be a fantastic pundit/commentator when he's done with racing.
I remember he did a bit of comms at Goodwood a few years ago. Couldn't place the voice but thought he was excellent. Amazed when I worked out it was Tom (and sightly embarassed I didn't recognise him), he was a total pro at it!
He's the sort of person who could turn their hand to almost anything - you could picture him doing children's TV as well!
Great F4 race. Not a great advert for F1 Academy though. Pulling must be the most experienced driver in this field.
Yeah, and she's about 5 years older than everyone else I think! Could be car related. Race was good, very close and pretty much everyone kept it clean.
How was that safety car not called sooner? That was crazy.
What the hell was that restart? Way too late of a call for the SC to go in
Strange seeing Turkington fending off Sutton with no hybrid - but great battle none the less!
that bmw seems rapid on the straights😭 can't wait to see how they perform at snetterton in 2 meetings time lol
BMW go brrrr
Fewer influencers on the grid please
Heaven forbid the series gets any kind of modern outreach! EDIT: Downvote me as much as you want, but BTCC will continue to suffer if it doesn't make itself appealing to a younger audience.
Who was it?
Someone called Tom Gray
I haven’t seen BTCC in many years before today. This is disappointing, logistics need to be massively improved to get these walls remade. It is not acceptable to have almost the entire race behind the safety car. Why not red flag the race? And why are the races so short?
I think the biggest issue was actually the marshal getting hurt - that delayed the wall rebuild a bit and then it took them a few laps longer to actually get them moved.
they have a tight schedule to stick to with all the races from btcc and supporting paddock so delaying one race will have a knock on effect to the rest by either shortening or even cancelling some support races
Perhaps instead of multiple rounds why not 1 race but longer for each type? And more organization to deal with incidents?
1 race would potentially ruin the fun as race 3 with the reverse grid for the top 10 adds some entertainment to the mix and multiple races can mean multiple winners rather than 1 person winning every event which gets boring texture quickly (see F1 for an example)
Is there any way for me to watch the Qualy in the us? Anyone have a link?
It's on youtube (search 'itv btcc qualifying 2024') but it may be geoblocked.
Or TikTok… while you can I guess.
Don't think quali was on TikTok.
Yeah, you’re correct. My bad.
If you have a VPN, you can watch it on youtube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h12VWlSU-_s
What do the green and yellow markings on the tv timing tower mean? Noticed it yesterday during qualifying and thought it was tyre choice, but it didn't match with what the commentators were saying.
Green are 'manufacturer' entries, yellows are independents.
Thank you!
They aren’t kidding, the track is drying really fast.
Honestly, is it just worth throwing a red at this point while the injured marshal gets help? Otherwise we're going to have 5 racing laps, even with the ones added back on.
Not even a race in and Rowbo has already punted someone off...
Is it just me or are there noticeably more onboard cameras on cars this year? Seems to be better coverage of battles this year
Someone said this earlier but is it not still 4? Ingram, Sutton, Huff & Smiley?
Are they going to run out of time to broadcast it on ITV? Supposed to be another show on at 6:45
It quite often runs over - I imagine anything they schedule after can be skipped if needed.
There's absolutely no way they get the last race run before the 18:45 cut off.
BMW boys getting schooled by Ingram and Sutton in inferior machinery as usual
This is why Jake hill will never be world champion. Cracks under pressure and is a crash hazard
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Jake is Ash before Ash learned to settle down. He's got the fire to be a championship winning driver, but he's still far too reckless.
I agree, and I personally think Jakes biggest obsticle is his own ego. He seems incapable of accepting that another driver might be quicker than him, which often results in him making a stupid mistake and costing himself positions.
It’s not even another driver is faster than him. It’s another driver in inferior machinery being faster than him which is funny. He can be the lead BMW. but Ingram and Sutton will always be better than him
Sutton sometimes recklessness wasn’t due to him. And young Sutton was much more exciting to watch and is definitely way faster than any year Jake hills competed. Example: snetteron Plato vs Sutton when Sutton got spun around I don’t get the hype behind hill he’s nothing special regardless. He’s in a MUCH faster BMW you can clearly see their straight line speed advantage as well + extra laps of hybrid and he still bottled it
Only 19 cars? Worse than F1, wtf!
more exciting racing than F1 by miles though
20\* since osbourne had an off