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Posted
Oct 06 2009, 03:31 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 6 comment(s)
The last round of the British Touring Car Championship is all about the title fight: three races and three men in a fight to be the 2009 champion. First up is the points leader, Colin Turkington in the West Surrey Racing-run BMW 320. The Northern Irishman has been racing in the BTCC since 2002 and has already won the Independents' title for the last two years, but now he's leading overall with 249 points. Next up is Italian Fabrizio Giovanardi. He's won the British series for manufacturer...
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Posted
Oct 03 2009, 11:38 AM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 8 comment(s)
Six months ago the Arena Ford Focus team barely made the opening round of the 2009 British Touring Car Championship and qualified near the back. They rarely bothered the front-runners over the first half of the championship and a first points-paying position – 10th, back at the Croft circuit – was celebrated like a win. Fast forward to this weekend's final three races and we're back at Brands Hatch, this time on the long Grand Prix configuration. But now the Focus is not only...
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Posted
Jul 23 2009, 05:40 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 6 comment(s)
Watching the teams prepare their cars in the pit lane before sending them out for the Sunday morning warm-up, I was struck by the choreography that directs the relationship between the teams and their drivers. Timetables drive the series - sessions are short, meaning every second counts, so co-ordination between driver and team is vital. However, there's a problem. While the team want a well executed, effortless performance - drivers gliding round the track to elegant victory - the drivers seem...
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Posted
Jul 20 2009, 11:00 AM
by
John Brooks
with 13 comment(s)
The email arrives in the in-box, detailing the monthly assignments.................yes, despite the evidence to the contrary on my pages there IS a plan. Most of the jobs follow the monthly themes, so some months I am more involved than others. In July the WTCC was in my neck of the woods, down the Hatch in fact. So mobilising his sense of mischief, Editor Rod gives me a hospital pass "The Art of WTCC"...............oh no, my shoulders slumped.......not more pretention about art or ART...
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Posted
Jul 03 2009, 09:35 AM
by
John Brooks
with 12 comment(s)
Wow! Is it really the penultimate round of the 2009 UK Time Attack series? Has June passed already? Well the answer is yes to both counts and event four (of five) was held at Brands Hatch last weekend. It was part of the Modified Live Summer Special along with the Need for Speed European Drift Champsionship, a combination that has proved a success with the fans since the opening event at Oulton Park back in early April. Over 6.000 passed through the gate on Sunday in support of this assertion. The...
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Posted
Jul 01 2009, 03:48 PM
by
Ross Ianson
with 12 comment(s)
Brands Hatch.. the place where nothing is close! if you miss your window to cross the track your in for a 20 minute walk back to the drift paddock, i dread to think how many miles i must have walked on Sunday but my legs are feeling it now. 7.30 in the morning and the track was just starting to recover from the prevous nights biblical storm that had pelted the NFS-EDC staff with bullet sized hail stones as they were setting up the track, the whole track was surrounded by a low lying mist giving a...
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Posted
Apr 14 2009, 08:30 AM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 5 comment(s)
The next round of the BTCC is at Thruxton in Hampshire at the end of this month, but in the meantime here is some more behind the scenes eye candy from the opening Brands Hatch round. BTCC pit garages are highly professional, spotless places: check out the Vauxhall pits. From what I've seen Auto Glym is obviously the number one product around here, as despite all the panel bashing and gravel collected during the races all the teams are constantly polishing their cars. There's never much time...
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Posted
Apr 10 2009, 07:28 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 11 comment(s)
Was just sent this video of British BTCC driver and Fifth Gear TV presenter, Jason Plato, recovering from what looked like an imminent spin at Brands Hatch. Check out how Jonathan Adams in the BMW 3-series hits Jason, throwing him sideway in his front-wheel-drive Chevy Lacetti. He gets hard on the power and winds on opposite lock to get the car back in line from the 90º slide. Pretty insane, and I thought quite appropriate for the drift month we are having here at Speedhunters!
Dino Dalle Carbonare
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Posted
Apr 05 2009, 04:54 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 4 comment(s)
The first three races of the 2009 British Touring Car Championship may have lacked the usual outcome of season debuts - ie. half the cars ending up as scrap - but it certainly didn't lack for action. Initially pole man Mat Neal lost the lead off the line to the Rob Collard and Colin Turkington's BMWs. There was the usual dogfight on the sprint down to Paddock: Jonathan Adam's BMW was fired off the track as Stephen Jelly's BMW was sandwiched by Adam and Gordon Shedden's Civic....
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Posted
Apr 04 2009, 04:23 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 7 comment(s)
There were some last minute returnees to the first round of Britain's favourite 'roundy-roundy' racing, but none more high profile than crowd favourite Jason Plato. Left high and dry by the works SEAT team closure and having not scored a drive over the winter, British race engineering specialists RML rustled up a car for him: a 2008 works Chevy Lacetti. Although the BTCC has lost last year's surprise indy success story, Mat Jackson, there's still strength up front, and the top...
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Posted
Sep 24 2008, 06:31 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 8 comment(s)
The final three rounds of the 2008 British Touring Car Championship took place at Brands Hatch last weekend. Vauxhall driver, Fabrizio Giovanardi needed just 9 points to secure his second consecutive title and despite being pushed onto the grass and finishing 14th, championship rival, Jason Plato could only finish 5th, ensuring Giovanardi of the title. Race One was won by Mat Jackson in the family run BMW Dealer Team UK car. Steven Kane and Rob Collard in similar BMW 320Si's were 2nd and 3rd...
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Posted
Sep 18 2008, 04:07 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with no comments
The final three rounds of the British Touring Car Championship take place this weekend. Current champion, Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall) leads Jason Plato by 44 points. Gio' needs just 9 points to take the championship, but SEAT has been the quicker car in the second half of the season after SEAT Sport UK found a good set up. SEAT still have some reliability issues.This would, in theory, put SEAT in a great position for next season, but in a bizarre decision which shocked UK Motorsport last week...
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Posted
Aug 11 2008, 09:00 AM
by
John Brooks
with 20 comment(s)
The icon flashing was the first warning...........mail received.............from the Sainted Editor while on his Japanese trip.............Get down to Brands Hatch on Sunday...........Time Attack and do a feature on the ZEN Performance Subaru.............so knowing nothing about the sport or its competitors I steered my old jalopy round the M25 and in through the gates of the famous Kent race circuit. After wondering about trying to size up the event (more later) I slid on down to the pitlane and...
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Posted
Aug 08 2008, 05:20 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 1 comment(s)
The World Touring Car Championship made its annual visit to the UK last weekend. We touched on the World series earlier this year Valencia and Pau race gallery from David Lister. David supplies the images again as we take a look at the Brands Hatch rounds. James Thompson's JAS built Honda Accord (Acura TSX for North Americans!) in action. Early days for the team and car, but James is a top driver and the team are just about to expand to a 2nd car. The Chevrolet Lacetti (Optra in some markets...
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Posted
Jun 02 2008, 04:19 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 1 comment(s)
Photo taken by "Retribution" of the Speedhunters forums at the 2008 Historic Masters Festival at Brands Hatch. Be sure to check his thread for more fantastic event photos. Speedhunters Forums: Historic Masters Festival Photos Part Two -Mike Garrett
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Posted
May 27 2008, 03:15 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 1 comment(s)
One of the first projects for the Speedhunters team was for top motorsport photographer, John Brooks, to visit the first round the of the British Touring Car Championship. This year is the 50th Anniversary of the 2008 British Touring Car Championship. The series is one of the top tin-top series in the world, following the same FiA regulations as the World Touring Car Championship. Racing is tight and close with many incidents as shown in many of John's images. Sometimes it does get close to Banger...
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Posted
May 22 2008, 01:00 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 2 comment(s)
The British Touring Car Championship is one of my favourite series. As a Brit, I spent many cold and wet weekends at Thruxton, Silverstone and Brands Hatch watching this type of racing. The BTCC is back in ascendance and 2008 looks like being a great year for this series. The cars may look like the cars on the street, but underneath they are true race cars. The BTCC now runs to the FiA S2000 rules, which basically means 4-5 door cars running with engines no bigger than 2000cc. The engine can come...
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