Stories from Super Touring It was to be the first BTCC race
to be held at Croft in the modern era of the championship,
but would it go ahead? A number of problems beset the
cross circuit ahead of the BTCCS return to the circuit, but
eventually the cars got on track for an intriguing pair of races.
Welcome to the latest episode of Stories from Super Touring.
I'm Levi Riley and to help us look back at the debut visit to
Croft in the modern touring car era is Touring car journalist
Andrew Charman. Andrew, you're back again with
us in Series 5. How are you this evening?
Good evening all, delighted to be here.
How am I apart from being absolutely knackered?
Hi, because my day job at the moment is to have me driving
strange new road cars every day and I've spent the whole day
trying to find myself around the University of Warwick which
apparently is in Coventry. Someone please explain that to
me. And sitting in an all day
conference on things that will strike fear into the heart of
many of our listeners. Electric vehicles.
Oh, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't want to lose the
listeners, Andrew. Well, Andrew, we'll stick with
you first for our usual opening question and what first comes to
mind when you think about cross debut in the modern history of
the BTCC back in 1997. Yeah, it's funny because
obviously, I mean, as people know, I covered every single
range from 93 to 2000 and some of them is hard to remember.
The moment you mentioned this one, I think of mud and
mudslinging. So it was a heck of a lot of mud
over the weekend because we had biblical weather and there was a
lot of mudslinging over safety of the circuit and other aggro
that we'll talk about a bit more as we go on.
And Adam coming to you next, what jumps into your mind when
you think about this race meeting?
There was a couple of things actually, which there always is
when you look back at these races, because there's always so
much to talk about. There's always so much going on.
But I think the biggest thing for without, obviously I don't
want to go into that because I'll start giving some of the
things away that we're going to talk about.
But in the biggest thing for me was just that there's a new
circuit, absolutely new circuit. Obviously we're going to go into
a bit bit of detail now about that, but it's just a new
circuit and, and just exciting. You don't really know who's
going to be the fastest 1, how the team's going to react to,
how the car's going to react to it.
Because some cars work better on some circuits than others, and
some drivers adapt to new stuff better than others.
So there's a lot to think about South from a fan's perspective.
Yeah, just pure excitement. Because you just don't get new
circuits launched or, you know, very often, do you?
So yeah, that's good. And coming to you now, Al, what
are your memories when you think that that interestingly laid out
and meteorologically interestingly can?
Yeah, yeah, actually it's probably not going to be
anything to do with the weather or driving standards or safety
or anything. As you know, I'm a bit of a fan
of our Charlie Cox and it's it's another game of Bin Cliff
billiards when the Audis yet again came together on lap one
on the opening lap of a race. But this time it was Binkliff
that came off worst, and like Flaxton where it was Beeler that
came off. But bitches down.
Did you see that the first race when his old carnies were going
off here, there and everywhere, did you just say Patrick Watts
come out? Because he'd already gone off.
Binkliff had gone off. And then poor old Big Cliff,
mind his own business screaming, comes through Patrick Watts and
hits him again. And not just was just thinking
what on earth is happening. Yeah, Patrick didn't seem to
care at that point that he. Just drove straight to the
siren, didn't have a boat trying to catch up the leaders of both
in two different accidents, but still managed to drive into the
side of him. Yeah, I think Patrick had about
10 different accidents in this. Bless him.
And finally, we'll crossover to producing that.
Hope you're well this evening, then we'll get into what?
What are your thoughts when you think back to this race weekend?
Oh hi all. It's pretty much the same as
what Adam and Alex have hinted at at least.
Like the new circuit was brilliant.
I knew obviously the computer game was coming out and I
couldn't wait to go on Croft because it was going to be a new
layout and all of this sort of stuff and could I beat my
brother in learning which way the track goes and all of that
sort of stuff. But the other thing I I was
always a bit of a secret Binkliff fan.
I'm afraid for my sin. But I do remember he got 2
lightning starts and in both races he he out dragged Beeler
off the line despite starting three places behind him.
That's right, He did actually. Yeah, he had a good, good
weekend for that. Yeah, so that was that was one
thing. I remember being able to
actually cheer him on for once. And produce that.
We'll come back to you later in the show for your maths facts as
well. Looking forward to that as
always. We've also asked our faithful
listeners what they thought of when they think back to this
race meeting and this is what they've come up with getting in
touch on X. Andy Hopley remembers both the
Hondas of James Thompson and Gabrielle Tarquini having
similar incidents in Race 2, whilst Carlos and Ray Smith says
he remembers that second race being a bit of a destruction
title, which I'm sure we'll get on to plenty of discussion of
that interesting race. One of the most interesting
races I've watched in the Witch Touring Car Championship.
There were multiple lovers that mentioned the two eerily similar
Honda crashes, Paul Walton was one along with Paul Devonish,
Daniel Barr and Michael Mammy. Adam Little remembers it was the
last time that you they used the old Vauxhalls that season, the
previous RML Vauxhalls and that the BBC used Robert Miles's
children on the coverage, which harken back to Alex's first
memory of the event. It is funny some of the things
that people remember from coming up to first years ago, isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, it's a strange one, but there's certain things
people always gone about those little Matchbox cars that they
did for Brands 99. Yeah, there's a few different
things that they did during the build up to these races in the
latter part of the of the era. And yeah, I guess funny things,
you know, stick in people's minds.
And finally, Simon Mays remembers that qualifying was a
complete washout this weekend. And again, something so bizarre
for a race meeting was remembered by a few other
people, Ben Keating, John Corley and Roland to also getting in
touch to let us know about that one.
Heading into the weekend, it was announced that the race would go
ahead as planned, despite the drivers boycotting the first 3
hours of the official test the week before the event.
Only the quick work by the circuit saw the team's complete
4 hours of running in the afternoon of the official test,
with a written guarantee that further modifications would be
undertaken before the race weekend arrived.
This didn't calm the anger of Vauxhall's Derek Warwick,
however, who was angry that it was down to the direct action
from the drivers to force the changes they wanted through.
I find it outrageous that the driver should find themselves
into this position, Warwick told Autosport.
We are not militants, all we want to do is our job, but the
situation here is totally unacceptable.
Adam, some pretty strong words and Derek Warwick there about
the preparations of the race weekend, isn't it?
Yeah, I think they've got every right to.
You know, this is no different to what you see with Formula One
and Moto GP and, well, super bikes and all the other popular
sports, you know, motorsport particularly that I follow
closely. And they've got every right to
do that. You know, this is an example of
people power and if there's safety comes the end of the day,
no official, no team principal, no team members out there, only
the driver. So if there are safety concerns,
they have to be obviously put out there.
But you'd like to think that you've got certain members
within that organization or drivers that could go out to to
view the circuits prior to the test, prior to the race to try
and iron a few things out first as opposed to arriving at the
test. So then realize actually that's
an accident way to happen. That's an accident way to
happen. But, you know, I think he was
just talking about half of of everybody else.
And, you know, clearly the points raised were dealt with
and Alan Gale got them to sign what was basically a contract to
to get the rest of it sorted, you know, prior to the race
weekend. So I don't blame them.
And you know, I'd have, I'd have done the same.
And I think it's just, you know, respect to the drivers for for
standing up really, because there are moments where as a
driver, you, you just put it with it.
You know, you're not necessarily the biggest name out on the grid
or in whatever category you're in.
But yeah, fair play to them. I'm pleased they did and they
got what they needed because why we don't want to go down that
road like we saw with Centre and there's too many accidents that
have happened and fatalities before something then gets done
about it, you know. And that's that, that's what I
love about having the, you know, the drivers get together and
look at the concerns and, and the safety aspect.
I mean, I think it should be done more to be honest.
Warrick explained that some runoff areas and curbs were
unsatisfactory, while some barriers were not adequately
protected. People say we race at more
dangerous places, and they might be right.
You expect a new circuit to comply with the latest safety
standards. We race at 11 temps.
We don't want to kill ourselves. Andrew, you were covering the
championship at this point for Touring Car Worldwide.
What do you remember of sort of this week lead up to the event
and this story of the track safety issues?
Yeah, I, I have an editorial page in Touring Car Worldwide,
and I commented very extensively on this subject in the issue
that calendar meeting, because the drivers are completely right
to be concerned. I was an expert when I got
there, but I can see that there were some areas that were a
little bit iffy, but it wasn't the circuit's fault.
To put it all into context, Croft had last hosted Touring
Cars of about 1970. The circuit had then closed for
several years. It had reopened 2 years before
and to secure ABTCC they they spent a whole lot of money.
They built a completely new pit complex, garages start finish,
straight set of two, two final corners.
A new final complex was all new. Apparently they ended up
spending one and a half million, which in 1997 was rather a lot
more money than it is now. They then got licence from the
RACMSA so not surprising they thought they were where they
should be. Now.
A Circa is not going to it that hasn't hosted touring cars for
many many years is not going to know what's required.
But you could expect the RACMSA to know what should be required
and point it out. And clearly they didn't.
Clearly the error was with the rule makers because it shouldn't
be up to the drivers to have to threaten to boycott races to get
things done. The circuit wasn't to know.
Once the drivers complained at the test, the circuit again
spent a whole lot more money trying to put all of their all
their concerns to bed. But clearly there was an issue
at a higher level. But let's face it, we allowed
touring cars to race past the knuckle end of an Armco barrier.
Alton Park for years and years and years until Kelvin folded
his Volvo. So clearly, yeah, there were
problems. Croft got the bad end of the
stick. But also think that he's also,
and I've, I've said this before, I think to you guys when I was
at the Super tour is where when you've got some officials in
place or some people that are within an organization that are
inspecting the circuits, you need some current people.
You need current people that might be next drivers.
That wasn't all that long ago still with it in terms of the
safety and the speed. And you know, we're racing the
triumph pedal around there. You know, we're racing something
a bit quicker than that. And, and again, that all should
have one is obviously the organization at the time didn't
have the right people within there because like I said,
they've stamped it and passed it off, signed it off.
But if you, I think you've had some, someone current in there,
you know, like an ex driver or current driver to go and do all
of that inspections beforehand as part of the RACMSA, you know,
golden stamp as such, then they wouldn't have had the issues
they had. Yeah, well, they shouldn't have
done that. I think they would have had a
problem actually taking a current BTCC driver of the time
on inspections with them, because in those days the
drivers really were out for their own.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
And what people did, but you could have taken an experienced
driver from another form. You say, yeah, we're running
PTCZ on this. Is it up?
To the mark, yeah, absolutely. GT driver or someone from
another formula that still current that can still see
because they're going to be going racing there at some point
as well. It just could have been done
differently. But like everything it's it's
ifs but some maybes and you know on site isn't it?
Certainly was. Croft responded to the requests
by completing all of the required changes by Monday
afternoon of the test, with Alan Gown saying the circuit has been
very obliging. After investing millions of
pounds to get the BTCC here, they wouldn't jeopardize that
for the sake of a few. 1000. Warwick called down any talk of
a race boycott too. I'll have a look around on
Friday morning but I've got cross guarantee that things will
be rectified. He said Volvo's Kelvin Burke got
involved in the debate too, saying that other circuits
needed similar treatment. There are other places which
haven't been addressed for years, he said.
Just because we've raced there and nobody has hit anything
doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. Alex, sort of Kelvin Burke
getting involved and we've already mentioned his previous
history with with incidents that tracked where maybe the safety
standards weren't correct. It's sort of showing that the
safety issue is very strongly felt about by the drivers in the
grid. Yeah, and there's two drivers
there who have, you know, felt the very, you know, problems
that come with big accidents. You know, Kelvin had his own big
accident at Alton, as Andrew said only.
To be alive after. That only the previous season.
And yeah, as you say, Adam, lucky to be alive.
Very lucky. Do you remember, do you remember
watching that on the? Passenger drive on the passenger
side. You know when it was crashes
where you witness it and you watch it on the TV and you're
thinking, yeah. That.
That I might just witness something really bad here. 5
minutes after that accident at the circuit was not a nice place
to be at because we all feel the worst.
It was a very. So that's something, yeah.
You have that good that you have that thing in your stomach,
don't you, where you think you've just witnessed something
really terrible. Yeah, I remember that.
They all part very well. We we didn't want to be around
there for a good one until it actually transpired.
But he wasn't nearly as hurt as he should have been.
Yeah, yeah. And of course, another tragedy
at Alton Park was obviously Derek's brother Paul was lost in
1991 there. So, you know, Derek became very,
very safety conscious after that and, and, and was the sort of
unofficial drivers elected representative then, shall we
say, when it came to things like this.
So yeah, there were two people who'd really felt the effects of
massive shunts and Super Touring had lost there.
You know, there have been 2 fatalities at this point.
Some of the, you know, some people maybe have been a bit
lucky in the BTCC. As we say, if Kelvin had been on
the other side of the, of the, of the car, you know, who knows?
But yeah, I don't blame them for feeling very strongly about
this. And, and, and I was interested
and I agree entirely with what Kelvin said there.
Just because nobody has hit anything, it doesn't mean it's
not dangerous, because there's always danger.
There's always a first time, isn't there?
So no, I don't blame them. I don't blame them at all.
Because, you know, at the end of the day, it's, it's, you know,
it's their livelihood, but it's also their life.
You know, they, they, nobody wants to see a big shunt and,
and, and, and a driver not go home.
So. And there were two people that
are absolutely perfectly placed to lead that discussion from a
driver's perspective. Absolutely.
Like I said, exactly what he said about Derek Warwick and and
obviously Calvin, you know, experiencing bad things so you
know better for it to come from really.
Nothing but admiration for Derek because I remember he he spoke
out after Thompson's shunt at not Kill in 95 about the
standards they're not being good enough.
And in, you know, he always stuck up for his fellow drivers
when it came to safety. And I've got a lot of time for
that. With the changes implemented,
the teams finally got testing at the circuit.
We've really setting the pace. Unsurprisingly, they finished
1-2 in the test, with Honda and ALDI squabbling behind for the
best of the rest. And it was hardly a surprise at
this point in 1997 to see when a lead in the way and testing was
it. No, I mean, it wasn't something
new to them. You know, we know how
competitive they are. We know how fast the drivers are
and how good the team is. So no, this wasn't really a
surprise to anybody. You know, there were the whole
package and obviously men you've been on pole.
He just said it. Oh, really, They were they were
there. It's a win.
And you know you if he was a Betty man, you'd always play
suddenly come them for a for a win, weren't you, Because it was
always that just an overall strong package and and menu was
always someone you could rely on as well.
Really couldn't. He was very consistent, wasn't
it? One man who wouldn't be on the
grid ahead of the weekend at Croft was Premade Sports Ian
Hewitt, who had suffered a nasty accident whilst preparing for
the event. Hew had caught his hand between
the brake caliper and wheel whilst unloading it for some
rolling Rd. tests, breaking 2 fingers and losing part of
another finger in the process. He vowed to be back for the next
meeting at Notch Hill. Whilst he didn't make it back
for Notch Hill, Hewitt did attempt to qualify his old
Cavalier at Snetterton, Thruxton and Silverstone at the end of
the season but failed to do so. Andrew Ian Hewitt doesn't get
discussed much on this pod, so let's give him some time now.
He tried very, very hard to get a very ageing Vauxhall Cavalier
on the grid, didn't he? Yeah, he doesn't get mentioned
much on the pod because the BTCC was the step too far for Ian
Hewitt at a time when the champion, you know, of mega
budgets even in the Total Cup, the last year for the Total Cup,
he was way out of his debt. He wasn't that bad a driver.
He got a couple of reasonable results in other formulae, but
he was never cut out. The BTCC for the start, the
touring, touring cars had reached the the level at that
point where you couldn't just bring.
An old car out and compete. If you had an old car, you were
going to be a moving chicane, and that's what Ian Hubert was.
Yeah, yeah, there there weren't many drivers that failed to
qualify cars no. And in and you know as as Andrew
just said now the the the the Cavalier, sorry, not the vector
the Cavalier he was trying to qualify was a 93 Cavalier.
So, you know, it's only four years old now people, people
who, you know, watch modern touring cars and they say, well,
that's, that's all right. That's not a problem.
Back then, it was that was, that was ancient.
Yeah, we had Jamie Walker in the championship in the Cavalier and
he was doing. That's true.
I think and Ian Heward would probably do better in today's
championship. Yeah.
Because the level of the championship, as, as you know,
I've always said it was an international championship that
just happened to help rule its rounds in one country.
Absolutely. It really was.
So yeah, he was definitely several levels above what his
natural one was at the time. Most people probably have never
even seen the 97 version of his car.
So to paint the picture, it was very garish yellow with red,
orange sort of designs on the side.
It was very bright. So when it was being lapped,
when it was on track, you know, you saw it.
Well, several drivers still managed to hit it. 888's highly
anticipated 1997 Vauxhall Vectra was nearing completion, but the
planned Davy of the car at Croft was put back until Knock Hill a
few weeks later. Cleland and Warwick instead had
to continue with the 1996 B machines they had raced all
season. 888 designer John Gentry said one of the Newcastle do rig
testing and the other will be running on the circuit.
That way we'll be able to iron out any bugs and get them sorted
before we go racing. Gentry was quick to point out
that the first full AAA car would be the 1998 machine, which
he had just started working on at The new 1997 car still
carried the old RML suspension and aerodynamic kit developed by
Opel in Germany. Alex, After a testing season,
was there a feeling that Vauxhall were finally making
progress with the Vectra? It wasn't looking that way at
the time, but when you look and, you know, as John Gentry said,
they're the first full AAA car was in 98 and they won three
races. So obviously that was an
improvement. But for 97, it was still stuck
with the aero that was designed for Europe and supposedly not
very good for British circuits. And I remember talking to Jerry
Hughes, who worked at Vauxhall at the time or in 96 or he was
at Renault in, in 97. He moved to Williams for, for,
for the 97 season. And he just said it was just the
layout of the car. Nobody got the count, the vector
of winning regularly, did they? You know, not even in 2000 where
it was a lot more competitive than it had been in previous
years. But it was never at the level of
the Cavalier. And I remember Jerry saying that
it was just the layout of the car, the way the car was that
they just, it had so many negative points that you can't
do anything about because at the end of the day, you're given a
car and and that is that is what you've got to work with.
If it's got inherent problems, then only so much you can do
about those. And, and the Vector carried a
lot more inherent problems than the Cavalier ever did.
So they did make progress, they did win races with it, but it
was never a real championship challenger, was it?
And and that's not at the hands of Triple AI.
Just think it was a problem for the Vector in general.
If the drivers possibly boycotting the Croft races had
originally put the race meeting and down, the weather was the
next problem for the circuit to contend with.
A biblical amount of rainfall meant the drivers could not
venture out onto the circuit in anger, instead completing 3
required laps each behind the safety car.
But how to form the grid? Enter Alan GAO, who took a vote
from the drivers and teams to decide how the fields two by two
formation would line up. The Pre Croft Championship
positions eventually prevailed, although other methods put
forward for approval included the order from Friday's official
test session and a 1997 Super grid where each driver's average
qualifying position that year would have set the grid.
Gown also privately admitted that he would have liked the
idea of making the whole thing a little bit more interesting by
putting the top 6 into a hat. I'm not sure that idea would
ever catch on in modern touring cars.
While Adam, which of these ideas do you think you'd have liked as
a driver to set the grid for for a stay?
Well as a driver, depends if I was in the 1st in the
championship or quickest in the test.
But I just can't help but look at it from a fan.
You know? How good would it have been as a
fan for all their names to go in a pot in a hat and just pull a
hat, pull a number out, or just absolutely be done with it and
go championship order reverse grid?
Yeah. You know, just as like a one off
every season, do that as a one off.
You know, darling does need to announce when it's going to be
or they can be pre agreed somewhere.
But just to literally do a complete reverse grid.
If anyone that's been introduced as BTCC Racing thinks it's
carnage, imagine a reverse grid with menu starting at the back
and then you've got the privateers starting at the
front. He did get that eventually with
Throuxton in 98 when he introduced the one shot didn't
he? And mainly balls it up and and
came from the back and it produced a brilliant race
actually because Menu fought through the 4th.
I think it also gives from a payoff perspective and, and
giving the privateers the opportunity of getting out.
They're still working like super hard on sponsors and, and
everything that goes with it. We'd love to just to give them
that one shot, you know, even if it's just, you know, one out of
the three races now, just do that reverse grid just to give
them the air time really on the grid with the grid walks and the
interviews and nothing that goes with it.
Just to help you all tick over really.
I mean, as a privateer, I love that.
Also, I was part of reverse grids if I was in the top 10 or
whatever they did back then when I did it.
But I think if they made it a regular thing, I think it'd
definitely help. It would have helped the
privateers more back then. You know, they're all privateers
now, aren't they? Pretty much, but.
Two years earlier I'd interviewed Alan Gau and he'd
said we don't do gimmicks in the BTC.
So yeah. Yeah, yeah, but write a check
for you if you're winning. I Levi, you know my thoughts on
things like pulling numbers out of a bowl to give pole position
and I I really I, I absolutely hate the fact that a top line
national and at the time, as Andrew said, effectively an
international championship. The thought of pulling out
numbers from a bold to to choose a grid astonishes me, and I
prefer. Shorty sticks or something like
that. Or I mean, or just not.
Or nothing at all. It's just what's wrong with the
qualifying session. I mean, obviously, yeah, yeah,
you couldn't do it. I get that.
But I hate the the the grid roll draw thing in in current BTCCI.
Think it's absolutely awful. But that's just me.
That's probably upset a few people now, but I don't care.
Yeah, you've upset me now. I just think.
Just the fact that he gives us a chance, not the whole grid
obviously, was like the top ten. I think when I did it was I.
Think if you do a reverse grid with a set, I understand that
that can also be abused with. Plato did it when he was a say.
I didn't know, but yeah. Yeah, that's the problem.
We've got a set number. I just, I just like meritocracy.
I think, you know, if you're in the, you know, it's, it's it's
crazy that somebody's championship could fall apart
effectively by a grid ball being drawn, a wrong grid ball being
drawn, the money effort. Yeah, yeah.
That, that's the thing that I, I I find bizarre, but people love
it. So I'm just a party pooper.
Alan Menu wasn't bothered about which of the three serious
proposals went through. Whatever happens, I'm on pole,
he grinned from the dry safety of the Williams Renault warning.
There we go. See Alan.
Serious. See.
Bold, not serious. Well done, Alan.
Others inevitably found themselves either in luck or are
done by Volvo's. Ricard Rydell, for instance, had
struggled to get his S40 onto the front row all season, but
his form in the races had put him into second place in the
standings for Honda Pere Gabrielli Tarquini and James
Thompson, 5th and 6th respectively in the standings.
After a pretty much win on bust first half to the season.
It didn't work out. In fact, it was Thompson's
lowest grid placing all year. You can never keep all of the
people happy all of the time and Alan Gale admitted each option
suited different people but the one we used was most popular.
Andrew, do you think Gower got it right with using the
championship positions to set the grid?
Yeah, I think he did. And it's normal in several
series these days to do that. NASCAR does it all the time when
they're qualifying, gets rained out.
They always set it on championship positions.
As you say, you're never going to keep everybody happy, but
that's a fairly sensible way to do it because the rewards
results. I think at this point we should
perhaps put into context what that Saturday was like in there
because how heavy the rain was. I mean, the media centre at the
very first Prof meeting was a marquee and by the dawn of
Sunday you could virtually not get into it.
I came home with mud up to be knees on me.
It was when we left the circuit on Saturday night, we didn't
actually know there was going to be, whether there was going to
be a race the following day. They were going to make a
decision at 11:30. There's a corner called Sunny at
Croft. It's named That's it and it's
known because the Nissan factory is just up the road.
Nissan, Sunny, Curve and the three new corners at the time
that had just been built. They weren't named, and by the
end of Saturday someone in the touring car paddock had coined
Wet, Wetter and Wettest. But overnight, again, Croft went
to work. They pumped 120,000 gallons of
water out of the circuit overnight.
Jeez. Oh, that's the other thing I
forgot to mention. The Formula Renault team at the
end of Saturday were floating a dinghy on that complex of
corners. It was that bad.
You. Don't know what your jeans were
so wet they were pumping it into your hospitality.
All of the hospitality people went out and bought Dang grate
dumpy bags of gravel which they spread outside their hospitality
to ensure they could actually get their guests in on Sunday.
Peugeot had to go and buy three times as much because one of the
circuit tankers emptied its water right outside their.
But yeah, when we came into the circuit on Sunday morning, we
really didn't know if there was going to be a race, but it was.
The weather was dry, there was no more rain falling and 28,000
people turned up so I think my laptop knew there was going to
be a. Race that's that's typical of
Peugeot's sort of luck in the PTC.
And this was the season they were actually quite good.
Yes, they were quite good this season, yeah.
The rain that beset the cross circuit for the whole of the
weekend had relented and race day was generally dry off the
line. In race one it was right down
that jumped menu to lead into Clearvo, followed by Binkliff,
Beeler, Plato and Tarquini. Alex, it's nice, for once to be
talking about a great getaway off the line from Rickard
Rydell, isn't it? I feel a bit harsh saying that,
but yeah, yeah, it is because not known for his best starts.
Was he Ricard? But yeah, it was nice, it was
good. Nice to see the Volvo lead in
for the first time, the new Volvo S40, of course.
So yeah, brilliant. And it made the race probably a
little bit more interesting because had Alan got into the
lead, it would have been another Renault demonstration because
they were just that good. They were just that, that good.
And even though Ricard was leading, you know, I we'll
discuss it in a bit, but it was probably a question of when the
knot if the. How could be that Volvo sound
really watching the footage? Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it?
So then the engine is just super.
Never get bored of it, can you? No, lovely.
The Aldis weren't going to be behind menu for long, however,
as B the tapped teammate Binkliff as they entered the
slow complex of corners at the end of the lap, pushing the
Yorkshiremen off the road and into the spin.
There's contact between the Audis.
Murray, we've got another game of Bincliff billiards here.
It's both the Audis off this time it's Fearless scoring the
two points for the cannon. Bincliff's off backwards now,
he's going to try to snare a gear and get going again.
The Audis weren't going to be behind menu for long, however,
as Beale of tapped teammate Bincliff as they ended the slow
complex of corners at the end of the lap, pushing the
Yorkshiremen off the road and into a spin.
He was early on the brakes. I was surprised, explained the
German. Binkliff, who had punted be the
Roth at Froxton two months ago, shrugged.
It's juice between us now. I just couldn't save the slide.
Adam, how are we calling that one?
A little bit clumsy there really.
Between teammates? Not for the first time in 1997.
Completely. If I was Binkliff, I'd be pissed
off because first race, new circuit, who says you're braking
too early? We don't know where we're
braking on full tanks on a first lap of a race.
We don't know where the breaking point is in a race is different.
When you're on qualifying rubber and low fuel tanks, the car
weighs different. You know, the, the tyres were
cool. You know, you, you do pretend to
brake a bit earlier. Everywhere, everywhere is a bit
slower. So it would have been too
pleased if I was the team manager.
Obviously you've got a champion in the other car that's actually
done it, so you don't want to, you know, it's an awkward one,
but even more awkward for being like, what were you doing?
Yeah, it's absolutely, 100% being his fault.
And but yeah, I'd be, I'd be still annoyed now if I was being
Cliff, to be honest. Harsh on being Cliff because.
Yeah, he didn't. Deserve it, didn't he?
As Matt said, I mean at the proper.
Start did the job on the champ and like get beefed off by Yeah,
yeah or did. Baila feel like he.
Had that power and then team where do you know what?
I'm not saying he did it to him, but.
What do you think? That it did it, but what they're
going to do sack me like, you know, being within Audi was a he
was a strong force, wasn't he? So although he's really harsh
and really unlucky, I'm big cliffs are part there because
he, like said, he had a cracking start, did the job and I was
just and not even no one was in the groove at that point, you
know, not even completed a lap at that point.
And then you get beefed off by all the people you bloody
teammate Rydell was pushing. Hard in the early stages.
I think Alan was taking it easy in the first few laps, he said.
I was trying really hard but I was also being cautious not to
overwork the tyres. Andrew, we've already touched on
the extremely strong performance from Renault over the course of
the season. Do you think it was always a
case of when Menu would make the move rather than if?
Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I was just waiting for it
to happen. I knew once he was passed, he'd
drive away because this was one of the rare seasons in the BTC
city where one team was totally dominant.
And William, all the preparation Williams had done in previous
seasons had all come to roost. And this was he was just
steadily on his way to the championship.
And it wasn't just the case of when would he win the race.
Yeah. When would he go past and win
the race? It was just how soon in the
season would he be champion? Yeah.
It was just, you know, it.
It was fair to company, really, it was the perfect combo.
Really. Wasn't it, you know, the world's
top touring car driver at the time in the world's best touring
car at the time, in the world's best touring car championship at
the time? So yeah, it was it was very much
rising star as. His teammate as well.
Yes, Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, no Sloucho, Jason.
And he shafted. Jason right at the end of the
season, too. He did, yeah.
Yes. He did not, getting second in
the championship. By robbing, robbing some
positions. Why Allah never did that I do
not know, but yeah. Yeah, that's that's a mad one,
and one we'll discuss at some point, I'm sure.
Actually, Yeah, yeah, I'd love to talk.
About that another. Occasion.
Yeah, on lap 8. There was a controversial clash
between Thompson and Bert at the Hairpin.
Well, that's not the only leaning.
Charlie, look at Thompson leaning on Bert.
In fact, he's leaned him right off the track, helving Berg,
bouncing his way across the grass.
Well, I don't know what happened there.
That was a a real coming together.
What happened? We'll soon see.
But now Cleland is Thompson had taken.
The Volvo on the inside of the hairpin and then swerved sharply
right and taken Bert clean off the road on exit.
Thompson alleged that there was more to it than that.
The problem was I got hooked on a spitter that took the wheel
out of my hands with full right hand lock.
I thought, shit, we're both heading for the stands guys.
Let's have all three of you on this one.
What are your opinions on this, this incident?
On the surface, that's fairly clear cut.
Do we buy James's explanation of getting hooked on the spitter or
or not? I do definitely because there
is. No way that is so violent.
The way it Spears off sideways, there's no way James would do
that. And you know, as trying to
remove the abstraction on the side because he would know that
he would never get away with something as blatant as that
one. I reckon he clearly had an
issue. You're on TV, but you've also.
All got a camera inside your cars that GAO and the officials
look at should every time there's an incident so you get
pulled in the bus, there's your footage.
What you got to say about that? So, yeah, it was too from the
from the camera, from the rear. Yeah.
It looked like he's just literally turned to the side and
had him off. Like you're on the Dodger.
Not going to do that. Not that.
Violent. No, no, I think that just just.
The way the wheels connected, it just pulled the one into the
other and you know, they could just thought they couldn't
separate themselves from each other.
The cars just called themselves to each other.
Thing is, he's completed the move.
So he's not going to waste that by then just shoving him off.
Is this pointless? You know TomTom had nothing to
gain from just shoving Kelvin off there back up at the.
Front and things changed for Menu when he had started to come
under pressure from Tarquini, who had passed Bieber at the
right-handed tower on lap 6. Ricard was pushing hard so I was
happy to settle back in, Second Menu said.
But when Tarquini overtook Beeler I had to go for it.
Rydell, who reckoned his fall would be around half a second
pull up slower than his two chasers, couldn't defend forever
and succumb to the run out on tower on lap 11.
Alex pretty tough in nice six circumstances for I delta hold
on to lead not just against the all conquering Renault, but what
was a fairly tidy Honda package in the hands of Tarquini in 97
as well. Yeah I mean.
You know, Ricard reckons he was half a second slower than the
two of them. So if that's the case, then
yeah, it's going to be hard to hold on.
And as soon as Tarquini was on menus tale Alan knew yeah, yeah,
I've got to I've got to make a move now.
He was probably quite happy to sit behind for a couple of laps
and then as soon as it right, OK, shit, I've got I've got
Gabrielli. We I mean, I have time to time
to make a move. And yeah, it was, as we've
already said a couple of times, the case of when and not if
anyway, Alan was going to win that race.
It was just made a little bit more interesting because Ricardo
jumped in at the start. But yeah, if you're half a
second slow around a track, it's going to be hard to to to hold
on to any sort of lead, isn't it?
And in fairness, Ricard put up a good fight.
I thought the the battle between him and Tarquini I thought was
very, very good for a few laps meanwhile.
Towards the rear of the pack, the independents were having a
fantastic battle with Rob Gravitt, Jamie Wool, Matt Neil
and Lee Brooks all fighting for the lead in the total Cup.
Andrew great battle and what was really a great field of the
independent class this season that really seems to stand out
amongst a lot of other seasons for the independents it.
Did this was a very. Good year where you had several,
well several, I mean, you know, it was four or five cars, but
they were all fairly evenly matched.
It was greatly helped by the fact that Macneil's Nissan was
not the class of the field like the team dynamics cars tended to
be. And we got some great scratch
through the season. And the the Total Cup in terms
of championship went a lot further than the overall BTCC
because it went to, I'm trying to remember if it went to the
final meeting or not, but it was, it was a long time after
Adam and you had set up his championship.
I think it did, didn't it? Because I wasn't Lee Brooks
still in contention for the title.
And then he put the Peugeot in the wall, didn't he?
He did. Because that final.
Round that. Was the.
Amazing weekend where the Brooks team, he'd done it in practice
and like, or was it the first race and they thought there is
no, you know, there's no way to come out.
And his private team was garage between MSD Peugeot and W Surrey
Racing. And before we all knew what was
happening, there was all of the Peugeot in the W Surrey teams in
Lee Brooks, his garage pulling his car apart and rebuilding it.
That's brilliant it. Was a great piece of.
BTCC camaraderie. You know, that's cool.
You don't see it that often. Yeah.
And you know, Rob Bravick, Colin Galley and the BMW, They, they,
they thought there were, there were three or four people who
were really in with a good shout all the way through the season.
It was a very good year for the total Cap.
And of course the last year at the total cap because Paul, Paul
their support the end of season, which was a great shame because
they used to feed us journalists fully full English breakfasts on
race day in every meeting. So we missed technical.
When they went Autosport didn't do the same.
With the Autosport cap then no. Of course, at this time we're
also having the ALDI lunches and the ALDI lunches were amazing
because the the real core journalist, it was only about
half a dozen of us. We had this standing invite on
race day to have lunch in the ALDI motorhome, which included
ice Spear. How we ever managed to compose
our race reports in the afternoon this is I will not
know because because I look back and think, how did I ever do
that? How did I ever get away with?
That just yeah, different times. Yeah, it was all very good back
at the front and. Tarquini forced his way past on
lap 12, but at this stage menu was 1.4 seconds to the good and
Tarquini struggled to stay in touch with the Renault.
He made little inroads into the Martian for a few laps and had
just set the fastest lap and chipped into the gap again when
disaster struck. Coming around to lamp rob
Gravette, Tarquini swept around the outside and onto the damp
which lay just off the racing line.
There was no way he could control it and he shot off into
the mud and grazed the barrier. I don't understand Gravette.
It was either crash into him or go off, complained Tarquini
after the race. Adam, a bit of a strange
incident here where sort of it just doesn't seem to go right
for Calvary at all, does it? Well, first, I think it's more
of a. Strange comment than a than a
strange incident. I mean guys, and also tell me I
know you know, don't be afraid to speak up here.
Don't you still sat on that fence.
But have I missed something here?
Because when I watched the footage he was nowhere near
graphic. No I I in my.
Eyes, I think he's got. It wrong because you looked how
dirty the circuit was and and muddy and damp and horrible on
stinks. It just looks like one of those
scenarios where he's lost his concentration.
He's gone in a bit quick or a bit wide.
His goal on all the crap on the outside, it's just sucked him
off onto the wet. That's how I saw it.
So yeah, yeah, I did agree. I missed something.
I think that's just a bit of a lame excuse to come out with and
say, oh, all that will hit him. Even now we're near him.
Yeah. So yeah, tell me if I'm wrong
guys, but that's actually sitting for me, no offence.
Sitting for me. I'm totally in agreement with
you, Adam. It's he.
He wasn't right up with gravity anyway.
No, he was never going to actually lap him into that
corner. It would have been a bit further
on round, absolutely another 234.
Corners round the round the complex and the right
opportunity really for gravity to let somebody pass because you
look back at the footage and there is mud and water
everywhere offline. So Ravi would have had to have
been careful where he was going to move over to allow that to
happen because he's going to put himself in danger.
So yeah, really strange. I didn't even seem to be close
to even pass him at the next two or three corners anyway.
So yeah, bit of a strange comment.
I think that's just one of those desperation.
I'm embarrassed. I need to blame someone.
I'll blame him. That's how I that's how I saw
it. I did wonder if there was.
Maybe a theory that Rob would be a little more cooperative
because of course they're both in Hondas, same cars.
Yeah, and. You know, maybe he.
Thought that he'd get a bit of a helping hand, but, you know,
Rob's there doing his own race, you know, with his own agendas.
So even even if Gabrielli was right with him, I don't think
that should have come into it. No.
Well, exactly. And Rob would have had.
To have let him pass on the strike because Rob doesn't want
to put his car in that situation where all the mud and the rain,
the water is all on the on the side of the circuit.
So you'd have done it on a straight, you'd have waved him
past there. So yeah, real strange one for me
as Tarquini. Made his way back onto the
track, he spun on the soaking wet grass and ended up broadside
on the track, having thrown mud everywhere onto the circuit.
Gravette responded to Tarquini and was unhappy.
It was miles behind me. I was at the next corner when he
had his accident. Alex, we obviously touched on
this a bit. I think it's fairly unanimous,
but but who are you siding with here?
Yeah, it's bizarre, isn't it? I.
Just, I mean, I love Gabrielli at the time.
I love Gabrielli now. I think he's brilliant, but I
just don't get it. I just don't be.
He was looking for someone to blame.
Perhaps he just got it wrong. Didn't he just got?
It all wrong and yeah. I can imagine Rob Gravitt being
totally surprised at what he was doing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, what compounded it, as
Adam said, is obviously, as Andrew explained, the amount of
water that fell, the amount of rain that fell through that
Saturday and. And there was blood everywhere.
Yeah, the. The the grass.
The the, the you know, the grass on off the circuit was still
saturated and it and it was one of the circuits.
Directly off the where the tarmac ends and the white line,
the grass starts. There's no extra bit of tarmac
like Silverstone or a bit of gravel.
It is wet, so yeah, it. It looked more like a rally car
by the end of by the end of the incident because he not only
then got back on the track and spun because of freezing cold
tyres that were soaking wet, he flung mud all over the place as
well. So it looked more like a pro
drive Subaru than a pro drive Honda Accord Super Tour.
Yeah, well, but that have gone to rally.
Cross track there as well, haven't they?
So. Maybe you just had second
thoughts. Salquini, eventually.
Got back to the pits and retired his accord, which ended any
challenge to Menu, who went on to take his ninth victory of the
season. Gabrielli was a big threat so I
was happy when he went off. He joked off for the race.
Well no, not happy because I quite like him, but relieved.
Plato finished behind Alan to make it another one to finish
for Renault, with Rydell finishing third for Volvo.
Beena suffered from a front end vibration on his way to 4th but
was still comfortably clear of 5th place James Thompson.
After his brilliant. Race one start Rydell was
sluggish away for race 2 and Menu converted pole position
into the lead. The Renault driver was to be
given a big advantage as the fast starting Binkliff and
Rydell collided at Hawthorns sending the Volvo flying off the
road and into last place. Further down the field, Wilhoit
brought the safety car out, beached into the gravel at Turn
1 whilst rudder Citation Watts were in the pits.
The Peugeot with front end damage.
Andrew, a bit of a crazy start and maybe a tone setter for the
second race there, yeah. I think there's a number of
things here. Firstly, when you have two races
of a meeting, you expect the chaos in the second race because
drivers can be mildly more circumspect in the first one
because they want to make sure they've got the car for the
second one. Also with Croft, obviously the
first one had started after a lot of aggro, so you could argue
there might have been a little bit of going careful in the
first couple of laps, even by touring car standards.
The other thing is Croft. The first two corners of Croft
have always amazed me. Every time I've seen a touring
car race start at Croft, I always expect absolute chaos at
that first corner because it seems to.
It spreads them all out and then compresses them all in again.
So when you see three or four cars fly off, I'm not really
surprised. No, no.
No, yeah, like you say, it spreads them out, compresses
them and then forces them through a tight chicane.
You just you have to get into a single file at.
That point, yeah, yeah, yeah. At the restart.
Thompson moved into second place after Plato's attempted pass on
Beeler went wrong. Thompson started to chase down
menu, but after setting the fastest laps of the race, his
teammate Tarquini shot across the track exiting the chicane
and slammed head on into the Armco he hasn't had.
The best of meetings so. Far he.
Had a big one. Oh, a big, big one.
It's. Tarquini.
Tarquini What? A meeting off into the mud in
race. One off in race 2 earlier and
now this. He's hit the Anko very.
Very hard on the outside of the circuit straight after the
chicane. Murray, he's OK.
He's jumped out of the car. Oh, that's good to see he's all
right. He's over the fence.
And behind the protected barrier.
But he's gone in really hard. The Honda was severely.
Damaged and sat in the middle of the track.
I took the curb as normal and I don't know why it happened, he
shrugged. Maybe there was some oil on the
track. Adam, that was a.
Very nasty shunt for Tarquini there.
Is there anything you could see from the footage that might have
caused that incident at all? To be honest, it's just that
typical. Cold rear tyres and it's a cold
damp day anyway. Generally, obviously with front
wheel drive cars you have, you've always got to be
conscious of the temperature you're trying to generate in
your rear tyres before you, before you start.
But the rears, not the right rear particularly doesn't really
do a lot. I remember racing around there
myself where you'd always almost like a bit of a hold your breath
moment for the chicane where you have to be committed.
If you're going through there and the back end steps out on
the left part of it. You've got to just already tell
yourself I'm committing to staying out with this because if
he steps out now, that's what's going to happen.
So you have to really have to commit to it.
It's a funny one, but I used to love it going through there.
But yeah, I think he just got it wrong.
He just had a bad weekend, didn't he?
He got it wrong. Yeah, unfortunately it smashed
the car to bits, didn't it? If you look at the.
Replay and the slow MO of him going through the chicane you
actually see that he clips the tire wall on the inside, which I
think knocks him wide he's. Probably in there as well.
You the what again? What, You haven't got that extra
one or two feet of tarmac? Yeah, a drop.
Of grass so if he's. Dropped his right rear on today
on the grass, which he probably has.
That's where it's all gone wrong for him.
Yeah, and, and no room forever. And Thompson said as well.
After his not to spoil it, but he does have a similar shunt
shortly that the edge of the track was getting more and more
damp and muddy from just things being thrown up, you know, as it
does offline during the race weekend.
But instead of, you know, marbles, it's it's water and mud
basically from from the from the rainfall on what is also your
coldest. Tire on the car as well, so
you're getting nothing from it. So as you say, it's pushed him
wide. And it's put him round because
he's run offline. So yeah, unfortunate, but these
things happen. And that's probably why he
thought it was oil, because it was so slippery because of the
conditions the safety car was. Dispatched again, but nice
sooner had it returned to the pits that Tarquini's teammate
Thompson duplicated the Italians accident, hitting the same
barrier and having an almost identical accident.
Thompson however was trapped in the car for a considerable time
and the race was red flags Andrew.
Unbelievable that such an identical accident could happen
to teammates of all 1. Scene after the other, isn't it?
Yeah, I mean. It was a bit writing the script
wasn't it, The fact that it happened to two identical cars,
so unfortunate coincidence. They were obviously very careful
with James. I remember talking to Doctor
Rafford at the time and he said they did think back a couple of
seasons to James's huge accident at Nokia and they wanted to be
very careful in extracting and which was understandable.
I think it was unfortunately it happened to the Hondas.
I think it could have happened to any of the cars out there
because as Tim Harvey said afterwards, you toured around
behind the safety car and the safety car and that in those
days was a Jaguar XJ6 and in and it didn't go that fast and.
It was. It was quite easy for the cars
to lose all their temperature. So once you've got Calgary
tyres, as Adam has said, that's not the cooling you want to be
coming out with Calgary tyres. So yes, unfortunate, but there
you go. But in the context.
That the Autosport report says that the the Jaguar safety car
was lapping 55 seconds slower than the racing lap.
So that's how how much slower they were going and in those
cool and wet temp, the atmosphere you're going to lose
as as Andrew just said, all the all the temp in the tyres, the
race was never. Restarted and the result was
declared from the previous slap. This resulted in the absent
Thompson, taken second from a highly pleased Leslie, followed
by Plato, Cleland and Binkliff. Thompson was quick and it would
have been hard in the last few laps, said menu of the challenge
that never materialized. Alex.
Right Decision to stop the race and then to not restart it, do
you think? Yeah, absolutely.
I think, I think it's the right call it it's, it was a nasty old
accident and it took a long time to clear up.
You're always going to get one or two drivers who looking at
themselves thinking I could bag a better result if we carried on
the race or restarted it or whatnot.
But again, no, it was pretty much a a unified group saying
no, that's fine. Led by again, Derek Warwick,
that again it wasn't the. Circuits.
Fault. But by that point and I can
remember, we basically all just wanted to get out of there and
go home because it's one of those weekends you just very
occasion you have a weekend where nothing seems to go right.
And Croft 97 was one of them. No one I remember much much
later, way past the Super Touring era about 20/14/2015 was
Snetterton where they had the massive crash on the straight
and then the in the third race where the Chevrolet took down
the TV tower. That was one.
Of those days, we think. Can we just go home?
Because, you know, that's enough.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's what Croft was like.
At that point we just wanted to and when we left there, there
you got the impression that not many people wanted to go back
again the following year. But of course again, it wasn't
Circuit's fault and Croft became regular fixture after that.
It's a pretty good circuit though.
It's probably one of my favourites when I was in BTC, so
really enjoyed it. Really good.
Challenging as well, particularly out of the back
through the essays. You know, it's really quick.
You watch the footage back when they go for the essays that left
the right and then that on the brakes into Sunny in like you're
tanking it down there. You know, it's it's really,
really good. Yeah, yeah.
What? Good circuit watching the cars
go through, dancing through there, yeah.
Brilliant. Love it.
Roth's debut in the. Modern era of touring car racing
nearly didn't happen at all, and when it did, it ended early
after James Thompson's frightening accident.
It's now that part of the show where we'll cross over to
producer Matt, who's going to give us the Matt's facts
following that wonderful, interesting weekend at Crofton
1997. So I'll now hand it over.
Producer Matt, what facts you have for us this week.
Come on, Stato. Yeah.
Drum roll please. No sitting on the fences here.
Let's just get on with it so. So this.
Was the first of two meetings in 1997 where traditional
qualifying had to be abandoned. Uh.
The second was Brand Taxi in September, where the track
action was cancelled on the Saturday due to the funeral of
Diana, Princess of Wales. Umm if you remember that time
they didn't do UMM championship positions qualifying.
They, they did a very short, I think it was a 15 minute session
on the Sunday morning for race one and then they took the
fastest laps of race one for race 2.
It's made a very interesting race weekend.
It did, actually I quite liked. The first racer that weekend
when you had obviously people racing and then you had people
gambling and thinking right, if I pit for tyres, I can earn
myself a nice little grid slot. And I remember Paul Radicich
flying around trying to set a hot lap as other people are
racing. And it was just really, really
bizarre when it worked because he got the Mondeo I think in the
4th on the grid, which it had no right of being in it in 1997.
But yeah, that was I quite like that brand's idea,
interestingly, that thing. About Paul Radesich being 4th,
that does show what we talked about earlier about potential
part reverse grids because he hung on up there at that, that
day at Branson, which she can do any would have.
Known that not. Having the fastest car because
it's so difficult to overtake good, you know qualifying super
important so despite. All of the carnage of of Croft.
There were surprisingly only four retirements from each race
and it would be no surprise that the only driver that retired
from both was Paul Gabriel Tarquini.
With a 6th and a place and. A fifth place finish, this was
John Clelland's best weekend of the season in terms of results.
However, this would prove to be his worst ever best weekend.
Oh, oh, OK, yeah, OK. That's that's that's going deep
into stats. That is.
I like it. Frank Baylor's 17th place.
Finish in Race 2 was his worst ever finishing position in the
BTCC race. Apart from retirements.
He would go on to finish 15th in the season finale and this was
his second worst result. John.
Binkliff likes this. Yeah.
Panting him off. Yeah, but he does.
This was the. Fourth time this season that
Alemenyu won both races at the same weekend.
The first time he achieved this in his career was at Alton Park
in 1995. He did it again at Brand
Thatcher in 1996 and then after this year, the 7th and final
time he achieved it was at Donnington in 2000.
And then finally going to end this one on a fact and a bit of
a question for you guys. So this was the only ever.
Meeting for the BTCC with multiple races that had
identical grids. Despite this, only two drivers
finished in the same position in both races.
We know that Alan Menu won both, so who was the other?
I have no idea. Derek Warwick.
I wouldn't have been Thompson. Because the clowns 5th in race
too. And Thompson.
Crashed. Yeah, because they could be
Tarquini. He had the same same result in
both DNF. I don't know.
It was. I wasn't.
Going down, we even. Pulled it off.
Jim Harvick. Levi was actually.
Closest on on the right lines there.
Remember when I was 7% earlier? Yeah, well.
Then Adam. Disappointingly, it's 12th.
In both races, obviously not helped by by James in race one.
Yes, yes. Yes, yeah, yeah.
What's that? Three points and we'll look
forward to. Hearing more of Matt's facts in
a future episode, Future week. Thank you very much.
I'd like to thank AS. Well, Andrew Charming for
joining us once again to look back at this race and we hope
we'll see you on stories from Super Touring against SIM
Andrew, I'll be. Obviously more than happy to
come back whenever you want me as you well know and our thanks.
As ever, go to you guys for listening to the show and if you
enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to give us a review,
five star rating and subscribe to the podcast feed on your
podcast a of choice. In the meantime, we will see you
next week. Goodbye.