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Stories from Super Touring. 
The British Touring Car 

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Championship held its first ever
Night Race at Snetterton in 

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1999, with the unique conditions
bringing a touch of Le Mans to 

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rounds 15 and 16 of the season 
and in doing so creating one of 

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the best race weekends of the 
season. 

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Welcome to the latest episode of
Stories from Super Touring. 

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I'm Levi Riley and to help look 
back at the first ever Night 

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Race in the BTCC, Alex, Adam and
myself are joined by journalists

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Andrew Charmin and Andrew Golby.
Thanks for joining us everyone. 

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How are we all this evening? 
Yeah, good. 

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Thank you. 
Yeah, Thank you. 

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Yeah. 
Looking forward to another 

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classic race. 
This one's a a Corker. 

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And Andrew Golby will start with
you this evening. 

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There's two Andrews this week 
with Andrew Golby and Andrew 

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Charman, which might make it a 
little confused. 

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And I think we'll maybe go by 
Andrew G and Andrew Seal or 

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AGAC, whatever you guys prefer. 
Well, I should have been 

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reporting on it. 
That was my day job for all 

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sport at the time. 
But I ended up racing in it, or 

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at least in the support race in 
the Ford Fiesta championship. 

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So Ford had a guest car for the 
season and we'd asked right at 

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the beginning of the year if we 
could do the night race, knowing

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that it was going to be 
something new and different. 

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And they they'd, they'd 
allocated the car to somebody 

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else for that race weekend. 
So I'd done a round at Brands 

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Hatch, did OK and thought, well 
that that would have been nice 

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to have done the night race, but
never mind. 

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And then it was only a week or 
two before the race, they called

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and said it's free, it's open, 
would you like to do it? 

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So of course we said yes, great,
let's go. 

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And it was a, a rapid fit 
liberal car, looked exactly like

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a touring car from the out, you 
know, from the, the colour 

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scheme. 
And it was a sweet little car. 

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Actually, I'd done some won 
Vectra's the year before and 

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that was a bit of a pig of a car
by comparison. 

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The Fiesta was a much to be a 
much nicer car for bride. 

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So yeah, that was obviously the 
the big thing for me. 

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I handed over the baton for my 
reporting duties to Marcus 

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Symonds, who's still reporting 
on the championship to this day 

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for auto sport. 
I didn't last long at all, but 

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he's he's still there. 
And so, you know, I got stuck 

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into into the racing. 
My other memory of the event 

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actually is getting out. 
I don't know if any of you 

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remember that some genius 
decided that some Rd. works on 

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the A11 was what was needed on 
that Saturday night and we were 

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a hell of a time getting home. 
So aside from what happened 

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inside the track, that's my 
actual main memory. 

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It's quite a few. 
I remember the the the you say 

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about the guest car that was 
obviously run at all races. 

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I remember, I think I remember 
even Caroline Menny racing in a 

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couple of races of that. 
Because Andrew G's memories 

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sparked a totally different one 
to me. 

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It's got nothing to do with this
meeting, but as you say, during 

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the time the Fiesta Challenge 
was a support race for the BTCC.

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They had this guest car for 
several years and the number of 

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people raced in it. 
I particularly remember in 95 at

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Silverstone, Jenny Birrell, who 
was basically the Toker boss of 

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the paddock. 
Who? 

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You never got on the wrong side 
of Jenny Berry wanted to survive

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and I remember she crashed out 
at Silverstone and we had her in

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a in a Super Tory magazine. 
We used to have this age of 

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pictures that we put funny 
captions under it and I remember

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I used a lot of asterisks, 
question Marks and detre as to 

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what she might be saying. 
But as you say, Caroline Menu at

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Orton Park a couple of years 
later was one of the most 

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popular occupants. 
And over about three or four 

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years, a very small number of 
BTCC journos got to do it And I 

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was never among their number, 
which was really annoying for me

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because I was desperate to prove
to the world that I would never 

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have been a racing driver and I 
the opportunity to buy Eternal 

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Regret. 
I'd have the chance and proved I

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couldn't. 
So you know, if you can say 

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should have, would have, could 
have. 

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Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. 
Yes, Yeah. 

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But memories of this meeting, it
was obviously into a period 

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where Mr. Gale was trying many 
things to keep the interest in 

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the championship nice and high. 
He told me in an interview back 

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in 95 at BTC. 
So he doesn't do gimmicks and 

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then of all the gimmicks he 
tried after that, this was 

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definitely one of the best. 
I was like Jason Plato. 

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I had never been to the mall so 
I didn't know much about night 

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racing. 
I'd only been to two night races

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at UP at this point. 
One was in Wilhire, 24 Hours of 

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Snetterton 97, which was a 
proper 24 hour racing, the same 

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venue, and the other one was in 
88 when I went to the 12 hours 

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of Whisper Green, which was a 
lawnmower race around the field 

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in Sussex when it started at 
9:00 at night and finished 9:00 

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the following morning. 
So I mean Sniffington in 99, it 

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wasn't exactly the mall, but I 
tried really hard and it was, it

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was surreal, but it was highly 
enjoyable. 

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Oh, there was one other thing 
too. 

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What was odd about this meeting?
Not having to be at the circuit 

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at the crack of sparrows, you 
know, because nothing happened 

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for most of the day. 
It reminded me of the days when 

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the BTCC used to support the 
British Grand Prix because they 

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always ran the touring car race 
after the Grand Prix. 

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So I used to rack up to 
Silverstone at lunchtime on 

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Grand Prix day, drive straight 
in on empty roads to my media's 

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car park spot, be there in time 
to watch the Formula One before 

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going to work on the touring 
cars. 

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It was great. 
Brilliant. 

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Adam, coming to you next. 
What jumps out in your memory 

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when you think about this race? 
Well, I thought about this and 

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at the time I remember just 
thinking at night race as Alan 

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Gow lost it. 
I thought because you just you 

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don't associate night racing 
with touring car racing with the

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BTCC. 
You just didn't associate the 

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two things. 
But then at the same time, I'm 

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thinking, or is this an absolute
masterstroke of an idea? 

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But I think to him it was 
probably a massive gamble. 

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He's a risk taker and it's just 
another, you know, wasn't like 

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it programmed in to be, you 
know, four or five night races 

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throughout the season. 
This was obviously a trial. 

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Let's see how this goes. 
I think adding the the titanium 

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skid plates, genius, I'd clear, 
you know, for the for the cars, 

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obviously the cars had to do a 
lot of modifications with the 

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headlights and the dazzle and 
the glare that you get from the 

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through the rears, which I've 
experienced in GT racing, you 

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know, many a time, which is 
horrible. 

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But I think probably the biggest
thing for me was the Peter Cox. 

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Didn't he win the second race 
like. 

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Spoilers. 
But yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, 

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his first ever BTCC win wasn't 
it? 

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And yeah, night race, you know, 
but I think everything was just 

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a good spectacle. 
I did question the whole idea of

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of doing it from Gauss 
perspective. 

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But like I said, he's a risk 
taker and I think he certainly 

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paid off and added, you know, a 
lot of excitement to it. 

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I remember thinking, Christ, 
these guys can't behave on a 

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daylight track. 
Yeah, yeah. 

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But yeah, it paid off, didn't 
it? 

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Was brilliant. 
Finally coming to you Al What, 

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What are your memories from this
historic meeting back in 1999 

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for? 
Me, it's there's one particular 

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moment and coming into the bomb 
hole, Mueller and Plato, 

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surprise, surprise, are having a
bit of a battle. 

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Muller. 
Yeah, Muller moved across on 

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Plato courts the front end of 
his Renault and slewed sideways 

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at the most ridiculous angle and
somehow manages to catch it, not

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only catch it, but get past 
further ahead than that he was 

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before. 
It was one of the the the most 

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incredible saves I've ever seen 
in in a racing car. 

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The the angle that the vector 
was at was ridiculous. 

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And yeah, yeah, it was. 
A nice place he did I. 

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Was just about to say that, 
yeah. 

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Yeah, the man, the man was known
for his catches, but that one I 

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think even tops Thrixton 2005 
when he was sideways coming into

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club. 
But yeah, that that's the 

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outstanding memory for me is 
that incredible, ridiculous save

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of Ivan Muller, who features 
quite a lot in this this 

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meeting. 
He did have the most amazing car

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control. 
I remember watching him and 

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qualifying once at Croft around 
the back, you know, super high 

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speed and very edgy. 
And he was, you know, you know, 

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he was sideways through the the 
gym club curves in a way that, 

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you know, nobody else was. 
It was amazing to watch. 

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I think he was probably up the 
same stuff at Thruxton as well. 

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In all those kind of places. 
He would just be, yeah, doing 

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things that nobody else would 
dare. 

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And so it doesn't surprise me 
that he did. 

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You know what you described. 
Out. 

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No. 
It was incredible. 

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Well as we've also asked our 
faithful listeners what they 

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thought of this race meeting 
through our social media 

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channels. 
And Andy Bell starts us off this

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week by saying that the unique 
carnival atmosphere is what he 

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remembers most from this 
meeting, whilst Mark Atkins also

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says the smell of the hog roast 
amongst the burning rubber was 

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utter bliss. 
There are lots of shouts 

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unsurprisingly for Charlie Cox 
on this one because many of his 

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infamous one liners come out to 
play at this meeting. 

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Classics such as trying to hold 
off the Terminator with a water 

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pistol which was remembered by 
Pat Crannon. 

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Whilst there are also numerous 
shouts of it's a goal from 

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various people like Ian Jones, 
Liam O'Donnell and Roland Hill W

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Surrey race and actually got in 
touch. 

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So they remember being the first
team to get a a night race 

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feature race win in the BTCC 
which was also remembered by 

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Stefan Bowen. 
He says he remember it being 

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Cox, Peter Cox's only BTCC 
victory, which I'm sure will 

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touch on Peter Cox and and that 
aspect of things later. 

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Simon Bertenshaw, he says that 
he remembers how much he loved 

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the effort put in to make it 
more interesting for the fans 

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with the glow in the dark 
liveries and as Adam mentioned, 

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the the titanium skid plates 
given the the sparks all over 

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the track. 
Daniel Ellis said that it was 

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actually his first ever BTCC 
event and he absolutely loved 

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it. 
And that's a a special one to 

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start with. 
Yeah. 

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Barry Finch just says he 
remembers the floodlights of 

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that meeting, whilst Darren 
Williams says he remembers, or 

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00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:23,600
maybe doesn't remember by the 
sounds of it, getting extremely 

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drunk and passing out next to 
his tent that evening. 

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That's. 
How do you remember that? 

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00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,640
But. 
Yeah, well, there's another Cox 

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classic here with Simon May 
saying I'd like another Vauxhall

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00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:41,240
please. 
This one's habit whilst Peter 

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00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,640
Perrin remembers the great Will 
Hoy return to the series in the 

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Arena Motorsport Laguna. 
With that, with that Peter, that

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Charlie Cox one, the the other 
bit with that was that you 

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couldn't kill that Vauxhall with
a stick, could you? 

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There's got a straight panel 
left on it for some reason. 

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He must have had some Witovic 
before this happened because he 

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was brilliant. 
This one he was not it, wasn't 

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he? 
Dave Sill, he remembers the 

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midfield battles that occurred 
that evening between Plato, 

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Rydell and Menu, which, I mean, 
I'm sure we're going to go more 

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00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:18,480
into this later, but that was 
absolutely brilliant, wasn't it?

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All of those battles. 
And finally, as we've kind of 

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already touched on a little bit,
lots of shout outs for Peter Cox

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and his sole British Touring Car
Championship win that evening. 

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And Chris Lammess, Robert Lewis 
and a few of us all got in touch

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to to go into that with us. 
The night race was the 

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brainchild of Toca chief 
executive and BTCC boss Alan 

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Gal. 
It should be a great spectacle, 

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he said. 
There is something about running

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after dark that gets the 
adrenaline pump in and both TOCA

219
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and the circuit have put a lot 
of effort into ensuring that we 

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create a fantastic atmosphere. 
The only thing we cannot control

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is the weather, but if we get a 
fine summer's evening, it will 

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be a great show. 
Alex, coming to you, we've kind 

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00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:10,320
of already touched about the the
idea and gimmick here from Gall,

224
00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:13,360
but did you think this was a 
good idea to get keep that 

225
00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:17,360
interest in the series as it 
sort of rode the end of the wave

226
00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:22,040
of Super Touring? 
Well, as Andrew said, Goward 

227
00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:24,080
started introducing a few 
gimmicks. 

228
00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:28,680
I mean, you know, the pit stops 
in 98 were were were one, they 

229
00:13:28,680 --> 00:13:30,520
were great. 
They were a great addition. 

230
00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:33,560
And this one, the night race, 
superb. 

231
00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:39,960
I mean, yeah, as I said, just 
thought really they can't keep 

232
00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:42,400
themselves behaved on track in 
the day, never mind the night. 

233
00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:48,880
But yeah, and quite a gamble 
because that that lighting setup

234
00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:52,360
was not cheap. 
When I was researching this for 

235
00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:57,800
a piece a few years ago, it was 
over 50,000 lbs to to set up the

236
00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:00,480
lighting for the weekend with 
all the the floodlights on the 

237
00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:02,720
on the pit straight and the 
paddocks. 

238
00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:07,440
So an expensive gamble, but one 
that, as you can see from the 

239
00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:12,440
comments from the fans, one that
definitely paid off because this

240
00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:16,320
was fondly, fondly remembered as
a wonderful, wonderful race 

241
00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:19,520
meeting. 
And GAO got lucky with the 

242
00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:21,120
weather. 
It was perfect weather. 

243
00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:25,120
It got a bit cold towards the 
end of the night, but the 

244
00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:27,000
festival atmosphere, it was 
really cool. 

245
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:30,280
It was really weird actually 
being at a touring car meeting 

246
00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:35,000
on a Saturday and after 
qualifying, everyone hung 

247
00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:39,560
around, whereas normally people 
would start filtering out that, 

248
00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:44,880
yeah, it was an interesting 
idea, something different and it

249
00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,480
was a great spectacle. 
The addition of, as has already 

250
00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:51,280
been said, the skid plates for 
the Sparks as as they the, the 

251
00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:53,120
liveries. 
The liveries were really cool, 

252
00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:55,480
weren't they? 
With the the glow in the dark 

253
00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:59,760
additions. 
I think all that really added to

254
00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,120
it. 
Yeah, it was a a brilliant idea 

255
00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:03,480
and one that paid off 
handsomely. 

256
00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:06,840
Whilst the series was looking 
forward to its first ever night 

257
00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:10,520
Race, it was dealt a huge blow 
in the week before the event 

258
00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:13,760
with Reverend Williams 
confirming their much expected 

259
00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:17,720
departure from the series. 
The mark had enjoyed remarkable 

260
00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:22,920
success in centre in the BTCC in
1993, including a drivers title 

261
00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:27,160
of Alan Menu in 1997 and 
manufacturers championships in 

262
00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:32,000
1995 and 1997. 
Renee's Tim Jackson said the 

263
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,480
team decided to quit the touring
car series after its contract 

264
00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:38,120
with Williams Touring Car 
Engineering came to an end. 

265
00:15:38,960 --> 00:15:41,880
We always had in mind an X 
number of years, he said. 

266
00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:45,400
We set our goals and achieved 
these, so we are cancelling our 

267
00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:48,600
future BTCC plans for the 
foreseeable future. 

268
00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:52,040
It's a sad day for us. 
We've thoroughly enjoyed our 

269
00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:55,960
time in touring cars. 
Andrew C coming to you now. 

270
00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:01,840
It's undoubtedly the withdrawal 
of Renault is a huge bug for the

271
00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:03,920
series. 
Oh absolutely. 

272
00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:10,000
Tim Jackson I knew quite well by
then because he was the PR head 

273
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,000
at Renault and I was also 
writing about Rd. cars, so I was

274
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:15,880
going on the launch of new 
Renaults on a regular basis and 

275
00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:19,800
he was a massive fan of the BTCC
and I reckon it probably hurt 

276
00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:23,840
him quite badly to have to pull 
the plug on the Renault program.

277
00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:28,160
But what it did really was 
increase the sort of ominous 

278
00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:31,600
mood music that was beginning to
swirl around the series. 

279
00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:36,120
I can't remember if Volvo and 
Nissan had already publicly 

280
00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:39,240
announced that they wouldn't be 
there the following year, but to

281
00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:42,920
those of us in the series it was
looking, you know, the writing 

282
00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:45,280
was on the wall. 
So there was a whole lot of 

283
00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,240
change coming in, teams, 
drivers. 

284
00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:51,160
This was the meeting which fun 
in which John Clever finally 

285
00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:53,560
decided he was going to quit at 
the end of the season. 

286
00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:58,400
And yeah, I mean, I'd see my 
second attempt at touring Cart 

287
00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:01,880
magazine going crash and burn in
97. 

288
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:05,079
And there were many reasons for 
that, but one of them was the 

289
00:17:05,079 --> 00:17:10,359
fact that the BTCC was beginning
the sort of downward spiral you 

290
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:13,359
get, you know, boom and bust 
spiral in a championship is 

291
00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:15,680
absolutely dominated by 
manufacturers. 

292
00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:18,240
Yeah, when you've got 
manufacturers leading things, 

293
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:20,440
they're not going to stick 
around forever. 

294
00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:22,760
So you are going to get these 
boom and bust periods, you know.

295
00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:26,119
Absolutely. 
Shortly after that announcement,

296
00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:30,120
Williams announced that it was 
also closing down its BTCC team,

297
00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:34,240
scotching rumours of partnering 
up with BMW or Rover in the 

298
00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:37,360
future. 
Frank Williams said the touring 

299
00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:40,320
car paddock has seen great 
technological advancements since

300
00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:43,680
we first became involved and I 
hope we helped play a part in 

301
00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:46,000
that. 
Rowing's decision to withdraw 

302
00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:48,960
will have been taken only after 
a lot of deep thought. 

303
00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:52,320
Its cars will be greatly missed 
on the BTCC grid. 

304
00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:55,400
We are extremely proud of what 
we have achieved with Renault 

305
00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:58,480
Welter over the past five years 
and we are pleased to have had 

306
00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:03,880
such a successful association. 
Andrew G sort of again Williams 

307
00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:07,480
A big loss to the series at a 
time where, as sort of Andrew CS

308
00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:10,320
mentioned, things weren't 
looking too good for the future 

309
00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:13,280
of the series. 
No, Williams was a huge name. 

310
00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:14,800
Obviously to having touring car 
racing. 

311
00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:20,240
It was a very prestigious team 
to be present in in touring 

312
00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:23,000
cars, given that they were still
at the height of their powers as

313
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,200
a Formula One team at that 
point. 

314
00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:29,720
But it was no big surprise 
because, yeah, it was really 

315
00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:31,920
only BMW or wherever that could 
have been a possibility. 

316
00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:36,000
And the category wasn't really 
bringing new entrance in. 

317
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:40,760
It was it was losing them. 
So as Andrew C said, yeah, Volvo

318
00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:44,560
and Nissan also exited at the 
end of that year. 

319
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:47,760
I don't think anybody was too 
surprised about the Renault 

320
00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:50,480
move. 
And I remember talking to Jason 

321
00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:53,640
Plato at the following round of 
Thruxton 2 weeks later and he'd 

322
00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:56,240
nearly finished his deal with 
Vauxhall by that point together 

323
00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:59,080
the following year. 
So he was dotting the IS and 

324
00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:03,000
crossing the TS. 
And you know, it was just a 

325
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:07,240
little bit of bargaining to go, 
but he was, he was pretty much 

326
00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:09,720
done. 
So he clearly knew that things 

327
00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:13,720
were were happening. 
So yeah, it was a shame, but 

328
00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:17,000
just a few years before you'd 
never have believed a Formula 

329
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,000
One team would have would have 
been racing in British touring 

330
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:22,440
cars. 
So at the same time, you know, 

331
00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,000
it was just amazing it ever 
happened in the first place. 

332
00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:29,520
Yeah, especially not just any 
Formula One team, Williams, who 

333
00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:31,840
would, As you say, we're at the 
peak of their powers. 

334
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:34,680
Yeah, very much so. 
Another departure from the 

335
00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:37,840
series, albeit an immediate one,
was the announcement that 

336
00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:40,760
Russell Spencer stepping down 
from the Arena Motorsport 

337
00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:46,320
Renault Laguna to be replaced by
the 1991 BTCC champion Will Hoy.

338
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,560
Mike Earl, boss of the Arena 
squad, said. 

339
00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:52,320
We've come to an arrangement 
with Will with Russell in 

340
00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:55,160
complete agreement. 
He's still a part of the team. 

341
00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:58,400
His business affairs mean he 
hasn't got the time to devote to

342
00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:01,040
it. 
Wow, it was a tough year for 

343
00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:03,840
Russell in the Laguna. 
Are you surprised that he made 

344
00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:05,760
the mid season decision to step 
down? 

345
00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:10,080
No, what surprised me more is 
that it didn't come sooner to be

346
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:13,440
honest with you, because yeah, 
he had a really tough year. 

347
00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:17,320
It was a it was a bizarre one 
that he sort of came back into 

348
00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:19,400
racing anyway. 
He hadn't raced anything since 

349
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:24,560
94. 
He'd raced in the 80s in F3 F 

350
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:27,720
3000 but never done anything in 
a touring car. 

351
00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:33,120
And yeah, it was a slightly 
bizarre choice to to come into 

352
00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:35,400
the series anyway, especially 
let's say after five years of 

353
00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:39,200
not racing. 
I expected it after his massive 

354
00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:44,200
qualifying shunt at Orton Park, 
where, I mean, there was no 

355
00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:46,680
front end left on that Laguna 
after he'd finished with it. 

356
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:49,360
So he went on a bit longer than 
that. 

357
00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:51,040
But yeah, it was a he was a 
tough year. 

358
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:55,240
He was he was struggling to keep
up with the with the rest of the

359
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:57,760
pack. 
And I mean what a what a guy to 

360
00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:00,680
replace him Will Hoy. 
Hoy was delighted to be back on 

361
00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:02,800
the Touring car grid. 
It's great. 

362
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,080
The team is very ambitious and 
I'm giving them the credibility 

363
00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:08,160
it needs and the direction with 
the car. 

364
00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:10,320
It just needs developing now, he
said. 

365
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:14,000
Adam, I think Alex has already 
touched on this, but great to 

366
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:16,160
see Will Hoy back on the touring
car grid, isn't it? 

367
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:19,160
Yeah, 100%. 
You know, 91 champion. 

368
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,360
He's sort of he's one of these 
guys a bit like Rouse that had 

369
00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:25,000
been around for such a long time
with in touring cars over the 

370
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:26,840
years that his name's always 
been there. 

371
00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:29,680
He's you know, he's been at the 
front many, many times when tons

372
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:32,160
of races. 
And I think just to have a name 

373
00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:34,920
like that back in the series is 
always going to be a positive no

374
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:37,720
matter what he was racing. 
I'm sure he'd love to have been 

375
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,040
in a more competitive car than 
he was at the time, especially 

376
00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:41,640
the fact that he's got his 
develop this one. 

377
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:44,840
He's come partially, he's come 
back partially into the season, 

378
00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:50,240
you know, halfway through it. 
But yeah, just Will Hoy, you 

379
00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:53,000
know, there's not. 
Unfortunately, I've never, I've 

380
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:56,400
never met Will. 
So it's one of the things that I

381
00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:59,360
wish I'd had done at some point,
but I've never had the pleasure 

382
00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:01,800
of meeting him. 
But anything I'd ever heard or 

383
00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:05,920
anyone ever spoke about him that
knew him well, only had had 

384
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:07,800
positive good things to say 
about the man. 

385
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:12,760
I think he was a true Gen., a 
proper racer and I think he was 

386
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:15,320
loved by a lot of people and and
obviously sadly missed today, 

387
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,560
but I think it was, yeah, what a
great name to have back in the 

388
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:24,280
sport. 
There were a lot of unknowns 

389
00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:26,720
heading into the championships 
First of the night race. 

390
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,080
There were even a few doubters 
before the meeting, including 

391
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:33,080
some drivers. 
Some questioned how they would 

392
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:35,320
ensure that no dirty tricks 
would be played. 

393
00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:38,560
How would the officials ensure 
there were no naughty moves? 

394
00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:40,920
There were also worries about 
the weather. 

395
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,320
What if it rained heavily? 
Andrew, cheers. 

396
00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:46,840
You've already said you're in 
the Fiesta Challenge for this 

397
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:50,440
meeting, but these sort of 
worries that you also shared in 

398
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,680
the days and weeks leading up to
the OR the days as it was with 

399
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:55,920
you getting the late call up 
into that race. 

400
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,280
Yeah, not really. 
I mean, obviously I didn't have 

401
00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:00,840
too much time to think about it.
I mean, as it turns out, 

402
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,440
obviously there were some filthy
going on in those races. 

403
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,640
So I think they were right to 
have a bit of a concern about 

404
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:11,760
driving standards. 
I didn't fancy the rain and 

405
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:13,840
certainly that was one thing 
that I didn't want to happen. 

406
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:16,560
And of course it didn't. 
Happily, I'd raced in the dark 

407
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:20,360
before in go karts, I'd done the
lemon 24 hour go Kart race so 

408
00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,680
fine. 
And I wasn't too fussed about 

409
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,640
the dark overall, even in the 
dark patches, because obviously 

410
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,760
not the whole circuit was was 
lit up and it was very dark down

411
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:33,440
the river straight for example, 
until you got down towards the 

412
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:38,920
complex. 
But yeah, I didn't really, yeah,

413
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:40,440
didn't really have too many 
worries at all. 

414
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,640
I didn't have too much time to 
think about it and just got on 

415
00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:45,480
with it. 
My favorite thing in the race 

416
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:49,760
buildup in the on the Grandstand
footage was Anthony Reed saying 

417
00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:53,800
that he was a little concerned 
about the the move from daylight

418
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:57,440
or almost daylight with so many 
floodlights to the pitch black 

419
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,080
Rev it straight as as Andrew 
just said there. 

420
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,440
And what was he? 
What was he said? 

421
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:05,760
I might take out a pair of 
shades with me to slip on. 

422
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:10,320
I'm very. 
Anxious. 

423
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:12,080
It is very, very Anthony, isn't 
it? 

424
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,840
And it just really made me 
chuckle that that, yeah, only 

425
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,560
Anthony Reed could say that. 
I think the Championship had got

426
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:21,120
to that stage where there was a 
bit of overthinking going on in 

427
00:24:21,120 --> 00:24:23,480
some aspects of it. 
I mean, that's basically we all 

428
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:26,120
drive from daylight into the 
dark every day. 

429
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:29,280
Yeah, yeah. 
Not really very different. 

430
00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:31,400
No one's ever mentioned that 
we've all driven home from work 

431
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:32,560
in the dark. 
We've all driven down the 

432
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,000
motorway. 
You can't see sweet FA when the 

433
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,960
spray is there in the rain and 
or the mist circle. 

434
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:39,640
We've all been there. 
But it's amazing how you adapt 

435
00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:41,560
to. 
Yeah, yeah, I'd slip on a pair 

436
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:45,040
of shades. 
But it's the odd idea of like, 

437
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:47,640
let's get the fastest part of 
the circuit, no lights. 

438
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,120
Yes. 
But then you've obviously got 

439
00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:53,040
the spectacle of the titanium 
ski plays, haven't you? 

440
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:54,040
So. 
Yeah. 

441
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:55,840
Again, it's probably method to 
his madness. 

442
00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:58,000
There was also, I think there 
was a hot air balloon. 

443
00:24:58,480 --> 00:24:59,440
Yes, it was. 
Yeah. 

444
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:00,960
Yeah, there was. 
Yeah. 

445
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:04,280
And so there was that. 
I remember certainly in the 

446
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:06,680
Fiesta took a while to get down 
the river, which straight. 

447
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:07,960
So there was. 
Time to look at it. 

448
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,280
Plenty of time to look at it. 
And I remember the hot air 

449
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:14,800
balloon a lot in the car. 
Yeah, yeah, that was there, 

450
00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:17,280
yeah. 
Thankfully, when the weekend of 

451
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:19,560
the meeting arrived, the weather
was perfect. 

452
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:23,560
Clear skies and hot temperatures
ensured a carnival atmosphere. 

453
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:26,480
It drew large crowds to the East
Anglian venue. 

454
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:30,600
More than 30,000 spectators 
taken in the first overnight 

455
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:33,600
race. 
Andrew C coming to you and 

456
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:35,600
Galan. 
The organisers I don't think 

457
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:37,560
could have wished for better 
conditions, couldn't they? 

458
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:41,160
Absolutely not. 
To show just how much of A 

459
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:45,040
gamble it was, Alex mentioned 
earlier that, you know, Mr. Gale

460
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,720
paid 50 grand for some 
floodlights. 

461
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,000
I start that in an inflation 
calculator and in today's money 

462
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:55,000
that's 92 grand. 
So that was definitely a very 

463
00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:00,000
big gap, very lucky. 
Snetterton, as we know, is in 

464
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,360
one of the flattest parts of the
UK, not that far from the East 

465
00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:06,400
Coast, and when the weather is 
not nice, it can be a pretty 

466
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:11,040
horrible place to work at. 
Having a race in July is no 

467
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:14,360
guarantee of a walk of summary 
day either. 

468
00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:17,440
We've seen more than one British
Grand Prix and need an absolute 

469
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:21,000
terrible weather. 
But on this this occasion, the 

470
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,720
weather gods were kind and with 
all the efforts he made it, it 

471
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:28,080
was a very special atmosphere 
about the place. 

472
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:30,520
And I think part of that was the
fact that there were 30,000 

473
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,520
people in Snetterton, which he 
knows that he's especially it 

474
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:35,560
was an extremely good crowd from
the circuit. 

475
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,440
Yeah. 
Snetterton had to undergo some 

476
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:41,840
small changes to be ready for 
the night race, with floodlights

477
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,800
being placed at the stadium 
section and the pit straight, 

478
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:48,480
with the remainder of the track 
largely left in total darkness. 

479
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:53,080
Toga spent over 50,000 lbs on 
the lighting rigs which were 

480
00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:55,720
more at home at cricket venues 
than it's Snetterton. 

481
00:26:56,840 --> 00:26:59,240
It wasn't just the track that 
underwent some changes. 

482
00:26:59,360 --> 00:27:02,200
The teams had to fit a different
standard of headlights to each 

483
00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:05,960
car, with teams also adding tint
to the rear windows of the cars 

484
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:09,520
to counter dazzling. 
Each car was also fitted with 

485
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:13,280
mandatory titanium skid plates 
to add to the spectacle. 

486
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:16,160
The cars spark and as they hit 
the curves in the floor. 

487
00:27:17,120 --> 00:27:20,440
Each car was also fitted with a 
new reflective livery which 

488
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,800
glowed in the dark, allowing for
some incredible photo 

489
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:28,560
opportunities. 
Adam it sort of even before you 

490
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:31,440
get into preparing for the race 
weekend of the team and the 

491
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:34,800
championship. 
A lot of off track changes that 

492
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:38,440
the teams and organisers had to 
deal with just to even get to 

493
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,800
the point of making the grid. 
Yeah, completely. 

494
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:43,600
I mean, from, you know, Andrew's
already mentioned, you know, 

495
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:45,920
that the lighting and, and 
everything else that the circuit

496
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:49,760
had to had to undergo, which 
obviously didn't affect the 

497
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:50,960
teams. 
But obviously the bit that did 

498
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:52,640
affect the teams and the 
mechanics, which I'm sure 

499
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:54,760
weren't overly chuffed about it,
was the fact that the headlights

500
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:56,680
had to be changed. 
You know, the rear screens had 

501
00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:59,040
to be tinted a certain way to 
stop the dazzle. 

502
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:02,240
Because again, from experience 
from GT racing, I can't tell you

503
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,360
how bad that is. 
You know, you can be driving and

504
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:08,040
and you know, you almost you 
have to push the mirror up to 

505
00:28:08,120 --> 00:28:09,240
try. 
And even with even with the 

506
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,440
tinted rear screen that they 
had, they still would have got 

507
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,160
dazzled a lot. 
He was just trying to minimize 

508
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:15,320
it. 
But you know, I've been there 

509
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:18,680
with the interior mirror I've 
just faced up of I've put my 

510
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:22,240
hand over the, the side window 
to try and stop the, the glare 

511
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:24,680
of the lights coming through 
the, the side mirror as well. 

512
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:27,040
It's awful. 
It's horrible because you think 

513
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:29,680
the person is also a lot closer 
sometimes than they actually 

514
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:33,000
are. 
So yeah, it's very, that's very 

515
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,280
off putting to be honest. 
And it's weird then when you are

516
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:39,280
in a piece, you know, a section 
of the circuit where you haven't

517
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:42,200
got a car behind you, you know, 
in GT race, because then it is 

518
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:43,920
very you've seen the very, very 
dark. 

519
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,320
But with those guys, because 
it's such close racing and there

520
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:48,800
wasn't the gaps like you'd get 
Le Mans and places like that. 

521
00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:51,120
It would have just been constant
headlights everywhere. 

522
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:54,920
You know, the teams would have 
had to obviously undergo the, 

523
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,040
you know, all those changes 
which would have added obviously

524
00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:00,000
more pressure to them. 
But I just think it was good. 

525
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,360
I just think it was a it was a 
good addition. 

526
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:04,800
But yeah, they've I know the 
mechanics wouldn't been overly 

527
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:06,440
impressed with all the, you 
know, things that would have 

528
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,600
added to the cars and next, but 
also testing the stuff as well 

529
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:11,080
is one thing is just adding some
headlights to it. 

530
00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:13,800
But like with you doing GT race 
and you've got to make sure the 

531
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:15,600
headlights are pointed in the 
direction you need them to. 

532
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:18,080
It's not just the case of 
bolting them in, you know, are 

533
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:20,120
they how high are they? 
You know, you've got to set them

534
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:22,000
a certain way to try and give 
you the best visibility 

535
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,080
possible. 
So it's they would have done a 

536
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,440
little bit of night running. 
When I say night run, I don't 

537
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,280
mean ran the racetrack either. 
Potentially could have been an 

538
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:32,840
airfield just to try and get the
gist of because one of the 

539
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:35,280
things setting up in a workshop,
other thing is what it's 

540
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:37,600
actually doing when you're on, 
you know, when you're moving. 

541
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:40,680
So they would have done that. 
But you know, these teams were 

542
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:44,760
full, full professional outfits.
So, you know, some of them would

543
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:47,120
have had experience from GT 
racing as well from what they 

544
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:51,120
know with that. 
But yeah, I think it was not 

545
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:53,040
hard work put into it, but it 
was definitely worth it. 

546
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:57,360
There's the grandstand piece, 
said They had Malcolm Swetnam 

547
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:01,360
describing the changes they'd 
done to the Hondas at Westerly 

548
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:03,480
Racing. 
And regarding the headlights, 

549
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:05,720
they said, you know, we've been 
working with Honda R&D in 

550
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:08,400
Germany. 
They didn't just stick more 

551
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:10,480
bulbs in. 
They, you know, they developed 

552
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:12,760
and worked on making that the 
best possible. 

553
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:16,680
That just shows the rate of the,
the level of development in the 

554
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,040
series at the time is, you know,
working on a program for 

555
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:20,920
headlights. 
It's. 

556
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:25,400
And it's having the beam facing 
into the corner, you know, not 

557
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:27,480
obviously your conventional 
headlight that you've got in a 

558
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:29,080
car is just facing directly 
ahead of you. 

559
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,680
But obviously you've got some of
the the Byzen on stuff that you 

560
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:33,680
experience now where the 
headlamps move with the steering

561
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:35,560
wheel. 
But on certain mystification 

562
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,400
cars, but you know, you sort of 
want the headlamps to sort of 

563
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:39,800
obviously it's a clockwise 
circuit. 

564
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:41,960
So you predominantly have them 
facing more to the right. 

565
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:44,200
So when you are about to turn 
and you can see the apex because

566
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,640
otherwise you wouldn't see. 
I think they had, I think they 

567
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:52,240
had three, three lights on each 
side, so six in total. 

568
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:54,720
So yeah. 
Quite bright. 

569
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:56,440
GT race. 
Yeah, with GT race we'd always 

570
00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,920
have like a set facing forwards,
but then you'll also have a set 

571
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,000
like your main beam as such when
it's it's facing into the 

572
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:04,280
corners. 
But then when you when you've 

573
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:06,680
got a row of lights on the 
front, you know, sort of two of 

574
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,080
them facing to the left, two to 
the right, because not every 

575
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,680
circuit goes constantly right 
all the time. 

576
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:14,000
So, you know, it's a lot, lots 
to think about. 

577
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,440
There's lots more, more like you
said, more to it than just 

578
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:18,640
bolting the set of headlamps in 
that you've just purchased from 

579
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:25,400
your local car store. 
This would be the longest ever 

580
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:28,880
day in Touring Cars. 
As usual, the two qualifying 

581
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:32,040
sessions would take place during
the day, with the two races 

582
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:36,080
taking place later that evening.
The Sprint race was at dusk, 

583
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,560
with the feature race taking 
place in the total darkness of 

584
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:43,320
the night. 
Alex, that's a fairly long day 

585
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:48,560
even for the most endurance 
ready of people, isn't it? 

586
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:53,760
It was weird, as I mentioned it 
before, but you know, after 

587
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:57,640
qualifying it was like, right, 
OK, now we're going and we'll 

588
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,520
come back tomorrow. 
But people hung around and, and 

589
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:03,920
suddenly the you could smell the
barbecues and you could smell 

590
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:08,040
the hog roasts and you could 
hear the people getting slightly

591
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:10,520
merry as you think, oh, OK, 
people are going to be staying 

592
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,360
here for a duration. 
And it was bizarre. 

593
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:17,480
And then to hear the engines 
fire up in the sunset just. 

594
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:19,840
Yeah, it was just, it was just 
really bizarre, really funny 

595
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:21,120
day. 
But yeah, yeah, it was a long 

596
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:23,160
all day. 
And what I found quite funny is 

597
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:25,160
that a lot of the drivers 
couldn't keep it on track in 

598
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:29,880
qualifying in the daylight, so 
it didn't bode well for the 

599
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:31,960
evening race. 
That's. 

600
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:33,560
The story of cast for you, Al. 
Exactly. 

601
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:36,160
Yeah, yeah. 
We kept all four wheels. 

602
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,320
On plaster. 
But yeah, it was it was a long 

603
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:40,920
all day. 
I can imagine there were a lot 

604
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:43,880
of very tired mechanics and team
members at the end of this 

605
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:46,280
weekend. 
Points leader Lauren Ayala took 

606
00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:49,880
both poles in the daylight 
qualifying sessions with Nissan 

607
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,080
teammate David Leslie locking 
out the front row for Nissan in 

608
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:56,640
both races. 
The grid symmetry for both races

609
00:32:56,640 --> 00:33:00,440
continued on the 2nd row. 
Reigning champion Ricard Rydell 

610
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:04,160
took abrasive third places. 
The Volvo driver was pretty 

611
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:08,200
satisfied with his performance 
after a difficult pre race test.

612
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:12,680
If you'd asked me yesterday if 
we'd settle to 3rd, we'd take it

613
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:17,720
said to Swede Andrew G. 
It's just more proof of how 

614
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:20,680
dominant this Nissan team we're 
at this particular point of the 

615
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:24,320
season as well, isn't it? 
Very much so Red Bull style 

616
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:29,240
dominance, really in today's 
terms, it was two very evenly 

617
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:34,200
matched drivers right at the top
of their game and that meant 

618
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:37,680
they were both scoring a lot of 
points at each meeting. 

619
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:43,080
So at the end of this particular
weekend, we'd raised 436 laps in

620
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:47,600
the season and a Nissan, 
including McNeil, who led 26 

621
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,960
laps, a Nissan had LED 249. 
So almost 60% of the racing laps

622
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,200
have been led by Nissan. 
So, you know, they were a long 

623
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:57,760
way out in front. 
They've got over 100 points in 

624
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:00,760
handover Hondler in the 
constructors championship. 

625
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,240
And the only person who was 
really putting up, you know, 

626
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,680
perhaps some kind of fight on 
speed for them was Ricard 

627
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:10,600
Rydell. 
So he was certainly, when you 

628
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,760
consider qualifying 
particularly, he was still very 

629
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,040
competitive there already at 
this point. 

630
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,719
James Thompson was kind of 
struggling to hang on to the 

631
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:24,920
championship battle, though. 
It was, it was super, yeah, 

632
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:27,400
super strong from from Nissan at
this point. 

633
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,400
And you know, nothing really 
changed for the rest of the 

634
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,320
year, but they were, they were 
formidable. 

635
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:34,600
Championship contender James 
Thompson had a tricky session in

636
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:38,040
the Honda Accord. 
He lined up 4th and 6th that had

637
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:42,080
gone much quicker in testing but
couldn't reproduce the times in 

638
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:44,639
the hotter weather. 
Andrew C. 

639
00:34:44,679 --> 00:34:48,920
It's something that that Andrew 
just touched on into in his last

640
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:52,199
comment from your side, with 
Thompson's championship chances 

641
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:53,960
looking quite bleak at this 
point. 

642
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:56,800
Yeah, they were. 
Obviously. 

643
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:58,400
He'd started the season on a big
high. 

644
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:02,520
He took first and second in the 
opening 2 races and then he 

645
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:05,040
disappeared for something like 9
races. 

646
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,960
There was some mechanical 
issues, some bad luck, quite a 

647
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:13,240
lot of having to develop a new 
car because people tend to 

648
00:35:13,240 --> 00:35:17,920
forget that the Accord was the 
only properly all new car that 

649
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:23,080
year in the field. 
But he recovered his mojo and he

650
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:25,640
got, but he won at Donington, he
won at Croft. 

651
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:30,400
But all, of course, all the 
time, in between times, the 

652
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:33,520
Nissan's, especially Aiello, 
have just been banking point 

653
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:37,720
after point after point. 
So Jimmy T could hardly afford 

654
00:35:37,720 --> 00:35:41,400
another weekend of issues. 
And that's exactly what he got. 

655
00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:43,960
Yeah. 
And. 

656
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,840
So one feel good story was Will 
Hoy qualifying in the top ten 

657
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:52,120
with his independent running a 
guna notably out qualifying both

658
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,240
factory Fords who would have 
spent the last two seasons 

659
00:35:55,240 --> 00:36:01,560
driving for something. 
He was quick to point out Adam a

660
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:05,480
good return to the series for 
Hoy so far in the weekend wasn't

661
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:06,800
a. 
Yeah, really good. 

662
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:11,360
And you know, the circuit is 
very demanding on on the engine,

663
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:12,960
like you need a strong engine 
around Snetterton. 

664
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:15,680
So at least you knew for sure 
that he had something strong 

665
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:18,840
under the Bonnie. 
But yeah, what a good, yeah, 

666
00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:20,320
really, really good. 
And I think the fact that he 

667
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:24,520
points to the fat, you know, he 
beat the two fours, I think it 

668
00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:25,920
was good to get a little digging
there, wasn't it? 

669
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:28,880
That's almost like a footballer 
leaving one club, going to play 

670
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,120
for another, but then scoring 
against your old club, isn't it?

671
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:33,640
You know it's. 
All it's it's. 

672
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:35,600
That's sort of what he did 
there. 

673
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:37,680
But yeah, it's it's great. 
It was all especially, you know,

674
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,600
first time out in that car, that
team, you know, the team would 

675
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:42,600
have been overjoyed with that. 
So that's a really good start 

676
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:43,560
for him. 
Really, really. 

677
00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:45,120
I don't think he would have been
expecting that. 

678
00:36:45,240 --> 00:36:48,200
And the team probably, you know,
up against the competition that 

679
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:50,120
they, you know, the that works 
teams. 

680
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:52,080
So yeah, he'd been really 
pleased with that. 

681
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:56,080
We're talking about Charlie 
Cox's comments a lot on this on 

682
00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:58,240
this pod so far. 
And he had another Corker in the

683
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:02,080
the grid walk where you say can 
and cheers. 

684
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:04,880
Will Hoy in 10th out qualifying 
both Fords. 

685
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:08,080
You know, Ford, he drove for 
them last year with this little 

686
00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:11,880
grin. 
I like that. 

687
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:13,680
I really like that. 
That was funny. 

688
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:20,160
That was really funny. 
It was only when the evening 

689
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:23,160
arrived did the atmosphere truly
take hold. 

690
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,960
Instead of everyone starting to 
filter out as they normally 

691
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:30,160
would on a Saturday evening 
after qualifying, the spectator 

692
00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:34,040
areas were filling up with the 
smell of BBQ starting to linger.

693
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,920
Whilst it was not quite Le Mans,
the sight of the grid forming 

694
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:41,400
under the floodlights as a 
sunset coloured the Norfolk sky 

695
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:46,120
bright orange was fantastic. 
Alex, you were lucky enough to 

696
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:48,120
be there. 
What was the atmosphere like on 

697
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,760
the ground at the time? 
Yeah, it was. 

698
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:52,400
I've sort of touched on it 
already of night. 

699
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:55,160
It was it was brilliant. 
It was really, really good. 

700
00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:59,560
The the atmosphere was really 
special. 

701
00:37:59,560 --> 00:38:04,280
It felt weird that the sun was 
going down and touring car 

702
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:08,920
racing that was starting to 
happen and you could hear, you 

703
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:13,280
know, these touring car engines 
firing up and yeah, it was 

704
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,120
weird, but it was good. 
It was really cool. 

705
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:18,280
And as we've already said, the 
weather was brilliant. 

706
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:23,480
So, yeah, it was like a 
beautiful summer's evening walk 

707
00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:27,240
with 15 Super tours or 18 Super 
tours. 

708
00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:31,720
Join a new film, right? 
It was really, really surreal. 

709
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:34,680
Wonderful. 
Absolutely wonderful. 

710
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:38,280
The smell of. 
Yeah, as I said, you know, the 

711
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,280
food, you could smell. 
You could hear music. 

712
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:45,640
It was like a festival. 
And then the Super Touring 

713
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:49,960
engines, just yeah, brilliant. 
The Sprint race started at 

714
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:52,960
sunset with the cars glistening 
in the orange light. 

715
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:57,120
Aiello converted Paul into the 
lead and was sauntering off into

716
00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:00,440
the distance until trouble stuck
on Lap 2. 

717
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:03,600
Problems 1 E Problems were on 
board with Aiello, the race 

718
00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:04,360
leader. 
He's lying. 

719
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:09,040
Listen. 
And that is one thing and one 

720
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:10,400
thing only. 
It's a slipping clutch. 

721
00:39:10,720 --> 00:39:13,760
His race will be over. 
The clutch on his Nissan Primera

722
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:16,800
was slipping and the Frenchman 
pulled into the pits and out of 

723
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,440
the race. 
I have a slipping clutch, 

724
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:21,400
explained the clearly gutted 
ILO. 

725
00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:23,800
And I'd continued for one more 
lap. 

726
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:25,480
I would have stopped out on the 
track. 

727
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:30,520
Andrew Gee, that's an absolute 
gift for ILO Championship 

728
00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:32,600
rivals, particularly David 
Leslie, isn't it? 

729
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:37,280
Yes, and in truth, David Leslie 
was his only real championship 

730
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:42,160
rival in in all honesty. 
And if it wasn't for David 

731
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:45,120
Leslie, Laurent ILO would have 
already had a much bigger lead 

732
00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:46,640
in the championship by that 
point. 

733
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:49,360
It was because they were so 
evenly matched and all the 

734
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,480
expectations were that ILO was 
going to come and blow Leslie 

735
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:56,680
away and and he didn't. 
Of course, he was learning the 

736
00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:59,960
circuits. 
So, you know, that was an issue 

737
00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:02,960
for ILO and it was an amazing 
year that he had when you 

738
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:07,280
consider that he was racing at a
new circuit almost every 

739
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:10,240
weekend. 
But nevertheless, you know that 

740
00:40:10,240 --> 00:40:12,320
point in the year they were tied
on qualifying. 

741
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:17,040
Results, They were eight all. 
And yeah, David Leslie, you 

742
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:18,520
know, kept him honest all year 
long. 

743
00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:20,680
And it was only towards the end 
of the year when it began to 

744
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:23,200
look like, you know, it was 
slipping out of reach. 

745
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:28,840
But yeah, it was definitely a 
good weekend for David Leslie 

746
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,000
because he did end up winning 
that race. 

747
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:35,400
And we'll hear about the second 
one soon, I'm sure. 

748
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:39,600
From there on, David Leslie 
coasted off into the lead with 

749
00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:42,440
the Volvo pair of Rydell and 
Vincent Rademacher following 

750
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:46,080
closely behind. 
And we see it's a strong showing

751
00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:49,520
from Rademacher in the Volvo. 
Did you feel he went a bit under

752
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:51,800
the radar in his BTCC? 
Career. 

753
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,920
Yeah, I definitely did. 
If you think in the history of 

754
00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:58,600
Super Touring, there's so many 
names down that we just don't 

755
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:02,880
mention anymore more. 
Delhi Bouleon to a degree. 

756
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:08,320
Peter Cox and Radameka is 
definitely in that lot, but he 

757
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:12,360
never took a touring cold wind. 
I'd argue he was one among the 

758
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:17,280
best of those forgotten names. 
99 The Volvo wasn't the car it 

759
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:19,800
had been the previous season 
when Rydell won the 

760
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:24,680
championship, but by the end of 
the 99 season, Radameka as the 

761
00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:27,800
new guy of the team was 
absolutely matching Rydell for 

762
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:30,360
pace. 
And Rydell by that time was one 

763
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:34,560
of the legends of the BTCC. 
I reckon if Volvo had stayed in 

764
00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:38,120
the series another year, 
Radameka probably would have had

765
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:42,240
much more success in 2000 rather
than what did happen where he 

766
00:41:42,240 --> 00:41:45,320
would became very much the third
man in a Vauxhall team that had 

767
00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:47,200
Plato Muller in it. 
Yeah. 

768
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:51,120
I think looking back over the 
years of Rydell's team mates, 

769
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,680
apart from Tim Harvey, who 
obviously won a couple of races 

770
00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:58,800
with him in 1995, I think 
Radameka is the one by far that 

771
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:03,880
drove him the closest. 
Yeah, you know, I thought 

772
00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:05,800
Rademacher did a brilliant job 
against Rydell. 

773
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:08,760
Yeah, his, his 2000 season 
wasn't so great. 

774
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:12,280
But when you're having to hand 
over cars and they've been 

775
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:16,240
commandeered by the number one 
and #2 driver, then you know, 

776
00:42:16,240 --> 00:42:18,640
you're in a bit of a hitting a 
bit of a raw deal straight up, 

777
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:22,200
straight away there anyway. 
But yeah, I liked Rademacher. 

778
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:26,960
I thought he was, I thought he 
was very quick in what was not 

779
00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:27,960
such a great Volvo. 
He. 

780
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:31,800
Was a good tough racer as well. 
He slotted into the touring car 

781
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:34,920
way of racing faster than a lot 
of other drivers. 

782
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:40,840
So for example he never really, 
he's a good example of a very 

783
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,440
quick driver who never quite got
to grips with the rather touring

784
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:46,640
cars. 
Rademacher worked that out much,

785
00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:48,920
much quicker. 
Yes, we're in the Orton Park 

786
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:52,760
where he, he sort of, he'd not 
shoved Ricard out of the way, 

787
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:56,960
but he certainly put manners on 
him and Oh my God, someone's 

788
00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:00,400
pushed Ricard wide in a, in a, 
in the sister Volvo. 

789
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:04,040
Just doesn't happen. 
But yeah, he, he really, really,

790
00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:06,440
I thought took it to, took to it
very well. 

791
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:08,640
Yeah, but out of the car, very 
gentle. 

792
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:12,200
Yes, yes. 
Nice. 

793
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:15,440
Very nice guy. 
On lap 11, Reed's engine blew in

794
00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:18,480
his Monteo, with the car 
chucking oil all over the 

795
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:22,240
circuit as it did so. 
This of course created very 

796
00:43:22,240 --> 00:43:24,280
treacherous conditions for the 
drivers. 

797
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,200
Coming out of the final corner, 
Muller slid wide on the oil, 

798
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:30,600
with Jean Christophe Bouillon 
getting past him. 

799
00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:33,040
As a result. 
This would lead to one of 

800
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:35,640
Charlie Cox's most famous one 
liners. 

801
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:45,520
You've got to be kidding, Jason 
Plato telling his team tell JCP 

802
00:43:45,560 --> 00:43:48,160
to hold off Mueller, like trying
to hold off the Terminator with 

803
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:49,600
a water pistol. 
You're going to be kidding. 

804
00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:53,600
You make your own battles maybe?
Despite Plato's request, Bullion

805
00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:57,000
didn't hold off Miller for long 
as the Frenchman was soon back 

806
00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:58,800
past coming down the Revit 
Straight. 

807
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:02,480
Recovering, Thompson dragged 
himself into the fight and 

808
00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:05,000
coming into the complex, they 
were free wide. 

809
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:09,800
Thanks a lot. 
If he can hold off, and there's 

810
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,560
no guarantees, we'll most 
certainly be getting Le Jean 

811
00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:14,840
Donaire from his government. 
Well, here's the view. 

812
00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:17,840
James Thompson ahead of us is 
JCB on the left, but doing a 

813
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:20,000
great job be holding off mullet 
because Muller's on the right. 

814
00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:22,200
Thompson down the inside 3 
abreast. 

815
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:25,080
This ain't going to work. 
Thompson on the right, JCB in 

816
00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:28,480
the middle, he called it. 
No, he hasn't got it. 

817
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:30,560
He's up on the infield. 
It's a goal. 

818
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:34,840
Miller had suddenly shot off his
wheel, damaged after the contact

819
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:37,640
with Plato. 
He bounded over the grass and 

820
00:44:37,640 --> 00:44:40,920
speared back onto the track, 
right into Thompson's door. 

821
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:44,560
So, guys, a fairly messy 
sequence of events. 

822
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:48,200
How do we call that one? 
How do we unpack that one? 

823
00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:50,040
How do we even begin to do any 
of that? 

824
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:54,360
Can I just say what goes and 
what is goes under the radar 

825
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:55,720
slightly? 
It's obviously everyone goes on 

826
00:44:55,720 --> 00:45:00,080
about Charlie Cox is terminated 
with a water pistol comic, which

827
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:02,760
is brilliant. 
But then you got what he going. 

828
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,320
Well, he certainly won't be 
getting a legend on it from his 

829
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:08,240
government because he let 
Mueller straight past. 

830
00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:10,480
Actually, I thought was just as 
funny. 

831
00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:12,920
But yeah, not not so many people
pick up on that one. 

832
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:16,640
No, but listen, of course had 
one of the best one liners of 

833
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:20,080
the meeting, didn't it when he 
impacted inside the door and Cox

834
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:26,040
goes it's I mean, we all knew 
that Mueller it was 

835
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:29,360
uncompromising and there were 
several moves he pulled in the 

836
00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:33,560
years he was in the series that 
you could definitely question 

837
00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:37,280
that one, I reckon was more 
racing accident than anything 

838
00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:40,920
else, certainly involving Tomo 
in it. 

839
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:44,240
It's but it certainly showed 
that when you're not going to 

840
00:45:44,240 --> 00:45:47,880
have a good weekend, you know, 
went for for James T when it 

841
00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:49,600
wasn't his day. 
It really wasn't his day. 

842
00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:52,040
No, no, he had a stinker, didn't
he? 

843
00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:55,640
I agree. 
I think it was a recent 

844
00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:57,800
incident. 
It was three wide. 

845
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:01,080
Going into the complex is not 
the greatest thing to do. 

846
00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:04,000
And and as we know now, 
obviously Muller had damage. 

847
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:06,640
So that explains why he went 
off. 

848
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:09,320
And and when you're when you 
know you're out of control, 

849
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:11,520
there's nothing you could do at 
that point. 

850
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:14,520
You know, it was just Thompson 
was just very unlucky. 

851
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:17,360
Wrong place, wrong time. 
When you've got that many. 

852
00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:21,560
Cars going into the into a 
complex, you know, you look at 

853
00:46:21,720 --> 00:46:24,360
it's rare that it happens when 
you've got that much going on at

854
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:28,880
one time, but you just look at 
it and if you could just freeze 

855
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:30,800
it and then you think right, 
what's going to happen? 

856
00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:35,000
Hey, one thing I can guarantee 
is they're all not going to come

857
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:38,240
out of it, you know, and that's 
just one of those but you 

858
00:46:38,240 --> 00:46:39,640
imagine being in the Toca bus 
afterwards. 

859
00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:42,560
So when you get your rollicking,
I went up from Alan GAO or you 

860
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:44,200
know one driver's man in about 
the other. 

861
00:46:44,200 --> 00:46:46,120
He took me off. 
Obviously you get dragged into 

862
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:47,920
the Toca bus with your team 
manager. 

863
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:51,000
And so, you know, you think 
we're we're debating about it, 

864
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:53,360
But you imagine when one 
driver's blaming the other and 

865
00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:55,560
the circus and they're trying to
get a resolution out of it. 

866
00:46:55,560 --> 00:46:58,440
And you imagine being in that 
situation where which I've been 

867
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:00,760
in before. 
But you know, you imagine being 

868
00:47:00,760 --> 00:47:02,800
the guys you know, because Alan 
Gauss sits there as well. 

869
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:04,360
Yeah, he's there. 
He's there. 

870
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:05,920
And. 
Just watching it all and for. 

871
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:09,560
Yeah, as as he say as well. 
And also you've got the clerk of

872
00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:13,560
the course there and you know, 
it's team managers, drivers. 

873
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:17,400
So yeah, it's you might have 
been trying to rule that, you 

874
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:20,360
know, trying to come out with a 
decision that you, you know, 

875
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:21,560
you're not going to please 
everybody. 

876
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:25,400
And with a lot less data than 
they probably than they do have 

877
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:27,920
these days when you look at 
steward decisions and you know, 

878
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:30,600
you're like a Formula One now 
and they've got every single 

879
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:34,360
trace possible of every car and.
Your whole whole telematics. 

880
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:36,760
Yeah, exactly. 
Whereas back then they would 

881
00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:38,920
have had stuff, but it certainly
wouldn't have been as advanced 

882
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:40,200
as it is now. 
So yeah. 

883
00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:42,160
Yeah. 
I think with the toy cars though

884
00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:44,840
is a lot more blatant when it's 
to make decisions on stuff as 

885
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:47,120
opposed to like Alonzo coming 
off the throttle and brake 

886
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:48,000
testing. 
Someone or. 

887
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:52,520
Now it tends to be doable that 
car, car poon that one, and then

888
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:57,000
it's all a lot more obvious to 
sort of try and digress, to try 

889
00:47:57,000 --> 00:47:58,520
and come out with some sort of 
resolution. 

890
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:01,440
But that's one thing that did 
make it slightly easier for the 

891
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,600
decision makers. 
I think Thompson might just 

892
00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:08,080
thought that he was safe and 
exactly the point that he was 

893
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:12,400
hit because he'd done the move. 
It was quite cool. 

894
00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:15,120
It didn't really look on halfway
down the straight and he managed

895
00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:19,280
to complete it and it was only, 
you know, really on the exit of 

896
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:20,880
the chicane when he got. 
Covered. 

897
00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:23,560
Yeah. 
So he must have felt very 

898
00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:27,080
unlucky at that point because it
was kind of job done. 

899
00:48:27,440 --> 00:48:29,320
Yes, absolutely. 
Yeah, yeah. 

900
00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:32,120
And it's one of those sections 
of a circuit where you're 

901
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:34,840
carrying so much speed into it. 
And if it does go wrong for one 

902
00:48:34,840 --> 00:48:38,040
of you and you are heading 
towards the, you know, you are 

903
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:41,040
going straight, you then come 
back on the cross the track. 

904
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:43,200
So, you know, when you've had a 
bit of a battle with another 

905
00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:45,040
car, not a Spearing off you, 
someone's like you have to 

906
00:48:45,040 --> 00:48:47,080
brake, slow down because you 
know the car is going to come 

907
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:48,520
shooting back past again 
sometimes. 

908
00:48:49,240 --> 00:48:53,840
So yeah, that situation, he was 
just, yeah, it wasn't really a 

909
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:55,160
lot he could have done, to be 
honest. 

910
00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:57,040
No. 
But I think like we said earlier

911
00:48:57,040 --> 00:48:59,240
with the look wasn't on his side
for a period of time. 

912
00:48:59,240 --> 00:49:02,200
And that certainly was the case 
of Snetism for him. 

913
00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:06,880
The van appeared on the grass 
then harpooned me, said an angry

914
00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:09,880
Thompson. 
I'm gutted we'd come up from 

915
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,160
last to the fifth, Miller 
explained. 

916
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,560
The left rear wheel was broken 
when I touched with Plato, but I

917
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:18,320
didn't know until I got to the 
yeses. 

918
00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:21,280
I lost control. 
I was full on the breaking and 

919
00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:26,240
Thompson was unfortunate. 
I'm very, very, very sorry for 

920
00:49:26,240 --> 00:49:28,760
him. 
James is one of the guys I don't

921
00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:32,200
want to take out. 
We'll get to the last part of 

922
00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:34,760
Miller's interesting comments 
later there. 

923
00:49:35,720 --> 00:49:38,080
But Alex, in terms of the 
incident itself, I mean, we kind

924
00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:40,840
of already touched on in terms 
of what happened, the damage, 

925
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:42,880
but do you think that's a fair 
assessment from Miller? 

926
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:47,160
Yeah, I mean, you know, that's a
guilty driver being interviewed,

927
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,440
isn't it? 
It's like I can't help it. 

928
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:52,480
I can't, you know, in fairness, 
he couldn't if the the wheel was

929
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:56,160
damaged from contact with one of
the Renaults. 

930
00:49:56,160 --> 00:49:59,920
And when that happens, you, you,
you he was a passenger. 

931
00:49:59,920 --> 00:50:02,400
He was as much, you know, as 
much as a passenger as Thompson 

932
00:50:02,400 --> 00:50:06,440
at that point. 
I did feel for Jimmy T because 

933
00:50:06,600 --> 00:50:12,000
as he said there, so he couldn't
take his qualifying spot on the 

934
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:14,200
grid because he had a starter 
motor issue. 

935
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:20,240
So he had to start from the back
and fought his way up to 5th and

936
00:50:20,240 --> 00:50:23,440
then, yeah, that happens. 
So yeah, that's when you know, 

937
00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:26,160
your luck's not in and we're 
supposed to follow, sadly for 

938
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:29,480
James. 
But yeah, interesting comments 

939
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:32,560
from Ivan. 
As I said, he featured quite 

940
00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:38,160
heavily in this in this race 
meeting and it got, it got a bit

941
00:50:38,160 --> 00:50:40,280
more heated later on, but I'm 
not going to, I'm not going to 

942
00:50:40,280 --> 00:50:43,600
spoil anything for now. 
But yeah, James is one of the 

943
00:50:43,600 --> 00:50:46,600
guys I don't want to take out. 
So come on, What's the list of 

944
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:47,920
the drivers you do want to take 
out? 

945
00:50:49,720 --> 00:50:53,920
That what you will. 
As the skies darkened, the race 

946
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:57,480
finished with David Leslie 
taking victory from the Volvo 

947
00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:04,120
pair of Rydell and Rademacher. 
As Leslie crossed the line the 

948
00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:07,680
darkness was setting in and 
after being treated to a superb 

949
00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:11,160
firework display off the track, 
the drivers were soon lining up 

950
00:51:11,160 --> 00:51:12,840
on the grid for the feature 
race. 

951
00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:17,120
Despite it being the first full 
night race in the BTCC, all but 

952
00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:20,680
one of the factory drivers had 
experienced night racing before.

953
00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:25,560
Jason Plato, the only driver who
was totally in the dark on the 

954
00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:27,720
night. 
Adam. 

955
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:30,880
Is that a big disadvantage for 
Plato's to never have had that 

956
00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:33,680
experience before? 
I don't think so. 

957
00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:37,160
It's amazing how you do adapt, 
you know, like we've all driven 

958
00:51:37,240 --> 00:51:39,920
cars in the dark and you know, 
that would have been, you know, 

959
00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:43,840
quite a freak, you know, easy 
for you to sort of adapt from 

960
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:46,440
that respect just from a road 
car point of view. 

961
00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:50,240
So it's what once once the doors
close, the vices down, the 

962
00:51:50,240 --> 00:51:53,480
adrenaline kicks in. 
Its business as usual. 

963
00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:58,000
You know, it's he wouldn't have 
been fazed by and I don't think 

964
00:51:58,000 --> 00:51:59,280
he'd have been too bothered 
about it either. 

965
00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:01,640
But it's amazing how you do. 
You know, I remember my first 

966
00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:08,080
ever GT race in the in the dark.
It was a 24 hour race to Spa and

967
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:11,200
you can overthink it sometimes 
going into it, but I didn't 

968
00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:14,560
really think about it too much. 
Some people do, but I just got 

969
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:16,320
on with it. 
I just got on with it. 

970
00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:19,640
So it didn't didn't never 
affected me, but it certainly 

971
00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:22,120
wouldn't affect you Jason. 
Jason's not that type of type of

972
00:52:22,120 --> 00:52:25,000
guys he'd have either. 
Just got on with it. 

973
00:52:27,680 --> 00:52:30,080
To get the cars ready for the 
night race, quite a lot of 

974
00:52:30,080 --> 00:52:34,040
changes were made to the cars. 
Andrew G coming back to you 

975
00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:37,200
obviously mentioned this was 
your second time in the Fiesta 

976
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:39,680
that year. 
Were there also changes made to 

977
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:41,840
your Fiesta for the night racing
as well? 

978
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:45,480
I'm trying to think back. 
The car was prepared by Colin 

979
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:48,280
Stancombe Engineering, which 
was, you know, the Fiesta team 

980
00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:51,360
of the time. 
So if there was a trip to be 

981
00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:54,080
had, they would have, they would
have found it. 

982
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:56,640
Yeah. 
I don't remember too many 

983
00:52:57,800 --> 00:53:00,880
specific changes being made. 
I mean, obviously, I guess we 

984
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:03,240
made sure the lights worked. 
I certainly didn't have a little

985
00:53:03,240 --> 00:53:05,680
red light inside, but I don't 
even remember. 

986
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:07,640
Perhaps the rear screen was 
tinted. 

987
00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:11,280
I'm not 100% certain about that.
But you. 

988
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:14,000
Didn't have six headlights, then
I didn't get 6. 

989
00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:17,920
Headlights the rally car. 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. 

990
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:20,960
Big hella hella light bar on the
bonnet. 

991
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:23,120
Yeah, no, I didn't get any of 
that. 

992
00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:26,080
So. 
But I think, you know, racing in

993
00:53:26,080 --> 00:53:28,880
a pack, you know, much like 
touring cars, you know, we were 

994
00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:31,240
all nosed to tail on the 
fiestas, so we've got lots of 

995
00:53:31,240 --> 00:53:33,240
each other's light around us to.
Help. 

996
00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:37,560
Not just, not just our own. 
So in actual fact, it was 

997
00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:40,840
pretty, yeah. 
I don't remember the dark being 

998
00:53:41,080 --> 00:53:43,920
any kind of inhibitor at all at 
any point. 

999
00:53:44,880 --> 00:53:46,600
Had it rained, I think that 
would have been different. 

1000
00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:49,800
But it was. 
It was totally fine. 

1001
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:53,840
When I went to the Formula Four 
festival year before last, and 

1002
00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:58,160
in the back of a tent I found 
Colin Stancom still there, still

1003
00:53:58,160 --> 00:53:59,560
wearing his pink hat. 
Oh. 

1004
00:54:00,080 --> 00:54:01,320
Yeah. 
How long have you been? 

1005
00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:05,320
There, probably since the last 
time I remember being Formula 

1006
00:54:05,320 --> 00:54:09,480
Four in the mid 80s, everything 
was always pink with Colin, 

1007
00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:10,000
wasn't it? 
Yeah. 

1008
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:14,680
Yeah, yeah, I think he did 
clears as well, didn't he? 

1009
00:54:14,680 --> 00:54:16,800
But Fiestas is what I was 
associated to with. 

1010
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:18,600
Yeah, he. 
Was a he was a porn man. 

1011
00:54:19,560 --> 00:54:21,840
Yeah. 
As to feature a started under 

1012
00:54:21,840 --> 00:54:25,640
the floodlights, Leslie made a 
better start than Aiello to lead

1013
00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:29,320
his Nissan teammate into riches 
with the Honda's hot in pursuit.

1014
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,600
Then on the second lap at Sears,
Aiello made a mistake and 

1015
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:37,040
Thompson moved up to second. 
Now the drag up the pit 

1016
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:39,960
straight, look at those pits, 
bright lights and look ahead of 

1017
00:54:39,960 --> 00:54:43,720
them into the darkness. 
James Thompson, 3rd place, a 

1018
00:54:43,720 --> 00:54:47,480
pair of Nissan's ahead of him, 
the dark part of the second. 

1019
00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:50,040
Big puff of smoke there from a 
yellow that's a little bit 

1020
00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:52,000
untidy. 
Yeah, he locked up a rear brake 

1021
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,600
as he went in Teresa's corner. 
And of course, you're going from

1022
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:56,600
the bright lights into the 
darkness. 

1023
00:54:56,800 --> 00:54:57,760
And he's through. 
He's through. 

1024
00:54:57,840 --> 00:55:00,160
Thompson's launched up the 
inside, but he's run a little 

1025
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:03,280
bit wide in the attempt. 
These are all due to night time 

1026
00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:04,840
racing. 
Everybody's a little bit 

1027
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:07,760
apprehensive and cautious. 
Nobody wants to go right on the 

1028
00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:09,480
limit this early in the long 
race. 

1029
00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:12,400
Andrew C in the press box. 
It must have been quite a weird 

1030
00:55:12,400 --> 00:55:15,360
feeling seeing these BTCC cars 
at night. 

1031
00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:18,240
Well, to be honest, I didn't 
spend a lot of time in the press

1032
00:55:18,240 --> 00:55:20,640
box. 
There were two reasons. 

1033
00:55:20,640 --> 00:55:24,600
Firstly, Andrew G will concur 
that Snetterton has one of the 

1034
00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:29,320
smallest, most cramped press 
boxes on the entire BTCC 

1035
00:55:29,320 --> 00:55:31,440
schedule. 
I think the only one that comes 

1036
00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:35,640
close is Croft these days. 
And in those days the Croft 

1037
00:55:35,640 --> 00:55:38,160
press box was a marquee and 
that's a totally different 

1038
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:40,760
story. 
But and of course it's even 

1039
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:43,600
worse these days because you've 
got so even the photographers 

1040
00:55:43,600 --> 00:55:46,040
take a load of laptops and stuff
with them and it's full of 

1041
00:55:46,040 --> 00:55:48,440
website jockeys trying to do 
their stuff. 

1042
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:53,040
But also in those days you 
didn't have to be in the press 

1043
00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:55,880
box, You didn't have to be ready
to post your copy on the website

1044
00:55:55,880 --> 00:55:58,640
the moment the race finished and
try and beat everyone else. 

1045
00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:03,880
And usually there weren't live 
TV monitors in the box either to

1046
00:56:04,080 --> 00:56:07,200
to follow the race on. 
So, and particularly for me at 

1047
00:56:07,200 --> 00:56:10,080
this stage, I was by that time 
writing features which I could 

1048
00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:12,920
write in the days following. 
So I spent rather more time 

1049
00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:16,640
getting out, getting the 
experience of cars racing in the

1050
00:56:16,640 --> 00:56:18,560
track. 
And I do remember standing by 

1051
00:56:18,560 --> 00:56:21,760
the trackside to see this 
surreal mix of blinding 

1052
00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:25,760
headlights, titanium sparks and 
coming past me lap after lap. 

1053
00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:29,880
And yes, that was seriously 
surreal, but seriously good too.

1054
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:35,360
Behind the Nissans and Hondas, 
it was carnage as Menu, Rydell, 

1055
00:56:35,360 --> 00:56:39,480
Miller and Plato were all locked
in a characteristically physical

1056
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:42,480
battle. 
After a tap from Plato coming 

1057
00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:45,240
out of the bomb hole, Ivan 
Miller pulled off one of the 

1058
00:56:45,240 --> 00:56:48,280
most outrageous saves ever seen 
in a touring car. 

1059
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:51,840
Just a blind of lights for Jason
Plato is still holding off Ivan 

1060
00:56:51,840 --> 00:56:53,560
Muller through the left hand of 
the right-hander. 

1061
00:56:53,960 --> 00:56:57,040
Muller sparks in his room, 
believable pullers duck down the

1062
00:56:57,120 --> 00:57:00,240
inside and Plano's tag did menu 
tries to find their way through.

1063
00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:04,200
It's not racing, it's Skittles. 
Unbelievably, if my wallet did 

1064
00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:06,600
not fall off, that is the save 
of the season. 

1065
00:57:06,600 --> 00:57:11,120
Degree of difficulty 9.5. 
Adam as a driver that what she 

1066
00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:14,640
think of, I mean we touched on 
maybe it was his ice racing 

1067
00:57:14,640 --> 00:57:18,320
skills that helped that one, but
how about that catch from the 

1068
00:57:18,320 --> 00:57:21,200
van? 
Yeah, there's a it's a big goal 

1069
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:24,440
moment, wasn't it? 
You don't get many as big as 

1070
00:57:24,440 --> 00:57:27,640
that about beauty of it eases in
a front wheel drive car. 

1071
00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:30,760
So, you know, for anyone that's 
driven a front wheel drive car 

1072
00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:33,040
in anger around the circuit, 
first thing you do is keep your 

1073
00:57:33,040 --> 00:57:36,000
foot to the floor absolutely 
hammering it. 

1074
00:57:37,640 --> 00:57:40,040
Yeah, yeah. 
I mean, it would mean nothing to

1075
00:57:40,040 --> 00:57:41,400
him. 
It'd been nothing to him at the 

1076
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:42,080
time. 
Just at the time, the 

1077
00:57:42,080 --> 00:57:43,640
adrenaline's going, you know 
what you got to do. 

1078
00:57:43,640 --> 00:57:46,840
And he'd probably thought, shit,
that was a that was a big one. 

1079
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:49,200
But then, like you said, just 
carried on and, you know, 

1080
00:57:49,200 --> 00:57:52,160
business as usual. 
But yeah, his Andros Trophy 

1081
00:57:52,800 --> 00:57:54,800
experience would have come in 
very handy there. 

1082
00:57:54,920 --> 00:57:58,680
More drama occurred when, on his
outlap, Thompson spun at the 

1083
00:57:58,680 --> 00:58:02,240
esses and continued with only 
three wheels on his accord. 

1084
00:58:02,760 --> 00:58:05,840
A loose wheel from his stop 
would come off and he would lose

1085
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:08,040
the lap. 
Returning to the pits and 

1086
00:58:08,040 --> 00:58:12,400
getting the problem sorted. 
Alex, I feel like this is 

1087
00:58:12,520 --> 00:58:14,800
normally it's the Patrick Watts 
sympathy corner. 

1088
00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:18,600
Today it's the James Thompson 
sympathy corner that we're 

1089
00:58:18,600 --> 00:58:21,800
headed to here. 
I mean, your luck's really not 

1090
00:58:21,800 --> 00:58:24,840
out when you go out onto the 
track and one of the wheels 

1091
00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:28,440
falls off. 
I mean, you'll excuse the cheesy

1092
00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:30,760
pun, but this was when the 
wheels really fell off 

1093
00:58:30,760 --> 00:58:34,400
Thompson's title a bit. 
Oh, Alex, you, you went there. 

1094
00:58:34,480 --> 00:58:35,000
You went. 
I did. 

1095
00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:40,640
I did, yeah. 
As Andrew said earlier, it 

1096
00:58:40,640 --> 00:58:43,760
wasn't, it wasn't looking so 
great for Thompson anyway. 

1097
00:58:43,800 --> 00:58:48,480
But this was, yeah, this was the
the real final nail in the 

1098
00:58:48,480 --> 00:58:52,120
coffin. 
It was just an awful, awful 

1099
00:58:52,120 --> 00:58:54,200
weekend. 
And it was to continue because 

1100
00:58:54,200 --> 00:58:57,320
for the for the next few races, 
by the time they got to knock 

1101
00:58:57,320 --> 00:59:01,080
it, I think it was four or five 
meetings and he scored like 10 

1102
00:59:01,080 --> 00:59:05,520
points. 
It was it was just an awful, 

1103
00:59:05,520 --> 00:59:10,160
awful mid season for Jimmy. 
And he alluded to it in in our 

1104
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:12,880
podcast with him a couple of 
episodes ago. 

1105
00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:16,960
Didn't he, you know, he he felt 
had a bit of luck, bit more luck

1106
00:59:16,960 --> 00:59:20,160
being on his side. 
He could have won 99, but a. 

1107
00:59:20,440 --> 00:59:23,280
Bit of luck, yeah, we only 
scored that amount of, but yeah,

1108
00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:25,040
I know. 
But that amount of points like 

1109
00:59:25,040 --> 00:59:27,800
you said over that many races. 
Yeah, it was. 

1110
00:59:28,120 --> 00:59:33,720
It was just failures, crashes, 
it was just bad, bad luck and I 

1111
00:59:33,720 --> 00:59:36,560
felt for the Honda guys on the 
pits as well because obviously 

1112
00:59:36,840 --> 00:59:39,760
that wouldn't have felt nice for
the pit crew because you know, 

1113
00:59:39,760 --> 00:59:42,680
he's come out the pits and his 
his real wheel was was loose. 

1114
00:59:42,680 --> 00:59:46,320
What I was impressed with 
actually was how quickly he was 

1115
00:59:46,320 --> 00:59:48,880
able to determine because first 
of all he called it as a 

1116
00:59:48,880 --> 00:59:51,720
puncture and then on the next 
radio call he's like no, no rear

1117
00:59:51,720 --> 00:59:53,160
wheels coming off rear wheels 
coming off. 

1118
00:59:53,840 --> 00:59:57,440
And that was quite impressive 
how he was able to that quickly 

1119
00:59:57,440 --> 00:59:59,640
determine it's not just a 
puncture and then. 

1120
01:00:00,200 --> 01:00:03,160
The next corner was 
right-hander, and of course that

1121
01:00:03,160 --> 01:00:04,920
was where it went round and 
round. 

1122
01:00:05,640 --> 01:00:09,160
You know in NASCAR these days 
that if a will falls off after a

1123
01:00:09,160 --> 01:00:14,440
pit stop, you get penalty and B 
several members of your team get

1124
01:00:14,440 --> 01:00:17,320
banned from the next meeting. 
Do they actually? 

1125
01:00:17,320 --> 01:00:19,200
That's a piece of useless. 
Information for you. 

1126
01:00:19,200 --> 01:00:21,440
Wow, that's, that's brutal. 
Yeah. 

1127
01:00:22,760 --> 01:00:26,280
Well, I cut the season ago. 
They went from 5:00 Will nuts or

1128
01:00:26,280 --> 01:00:30,040
lag nuts as they called it out, 
the one central one like most 

1129
01:00:30,040 --> 01:00:32,080
proper race. 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

1130
01:00:32,080 --> 01:00:34,240
And there were several 
incidences of these not being 

1131
01:00:34,240 --> 01:00:36,680
done up properly, the cars 
powering out the pits and off 

1132
01:00:36,680 --> 01:00:39,240
goes the wheel. 
That'll introduces his penalty. 

1133
01:00:39,240 --> 01:00:43,800
I think it's two lap penalty for
the driver and then two or three

1134
01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:48,160
of his team like the car chief 
who's a bit like them race 

1135
01:00:48,160 --> 01:00:50,640
engineer being back in the next 
meeting. 

1136
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:53,920
Wow, OK. 
But yeah, I did feel for the the

1137
01:00:53,920 --> 01:00:56,720
Honda pit crew because that 
wouldn't have been a nice thing.

1138
01:00:56,760 --> 01:00:58,720
Happening. 
No, no, no, not at all. 

1139
01:00:59,080 --> 01:01:01,120
Not with the abysmal look that 
he's been having already. 

1140
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:03,080
And then that's just like he 
said and all in his it's just 

1141
01:01:03,080 --> 01:01:05,520
like he well, they have got any 
worse. 

1142
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:06,760
That's what they felt at the 
time. 

1143
01:01:06,880 --> 01:01:09,000
Well, they. 
'D have spent a few hours trying

1144
01:01:09,000 --> 01:01:12,240
to unbend his Honda back into a 
normal Accord shape as well. 

1145
01:01:12,280 --> 01:01:17,240
So yeah, yeah, accordion. 
Try and make it look like a 

1146
01:01:17,280 --> 01:01:18,480
Honda again. 
I like it. 

1147
01:01:18,480 --> 01:01:20,560
I like it. 
I only jumped his teammate 

1148
01:01:20,560 --> 01:01:24,000
Leslie in the pits and would 
have taken the lead but for a 

1149
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:27,160
failed bonnet pin which popped 
up a lap later. 

1150
01:01:27,680 --> 01:01:31,440
With his vision impaired, Ayala 
had to pit for a second time and

1151
01:01:31,440 --> 01:01:35,120
came out back in 13th. 
Andrew cheered. 

1152
01:01:35,120 --> 01:01:38,520
Another pit stop mistake on the 
grid in that night race and it's

1153
01:01:38,520 --> 01:01:41,200
all falling into Leslie's lap 
for this meeting, isn't it? 

1154
01:01:41,800 --> 01:01:44,800
Very much he's He's qualified 
twice on the front row. 

1155
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:48,160
He's won the first race, now 
he's winning the second race. 

1156
01:01:49,160 --> 01:01:52,320
Definitely one of David Leslie's
strongest weekends ever. 

1157
01:01:52,320 --> 01:02:00,040
I think he'd not won a double 
touring car event, you know, 

1158
01:02:00,040 --> 01:02:03,760
winning both races previously 
and, and, and this is now a 

1159
01:02:03,760 --> 01:02:06,960
really good shot at that. 
With less than five laps to go 

1160
01:02:07,160 --> 01:02:11,040
and under 15 minutes before the 
midnight hour struck, Leslie's 

1161
01:02:11,040 --> 01:02:14,800
car developed a suspension 
issue, a result of him hammering

1162
01:02:14,800 --> 01:02:18,320
a curb at the chicane. 
Suddenly, smoke was coming from 

1163
01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:21,240
the right front reel. 
Something on the suspension 

1164
01:02:21,240 --> 01:02:25,000
collapsed robberly due to a 
heavy hit on the curb, explained

1165
01:02:25,000 --> 01:02:27,240
a grim faced Ray Malik after the
race. 

1166
01:02:28,160 --> 01:02:32,600
Adam, it was on the repo and the
grand Sander coverage of the 

1167
01:02:32,600 --> 01:02:35,080
race, it was a heavy hit on the 
kerb. 

1168
01:02:35,080 --> 01:02:37,400
It was. 
It was no wonder really that it 

1169
01:02:37,400 --> 01:02:40,800
caused the problem, and probably
lucky it didn't cause a bigger 

1170
01:02:40,800 --> 01:02:43,240
problem for for Leslie. 
That's it. 

1171
01:02:43,240 --> 01:02:45,640
And I think it just shows you 
how hard the hit was because you

1172
01:02:45,640 --> 01:02:47,640
think it's all in car racing 
generally and it's still the 

1173
01:02:47,640 --> 01:02:51,120
same now where you're always 
going over kerbs and you know, 

1174
01:02:51,120 --> 01:02:53,280
we'll take a bit of grass and a 
bit of mud with us at the same 

1175
01:02:53,280 --> 01:02:55,320
time. 
So they they're designed to take

1176
01:02:55,320 --> 01:02:58,080
hammering all the time. 
But I think it just you probably

1177
01:02:58,080 --> 01:03:01,160
appreciate just how hard the hit
was because for it to break the 

1178
01:03:01,160 --> 01:03:04,720
way it did and and you know, all
of a sudden he's out the race. 

1179
01:03:04,720 --> 01:03:07,920
It just shows you just, you 
know, whether it just be that 

1180
01:03:07,920 --> 01:03:10,160
the angle that he hit it or 
whatever, you know, he's been 

1181
01:03:10,160 --> 01:03:13,160
done lap after lap after lap, 
but then all of a sudden gives 

1182
01:03:13,160 --> 01:03:16,600
it a right good smack. 
And yeah, there's something 

1183
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:20,280
that's designed to take a 
regular punishment. 

1184
01:03:21,080 --> 01:03:23,680
I think it, yeah, just shows you
how hard it was hit. 

1185
01:03:24,280 --> 01:03:30,640
It I noticed when I was watching
back the this this footage, it 

1186
01:03:30,640 --> 01:03:33,960
was such a hard hit that if you 
look at the on call on board 

1187
01:03:33,960 --> 01:03:39,200
camera, it actually moves down 
slightly as, as the car lands. 

1188
01:03:39,200 --> 01:03:42,920
So that sort of shows what how 
hard the hit was on the landing 

1189
01:03:42,920 --> 01:03:45,360
from the, the, the, the from the
curb. 

1190
01:03:46,200 --> 01:03:49,520
So yeah, the the IT wasn't, it 
wasn't a slight tap. 

1191
01:03:50,280 --> 01:03:53,520
The jubilant Peter Cox took the 
lead as they went down the back 

1192
01:03:53,520 --> 01:03:56,600
straight for the penultimate 
time, which allowed him to take 

1193
01:03:56,600 --> 01:04:00,440
an overdue and unexpected 
victory on what was a difficult 

1194
01:04:00,440 --> 01:04:03,240
weekend for Honda. 
But back at the front, it's 

1195
01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:06,360
Peter Cox, the last two corners.
And Peter Cox in the Honda is 

1196
01:04:06,360 --> 01:04:08,880
poised to win his first touring 
car race. 

1197
01:04:09,040 --> 01:04:11,560
And make history by being the 
first judgement to win the 

1198
01:04:11,560 --> 01:04:17,400
British Touring Car run come. 
On That's been a long time. 

1199
01:04:17,400 --> 01:04:19,520
Man. 
Well done. 

1200
01:04:20,160 --> 01:04:22,440
Yeah it was a long time but it 
was worth the wait mate. 

1201
01:04:22,480 --> 01:04:25,800
Great drive from Peter Cox. 
He's won many races abroad but 

1202
01:04:25,800 --> 01:04:28,000
has never bagged a PTCC win 
before. 

1203
01:04:28,560 --> 01:04:31,920
I saw a lot of smoking ahead and
didn't realise it was his car 

1204
01:04:31,920 --> 01:04:35,080
being the Dutchman. 
Then when I did find out I was 

1205
01:04:35,080 --> 01:04:38,840
very happy he tried to defend a 
bet but I knew he wanted the 

1206
01:04:38,840 --> 01:04:41,680
points. 
Andrew C. 

1207
01:04:41,920 --> 01:04:45,000
Peter Cox is a bit of an enigma,
especially in the BCCC. 

1208
01:04:45,000 --> 01:04:47,520
Wasn't he a clearly fast and 
talented driver? 

1209
01:04:47,520 --> 01:04:50,560
But especially on British 
shores, it never seemed to fully

1210
01:04:50,560 --> 01:04:53,320
come together for him, did it? 
Yeah, I've never really been 

1211
01:04:53,320 --> 01:04:55,720
able to put my finger on why it 
never really worked for him in 

1212
01:04:55,720 --> 01:05:00,400
the BTCC. 
I first saw him in 95 when I 

1213
01:05:00,400 --> 01:05:04,400
went to a couple of rounds of 
the German STW Cup, and I went 

1214
01:05:04,400 --> 01:05:07,600
to a couple more the following 
two seasons and at that time the

1215
01:05:07,600 --> 01:05:11,600
STW Cup was every bit as 
competitive as the BTCC. 

1216
01:05:11,600 --> 01:05:15,560
Huge fields, huge manufacturers 
and in 95 he was second in the 

1217
01:05:15,560 --> 01:05:19,720
championship over there. 
You wonder if he was a man that 

1218
01:05:19,720 --> 01:05:21,720
was better in rear wheel drive 
cars. 

1219
01:05:21,720 --> 01:05:26,520
But then in 2000 when he was 
basically a lonely 13th in what 

1220
01:05:26,520 --> 01:05:31,200
was a less competitive BTCC, he 
was also second in the European 

1221
01:05:31,200 --> 01:05:34,840
Touring Car Championship, 
basically in the same car. 

1222
01:05:35,480 --> 01:05:41,000
So I don't know, perhaps perhaps
it was he one of those who just 

1223
01:05:41,240 --> 01:05:45,360
didn't gel with the somewhat 
aggressive nature of typical 

1224
01:05:45,360 --> 01:05:49,880
BTCC race. 
He was quick because he did a 

1225
01:05:49,880 --> 01:05:53,240
few races for BMW in the back 
end of 96 have to be in their 

1226
01:05:53,240 --> 01:05:55,840
test driver. 
And obviously there's that 

1227
01:05:56,680 --> 01:06:03,080
incident with Menu that where he
he he tries Rivalia tries to 

1228
01:06:03,080 --> 01:06:05,680
block him and Cox nearly grabs 
the race win. 

1229
01:06:05,680 --> 01:06:09,600
But he had the record at Brands,
so he's clearly quick. 

1230
01:06:09,600 --> 01:06:12,080
But yeah, just never seemed to. 
Well that was in rear would 

1231
01:06:12,080 --> 01:06:14,000
drive cars so you didn't. 
Yeah, of course. 

1232
01:06:14,040 --> 01:06:15,760
Yeah. 
Drive not sued him, but as I 

1233
01:06:15,760 --> 01:06:18,800
say, you know, he certainly made
the Honda work in Europe. 

1234
01:06:20,560 --> 01:06:23,440
And he had a very long GT racing
career after Turin cars, didn't 

1235
01:06:23,440 --> 01:06:24,040
he? 
Where he? 

1236
01:06:24,800 --> 01:06:27,600
I think he was racing a 
Lamborghini for a long time. 

1237
01:06:27,720 --> 01:06:28,520
Yeah, he was. 
Yeah. 

1238
01:06:29,040 --> 01:06:31,480
Yeah, but yeah, clearly a quick 
guy. 

1239
01:06:31,480 --> 01:06:35,440
But you're right. 
Andre just never seemed to come 

1240
01:06:35,440 --> 01:06:37,320
together. 
And he was and he could be quite

1241
01:06:37,320 --> 01:06:41,160
bad tempered as well, very 
happy, never seemed, never 

1242
01:06:41,160 --> 01:06:44,840
seemed very content. 
And you know, that was 

1243
01:06:44,840 --> 01:06:47,640
definitely I worked with some 
Dutch people and they can be a 

1244
01:06:47,640 --> 01:06:51,480
bit like that. 
But he was definitely, he was 

1245
01:06:51,480 --> 01:06:53,840
definitely a, you know, blast 
half full kind of guy. 

1246
01:06:53,840 --> 01:06:57,120
But. 
What a result for Honda, though,

1247
01:06:57,120 --> 01:07:00,200
would like talk about needing it
with the misfortunes that Tomo 

1248
01:07:00,200 --> 01:07:04,120
had had and the lack of points, 
like, you know, the misfortune 

1249
01:07:04,280 --> 01:07:06,240
and everything that had gone 
wrong with him over the over the

1250
01:07:06,240 --> 01:07:08,720
races and obviously that race 
that was snetzing that we're 

1251
01:07:08,720 --> 01:07:10,600
talking about now. 
But for them to have a victory, 

1252
01:07:10,600 --> 01:07:15,440
I mean, bloody hell. 
Yeah, there's, there's, I think 

1253
01:07:15,600 --> 01:07:19,480
just before he passes Leslie, 
there's a clip where his pit 

1254
01:07:19,480 --> 01:07:22,400
board guy is hanging out the pit
board and you can really see 

1255
01:07:22,400 --> 01:07:26,280
he's like, come on, come on. 
And you can see the the, the, 

1256
01:07:26,800 --> 01:07:31,080
the, yeah, the real, real desire
for him to want to win that, win

1257
01:07:31,080 --> 01:07:34,080
that race it Yeah. 
It just shows how much he meant 

1258
01:07:34,080 --> 01:07:35,800
to them. 
Whilst the fans enjoyed the 

1259
01:07:35,800 --> 01:07:39,560
fireworks in the sky, there were
also fireworks at the post race 

1260
01:07:39,560 --> 01:07:43,360
press conference as Peter Cox 
shot a Barber of Van Miller who 

1261
01:07:43,360 --> 01:07:46,920
had finished third in the second
race by suggesting that the lead

1262
01:07:46,920 --> 01:07:49,680
battle was clean because he 
wasn't involved in it. 

1263
01:07:50,720 --> 01:07:53,280
This led to the Frenchman 
swearing at him and suggested 

1264
01:07:53,280 --> 01:07:56,680
that he wasn't as intelligent as
his team mate Thompson. 

1265
01:07:57,840 --> 01:08:01,280
Everyone at the front race of 
respect, but if some people 

1266
01:08:01,400 --> 01:08:04,080
looking at Mueller had been 
involved it would have been 

1267
01:08:04,080 --> 01:08:05,880
nasty. 
Cox said in the press 

1268
01:08:05,880 --> 01:08:08,920
conference. 
Mueller interrupted Cox in 

1269
01:08:08,920 --> 01:08:12,120
return by twice swearing at him 
hitting back by talking about 

1270
01:08:12,120 --> 01:08:14,360
his collision with Thompson in 
the Sprint race. 

1271
01:08:14,920 --> 01:08:17,080
I'm very sorry that it was James
that I hit. 

1272
01:08:17,600 --> 01:08:19,600
If it was Cox then I wouldn't 
have cared. 

1273
01:08:19,920 --> 01:08:21,920
I've spoken with James and it is
OK. 

1274
01:08:22,240 --> 01:08:25,240
You can do that with him because
he is intelligent. 

1275
01:08:27,000 --> 01:08:31,040
Alex, That's even by Van Miller.
Sanders quite an extraordinary 

1276
01:08:31,200 --> 01:08:34,080
out first in the first race 
press conference, isn't it? 

1277
01:08:34,479 --> 01:08:37,479
Yeah. 
So he certainly mellowed over 

1278
01:08:37,479 --> 01:08:38,160
the years. 
Didn't he? 

1279
01:08:38,640 --> 01:08:41,720
Yeah, isn't it? 
I just, yeah. 

1280
01:08:41,800 --> 01:08:46,080
I mean I'm trying to think of a 
similar incident in motorsport. 

1281
01:08:47,359 --> 01:08:51,760
Certainly nothing I can think of
like that in BTCC apart from 

1282
01:08:51,760 --> 01:08:57,160
maybe menu hitting my values 
Bonnie play. 7 nail. 

1283
01:08:57,479 --> 01:09:00,600
Play 2A Kneel. 
But yeah, read and write down. 

1284
01:09:00,640 --> 01:09:02,920
I mean, there were there were 
certain flash points. 

1285
01:09:02,920 --> 01:09:07,040
But when it's all calmed down a 
bit and they're in the press 

1286
01:09:07,040 --> 01:09:08,479
conference, you think? 
Right, OK, here we go. 

1287
01:09:08,479 --> 01:09:13,279
But no, it's, I mean, Andrew, I 
guess you were there. 

1288
01:09:14,240 --> 01:09:15,399
Well, maybe both of you were 
there. 

1289
01:09:15,399 --> 01:09:20,399
I don't know, you know, was it 
as bad as it sounded? 

1290
01:09:20,560 --> 01:09:22,720
Did they have any previous prior
to? 

1291
01:09:22,720 --> 01:09:24,920
Yes, yes, yeah, they didn't. 
Yeah, then. 

1292
01:09:24,920 --> 01:09:28,120
So to me it's like they didn't 
like each other full stop. 

1293
01:09:28,359 --> 01:09:31,240
There's a prior to there. 
There's a few flash points in 98

1294
01:09:31,240 --> 01:09:37,080
with when Muller was in the Audi
with with Cox but yeah it 

1295
01:09:37,279 --> 01:09:40,240
extraordinary. 
Yeah, I would have been there. 

1296
01:09:40,760 --> 01:09:45,080
I must admit to, although this 
particular incident would have 

1297
01:09:45,080 --> 01:09:46,760
been memorable, I don't remember
it. 

1298
01:09:46,760 --> 01:09:51,720
But then again, I'm old. 
So such comments coming from 

1299
01:09:51,720 --> 01:09:55,240
Mueller don't surprise me as 
because I do remember he could 

1300
01:09:55,240 --> 01:09:57,760
be difficult to deal with at 
certain times. 

1301
01:09:58,760 --> 01:10:02,280
In most days, press conferences,
they could quite often throw up 

1302
01:10:02,280 --> 01:10:06,960
Nuggets like this, even though I
don't think by this time Mark 

1303
01:10:06,960 --> 01:10:09,920
Fogerty was still hosting them 
because back in the days with 

1304
01:10:09,920 --> 01:10:13,360
Mark Fogerty hosted them, as 
I've told you before, they were,

1305
01:10:13,800 --> 01:10:16,280
they were sometimes more 
entertaining than the races. 

1306
01:10:17,040 --> 01:10:19,360
I think it's a shame we don't 
have these press conferences 

1307
01:10:19,360 --> 01:10:24,360
today, but I also think that the
drivers are more TV savvy these 

1308
01:10:24,360 --> 01:10:28,720
days, sort of, you know, 
moulding into being better 

1309
01:10:28,720 --> 01:10:29,440
behaved. 
Absolutely. 

1310
01:10:31,200 --> 01:10:33,120
Unless you're in, unless you're 
in NASCAR and you don't give one

1311
01:10:33,120 --> 01:10:34,320
and you're just going. 
To punish, yeah. 

1312
01:10:34,360 --> 01:10:34,760
Yeah. 
Do you? 

1313
01:10:36,000 --> 01:10:38,000
Remember, did you go to that 
conference? 

1314
01:10:39,240 --> 01:10:43,040
No, I must have been. 
I don't know. 

1315
01:10:43,480 --> 01:10:45,000
In the queue to get. 
Out. 

1316
01:10:46,400 --> 01:10:47,480
Yeah. 
I didn't go to the press 

1317
01:10:47,480 --> 01:10:48,680
conference. 
I wish I had, yeah. 

1318
01:10:49,760 --> 01:10:51,560
Yeah. 
Yeah, we'd love to be there for 

1319
01:10:51,560 --> 01:10:54,600
that. 
But no, missed it. 

1320
01:10:55,000 --> 01:10:58,040
I've got the, there's a, there's
a small piece about it in auto 

1321
01:10:58,040 --> 01:11:01,440
sport for after the after the 
meeting with which I've got here

1322
01:11:01,440 --> 01:11:03,160
now. 
And there's a wonderful quote 

1323
01:11:03,160 --> 01:11:06,600
from Alan Gow who says I didn't 
hear it, but I'm not too worried

1324
01:11:06,600 --> 01:11:08,240
about swear words to an 
Australian. 

1325
01:11:08,240 --> 01:11:11,760
They're second nature anyway. 
A bit of banter is better than 

1326
01:11:11,760 --> 01:11:14,360
some of the boring corporate 
speak they come up with anyway. 

1327
01:11:15,600 --> 01:11:19,560
I thought I quite like that. 
Yeah, I quite like that from 

1328
01:11:19,560 --> 01:11:23,200
Gao, David. 
Leslie lesnetted him by closing 

1329
01:11:23,200 --> 01:11:26,680
the points gap between him and 
teammate Lauren Aiello to 12 

1330
01:11:26,680 --> 01:11:29,480
points. 
It was very much game on going 

1331
01:11:29,480 --> 01:11:31,600
into the remaining rounds of the
season. 

1332
01:11:34,960 --> 01:11:37,800
And we're now at that time of 
the show where we head over to 

1333
01:11:37,800 --> 01:11:41,400
producer Dan for our question 
game to see if we've been paying

1334
01:11:41,400 --> 01:11:45,920
attention to the events of the 
1999 senester meeting. 

1335
01:11:46,200 --> 01:11:49,920
So Passover to Producer Dan now,
please let us know what your 

1336
01:11:49,920 --> 01:11:53,360
question for today is. 
Andrew G This is where us 

1337
01:11:53,360 --> 01:11:56,760
supposedly knowledgeable touring
card journalists get made to 

1338
01:11:56,760 --> 01:11:58,400
look idiots. 
Basically I. 

1339
01:11:59,440 --> 01:12:00,880
Was on the weekend off so 
that's. 

1340
01:12:03,800 --> 01:12:06,440
Well, hello everybody. 
Another great question lined up 

1341
01:12:06,440 --> 01:12:08,440
for you. 
Nothing like a bit of self 

1342
01:12:08,440 --> 01:12:12,320
praise there, Dan. 
You'll you'll like this one. 

1343
01:12:12,680 --> 01:12:18,760
OK, so in the BTC CS history, 
including this round, there have

1344
01:12:18,760 --> 01:12:23,600
been a total of five different 
night races over 1999, two 

1345
01:12:23,600 --> 01:12:29,080
thousand and 2001. 
There were three drivers who 

1346
01:12:29,080 --> 01:12:32,720
competed in all of those. 
I'll give you them that, Jason 

1347
01:12:32,720 --> 01:12:35,280
Plato, Evan Muller and James 
Thompson. 

1348
01:12:36,040 --> 01:12:39,440
Of those three drivers, which 
one of them has been the most 

1349
01:12:39,440 --> 01:12:46,000
successful over all of those? 
Oh, so, so Plato Thompson. 

1350
01:12:46,160 --> 01:12:49,760
Thompson and Muller Muller. 
Yeah, because I retired at the 

1351
01:12:49,760 --> 01:12:54,160
end of 2000 for the first time. 
Mueller. 

1352
01:12:54,440 --> 01:12:58,000
Well, there's. 
Yeah, I would say Mueller, but 

1353
01:12:58,280 --> 01:13:01,680
he had the more competitive 
package across the three years. 

1354
01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:03,200
Mueller. 
Mueller. 

1355
01:13:03,200 --> 01:13:07,120
No Mueller. 
In 2000 he got wiped out in the 

1356
01:13:07,120 --> 01:13:12,080
race. 
One with menu at the first 

1357
01:13:12,080 --> 01:13:17,600
corner and went flying through 
the the crops. 

1358
01:13:19,160 --> 01:13:21,280
Yeah. 
Oh, I don't know. 

1359
01:13:22,080 --> 01:13:24,360
Well, we've had Muller, we've 
had Muller from the guest and 

1360
01:13:24,360 --> 01:13:26,440
we've had Muller from one of the
presenters. 

1361
01:13:26,440 --> 01:13:28,760
Shall we take that as your 
answer, or do you wish to have 

1362
01:13:28,760 --> 01:13:30,920
another moment to think about? 
It No, no, no. 

1363
01:13:31,080 --> 01:13:32,040
Let me think. 
Do you? 

1364
01:13:32,400 --> 01:13:33,480
Think play do you Think play do 
you? 

1365
01:13:33,640 --> 01:13:38,360
Think this now JP, did JP win it
in I I'm going to go with Plato 

1366
01:13:38,520 --> 01:13:43,640
and I'll go with. 
The guests said Muller and the 

1367
01:13:43,640 --> 01:13:48,280
host said Plato and the host of 
right it is Jason Plato. 

1368
01:13:48,840 --> 01:13:52,160
Over the course of those in 
1999, none of them had 

1369
01:13:52,160 --> 01:13:54,120
particularly yet successful race
weekends. 

1370
01:13:54,120 --> 01:13:57,360
Obviously Muller with that 
podium, but Placer got 4th and a

1371
01:13:57,360 --> 01:13:59,760
6th, Thompson with a ninth and a
15th. 

1372
01:14:00,440 --> 01:14:02,840
Get to 2000 where things start 
changing. 

1373
01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:07,760
At Stetterton, Plato got the win
and 2nd place, Thompson got one 

1374
01:14:07,760 --> 01:14:09,920
third place and Nirvana got one 
fourth place. 

1375
01:14:10,520 --> 01:14:14,280
At Silverstone Plato got one 
second and then there was 1/3 

1376
01:14:14,280 --> 01:14:17,800
for Thompson. 
Plato then won in 2001 at 

1377
01:14:17,800 --> 01:14:21,920
Silverstone both of the races 
and there was second and third 

1378
01:14:21,960 --> 01:14:24,680
at the Snetterton round. 
One win a piece for Molly and 

1379
01:14:24,680 --> 01:14:27,280
Thompson. 
So with three wins, 3 second 

1380
01:14:27,280 --> 01:14:29,960
places and one third place, 
Plato is the person that got 

1381
01:14:29,960 --> 01:14:32,280
that. 
Well done JP. 

1382
01:14:32,880 --> 01:14:35,240
Yeah. 
OK, brilliant. 

1383
01:14:35,920 --> 01:14:37,120
No, it's a good question that 
Dan. 

1384
01:14:37,240 --> 01:14:38,720
Yeah. 
See. 

1385
01:14:42,320 --> 01:14:44,720
The British Touring Car 
Championships first of the night

1386
01:14:44,720 --> 01:14:49,320
race, with a roaring success of 
a crowd of over 30,000 watching 

1387
01:14:49,320 --> 01:14:53,000
the night's action play out. 
A repeat of the event in the 

1388
01:14:53,000 --> 01:14:55,960
following season's calendar was 
confirmed less than a week after

1389
01:14:55,960 --> 01:14:58,520
the meeting. 
The drivers loved it, the 

1390
01:14:58,520 --> 01:15:00,920
spectators loved it, and Toca 
loved it. 

1391
01:15:01,320 --> 01:15:04,840
So much so they'd introduce a 
second night race at the 

1392
01:15:04,840 --> 01:15:07,520
Silverstone finale for the 2000 
season. 

1393
01:15:08,680 --> 01:15:11,480
As always, we'd like to thank 
our guests for this evening, so 

1394
01:15:11,480 --> 01:15:14,480
Andrew Charman and Andrew Golby.
We thank you both for taking 

1395
01:15:14,480 --> 01:15:17,000
time to join us to look back at 
this event this evening. 

1396
01:15:17,240 --> 01:15:20,040
You're welcome, it was good fun.
Yeah, as you know, I totally 

1397
01:15:20,040 --> 01:15:24,480
enjoy these evenings freshing up
the grave matter or trying to 

1398
01:15:24,480 --> 01:15:28,280
rediscover the grave matter. 
It's hard, but yeah, more of the

1399
01:15:28,280 --> 01:15:31,040
same in future. 
And our thanks, as ever, go to 

1400
01:15:31,040 --> 01:15:32,600
you guys for listening to the 
show. 

1401
01:15:32,920 --> 01:15:35,480
And if you enjoyed today's 
episode, please make sure to 

1402
01:15:35,480 --> 01:15:39,040
give us a review, five star 
rating and subscribe to the 

1403
01:15:39,040 --> 01:15:42,160
podcast feed on your podcast app
of choice. 

1404
01:15:42,840 --> 01:15:45,400
You can also submit your 
questions to our panel for our 

1405
01:15:45,400 --> 01:15:47,840
season finale Q&A with Greg 
Haynes. 

1406
01:15:48,200 --> 01:15:50,880
So if you have a question or 
thought about the Super Touring 

1407
01:15:50,880 --> 01:15:54,360
era of touring car racing, don't
forget to e-mail them to us 

1408
01:15:54,360 --> 01:16:00,200
using POD at 1990 btcc.com. 
We've already had some great 

1409
01:16:00,200 --> 01:16:01,680
questions in for that, by the 
way. 

1410
01:16:01,680 --> 01:16:05,560
So keep them coming because, 
yeah, the more the merrier and 

1411
01:16:05,560 --> 01:16:09,520
the more outlandish, even 
better, the more what would have

1412
01:16:09,520 --> 01:16:12,080
happened if this had happened 
and what would have happened if 

1413
01:16:12,080 --> 01:16:13,280
that happened. 
It's brilliant. 

1414
01:16:14,840 --> 01:16:15,600
Absolutely. 
Yeah. 

1415
01:16:15,600 --> 01:16:17,920
Outlandish, I think would be a 
great thing. 

1416
01:16:17,960 --> 01:16:20,920
For that, yeah, yeah. 
Can I send them something? 

1417
01:16:21,320 --> 01:16:24,680
Absolutely. 
Absolutely. 

1418
01:16:25,080 --> 01:16:26,080
I'll have to come out this 
evening. 

1419
01:16:26,480 --> 01:16:28,080
Actually, no. 
I've got about four student 

1420
01:16:28,080 --> 01:16:28,960
names. 
I'll use one alone. 

1421
01:16:32,080 --> 01:16:34,960
You can also use that address to
send us a comment about today's 

1422
01:16:34,960 --> 01:16:38,480
episode, the podcast in general,
or if you had a question or 

1423
01:16:38,480 --> 01:16:42,800
suggestion for a future episode.
And in the meantime, we'll see 

1424
01:16:42,800 --> 01:16:44,240
you next week. 
Goodbye.