Stories from Super Touring Andy Rounds returned to
contention in the 1991 British Touring Car Championship with a
commanding performance at Round 8, winning both races in front
of the largest motor racing crowd in Britain that year
outside of the British Grand Prix.
The double victory marked Rouse's first wins of Toyota,
delivering both his team's maiden victory with the car and
the first front wheel drive wins of his career.
It also came at the inaugural doubleheader meeting introduced
for the 1991 season. Welcome to the latest episode of
Stories from Super Touring. I'm Levi Riley, and joining me
to look back at this eventful race meeting are the creator of
Stories from Super Touring, Alex Clark, motorsport photographer
Greg Denton, a motorsport historian Chris Phillips.
Gentlemen, how are we all? Yeah, Yeah, good.
Thank you. Yeah, I'm looking forward to, to
covering a race a bit earlier on, well, a lot earlier on in
the in the in the era because we often get told we don't do
enough of the earlier stuff. And honestly, we'd love to do
more, but the coverage of the earlier stuff is a lot is a lot
less. Hatchy.
Yeah, yeah. You know, so there's a lot less
coverage of the earlier stuff, you know, or for example, this
has got a four page spread in Autosport, which is great
because it was a double header. But some of the earlier race
reports can just be a page or two pages.
And the news, the build up news and and all that sort of stuff
is a little bit more sketchy. So it's harder to do them.
So when we've got a good one like this, Yeah, this has been
asked for for a while. So looking forward to doing this
one. Yeah, it's great to be here.
Yeah. Really looking forward to a
massive fan of the pod. So yeah, thanks for inviting me
along. And I'll lack of that as well.
I think I was obviously right. You know, 91 was the foundation
of Super Touring and it's where it all started.
So I think it's really great to talk about it in a bit more
detail because maybe people don't know it so much as what
what we do. So yeah, really looking forward
to the to going through the round.
And Chris, it's your first appearance on the podcast.
Sir, welcome. Thank you very much for joining
us. Let's first ask you about your
thoughts on Super Touring as a period.
Thanks so much. Yeah, fantastic to be on the
pod. I'm like I said earlier, I'm a
massive fan of the pod and just summarising, Super Touring for
me was an absolutely golden era, a real golden age of touring car
racing and everything that people wanted to see.
The old Group A rules had to be changed, the class structure had
to go. So there was relatable cars,
highly identical drivers, lots of come down from Formula One
and sports cars and international drivers.
And there's on top of that, there was some absolutely
fantastic, iconic racing. It was such a great era.
Loved it, loved every second of it.
And we'll stay with you, Chris, for our opening question on this
meeting. What first comes to mind when
you think back to this first of the doubleheader meetings in
1991? Well, as some a newbie on here,
can you give me, can I have two right.
So I'll I'll singly put them together.
I'll say the Melee and Mcleans and then Rouse's double win, his
first double win or his first win at all in a front wheel
drive Super Touring 2 litre car. And Greg, sorry, did you want a
bit more detail on that or no? That's fine.
Yeah, cool. Greg, coming to you next, what
jumps into your mind when you think about this meeting?
Yeah, I was going to say Chris is up to, I'm going to come up
with three actually. So I think first of all, it was
the first double header, something completely new,
something with no experience before.
Get the chance to see the cast twice, the massive crash up at
Maclean's. We'll talk about that later.
And I think from memory it was a bloody hot weekend as well.
I seem to remember getting very, very warm there.
So the weather, we talk about the weather a lot again.
It was another weather related meeting.
And and finally, coming to you, Alex, what are your memories of
the first double header in the series?
Does that mean I have to come up with four?
For me, this is one that I this is a race.
I wasn't, I wasn't actually, I didn't know about the British
Touring Car Championship at this time because I first went to a
race in 92, first watched a race in 92.
So this was before my time. So the first time I saw this
race would be on the Duke video review.
And obviously it's that crash, but the path of the crash that
always sticks in my mind. And, and I know it sticks.
It's been discussed on the socials this week when we've put
it out there is Jeff Allen's neck when he makes contact with
Nick Wales BMW and oh, especially when they put it in
slow MO and you just think how it.
Doesn't look real. Yeah, it was.
It looked. Yeah.
Violent is the word. Yeah, it's a shocker, wasn't it?
Yeah, it's, it was a he was a very lucky boy not to be.
I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure he woke up very sore on Monday
morning, but he was very lucky to not have any serious neck
injury with that. So yeah, that's my 1 memory that
always sticks in my mind. As ever, we asked our faithful
listeners what they thought of this race meeting on our social
media channels. And of course, most of you, as
we've already mentioned, will be remembering this race for that
awful pile up during the second race with Neil Simpson also
mentioning what you did, Alex, really, that he bets Jeff
Allen's neck was really hurting after that accident because it
was, as we'll get into, incredibly violent.
You might not have heard of him. Someone called John Cleland has
got in touch. I'm not sure.
He got in touch and said there was a big oil stick from Nick
Wells BMW and we all came around with no idea and bang as he put
it, pretty accurate. It's a fair, drawn assessment
that really isn't it. That must be summarised.
Russell Bradley, friend of the pod, he also got in touch to say
his first memory is that this is the first of the new double
header races. If we've mentioned a format he
loved. And I guess it's something that
we kind of take for granted that they were all double header
races, especially if we think later on in the period.
But in the early part of the period, it wasn't the standard
that you've got double headers every weekend, was it?
You know, this was even in 9293. Some of the meetings were just
just the one race on the Sunday. It was always, I mean, we'll
talk about it a bit later, but it was always in 92 and 93.
It was the three same events when it brands Knockhill and
Donnington, I think, I can't quite remember offhand.
And it was the same 3 for 92 and 93.
So yeah, even after this trial, it didn't, it didn't become the
norm until really until 1995, where it was every meeting was a
double header. So yeah.
It was, it was a proper turn the water to something new, wasn't
it? Something different.
And we'll, we'll get into the, the vagaries of the, of the, of
the system and the race weekend because it, you know, in some
ways it benefited race 1 drivers and benefited race 2 drivers
more laps, less points. It was just.
Yeah, an interesting trial and it was.
In the interesting trial. It was always something which,
if you look throughout the era, they were always quite keen to
throw a little spanner in and, you know, compulsory pit stops.
Yeah, yeah, you know, stuff like that.
Night races. Yeah.
So fair play. Yeah, it was, It was.
It was an interesting trial. Will Britain also got in touch
and he says he isn't sure how. Adam didn't have a serious
injury to his neck after that big shunt in the second race as
well. Yeah, it's pretty remarkable how
he got away with that. As we'll get on to coming into
the weekend, the talk and buzz was around the new double race
format that would be used for the first time.
Race one would be 25 laps in length and then after 10 10
minute time break for refuelling and repairs the cars would be
sent back out for the second race of the day.
Greg the championship trying a new race format for this
meeting. As someone who was at this race,
what did you think of it and what was the general mood and
feeling in the paddock and and the crowd leading up to the the
first time we had this double format?
Yeah, I think there's a lot of excitement.
You know normally you went to a race and you saw them.
If you went on Saturday you'd see them practise and qualify
and then you'd see you'd see one race.
This was now the chance to see them twice.
The 10 minute gap between the races was a bit of a step into
the unknown. What could they possibly do in
10 minutes? I don't think the drivers even
probably had time to go to the loop if they needed to.
But yeah, I think it was just an exciting new innovation to to
the to the championship and to British motorsport.
I think, you know, normally anything you went to Formula
One, Formula Three, it was one race meeting and that was your
lot. But to have two in the same day
and in a very intense period, I think, yeah, it was it was
great. And I think we were all excited
to see what would what would develop.
The other big story in the build up to this race meeting was the
news that Mitsubishi would be returning to the championship
with their new Gallant model which replaced the Lancer that
the team had started the season with, the John McGuire Racing
squad who run the Soul Works. Mitsubishi had missed the Lassie
meetings to fessel their new car Alex.
Were there big hopes for an improvement on what was a pretty
uncompetitive Lancer? Yes, there were hopes, but in
all honesty there was not much that you couldn't get much worse
than the Lancer. It was, you know, in fairness,
it looked fairly competitive at Snetterton comparatively.
So because it did finish 10th and scored a point and it
finished ahead of, you know, a few settled cars then should we
say? But The thing is this was it,
it, it, it was a works programme.
You know, don't get me wrong, it was a works programme, but it,
it didn't have the works funding that you would assume from
where, You know, as soon as someone says, oh, it's a works
programme, they go, OK, they're going to have, they're going to
be, they're going to be backed well by the manufacturer.
This was very, very much on a shoestring.
And it was also a single car. Very hard to develop a single
car in a championship like this, especially when you're up
against other manufacturers that are running two cars each.
It was also this, this car was also a complete shell just the
week before this race, which I think Hales alludes to later on
in this episode. So yeah, fair play to them to
get the car here and, and and running.
And luckily it didn't get totalled in in the in the big
shunt at at Mclean's in the second race, because that would
have been a disaster for for the brand new car.
But I thought it certainly looked better than the Lancer.
At least it looked more like a touring car.
But yeah, so the Mitsubishi works team, the great unknown of
the BTCC, very few people even know it happened.
But a good looking car, not particularly fast, but you know,
a fair effort from from a team that really had two, two hands
tied behind his back. Apparently the shell was.
I've read it somewhere that it was Pentia Rickler who was their
World Rally Championship star. It was his Rd car.
They didn't have anything else. They basically commanded.
That's what I've read. He commanded his Rd car, which
had been given by Mitsubishi, and they turned it into the into
the the race car. Wow.
I think I read. I think I read that as well.
Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.
The Lancer looked too small to be a touring car.
Yeah. And then the gallon, when you
saw that, was absolutely massive.
That was a big, old, big old car.
And I'm not sure that there was something not in the middle.
You know, they used to have the Starion the year before, which
obviously it wasn't possible to to use.
But yeah, the the gallon seemed to be a bit of a big old barge,
to be honest. Yeah.
Could you imagine being Mr Mitsubishi ring out penty
wrinkler and saying can you know, time to hand your car
back? Sorry about that.
Yeah. Wow.
I think just going back to 91, that's what I like about the
start. There was, there was still the
chance that you could try and bring in something new.
You know, Mitsubishi tried it with with the gland.
There was still privateers, you know, we talk a lot about
Peugeot in the BTCC, but there was actually a private here
called Andrew McKenzie that actually bought a 4/05 into this
year's championship. He.
Did, yeah. Yeah, he wasn't very successful,
but he at least he tried. You know, Dave Brody with his
Sapphire 4x4 thing, but you know, it was full of still
people trying to do things with cars.
Graham Davis with his Motor Build Rover, which used to blow
attention up after about two corners, but again, they tried.
There was still that chance that you could race.
Wasn't there a Belmont in there at the end of the season as
well? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There was a Belmont that ended up where it was totalled.
Wasn't it the last race? Yeah, yeah.
But you're right that that Rover there are 4 pictures of it.
Yes, yes. That exist as far as I'm aware.
I think it did as. Well, you took well.
Wow, OK. I got one of his engine before
it blew up. I've.
Not seen yours, but yes yeah, it's I think it I think the one
race it did actually start it lasted 3 laps yes yes, so but
yeah, I love the stories like that.
You know, the IT it, yeah, it was, it was at a time in the
championship where you could try something like that and maybe
get away with it. But.
I was going to say something similar.
You know, at the start of the year, the era there was people
were encouraged to come in. At the end of the era, it was
all about money, manufacturer backing, or if you're a
privateer, having something that was, yeah, that had already been
there and done it. You know, you wouldn't, you
wouldn't have had that bravado, so to speak.
So. Yeah, you, you look at Gareth
Howell who tried to build that model, built that model in 99,
you know, seconds. There are dozens of seconds off
the pace after spending something like quarter of a
million crazy. Time to practise was limited to
a single 45 minute session following an untimed drum
Saturday. When the times were settled,
John Cleland topped the sheets in the Vauxhall Cavalier.
McClelland had opted to gamble on a newly developed set of
Dunlop radial tyres, using them for the first time, and then
they immediately proved their worth in qualifying.
The Scots set his benchmark time on his first proper attempt,
completing just 4 bedding in laps, followed by a single
flying lap, before then returning to the garage to wait
and see if anyone could beat it. That's the first bit done, he
remarked, confident that his early lap might well be enough.
Steve Sopa was closest to Clement, just 71 hundredths
behind the Scott in his works BMW.
You only get one chance on these tyres and I wasn't quite there
with them this time, Sopa told Auto Sport after the session.
Championship leader Will Hoy was next, despite the fact that he
broke a gearbox on the Saturday morning.
Alongside Hoy was Andy Rouse in the Toyota.
Rouse's long run pace looked particularly strong, but I'm
looking for more in the race. Sandy, Chris.
The usual suspects of 1991 fit in that the top 2 rows of the
grid there at Dunnington, aren't they?
Oh, absolutely. It was like a who's who of
touring car legends that that that bonsai lap from John
Cleland stealing pole and then sieve soap and next to him and
then will Hoy the the you know, the championship championship
leader and then Andy on on 4th position on the on the grid and
all the all the ingredients of a great start to the of the racing
weekend. Yeah, absolutely.
Tim Harvey qualified fifth fastest and was broadly
satisfied with the balance of his car heading into the two
races. The balance of the cars good.
My tyres for the second leg felt better than those for the first,
so I'm looking for a solid run in race one and a win in race 2,
Said Harvey, already planning how to approach the double
header format. Greg, it's interesting to see
that the drivers were already thinking about how to go about
the new format sort of even before I guess the exploratory
phase, which was the races themselves.
Yeah, I think again was, we said it was a step into the unknown.
You know, I'm interested in these common there, that my
tyres were better for one race than the other, which maybe
shows that the tyre development was still not bringing
consistency. You didn't know exactly what you
were going to get. And yeah, I guess having known
what touring car racing was like, maybe some drivers were
going to be quite circumspecting race one to make sure they got a
good start for race 2. And so, yeah, I think it, as we
know it's it started to bring tactics into it rather than just
one bands like race where you, you just went for it to get the
result. You know, you started to see
maybe a bit of strategy coming into it and playing the longer
game, shall we say. Jeff Allen secured 6th place on
the grid. Although he felt there was a
little more time to be found. He lost valuable temps during
his quickest lap. After encountering traffic free,
the crane occurs. I lost about 0.2 or 0.3 seconds
on my best lap in the crane, the curves when I came across Will
who just stuffed the pits but it felt good.
Allum explained the second place driver in the championship had
opted to stick with the tried and tested Dunlop cross ply
tyres rather than the new radial tyres like teammate Cleland.
Gary Ailes and Jonathan Palmer shared the four throw after
setting identical lap times, with Ailes taking the inside
slot by the virtue of posting his time first.
Ailes was left frustrated, however, having been 0.39
seconds slower than Andy Rounds despite matching his pace during
Saturday's running. I think I had my old single seat
to head on, chucking it in and flat everywhere.
That just doesn't work in these cars.
I'll calm down for the race, said Gary, who had pulled his
elbow tendons during the session.
Chris, interesting tea rails as comments there.
There's still a lot to learn in in this form of racing at the
time for him. Oh, absolutely it was.
It's fascinating to hear that because he was fresh out of
Formula three, done many years of falling the three and and the
junior formula. So he was, he was still
relatively new to the, the Super Touring, the two litre formula.
And you have to remember that Andy's cars were all fitted
without power steering. So they, they took a, a lot of
physical effort to manhandle those, those cars.
And it was a a completely different approach to racing.
And, and Gary took a little bit of a while to, to, to adapt and
I'm sure those tendons were were saw for a while, a bit of
massage. She'll be all right.
Ibuprofen at the time, but as he proved he he quickly adapted
and. And he went on to greater
success in in superturion through the years.
Yeah, it was interesting to hear his comments when he came on the
pod, wasn't it that he, he himself said, you know, he was
struggling to get his head around.
And so many drivers have told us that they've come from single
seater backgrounds. They're so used to driving, you
know, wings and slicks and then suddenly they're put in a not
only a road car in their eyes, but it drives from the front
wheels. It's like.
And it had mudflaps. And it had.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so it's quite, it's
quite a change, isn't it? You know, and there's never more
than when Rydell said to us, you know, he went from a winter of
dreaming of Formula One to driving a Volvo estate four
months. Later, I have a huge amount of
admiration for for drivers like Gary that that can transition
between different formulas because from the outside looking
in, it looks relatively easy, but you know, they're they're
two, you know, 2 completely different beasts and to adapt in
the cut and thrust of the of two litre formula.
He was also on that, that that really weird sort of sort of
short term contract to make sure that he was up to speed, which,
you know, he successfully passed.
But yeah, to read that he was he was struggling physically was
wasn't the surprise, but also I'm I'm, you know, just feel of
admiration for drivers like Ricard, right, like Gary, you
know, many of the drivers did did transition across, didn't
they? So Ala menu, another another.
Yeah, you know, and, and then you look at, as you say, Gary's
career post 91, you know, he went out to Italy and did really
well out there. So with Peugeot.
So yeah, so he, he, he picked it up and and he and he and he got
a good career out of it, so he did.
Absolutely. Play to him.
He'd never go back to single seaters, as it turned out,
those, no, those tendons must have sorted themselves out.
And he was. He looked back fondly.
You know. Yeah, good man.
Ray Bell was next on the grid, although his weekend had been
far from straightforward. The BMW driver lost an engine
during Saturday's session and then suffered A gearbox selector
shaft failure in the timed run, limiting the laps he could
complete. Alongside him sat the steadily
improving Nissan Primera of Kifo Door.
Their positions meant the top 10 was evenly split between 5 front
wheel drive and five rear wheel drive cars, at least temporarily
quieting those who have been calling for heavier weight
penalties for the rear wheel drive runners.
Alex, the age-old touring car debate.
Front wheel drive, rear wheel drive.
It was raging on even then, wasn't it?
Yeah. And it will rage on As for as
long as they have different types of drive fighting against
each other, there will always be one argument against the other
one. You know 11 school of thought
fighting against the other one. And in the reality, reality of
it all, is that they've both got their pros and they've both got
their cons. Yeah, it's good to know that
even what we know 35 years ago they were still arguing about
exactly the same stuff they're arguing about, you know?
Yeah, Listen, the IT wasn't just the fact that the BMWs were
strong because their rear wheel drive BMW spent a year in what
was the two litre formula in 1990 in Class B.
They'd spent the year dominating that they already had perfectly
fettled race cars. Those M threes were perfect.
They were, they were so well maintained.
They were, they had a lot of experience of running on all the
circuits. They had a year on the likes of
Toyota and the likes of Ford and the likes of Nissan and the only
other team that had that with Vauxhall.
And is it a surprise that those are the two brands fighting up
the front? No, it wasn't.
That's exactly why it wasn't because one was rear wheel
drive, one was front wheel drive.
That's all it was. Yeah.
It's just a case of those BMWs are so well settled and so had
so much knowledge from the previous year that they were
going to be the favourites, they were going to be the quickest
and and Vauxhall not far behind because of the same for the same
reason. Yeah, even Vauxhall in 1990,
they weren't really sure what to do.
They tried a front wheel drive Cavalier, a rear wheel drive
Cavalier and I think they even tried a four wheel drive
Cavalier as well because they were really playing with what
actually is the right, right configuration to have.
So they were still a little bit behind BMW as well, I think.
Yeah, I think Berridge drove a rear and a four.
I think so, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, Chris Hodgetts was in the real real drive one in there
1990. Yeah.
And. David Coulthard.
Coulthard did the front wheel drive one because it's a funny
anecdote. I always, I always enjoy telling
it that he did the one race at Brands Hatch partly because of
his contract with Formula Vauxhall.
And then he went to race Formula Vauxhall at Spa, crashed and
broke his leg and he was quite pleased because I don't know if
I have to drive that Cavalier again.
And Marcus Oestreich drove it as well.
Row 6 was an all Ford affair. Andy Middlehurst's Grain Good
Racing Sierra narrowly edged Rob Gravitz track star Run Sapphire,
although the field remained tightly packed with all the Ford
runners within a second of John Clellon's pole time.
Middlehurst had missed much of the session due to a leak in the
fuel system, further limiting his chances to improve.
Gravette, meanwhile, felt he had extracted the maximum from his
car. It won't go any quicker, he
admitted before, and incompetently, but I'll be able
to run that sort of time consistently in the race.
I think it's worth mentioning the track Star Sapphire I think
was a bit of an enigma. It still is one of my favourite
liveried cars. I think it looked absolutely
fantastic. But the concepts of that car
there was there. I think it was a rally guy that
was the designer and they they thought it would be a really
good idea to put the gearbox in the boot because it gave better
weight distribution. And basically all it did is turn
it into a spinning top and the car would like rotate the
slightest of things. As we saw at Darlington.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I think it was such a shame
because they when they announced that that deal, it was going to
be a three car team. It's going to be Gravett, Mike
Smith and Sean Walker. And I think if they had have hit
the ground running, that would have been quite a formidable
team, you know, a three car team.
But yeah, as we know, we only ever saw one of them.
There were two built. The Smith Carl did get built but
never actually got to race. Then went off to Portugal and I
think they're now back in the country again trying to be
restored. But I I still love that car.
I think it looked fantastic. But it's a beautiful car.
Yeah, just didn't go very well. No better than the Gallant,
though. Yeah, but marginally.
Marginally, not a lot, but. I think in 1990 Ralph sports
team put out a Sapphire as well and that was raced by a whole
House of drivers getting from particularly.
Well, then that's right, yeah. Bob Berry drove that as well.
Jay Wheels had it at one point, didn't he?
Yeah, in 93. Yeah, he bought it.
Hodgetson Baum drove it in 1990. Then it disappeared and it
appeared again in 93 when Jim Wheels.
Jim Wheels, Sorry, Yeah. Jim Wheels and Snetterson raced
it, blew the engine up in practise so again, very few
pictures of it. I've got one I think.
And then he sold it to Bob Berridge, who then raced it for
the back end of the season. Whose famous moment was getting
in the way of Paul Radesitch at Brands Hatch when he was trying
to lap him? But in the 1990s season, I think
it was Bauman Hawaiian Tropic sponsorship.
That's right. Yeah, iconic Lamont type sports
car sponsorship came across. But yeah, again, it was another
great looking car, but not very competitive.
Lawrence Bristow lined up next on the grid after struggling
with an unexplained braking issue throughout the session.
Despite the problem, he remained reasonably satisfied with the
overall balance of the car. Alongside him on row 7 was Nick
Baird in the Tech Speed BM WM3. Baird felt that the car itself
was performing well, even if he suspected he might have been
pushing a little too hard. I think I'm overdriving it a
bit, but the car is good, he admitted.
Row 8 featured Nick Well and Frank Sitna.
Well was frustrated not to have qualified higher up the order,
while Sydney endured a particularly difficult session
as he chased an elusive handling problem that eventually resulted
in flat spotted tyres. Completing the grid were Ian
Forrest and Mark Hales. Forrest continued to compete
cheerfully on a budget that, as many in the paddock noted, would
scarcely cover the paddock bike bills of some of the larger
teams. Hales, meanwhile, was contended
with the inevitable teaming problems of the brand new
Mitsubishi Gallant, a car that had been little more than a
painted shell just 8 days earlier.
We shouldn't really be here, but a lot of effort has gone into
promoting this particular meeting and we wanted to support
it, Hales explained. All the effort from the
manufacturers, the RACMSASO and the Donington Park circuit
ultimately paid off of the event, drawing a crowd of more
than 30,000 spectators. Greg 30,000 spectators in the
later years of Super Touring wasn't really a headline crowd,
but in 91 that was a major draw. Was it really a sign of how big
the following of the championship was becoming, even
at this early stage of the era? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I think outside of F1 there would be no other championship
that would get such a grid. I didn't ever go to Group C race
Crystal, I know you did, but I don't think even knows when they
were standalone events would have got 30,000 people there.
So yeah, I think the television coverage and the knowledge of
what was happening with British touring cars, this was really
the first sign that it was beginning to build up to be
something quite special. The race day at Donington Park
arrived with a sense of genuine anticipation.
The innovative doubleheader format meant spectators for
ceased 2 BTCC races on the same afternoon, effectively doubling
the action. Chris.
There were a few people who thought that the short break of
just 10 minutes between the races might make the first race
a bit of a procession. Nobody wasn't saying to the risk
damage in the car then failing to start the second.
Do you think with the grid of drivers that we had on show that
was a possibility? I think there's a number of
factors in play really. As this was a a new feature for
the BTCC, drivers didn't know which way to play it, so there
was there. There probably was an element of
strategy going easy in the 1st place.
They did have a new set of tyres available for Race 2, so they
could rely on those. So they weren't, they weren't
looking after the the same set for the two races.
But as we as we'll chat about in a minute, that that element of
strategy probably went out the window and there was some pretty
hard racing and people falling by the wayside.
And there are lots of doors being rubbed, panel being
shared, paint being shared and it it was an absolutely
fascinating weekend. The two races were the three
starts. 2 races were absolutely amazing and and and served up a
real huge amount of talking points about the race.
It was Hoy from the 2nd row who got the best start, weaving
between Cleland and Sopa and trying to go round the outside
of the Cavalier Red Gate. The pair were side by side down
to the Craner Curves where Hoy tucked in behind, but Mcclain's
will dive past to take the lead and that proved only a temporary
reprieve for Cleland. At Mclean's, Hoy made his move,
stick diving paths to seize the lead with the slightest touch.
Behind them, Sofa was also on the attack, drawn alongside
Cleland along the straight before out breaking him into the
chicane to claim 2nd place Alex. Very differing fortunes for
Pulsar, Cleland and Hoyi there on that one.
Yeah, Will Hoy, proving why he was leading the championship
would start did well, you know, and and John, John seemed to be
struggling with these. You mentioned in in the
qualifying report that you you read out that Clement was trying
these new radial tyres and he was the only one in Vauxhall
doing it. Jeff Allen wasn't and basically
he was having trouble getting them race ready.
They were quite different to what he was used to and they
required obviously a very different preparation to to get
them race ready and he's struggled because of it.
So yeah, yeah, it's very unlike John to drop places at the
start. But yeah, it's always good
seeing John and and Will fighting though, because they're
always two guys that will give each other good bit of respect.
Cleland suddenly found themselves shuffled back as the
field streamed through behind, with Andy Rouse next in line,
followed by a Tim Harvey, Gary Ailes, Jeff Allum, Jonathan
Palmer and Ray Bell. At the start of lap 2, going up
to Rd Gate, Harvey and Ailes clashed before Allum also got
involved, firing Ailes off with his Toyota, ingesting gravel
into the engine and ruining it. Alan had also dropped to 9th as
a consequence. Greg, how long did you see that
one? Felt a little bit a little bit
clumsy interactive, didn't it? Yeah, I think it was a what's
become a bit of a standard Red Gate type incident.
Too many cars going into one bit that you either get fired off
onto the inside or fired off to the outside.
It won't be the first. It wasn't the last time that
we'd discussed such a such a manoeuvre with someone coming
off worse than the others. So yeah, I think a typical
Torlington Red Gate incident. Rouse soon got past Cleland and
started to chase down Sopa. On lap five he launched A
determined attack for 2nd place. The Toyota's impressive straight
line speed briefly carried him ahead of Sopa, but the BMW
driver refused to concede and held his ground on the run into
the chicane. Turning in alongside his rival,
Rouse was forced over the curbs at the first apex, allowing Sopa
to reclaim the position. A lap later, Rouse tried again,
this time making the move stick cleanly.
Recognising the situation, Sopa chose not to fight too hard and
allowed the Toyota through a four.
Atlantean will try to take each other off and come back at them
later. So for Explain Chris, was this
the strongest showing of the season so far for the Rouse
Toyota combination? Oh, absolutely.
I think well, they definitely had shown some pace earlier in
the season, you know, being knocked off by Jonathan Palmer
and at the start of the the first round and then making his
way up and and battling with Andy Middlehurst and then
securing A podium at at Snetterson.
But this this race was another step on and the and the
straights of Donnington really proved to the benefit of the of
the Toyota had a huge amount of of horsepower coming from the
the mighty Toyota engine. And as, as Steve said in the
middle in the break between the two races, we'll come to you
know, he just couldn't live with the speed of the Toyota and and
he quickly caught up with will as as well as soon soon
discussed, but also just going back to Gary Ayles.
He's also showing a lot of pace. I know he, he'd stretched some
tendons, but he was looking, you know, pretty racy at the start
of, of Race 1. So on the, you know, on the,
the, the potential for both the twitters to do well in that race
was was pretty strong. But unfortunately Gary got
knocked off into the gravel. Yeah.
I think in the commentary Murray mentioned it was Magic Ralph's
engineering touch coming and they also mentioned something
about new suspension for that weekend.
So I think there was a a number of things that maybe were on the
car that helped it. But as you said, Chris, the
engine speed and the power was like something else on the back
straight. Well, there's the the, the the
race before was the British GP support and the real drive cars
all dominated that. And it wasn't a particularly
strong weekend for the Toyotas on the Silverstone GP.
So Fast forward a couple of weeks and there'd been a huge
amount of work on the handling, you know, suspension as I
understand and, and, and, and Andy was probably getting his
head round front wheel drive. He'd never raced front wheel
drive for many, many years. And so this was everything
coming together And it was, like you said at the end, absolutely
brilliant. So you know, it was a perfect
cocktail. On lap 9 Wilho, you run into
trouble coming out of the chicane, missing a gear at a
crucial moment. I was having to snatch fur as I
ran up the curb there, which is tricky, Hoy explained.
The following lap brought more frustration as he missed the
same shift again, instantly erasing the small gap he had
managed to open up on Andy Rouse, letting the Toyota
through an int the lead. Meanwhile, Hoy's engine was
beginning to suffer and he started to slip rapidly down the
order. By lap 18 he had fallen back to
10th place up front, so you pick up the pressure on Rouse,
shadowing him closely but never quite close enough to mount a
serious challenge for the lead. Eventually, on lap 21, Holly
retired from the race having already dropped well out of the
points positions. And it's pretty bad.
Lot of football there, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was bizarre. It seemed to be the weekend of
everyone missing their gears because it happened to a fair
few people this weekend. But yeah, it's, it's funny,
isn't it? How you wouldn't even think
nowadays when you think of motorsport, towing, car racing,
you know, whatever the GTS, Formula One, it's all electronic
and it's all sequential. You know, you don't miss a gear.
You can't miss a gear. Whereas I love watching them,
you know, with their H pattern boxes into first into second,
you know, and it was. I don't know not not better, but
I, I enjoyed that side of the of the sport then.
And and it was actually RML that brought the sequential boxing in
in the Cavalier in 9293. That was soon adopted by every
single person obviously because it was a lot quicker.
So it eradicated these sorts of things.
But you can tell Will had messed up because as soon as he over
revved from missing that gear, there's a little orange LED
flashing on his dash that yeah, you can see in car when they go
to the in car footage. And.
And that's what you think. Oh yeah, I've done.
And the thing with this is you've got 10 minutes between
the two races. You can't change an engine in 10
minutes. If it's a major problem, we'll
probably talk about it later maybe.
But the whole thing of having 10 minutes between races is wild to
me. But yeah.
And and that's to me, that's where the the element of
strategy probably wasn't there. These guys are all races, right?
They want to win. So Will was trying as hard as he
could to, you know, lead the pack, win the race.
And he was trying to get away from, you know, Andy was it was
closing up on him and he missed. He missed again, like you say,
it's unthinkable these days how you'd miss a gear.
But back then with those sort of, I'd imagine sort of
agricultural sort of H pad and gearbox, you know, the, the the
the comeback was was, you know, you missed a gear.
That was it weekend over. And yeah, it was.
It was fascinating. Yeah, it's an engine gone, isn't
it? You know, Yeah.
Andy Rouse held firm to take the victory, crossing the line at
0.49 seconds ahead of the relentless Steve.
So you put a more substantial gap then opened up to John
Cleland, who is being closely pursued by Jonathan Palmer, Jeff
Allen and Ray Baum, who had briefly dropped back after
adjusting his break bias the wrong way, only to recover once
corrected with Andy Middlehurst complete.
In the top group further down the order, Lawrence Bristow ran
ahead of Rob Gravett, Keith Odour, Nick Well and Nick Baird,
while Ian Forrest and Mark Hills endured troubled afternoons,
finishing one and two laps down. Respectfully, Greg.
That felt like a tiny win for Andy and the Toyota package,
didn't it? Yeah, I think so.
As we said, you know, Andy was dominant in his RS500.
This was a completely new car, new front wheel drive.
Toyota would sort of new to the championship as well.
This was probably the first winner outside of the normal
recognised BMW Vauxhall. So you know, we've got a new
player in the park now and they were getting competitive and it
was it was fantastic to see. So yeah, I think really timely
and great for the championship. I'd totally echo that.
I think the the stranglehold by Vauxhall and BMW, as we talked
about earlier, was, was therefore to see.
So as the new kid on the block, if you like turning up and and
Andy's team being so used to rear wheel drive and then
adapting to front wheel drive was, it was fascinating,
absolutely fascinating and really good for the
championship. After 10 minutes of frantic
action in the pits, the cars and drivers lined up to go again in
the finishing order from Race 1. Chris, is this that the best
simplest way to sort out the grid for a double header?
Oh, I think so. This was a new idea for the
championship so that it seemed like the most logical thing to
do. And I think it also added an
element of spice. If you like the the winner of
race one becomes the haunted of race 2.
So they it was almost like a battle redrawn if you like, and
away we go again. So it was a really, really good
idea for them without any weight balance or or anything like that
that we would that we get used to these days.
Back then that just seemed like a most, you know, easy, common
sense way for the not only the championship to follow, but also
the public to follow as well. I think I just started twitching
at the the the mention of ballast and reverse grids and oh
picking. Balls through the ball.
That don't start, don't start me all that nonsense.
I I the the, the yeah, I mean, I listen, I know people are I'm
I'm going into victim LG mode now.
But yes, picking balls out of a a bingo ball, just what on earth
is the chat just. Just make it simple for the the
followers. Yeah, I think if I could just
drop in just from the TV courage as well.
There's a there's a classic Murray ISM that's that that was
played on the on the TV carriage.
So Andy's walking through the pit garriage and he says, oh
look, he's going off to get a breathe and have a drink, but he
doesn't look best pleased. It looks like you've given him a
fiver and taken £10 back. You know, that's, that's like
I've never used them, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. But yeah, yeah.
I don't want to dunk on the championship currently, but
yeah, just reverse grids, balls in a bowl, weight penalties and
all the all the eclectic mix of things that they do these days.
Yeah, just too much, too much. It's, it's too artificial now,
yeah. But I think that's my point.
It was a really hot day as well. And I think as you said, the
drivers are professional drivers.
But fitness, I'm not sure that going to the gym on a regular
thing was probably at the top of their agenda at that time.
And no sports nutrition and stuff about how it's sort of
changing. Andy looked rather hot and hot
and bothered, so I'm sure some of them probably were also
struggling physically to think, my God, I've got to go and do
this again in 10 minutes. Yeah.
So I think that's another dimension that they probably
hadn't even considered. I was just going to drive the
car in. Maybe the only one that may have
been ready for that was SOPA, because I think at the DTM at
that time, they did already multiple races in the weekend.
Maybe out of all of them, he was the best suited to deal with it.
It was a weird concoction as well.
It was doubled the amount of races.
So two race, 2 races, you only get half points for each.
Yeah, it was, it was. There's a, there's a phrase for
it, but it was it, you know, when you look back on it now,
you think wow, they're they're racing for 50 laps for, for 24
points and it's wow. I don't know if you remember as
well, there was a pickup truck that went up and down the start
line with a big scoring board on it that did the countdown
because the teams you know ain't got a clue where it all started
when the terminus start and stop.
So this pickup truck was just like driving up and down the
start line straight. With the with the proper old
school yellow and black numbers. Yeah, that's it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Gosh. And Alex, it is just mad to
think, isn't it? The teams only had 10 minutes to
work on their cars and then the drivers had to jump back in and
do the second race like it was nothing.
Yeah. I mean, as Greg just mentioned,
the driver fitness came into it, damage came into it, you know,
because all body work had to be secured and the cars had to look
like the road going version at the start of every race.
So you couldn't you couldn't start with bumpers missing or,
you know, that that sort of thing that you, you if you had a
damaged ring, you had to replace it.
You couldn't just take it off and we'll start without it or
whatever. Do you know what I mean?
So yeah, the idea now that you do and it and it stayed until
1995 because in 94 it was the 10 minute period as well.
So this this was a regular feature until the middle of the
of the era. So yeah, it's it's wild to think
of it now. And then you think later on in
the era. Can you imagine they'd have done
it? Like, for example, that's just
off the top of my head, Donnington 98 when Nigel went in
the tyre in race one. He's not starting race 2 because
we're sorry, racing needed those good two, 2 1/2 three hours
between the races to fix the car.
So maybe it would have curbed the amount of damage that the
the the the championship had during the middle of the era.
But no, it's yeah, if you would suggest that now nobody, nobody
would go with it. It's it's a funny 1, isn't it?
It's certainly something new, a novel step into the unknown and
and it was like a bit of risk by the organisers, you know, and
suck it and see and see how we go on.
And like you said that when it lasted for a good few seasons,
so it probably the championship outgrew how relevant that was.
You know, that after that the teams needed more time, the cars
were more complicated and it wasn't just a case of bolting on
new tyres, refuelling and and getting the tank tape out.
It was. It was so much more than that,
wasn't it? Yeah, you're right.
I think even if there was a perfectly undamaged car, it
would take more than 10 minutes towards the end of the era to
get it ready for the second race.
Yeah, yeah. Rouse LED race 2 from pole
position into Redgate, followed by Cleland, Super and Alan who'd
survived a wallop from Palmer on the run up to the first corner.
As the field came around to complete the opening lap, John
Cleland and Andy Rouse was side by side with Rouse holding the
inside line. Despite this, Cleland produced a
superb move under breaking to outbreak the Toyota and snatch
the lead. This time Cleland had his ties
fully up to temperature and immediately looked on the pace.
By contrast Rouse appeared less settled than he had earlier in
race one and a lap 2 super dive past him for 2nd place at the
old hairpin. At the end of lap 2 the orders
stood Cleland, Super Rouse, Alan Belm, Palmer, Bristow and
Harvey, the Lasser having charged from the back of the
grid, followed by Gravett, Middlehurst, a Door, Baird Wail
and Hails Greg. That's quite a breathtaking
start to the second race. Moves all over the shot weren't
there. Yeah, and I think we're after
the first race, it actually got a bit spread out and you sort of
watch the coverage back again. You thought, oh, actually the
the cars were a lot more spread apart.
They weren't so competitive. The pack for when you watch the
second race and at the start it's like absolutely incredible.
There was all of these cars and then they want to fall together.
So it like completely closed up again.
So maybe the maybe the grid with the the results from race one,
it mixed it up a little bit, some faster cars coming through.
But yeah, it was, it was quite a, quite a first couple of laps
to be honest. On lap free, Sopa made his move
for the lead, diving down the inside at the chicane, but
Cleland firmly shut the door. In the brief hesitation that
followed, Round seized the opportunity to reclaim second
place at Redgate. Then came the decisive moment.
Approaching the old hairpin, Cleland accidentally selected
second gear instead of 4th, instantly costing him momentum.
In a matter of seconds he tumbled back to 5th place,
dropping behind the charging rainbow, at the moment the
fastest man on the circuit along with Alan, whilst Palmer,
Bristow and Harvey closed up tightly behind in a rapidly
forming train. Chris, this vast amount of
action going on, do you think this is kind of response to that
the double header format drivers not really having to be as
careful this race, thinking about not thinking about the
race to come? Oh, you're absolutely right.
The shackles are off. These guys are going to toe to
toe. There's a win up for grabs and
you've got some absolute pioneers, some legends of BTCC
and well touring car racing going toe to toe and and
importance of the race in front of a pack crowd.
Good weather. They know that there's a race to
be won and you know you got Cleland, Steve Sopa, you sadly
will help always drop to the race.
Andy Rouse, Jeff Allen, Tim Harvey steaming up through the
pack and it got people out their seats.
This is what people wanted to see.
Fantastic. So it was seen back in the lead
of the race having outbreak rounds into the old hairpin.
Next time around, Bell's race took a dramatic turn when his
gear leavers snapped at Red Gate.
Suddenly left with only a short jagged stump to work with, Bell
not only dropped back to 8th place but also suffered a badly
cut hand as he tried to continue.
Alex, that's a really nasty incident for Bell.
ME was lightning quick at this point in the race.
Yeah, it's a shame because that's quite an unusual
incident, isn't it? Normally your gear stick is
pretty, is pretty sturdy. Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, it's and and and fricked, of course, such a a
nasty injury to his to his hand as well, but not surprising.
Ray Balm was a very, very quick driver.
Is a very was a very quick driver in the era he was.
He was very quick in GTS with Gordon Spice in the 80s, moved
to touring cars in the 90s. He did well in 91 actually
couple of podiums, finished fifth in the championship.
He's a good peddler and it was good to see him up front and and
racing with the, the, the, the pack then you know, because it
didn't always transpire that he would be in the battles for, for
victory or, or for the podium. So yeah, good to see Ray Balm up
the front and yeah, just a nasty, horrible incident with
his, with his gear stick and his hand.
Nasty. On lap 7, the drama continued
when Super slowed dramatically on the exit of the chicane.
Rounds running close behind had no chance to avoid sight contact
before pulling out and sweeping past to take the lead.
Super sudden loss of pace was caused by a fuel pump circuit
breaker that had tripped as he scrambled to push it back in
place. He was helpless as the rest of
the field stream passed Greg. An unfortunate blow for Sopa
there he was looking strong, and it was a another absolutely
bizarre way for someone to lose places, wasn't it?
Yeah, I think yeah, we we sort of all expected so for the big
superstar who's just going to dominate everything.
And as you said already, our BMW sort of bought a very well honed
package to the championship and, and, and in this year.
But some silly things were happening that, you know, fuel
pumps, breaker tripping, You'd have thought that'd have been
ironed out long ago. But yeah, some strange and
unusual things befitted the Pro Drive cars.
And it wasn't the first time that he had technical issues
during that season. Yeah.
Meanwhile, at Mclean's Wales, race came to an abrupt end when
his engine seized. The stricken car dumped the
large quantity of oil onto the circuit, sending whales spinning
helplessly into the sand trap. Teammate Baird very nearly
collected him in the aftermath, but his wild slide eventually
carried him across to the grass on the inside of the circuit.
Climbing out to inspect the damage, Well lifted the bonnet
only to look up and see Hales, his brand new Mitsubishi gallon,
heading directly towards him while wisely died for cover.
Chris, that could have been really nasty, couldn't it?
That was a really lucky escape for Nick Whale.
There was. Oh, 100% yeah.
It could have been so much worse.
You know, there was, it was, it dumped all his oil and he was,
it was backwards in the, in the, in the gravel.
And all of a sudden he sees a clank coming towards him.
And it could have been really, really serious and it could have
been a really darker weekend. It was.
It was so lucky. Moments later the leading pack
arrived and chaos erupted. Rouse had a huge movement on the
oil, sliding across the grass and kicking up a cloud of dust.
Alan, tucked in right behind them, had nowhere to go and
pounced straight into the stranded BMW M3, instantly
turning both cars into racks. Cleland also slid off and was
set to spear straight into Wales car, but the contact with Alan
managed to move it just in time, leaving Cleland to make only a
glance in contact. Palmer threaded his way through
the carnage unscathed, whilst Harvey initially thought he had
done the same until Bristow arrived on the scene gathering
up his own momentum. Gathering up his own moment,
Bristow clipped Harvey and tipped the fall into a spin.
Sorry, I've just realised my mistake.
It's the BMW, isn't it? Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry.
Gathering up his own moment, Bristow clipped Harvey and
tipped the BMW even to a spin. Belm completed the quintet in
the sun trap, just brushing them as a fishy as he came to arrest.
With cars scattered everywhere, the red flag was shown
immediately and both the healthy and the wounded made their way
back to assemble on the grid. Well guys, that was that was a
pretty big one, I think it's fair to say.
What? What did you all make of that
fairly chaotic incident? Well, lucky in a way.
I mean, as Chris just mentioned there, Nick Whale was lucky
because he could easily have been killed.
And you look at that now and you think, my gosh, hasn't, hasn't,
hasn't this hasn't the standards.
Come on. Rightly so.
Because, yeah, that was scary to watch and makes me wince even
watching it now, watching it back recently to obviously when
we were when we knew we were doing this episode, in this
meeting, Yeah, it made me wince. At the time, I didn't, I didn't
like it. So yeah, that that was lucky.
Alan was very unlucky, but then lucky in many other ways because
he wasn't seriously injured. And as we've already discussed
at the top of the show, his neck.
I, I mean, just. Yeah.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, try and have a look.
It's there's an awful incident. Yeah, you feel for Nick Whale,
who's, well, Nick Whales car was written off, destroyed, as was
Alan's Cavalier. The rest got away with it a
little bit because there was only slight contact.
So lucky in many ways, but also big, big and a big example of
what motorsport needed to do on the safety front.
When you compare it to now, you know, the, the, the, yeah.
And, and, and I know, we'll, I know we'll get to it at one
point. But Jeff Allen was very, very
angry. Yeah, and you say Alan's car was
a write off, but they actually did get it back on the track and
he drove it back to the pits, did he?
Yeah, I've got again, I've got pictures of it.
The front is completely gone, the back is gone.
But he got out of that gravel trap and the car was still able
to drive, smoke pouring off it. And then clearly they tried to
get it back to the back to the pits to try and start the the
restart. Yeah, which is quite, quite
incredible. I think as well in the odour was
very lucky as well. He came through a pile of the
the gravel smoke in the dust, and he just about missed
everything. So he could have also had a big
one. Yeah.
But yeah, I, I again, I think you know that that view of Nick
Wells stood in the gravel with it was.
Yeah. It was scary to see it.
It could have. Been a whole lot.
Worse. Yeah.
It does. It makes you really you know, if
you if you think that those cars are coming up full tilt up the
hill towards Maclean's and you know it it you know, the heads
stand up on back of my neck now just saying what what might have
been. And like you said, how the you
know, the hands device now that all drivers where would would
certainly prevent another incident like Jeff experience,
because it was really it was it what wasn't pleasant viewing.
It could have, it could have been, you know, luckily touched
with everyone walks away, but it was the main talking point from
the weekend and from the racing certainly.
Yeah, I was surprised because when Alan was offered the the
neck brace by the by the first aid, the the lady, and then when
he's like, no, you're OK, I'm thinking.
Yeah, he's. He would.
He would have been made to wear it, now, wouldn't he?
Oh. Yeah.
It would be on a on a stretcher board, yeah.
Yeah, You know, there's no way he would be driving that car
back to the pits. That's wild.
I didn't know that. That's amazing.
Yeah, and I think he's quite adamant, isn't he, at the time?
Do you want a, do you want a neck brace?
Are you sure? And he's like, no, Yeah.
And you know, he's standing there talking, you know, lucky
to talk with John, you know, Jeff and John and all those
races are, you know, old school races, aren't they?
So they're they're they're they're well built people.
Yeah. And thank God for that.
Thankfully nobody had been seriously hurt.
Alan escaped with whiplash along with a collection of cuts and
bruises and was seen back in the paddock.
They far from happy, having only seen a stationary yellow flag
and a stationary oil flag before arriving at the scene.
Christian, you can have pretty understandable anger from Alan
there and what was quite a dangerous situation, as we've
already mentioned. Oh, absolutely, 100%.
The adrenaline's flowing, Jeff, you know, has been in the centre
of a massive accident. We all know Marshalls are the
young sung heroes to the sport and and safety's moved on
amazingly well. But one, one single stationary
yellow flag and you've got the horde coming up towards them.
They had no chance you know, and it could have been worse.
Thankfully now it's just a talking point.
We can look back on it and think, you know, just sweep up
the two cars, put them in the bin.
But, you know, Jeff had a right to be really, really angry
because it could have been worse.
And there was, you know, bits of metal work flying everywhere.
So, yeah, I'm on Jeff's side here.
But, you know, the we can look back and in hindsight now and
just say what what might have been and what could have done.
Yeah. Just thankfully, no one was was
seriously injured. And they all live to fight
another day. Yeah, these days now, a safety
car would have been thrown immediately, wouldn't it?
And they'd be straight out there covering it with cement dust or
whatever, you know, and trying to soak it all up.
And yeah, I mean, it's, it's even towards the end of the era
that would have happened. It was, it was just, I mean,
you, you watch Grand Prix from the time and you know, they were
cars parked on the side of the track that had retired and
they're just carrying on racing. So it wasn't, it wasn't just
British motor sport or, or British tracks or Marshalls that
were, it wasn't, it was just the standard.
That was just how it was. And that's, yeah, that was the
policy at the time, wasn't it? Was, I don't think it was the
everyone was doing their best. Everyone was doing based on the
protocols that were laid down by the time.
And I think it was the perfect storm of everything coming
together and, and thankfully everyone walks away.
You know, I think it defines a racing incident.
Yeah, yeah. Baird and Belle were both able
to drive back to the grid, with Baird shedding sand from the car
as he returned. Hales and Cleland, meanwhile,
had to be towed back to the pits, where their team set about
carrying out enough repairs to allow them to take the restart.
Alex ashamed for the packed grandsons that day that so many
cars were involved in this incident and taken out of
contention. Yeah, it was a shame, but as, as
we've already said, there were only two cars that were actually
wrecked and, you know, so Cleland was able to make the
restart, albeit from the pits. So was the Hales Mitsubishi.
So yeah, it was a shame. It was a shame that the
spectacle would have been soured slightly, but the, the, the,
the, the day as a, as a, as an overall was still a great, great
event and, and, and a great day of racing.
So I don't think they'd have been too disappointed.
Only 10 cars lined up for the release start with Cleland,
Hails and Forest starting from the pit lane.
Rounds made the best start from pole and LED Harvey and Sopra
into Redgate. It wasn't long though before
Sopa took second from Harvey, who attempted to retake the
place before they made contact with Harvey since spinning down
the Craners. Greg, what do you make of that
racing incident overall? Yeah.
Again, I think it's, you know, Craner Curves 2, two cars going
for one, one line often. There's always going to be one
that that that gets a bad situation from it.
So I'd say a little bit of a racing incident, some robust
driving maybe. Yeah.
I think one of those inevitable things that happens in that area
of the track at Donnington. Yeah, you very rarely get 2 cars
alongside each other going down the Craners without making any
sort of contact. So as soon as that happens,
normally one of them ends up getting fired off one way and.
And this time it was Tim. Yes.
Shortly after that super slowed with an engine problem, the BMW
man pulling into the pits to retire the car with Bell taking
over second behind rounds. McClelland was the next to slow
with a puncture causing the Vauxhall man to pit.
Chris. This was really becoming a race
of attrition at this point. It was Andy seemed pretty happy
in the lead and no one he seemed to want to come second.
Did they? It's like survival of the
fittest, isn't it? It's like people are dropping
out left, right and centre and it's there's collisions.
There's obviously a mechanical, mechanical issues for, for, for
drivers and cars. And it was just who, who can
stay on the track long enough. And as Andy said at the end of
when he was interviewed afterwards, he said it was quite
easy in the end because people were dropping off left, right
and centre. But I'm sure at the time it was
quite hard, you know, and they were, they were keeping him
honest. But with that it allowed other
drivers to show some potential. So you know, Rob Gravitt came up
to third, although on count, on aggregate he finished fourth
behind Jonathan Palmer. It allowed other drivers to
shine and a bit of the spotlight which has to be celebrated.
Yeah, I hate these aggregate races that restarted and then
they have to mix the results of the of the two races it because,
yeah, you're right. It was great to see Gravit, as
Greg said earlier in that in that beautiful, beautiful 4th
Sierra Sapphire, mixing it a bit further up the front than he was
used to that year. I was celebrating.
I thought, this is it, We're we're at the front now.
Yeah, my favourite car. This is it.
We turn the corner. Yeah, yeah, it was.
It was good to see. But sadly, that podium evaded
him and the doctor got it on this occasion, yes.
Rounds held on to win with Bound following home in second nursing
an engine issue after over wrapping after missing a gear
with his damaged gear stick. Rob Graphic finished third on
the road but Jonathan Palmer jumped in in the aggregate
result. Overall the double race format
was deemed a huge success and all the drivers agreed that all
the meetings should be a double headers for the 1992
championship. Guys, what did you think of the
double header events there for the fans in the single race
weekends? I was just thinking about how
many, how in demand the BMW parts department was going to be
on Monday morning. You know, all the fitly cars
probably needed a gearbox and or an engine or two.
There was obviously Steve Sopers fuel pump that damaged his
engine. It's like, it's like carnage,
yeah. Yeah, I liked, I like the double
headers. Obviously as I said earlier, I
wasn't wasn't aware of the championship, but that in in
1991. So I didn't know it at the time
as this being very much not the there's been the exception and
not the rule. Can you imagine going to a
touring car meeting now and just watching one race kick off?
Yeah, mind you, aren't there like 4 this year?
Isn't that that's too much or a qualifying race or something?
Yeah, one on a Saturday and three on the race day, which is
a lot of the normal thing that we're used to now.
But I think for for me, the double header was great.
You know, we get we were paying the same money to get into the
circuit, but we were getting to see them twice.
Yes, yeah, this is. Fantastic.
We get to see them race twice. I think it was AI think it was a
really brave thing to do it. I think it worked really well.
Clearly the teams had to up their game a little bit because
you know, just surviving one race and waiting three weeks for
the next one that wasn't going to play anymore.
If you wanted to be successful in the championship you needed
to bring reliable cars and cars that could cope with, you know,
2 frenetic races, as we said, 10 minutes apart.
So I'm I'm sure the teams had to step up.
So it's interesting that the drivers for every race should be
a double header, but it still didn't happen in 92 and it took
a few more seasons to get to that point.
Yeah. So in 92 and 93 you had three
double headers. 94 you had a few more still weren't all double
headers. It was only 95 where the
standard meeting was 2 races apart from the Grand Prix
support, which was 1. So yeah, it took the
championship a while to turn this into the, the norm, but I,
I'm glad they did because yeah, it was, it was clearly a much
better spectacle for the fans. As Greg just said, you, you got
double the number of races. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a
win, win for, for people going to the circuit.
And yeah, it meant that there was more for the teams to do
because they'd have to, you know, these, these cars would
have to be prepped within that 10 minute time.
I still can't quite believe it myself, to be honest.
It's, I think it's wild. But yeah, I can see where the
drivers liked it. They got to race twice as many
races. So yeah, thumbs up from from
everyone really. And it just, it surprises me
that it took the championship so long to to do it permanently.
So that's it for all it back at the first BTCC doubleheader
meeting at Donington Park in 1991.
A big thank you to Greg Denton and Chris Phillips for joining
us today to look back at this race.
It's been fantastic to hear their memories and insights.
We really hope we'll see them both back on Stories from Super
Touring again very soon, guys. Yeah, again, thanks for inviting
us. I absolutely love doing these
episodes. It's great to reminisce.
And yeah, I think again, another pivotal moment in the British
Touring Car Championship history and certainly first Super
Touring with our first double header.
Yeah, I loved every I've loved every second.
It was like I said earlier, it was a golden era and and the
opportunity to go back and rewatch the races, reread the
reviews and what happened and the and the pit lane goings on
and and just reminisce and and go back a trip trip down memory.
It's been brilliant. So thanks very much for having
me on and I've I've loved every second.
Oh. Thanks as always goes to you for
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