BTCC Rounds 25, 26 & 27 - Donington Park

[VkmSpouge]

Practice 1
1 Jason Plato 1m11.842
2 Mat Jackson 0.135
3 Gordon Shedden 0.164
4 Matt Neal 0.511
5 Tom Chilton 0.517
6 Tom Boardman 0.535
7 Alex MacDowall 0.546
8 Andrew Jordan 0.613
9 Steven Kane 0.645
10 Rob Collard 0.714
11 Paul o'Neill 0.725
12 Tom Onslow-Cole 0.767
13 James Nash 0.977
14 Dave Pinkney 1.702
15 Andy Neate 1.774
16 James Kaye 2.095
17 Arthur Forster 2.226
18 John George 2.549
19 Shaun Hollamby 2.626
20 Martin Johnson 2.827
21 Lea Wood No Time
22 Martin Depper No Time

Good time posted by Tom Boardman. Hopefully James Kaye will get quicker as he gets used to the car, this must be the first time he has driven the Integra.

[PDS]

Images here.. http://psp-images.photoshelter.com/

[Eurotech]

Nice pictures as ever PDS... I'm liking James Kaye's livery already, best of luck to him and hopefully he can keep improving and maybe steal some points tommorow?

[VkmSpouge]

Qualifying:
1 Tom Chilton 1m11.328
2 Tom Onslow-Cole 0.081
3 Gordon Shedden 0.120
4 Jason Plato 0.214
5 Matt Neal 0.276
6 Andrew Jordan 0.389
7 Paul o'Neill 0.494
8 Rob Collard 0.506
9 Tom Boardman 0.588
10 Alex MacDowall 0.591
11 Mat Jackson 0.682
12 James Nash 0.970
13 James Kaye 1.772
14 Andy Neate 1.893
15 Lea Wood 1.959
16 John George 2.128
17 Martin Johnson 2.572
18 Dave Pinkney 2.599
19 Shaun Hollamby 2.880
20 Arthur Forster 3.812
21 Steven Kane No time
22 Martin Depper No time

I gather that Martin Depper won't be taking part in the rest of the weekend due to a broken manifold. A real shame for him. Any reason why Steven Kane was not in qualifying?
Fords on the front row (cue whinging). Good pole for Chilton, will he now start deferring to his team after conceding his own championship hopes are over for 2010?
Good qualifying by Tom Boardman and Paul o'Neill and a decent effort by James Kaye in his first time back. I like his livery, it reminds me of the 1999 Arena Renault Laguna.

[Allyc85]

Steven Kanes BMW wouldnt restart following a gearbox change after practise :(

Really looking forward to todays racing after whats happend with Donny in the last year or so!

[VkmSpouge]

Race 1 Result:
1 Gordon Shedden
2 Tom Chilton
3 Mat Jackson
4 Alex MacDowall
5 Matt Neal
6 Steven Kane
7 Tom Boardman
8 Tom Onslow-Cole
9 James Kaye
10 Dave Pinkney
11 Martin Johnson
12 John George
13 Lea Wood
14 Shaun Hollamby
15 Andy Neate
16 Rob Collard
17 James Nash
18 Arthur Forster
DNF Jason Plato
DNF Andrew Jordan
DNF Paul o'Neill
DNS Martin Depper

Congratulations to Gordon Shedden on winning.
This race serves to close the championship up with four drivers within 20 points of each other.
Jason Plato causing the biggest accident of the race thanks to his punt on Matt Neal, though perhaps Neal might have braked earlier because he was behind Chilton. I feel sorry for Andrew Jordan and Rob Collard who got caught up in that. I also question the wisdom of putting those foam blocks on the chicane, they did not do that at the original Goddards chicane so why do it now?
Well done to James Kaye for scoring points on his return to the championship and to Steven Kane for coming through from the back of the grid to claim 6th place.

[VkmSpouge]

Race 2 Result:
1 Tom Onslow-Cole
2 Gordon Shedden
3 Jason Plato
4 Tom Chilton
5 Mat Jackson
6 Steven Kane
7 Rob Collard
8 Matt Neal
9 Andrew Jordan
10 James Nash
11 Alex MacDowall
12 Paul o'Neill
13 Tom Boardman
14 James Kaye
15 Andy Neate
16 John George
17 Lea Wood
18 Dave Pinkney
19 Shaun Hollamby
20 Arthur Forster
DNF Martin Johnson
DNS Martin Depper

Good races for three of the four championship challengers. Gordon Shedden made the right choice to let Tom Onslow-Cole go otherwise Jason Plato might have been able to challenge both.
Jason Plato put in a fantastic drive and potentially a championship winning one.
What on Earth was Matt Neal doing creeping at the start of the race?
Andrew Jordan on pole position with a light weight Matt Neal alongside him. Could be a great opportunity for Neal to claw back some serious points on Plato.

[christophulus]

Great racing so far, although I'm sick of Matt Neal's "overtaking" moves, which he's got away with for his whole career. Don't the other drivers know by now that he's going to tap them sideways? His pass on Jordan in the second race was class, so I don't know why he keeps resorting to these shoves.

Anyway, a nice close fight for the title now, race 3 should be good.

[VkmSpouge]

Race 3 Result:
1 Matt Neal
2 Rob Collard
3 Jason Plato
4 Steven Kane
5 Tom Chilton
6 Gordon Shedden
7 Andrew Jordan
8 Mat Jackson
9 Tom Onslow-Cole
10 James Nash
11 Lea Wood
12 John George
13 Dave Pinkney
14 Arthur Forster
DNF Paul o'Neill
DNF Alex MacDowall
DNF Shaun Hollamby
DNF Tom Boardman
DNF Andy Neate
DNF James Kaye
DNS Martin Johnson
DNS Martin Depper

Very good race by Matt Neal, taking the lead of Andrew Jordan who unfortunately made a pair of mistakes to lose positions to Neal and Rob Collard.

A very good, exciting weekend of racing and tees the Drivers' Championship up with 4 drivers having a shot at the title. Jason Plato has to be favourite with a 17 point lead over Matt Neal but if Plato fails to finish one race and Neal, Shedden or Onslow-Cole win then it will be so tight.

[UltimateDanGTR]

welcome back to the fray, donnington park.

you were the venue of a wonderful days racing. BTCC and Formula Fords in particular.

[trebor901]

Racing is getting too dirty if they get worse at final round someone will be hurt because now there will be 4 drivers which will be driving like idiots to try to take the others out of the fray so the Honda's will gang up on Plato and Fords aswell which i dont personally mind because he's the last person i want to see win the title. But nothing ever gets done about people making stupid moved like the one Plato made on Neal to cause the race 1 crash