Stories from Super Touring. It was an unusually quiet start
to the British Touring Car Championship in 1995, with the
usual glut of overtaking and close port racing crucially
missing from the Donington Park season opener.
Was it down to the new aerodynamic regulations or was
it season opening nerves? Welcome to the latest episode of
Stories from Super Touring. I'm Levi Riley.
And to help us look back at the opening race of the 1995 BTCC
season is touring car journalist Andrew Charmaine.
Andrew, welcome to your first appearance of series five of the
pod. How are you this evening?
Hello to you 2. I'm OK working far too hard for
a person of my age but struggling on these are going
but apart from that, yeah not so bad.
All good. Living a drain, then, Andrew?
Yeah. Absolutely.
Just back from a pilgrimage to the Lake District and see Donald
Campbell's Bluebirds, and that was quite good.
We'll stick with you first for our usual opening question.
What first comes to your mind when you think about the season
opening race of 1995? Well, the memories for me are
very much split. If you're looking from a racing
point of view, there was a bit of a sense of doom and gloom
because the arrival of aerodynamics into the BTCC
seemed to create processional racing, as we'll discuss
somewhat more deeply a little while.
But for me, the overwhelming memory was this was my first
meeting as the editor of a touring car magazine.
Again, as we'll discuss shortly, the first issue of Super Touring
magazine and published just a few days before the meeting.
And I spent most of the weekend getting some very positive
reviews. So for me, this was one very
good meeting. Lovely.
I mean, it's, I mean as, as you say, we'll touch on it and the
start of that new very specialist magazine that I think
a lot of people look back on fondly when we speak to people
and stuff like Super Touring Power as well.
Should it you get me talking about it, you will never get.
Adam coming to you next. What jumps into your mind when
you think about this race? Lots, lots of key moments and
there was that many. I had to write them all down.
So I don't know if I'm allowed to say all of these.
We're going to discuss most of them, but I think Thompson as
his first works opportunity alongside Cleland, which was
which was good. Honda, again, we'll go into it,
the shape of the Volvo going from an estate to a saloon.
But I think the biggest one, well, there's another one
actually Will Hoy with these, with these attempts all going
wrong with Bailey. But I think the biggest one and
probably the most memorable one when you look back at some
footage, because they've used this clip quite a lot, was Derek
Warwick going off across, skipping across the gravel and
that, you know, that random stone that just chipped the lens
of the camera. And then Murray said he's broken
our camera lens. 6 grand, please, Derek that I think
that's actually, I just did that particular footage that I've
seen that time and time again in different like reviews, BTCC
reviews and DVDs and stuff. So it's quite an iconic piece
that they are from a going across the gravel.
But yes, lots and lots within that and obviously we're going
to be discussing most of that. You know it's a bad weekend when
even when you have an accident, a stone pops up into the camera,
ensuring that they'll always show you the footage
forevermore, isn't it? It's not a good.
Weekend, absolutely. But it's just Murray's voice,
like the way he says that he's broken out, like it's his, like
he took it really because he's broken out.
Camera lens. That'll be 6 grand, please,
Derek. Like he just like he was livid.
But yeah, I've never seen it ever happen in any motors series
of a camera lens. You know, should watching it
being chipped at the time and I'm sure it did cost probably
more than six grand. But yeah, it's quite a memorable
1. Finally coming to you Al.
What's your memories of this season opener?
Honestly, there's been quite a debate about it recently
actually, because one of our contributors did a, did a piece
for the blog where it was arrow versus no arrow.
And for me, the outstanding memory is seeing the cars with
these new front and rear arrow packages.
I'm just thinking how good they looked.
They looked fantastic. But they did transform them,
yeah. They look serious, bits of kit
with the front and rear wings. It was as if the championship
had stepped up a level through, you know it.
It'd grown up a little bit, you know, I don't know.
As always, we've asked our faithful listeners what they
thought of this race meeting through our social media
channels and they've come up with the following.
Maybe you guys at home also listening have similar memories.
Paul Young said that he was there and that his memory is
meeting Sir Jack Brabham in the paddock and of course the Jack
was his son. David was making his BTCC debut
that weekend for BMW in a refreshed liner.
Michael Hedstrom. He said that he remembers, as
Alex does, thinking how could the full aero packages looked on
the car and particularly how boxy the Cavalier looked
compared to some of its competitors, which I'm guessing
probably a bit to do with car shape with some of them.
It's just the the age of the car.
Yeah, the, you know, the Cavalier was, although the
Vectra looked very similar to the.
Cavalier. In all honestly, it's a bit
more. Curvy.
But yeah, it was certainly apart from the Volvo.
I think that might be more foxy, yeah.
Adam Little remembers just how quick Ricard Rydell was in
qualifying and then going on to take his first win in the series
in the second race, whilst Andrew Gray remembers that he
was wondering after the race how many points Rydell would win the
title by which I'm sure we can maybe get on to that element of
how Ricard put on a strong case for a title challenge that
weekend. Matt Walker says he remembers
being at the race and the organizers holding a firework
display in the bright sunshine Of Montreal.
Any of you that were there also remember this?
He says that they couldn't see a thing.
I'd forgotten that until I read Matt's comment.
He says that they couldn't see a thing and everyone was just
looking around at each other with random explosions going on.
I couldn't imagine how bizarre that must have been.
Scott Woodwith, who's been on the pod before, remembers
Thompson's impressive. Davy in the Cavalier in
particular, has moved past two cars in one corner, which will
definitely touch on that move. Nick Talon, meanwhile, says one
word. Boring.
Harsh, harsh Nick. Whilst Adam Pipes remembers
being disappointed that Volvo had decided to go with the 850
saloon for 95 rather than continue with the estate model
they'd used the previous year. I mean, that was a no brainer,
I'm afraid before the the aero, the aero regulations just it's
just so basically you couldn't have the rear wing higher than
the line of the the roof. So basically would mean if Volvo
were to run the 850 estate they wouldn't be able to have a rear
rear wing on the car. There was one car running
without Arrow at this race and it's an interesting comparison.
And it was Hamish Irvine who had literally just bought his
Peugeot 405, which I think Andrew might correct me if I'm
wrong. I think it was Thompson's from
94. It was, yeah.
And I have a very, very funny story to tell about H Irvine, if
we get time. We will have time I'm sure and
he qualified. I think I looked earlier it was
9 seconds slower than the pole position time.
Now I'm not saying that's all car, but I'm sure it
contributed. So there's a, there's a sort of
an idea of how much quicker the aero made the cars and why Volvo
were, you know, they just couldn't have worked with the
estate. If they ever planned to, and
I've never been convinced they did, I've always believed that
they always intended to go with the salooning year too.
I'll never forget. I'll never, I'll never stop
laughing at the faces that David Leslie and Tim Harvey pulled at
the media at the medium scrum when they when they wheel out
excuse. Me, Sir, I was there and it was.
Not a scrum, no. No, it was not.
It was a very nice tent at Donnington.
We were all very well behaved in those days.
Paul Devanish came up with a very popular memory which we've
already touched on. He's broken our camera lens,
which of course Murray Walker's comments after Derek Warwick
ended up in the title in the first race.
This was also remembered by a few others.
Unsurprisingly, Alex Bourne, Ben Keaton, Stephen Dawson and
Stuart Coulter also got in touch to mention that Wes Shepherd
remembers thinking that they've gone too far with that in the
Arrow in For 95, whilst Tim Davies remembers thinking that
the racing was a bit of a disappointment, but the cars did
look like real beasts. And finally, Philip W remembers
thinking that Volvo were real title contenders with TW Rs
expertise behind them. Heading into the weekend it was
Ford that held the psychological advantage with the Blue Oval
posting the fastest testing time in the second Super Test at
Bramas Hatch the week before. Seven of the 9 manufacturers
were present with Ford joined by the likes of Vauxhall, Volvo,
Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Toyota and the newbies Honda.
Raddesich posted a 46.25 on the indie Circuit brands, but
Vauxhall also looked strong with James Thompson sitting on top of
the timing charts for most of the day before being pipped.
Andrew, was it fair to say that nobody really knew what the
pecking order of the grid would be heading into the season after
those tests? Absolutely, because obviously
we'd had Alpha's domination through the first half of 94
basically because of its wings and splitters, which forced the
FIA into a quick solution for the rest of 94.
And over the winter they had time to write a proper set of
regulations which completely changed every single car.
So going into the new season we didn't know who'd got it right,
who'd got it wrong. And Despite that test at brands
a week before, there hadn't been that much testing.
And the big pre race test on the Tuesday before, which should
have given us some indication, we spent the whole day sitting
in Donnington's Cafe watching the snowfall outside.
So that was a very wasted trip from Kent.
So yeah, we, we, we didn't really know.
And of course there were plenty of other curveballs.
We've already mentioned that Williams was the running the
Renault team, Williams Formula One, and it seemed to be very
late getting his cars built. Did that mean they weren't going
to be very fast? Well, we soon got proved
differently on that one. The other F1 team which Volvo
was because Tom Walkinshaw at the time was Ligier and went on
to be Arrows. They had gone to a proper car
after after the estate. Alfa Romeo was no longer proper
Italian team, it was a British one because it was being run by
protride. So even before you looked at
drivers that had gone from here. And there, you know, there was a
whole lot to get one's head round.
One man who was on a very rocky learning curve was former Grand
Prix driver Derek Warwick. He was replacing graining
champion Gabriel Tarquini. Alfa Romeo Warwick was involved
in a 100 mile an hour crash at Bransach, leaving the track at
the McLaren right-hander, hitting a tire wall and flying
across the exit of the GP loop, coming to a rest at the edge of
the circuit. Warwick was shaken but unhurt
and was able to resume testing the following day.
I was just finishing a lap, decided to come in and went to
brake but my foot slipped on the throttle.
I jumped back on the brakes and locked the thing up, killing the
engine and went straight off. I've been looking around for an
excuse but can't find one. It was totally my fault Adam.
It's a subject we've touched on a lot in the past on the
podcast. The jump from a front wheel
drive or into a front wheel drive touring car rather.
It's quite a change from the rear wheel drive F1 cars that
Derek Warwick would have been used to.
Yeah, but the clutch, the brake, and I thought we're all in the
same places, aren't they? That's very tricky.
I like Derek, I really do a lot as a person.
When he speaks, he speaks very well and I've been a fan of his.
But that aside, a car's a car. Yes.
It's but he's yeah, but he's been used like 1000 horsepower
turbo Formula One cars. But you've come into this, but
other drivers have also made the change from Formula One or
single seeds or a few thousand F3 and gone into, you know, into
into that. I mean Rydell, look at Rydell.
He came in and won the championship.
You know, you say he wasn't he didn't have a nightmare coming
into touring cars. Yes, it's front wheel drive, but
I think he just had an absolute mare.
But look at Johnny Cicato. You want to talk about
comparisons. He's a two time bike world
champion and he's coming and he's waiting for BMW doing a
better job than what Derrick did motorcycles.
I'm not, I'm not having the whole, I can't, I can't, I'm
sorry. And I'm sure the opinion will be
to divide you. But if you're a racing driver,
you can drive anything fast more you know.
Yeah, Warwick never really settled in touring cars.
He never, he never. He just never.
He just struggled like they're like he's looking for excuses
and, you know, he's open and honest about that.
He's looking for excuse, but I can't find one.
You know, you can't. Then obviously he went off at,
you know, Donnington. I think he went off again in the
second race as well, you know, on his own and he just had the
mayor. And I think from what he's said
to you before, Alex, he didn't have any fond memories of
touring cars in any way, shape or form.
It's one he'd rather forget really.
And but I just think he just, he just never jailed at all.
It was just an absolute nightmare for him.
You have to remember though that Simone was not getting the
results he was getting the previous season either, so it
was a lot to do with the car. One sad story in the run up to
the 1995 season was the tragic death of Greg Hansford in the
opening rounds of the 1995 Australian Super Touring
Championship at Phillip Island. Hansford's Mondeo was among the
lead in pack of cars on the second lap of the opening race
when the accident occurred. The cars entered the southern
loop section of the circuit when Hansford appeared to lose
control of his car, which veered off the track and hit a tyre
barrier. The Mundare raised a large cloud
of dust as it slid off, obscuring the vision of the
drivers following behind. The Ford then rebounded back
onto the circuit, directly into the path of the Peugeot four O 5
of the 26 year old privateer Mark Addison, who collided with
the driver's door of Hansford's car at approximately 125 miles
an hour. Hansford was killed almost
instantly. Alex A very stark reminder of
the dangers of racing there in Australia at the start of the
season, wasn't it? Yeah, it's an awful, awful
accident and thankfully there's not much footage of it on online
or to see it because quite frankly, I don't think it's
something I'd want to see. But this year would be a sad
year for Super Touring because obviously this sort of accident
happened again in September with with the tragic death of Keith
O'door. So yeah, it was just a stark
reminder and it's awful. But Greg Hansford, one of the
most we talk about motorcycle going into from motorcycle, the
touring car, he was someone who did that.
He was a motorcycle superstar and then was racing in a in the
growing Super Touring Championship in Australia that
was getting quite big at this point.
I think it's just a sharp reminder, isn't it?
How fast? Things can change quickly.
Blink of an eye. In the corner to. 95% of those
accidents, he goes into the tire wall and stays off the edge of
the circuit and nothing happens. It just happens that the angle
he went in at meant that he bounced straight back into the
track and the dust cloud meant that nobody could see.
And the, the, the bad luck that Mark Adderton was there.
And, you know, you feel sorry for for Mark Adderton to in
these this situation, you know, it's, it's just a, yeah, tragic,
tragic story. And it really was a yeah, a
stark reminder that motorsport is never, ever fully safe.
Kefo Door was a columnist because he'd gone off to
Germany, because he'd been in the British series before, and
I'd suddenly asked as a columnist, report writing
columns for me on the SDW cap and on the in the week before
the Arvest meeting he sent me his ladies column.
He rang me from the departure down to the airport to make sure
I'd got it. He went off to Arvis, I went off
to Alton Park. That year Alfa had a little
press bus which we used to work in because it was much nicer
than the press offices, and I sat in the little press bus at
Alton Park and watched Keith win the first race at Arvis and then
get killed in the second. Yeah, it was his first win as
well. That was, wasn't it in the in
the in the SCW. Exactly the same sort of
accident bounced out of the wall straight into the path of Frank
Wheeler. Yeah.
Yeah, just just awful and. Not a good year.
It's just the driver's door, isn't it?
That's the issue. Calvin Burt, Alton Park.
I thought that that when I saw that, I thought this is not good
for him. Very lucky it was not the
driver's side, but very. Lucky.
But how lucky was, how lucky it was here, you know?
Super Touring was becoming such a major category in world
motorsport that it spawned its first dedicated magazine at the
start of the 1995 season. Super Touring magazine launched
its first issue in March of 1995 with none other than Andrew
Charming at the helm. Andrew.
It must have been a very extremely busy start 1995 I can
imagine. What gave you the idea to start
the magazine and how was the process of setting that magazine
up in the early part of the year?
Yeah, you have to stop me. I'll tell you.
I warned you. It started when I joined Fast
Car magazine as deputy editor in 1991 because Fast Car did a lot
with BTCC drivers. The likes of Wilhoi Track tested
readers cars for features and they also had a column each
month that was supposedly written by a touring car driver,
but it was actually a case of us interviewing said driver and
then goes writing the column. So I got to know a lot of the
touring car drivers which started dragging me away from
Thunder salons that I was working at the time towards
touring cars. And they won the magazine's
regular Snappers, who was actually a freelance motorsport
photographer, to F1 standard. He got a gig with this rather
low read magazine called International Motor Racing and
he got me a gig there doing BTCC Reports.
So from 93 I was in the paddock and I knew this magazine wasn't
going to last that long. But I started to have my own
ideas and back in the 1980s there'd been a magazine called
Grand Prix International which was published after each Grand
Prix and it was an amazing thing.
It was full colour and it told the whole story.
It ordered from each meeting, all the technical stuff, the
drivers, the atmosphere, brilliant photos.
It's something, it was like being there but not being there.
And I thought this magazine was brilliant and I suddenly thought
I wonder if we could do this from the BTCC because it was
growing so fast. So I took the idea to my
publisher at Fast Car, and to my surprise, he ran with it.
By the end of 94, we had the support of Toker.
I would never forget sitting in the Toker bus at the 94 season
finale waiting to show Alan Gow our first trial layouts to see
what you thought of them. Yeah, that was quite a scary
time. And we went to the winter
Motorsports shows and we had a Rouse Mondeo on our stand.
I mean, launched the first issue just before Donnington and I
arrived at the circuit for the first meeting having just
received the facts from Alan Gao, saying how happy he was
with the magazine. And once at the track, one of
the most respected and my fellow Germans, Germans, he came up to
me and he said, to be honest, Andrew, we didn't expect it to
be that good. So I didn't really care what the
racing was like at Donnington. I was living the dream, you
know, there had these circumstances conspired to make
95 the only year of Super Touring magazine, which
practices the story for another time.
But Donnington kicked off what proved to be the most memorable
year of my entire career, right to today.
So yeah, it was it was crazy times.
Williams Touring Car Engineering were about to make their BTCC
debut at Donnington, having struck a deal to run the Renault
British Touring Car team in September of 1994.
Previewing the 95 season, Frank Williams told the BBC it was
obvious over the past few seasons that the series was
getting more competitive, more popular and more closely
followed by viewers on television.
So I said to Patrick that it would do Williams a lot of good
to be involved in the championship.
Due to the size and the international nature of Super
Touring Cars. We are always looking to
increase our links with Renault too.
Adam, the leading Grand Prix team of the era, the dominant
Grand Prix team in the era, I think a lot of people would say
joining the ranks of the BTCC. It's a fairly clear sign of just
how big the series and the Super Torah formula was getting, isn't
it? Yeah, I believe this was massive
news. You know, back then it was huge
news and I think just proved the popularity of the championship.
And this mood would only be a positive for Alan Gau
particularly, and also the future of touring cars, BTCC,
because to see a turn you have to, you know, it's easy to
forget, but you've got to remember back then Renault and
Williams were a dominant force in the 90s, weren't they?
They were what Red Bull have done recently for people that
didn't know Formula One back then.
Yeah, they were the Creme de la Creme, you know, they were
absolutely at their peak. So for them to come into the
touring car championship with Renault, again, massive partners
to Williams was huge news was I think again, that that brought
more fans probably to the TV to start watching touring cars that
were Williams and Renault fans, you know, from the single seater
side of it, to then know that they're coming into the touring
cars. And after the Tvi imagine TV
ratings went up as well, you know, I think it was it was just
huge. It was huge and easy to forget
really. But you know, they to come in in
the 90s, you know, that was a big that'd be like Red Bull
coming into into touring cars now on McLaren.
You know it it. That's how big he was.
And what added to it was the fact that Williams didn't just
go and set up a satellite team and get a few people in to run
it. Because we've already mentioned
that Patrick Head was on the pit wall, the team manager, and the
team was Ian Harrison, who obviously would like to go on to
run AAA very successfully, be involved with Tour of Cars for
many, many years. But a year earlier he had been
running the Williams F1 team. Yeah.
He was the guy in the pits at
Immerland when that terrible weekend happened.
Yeah. And here he was, you know, so
they literally put their best guys into this team.
Another debutante in the BTCC for 1995 was Japanese
manufacturer Honda, who would be entering for the first time with
MSD, operating 2 Honda Accords for David Leslie and James K, as
well as building other cars to be raced in Europe.
Alex Was it only a matter of time before Honda also got
involved in racing touring cars? Absolutely.
I mean, at this point in the era, anyone that had a four door
saloon in the mold of Mondeo Cavalier.
So with Honda, it was the Accord.
At some point they would be linked with entering the series
or entering touring cars in a in a in a different country.
The Honda. In fact, I've read in, in
research in this read a wonderful article that was in
Andrew's Super Tory magazine, actually the first edition and
it's it looked back at Honda's entry into touring cars and it
was particularly impressive the amount of work that had gone
into it from Ian Gather 1994. They made the decision and they
awarded MSD the contract to build, I think it was 8 Accords,
2 for Britain, 2 for Germany, one for Belgium and a couple of
spares if I'm right in thinking. And that was a real commitment.
And it was also very impressive that they, I always remember
David Leslie pointing this out that they were the only team at
the pre season tests to have both cars out.
Everyone else was sharing a car and they had a car reach for for
James K and David Leslie. And I remember him being very
proud of that. But yeah, Honda's a massive
manufacturer that entered touring cars and didn't really
leave it until very recently. You know, only, only in 2020 did
they leave the BTCC as a, as a sort of manufacturer backed
effort with dynamics. And it was only one year where
they, they sort of jumped out after Super Touring.
They didn't go into 2001. And then they came back with
Arena in O2, didn't they? So yeah, that that all stems
from the first programme back in 95.
Interesting that it was a rally or a team known for the rally
and exploits that was given the task of building the touring
cars. But yeah, it was, it was only a
matter of time. There was a very, there were
very few manufacturers in that era that didn't actually enter.
There was always rumours of Rover, there was always rumours
of VW, but neither of those ever.
Dayu. Dayu.
Yes, that's right. Yeah, yeah.
Hyundai I think they were linked with many times.
Mercedes. Yeah, Mercedes.
We we were getting a rumor every two weeks, but.
There were very few that actually didn't.
And, you know, we've probably given out the ones that didn't
there, but there weren't many. So.
Yeah. And what a good looking car it
was like the Accord Touring car just looked good, didn't it?
A big mind. It was big, but yeah, yeah,
yeah. No, it was no surprise.
The fruits of the tie up between Williams and Renault only
started showing in the week before the season with Alan Menu
telling BBC Sport I had my first run, the new Laguna at
Silverstone the day before I had to qualify at Donington Park.
Prior to this, I had to share the sole remaining 1994 car with
my new teammate Will Hoy. At each test session there would
be a different set of mechanics present.
They had to learn about the car just as much as the drivers.
In fact, until the Donington Park race, Will and I have
played a small role in the creation of the team.
Despite the late debut of the 1995 Laguna, it was showing
impressive pace, particularly in the hands of Menu who qualified
second and third for the races. Andrew Very impressive
performance in qualifying from the Renault GI, especially
considering the lack of running in the lateness of the 1995 car.
Yeah, wasn't it just none of us really knew what to expect when
they rolled up if despite the fact that TWR had effectively
been in the series in the previous year, they hadn't
really done much in the previous year.
So we weren't really used to F1 teams running touring car teams,
so we had no idea what was going to happen.
But with a team and a reputation of winnings, we really should
have known better because after all, they came to Donnington as
reigning F1 champions. And I remember in the Donnington
Report issue of Super Touring magazine, we actually did a big
double page spread picture because that another thing that
granted International used to do and it's wonderful big pictures,
which all the all the magazines do now.
If you look at they do GP racing today and it's always pages.
So yes, I was doing that 30 years ago and we had this
picture of menu standing on the grid with the lagoon and we put,
you know, the fact that for a car that had first run only
three days earlier, whatever the result was was an amazing
result. I've said that because we're
going to talk about it later. I don't want to sort of spoiler,
you know, no one doubts Williams anymore, but many fear them,
which I think sum doubt that how the perceptions over the weekend
completely changed what Williams was concerned.
The rest of qualifying was a Richard Rydell demonstration.
The Swede ramped pole for race one by 10th of a second ahead of
John Cleland was for race 2. He put himself ahead of Alan
Menus Renault by a sizeable naughty .7 seconds Adam in the
first beating for the 850 Saloon.
That's an incredibly impressive performance from Rydell.
Yeah, X single seater as well. Yes.
But yeah, really, really, really impressive.
And again, I don't think anybody would have expected that at all.
You know, coming back from their first season of season, a state
car for them to come back the year after.
And then, yeah, they've come back with a saloon.
But nobody would have expected them to be winning races.
No, if they did, they certainly wouldn't have expected it around
1. And I think if he hadn't been
for his poor start at the first, the first race, then he he may
have even could he have got two wins, you think?
I think Cleveland drove a cracking race in the first one.
It's, it's funny, isn't it? Because Rydell would have still
been a bit of an unknown. Because.
Yeah, completely. He put the Anne Lammers to bed
in 94, but it's only real highlight was third on the grid
at Sneckton. And then that didn't start
because there was a problem with the car on the grid.
So he never really had a chance to to shine in 94.
So he was a bit of an unknown. I guess people weren't quite
sure. Was he a good driver?
Was it the car? You know, the car could have
been brilliant or you know it. So to come along and and you
know, beat menu by 7/10 in in the race to qualify and that's
that's some performance. Boards Paul Ruddesic took a pair
of fourths after suffering great problems in the first session
and not really being there in the second, whilst Tim Harvey
failed to make it an all Volvo front row after differential
problems and settled for a pair of fifth places.
Other notable performances was Vauxhall's James Thompson taking
seventh in the first session and 3rd in the second.
Perjury Simon Harrison took tenth out.
Qualifying team #1 Patrick Watts in the opening 30 minutes.
Alex, some good performance there from the team newbies up
and down the grid. Yeah, Thompson's very impressive
third in the second race particularly so, you know, his
first year in a in a works environment, but he always
showed that he had something special.
So, you know, notable and impressive, but almost to be
expected. But Simon Harrison taking tenth,
it was interesting because he was his only year in touring
cars in the sorry in the in the main class anyway.
So it's a tough place to sort of show.
So I'm qualifying Patrick Watson, your first, first
meeting. That's not bad at all, is it?
Who'd been, you know, Patrick had been with Peugeot for for a
year at that point. So yeah, not not a bad.
Results as well. Yeah, yeah.
I always wondered if Harrison got a slightly better car, would
he have done more? It'd be interesting to.
It would have been interesting to find out at the time.
But yeah, he he didn't have much luck that year in 95 did the
old, old Harrison. A man with a lot of attention on
his shoulders was Alfredo May's Derek Warwick, but the news was
not good as he took 17th for race one and then 19th on the
grid for race 2. I don't feel confident or happy
at the moment, said Warwick. I'm overdriving it and the car
feels like it's on a knife edge. Andrew, a pretty tough day be so
far for Warwick, I'm sure you'd agree.
Yeah, I mean, we've had a bit of a discussion about this already,
haven't we? I at the time was prepared to
wait and see because he hadn't had a lot of testing.
There'd been a lot of problems. Simoni at the time was in front
of Derek, but he wasn't massively in front of Derek.
I think in the first race he was, he qualified something like
13th. Derek was 17th.
So he was struggling with the car at the time as well.
Unfortunately as the season went on and it it, you know it, it
got worse. But I think there there was a
whole thing about Alpha that everyone expected much more than
they got in the first race of 95 because of what had happened in
94. And if you actually drill down
into it, because of what had happened mainly in the first
half of 1994. So, yeah, so I think
expectations were were over high.
I I was guilty of it. We, we put them among the
favourites in my season preview. I said that Simoni would
definitely win races and what it might.
And yeah, very wrong. It was a very warm April day at
Burlington Park with temperatures of over 20°.
You'd hardly believe that five days before the official TOCA
test was snowed off. Sadly for Ricard, his hard work
on Saturday it was undone almost immediately.
After an appalling start from pole in race one, he was
swallowed up by Cleland Menu and Raddersitch into Redgate and
dropped to 4th place. I was on the limiter as the
lights turned to green and just bogged down by.
Dell. Said after the race.
Adam, it's something we've mentioned before and I think
it's fair to say that over the course of 1995, we eventually
learned that Rickard's weak spot was his race starts, wasn't it?
Yeah, completely, certainly let him down in the first race
because you look at the dominance that he had in race
too, just made you wonder what could have been.
Although I have to say, watching the race back, Cleland drove a
super, super race, I think, yeah, the pressure at the start
for a first 2-3 laps and then just edged down just got the job
done. He did really well.
But yeah, he was definitely his weak spot for the Cup.
It just makes you wonder, did they throughout the course of
the season or even prior to the season, how much standing starts
did they practice? Yeah.
And then did it become more of a like before we finish today,
regard, we need to practice some starts with you.
Was it just a case that you just couldn't get the knack of it,
you know? I think at some point Volvo took
him somewhere and they literally spent the whole day just doing
standing starts with him. And I don't think it helped that
Mister Cleland often got in regards ear about it.
You know, along the line. He's told me before he's he's
gone up to him at Brands Hatch. And so Ricard, you know, when
you do your bad start again, I'm going to go to the right of you
if that's OK. And then just little things like
that. And it's yeah, it's it's
certainly plagued a lot of certainly in 95.
He got the hang of it in the end, but it did take some did
take some time. At the end of the first of 18
laps, Cleland LED from menu Radisich, Rydell Harvey and
Julian Bailey in the Toyota. Menu sometimes looked like he
was challenged in Cleland but the order remained the same
until lap 4 when Will Hoy launched a move on Johnny
Chicoto at the Melbourne Hairpin.
Hoy carried too much speed into the corner past Chicoto and then
harpooned Bailey, who was in front of the BMW.
And where? Where Julian Bailey, 6th place
Tim Harvey is ahead. Chicoto is behind us.
Somebody's hit. Julian Bailey.
It's Will Hoy. Will Hoy, 22, recovers in the
Renault and Julian Bailey has stalled the engine and tried
desperately to restart it. I was bidding my time sitting
behind, Harvey explained to subdued Bailey.
After the race, out of nowhere a blue Renault appeared, would
have lost it big time and if it wasn't for me he'd have been
often in the gravel. Will agreed that you have missed
his breaking point. I did miss my breaking point and
overshoot slightly, but it was just a racing incident.
Julian was the last person I wanted to hit.
So let's hear your views on it guys.
Just a slight outbreaking and racing incident, or has Will Hoy
bought that quite wrong into hell for her thing?
I think the fact that like the statement alone, I think to race
an incident, well, you would say that because you're the one
that's just harpooned another car.
I just saw it as like an absolute yeah, harpooning dot.
T-bone got it completely wrong and I felt sorry for badly
because he was doing well at the time.
Yeah, he was. Yeah.
You know, it was a debut for that car as well, wasn't it?
I thought they were doing, he was doing a cracking job in
that. And then literally like
harpooned him. Like he couldn't, he couldn't
describe it any more than that. So then to try and say it was a
racing incident. Yeah, it's the fact that it's
not even the car in front of him that he's hit.
It's the car in front. He's finished that one because
he was. Out of control.
It's like, it's like arriving at a load of standing traffic.
If you're not concentrating, what could happen?
Racing incident. Yeah, yeah, I was.
I, I, I When I was looking back and I saw that crew, I did
laugh. I thought, oh Will.
He did admit to making the mistake.
That is very true. I I look back at the time then I
don't recall him saying racing to me, but he definitely said
yeah, I got that wrong. I think Patrick Ed was the first
one to give him a bollocking. Yeah, exactly what was, what was
more interesting is what happened afterwards, which we're
supposed to talk about a bit later, but we can talk about it
now if you like, which is the fact that TOCA had a new rule
that they'd introduced over the winter, which they called an eye
for an eye. So basically if you ruined
somebody's race, you lost your result.
So for that reason they threw toy out of the results and then
Renault appealed and he got put back in.
So Toca appealed the appeal, which was very unusual for the
time, very unusual indeed, but it was indicative of the amount
of power. By that time Toca felt it had as
as the organisers of the most successful British motorsport
championship of the time, bar none.
There also might have been a degree at this time of the big
world famous Formula One team thinking that they could
dominate this little British tin pot.
Touring Club. Championships and being Yeah and
being put firmly in their place. Julie Julie Bailey was a
character. We had a fantasy touring car
league in the year of Super Touring and there was one driver
who in the second issue ran out to find out what his price was.
Yes, was it, was it him? Excellent.
Because I, I, I've seen that little clip, that little snippet
in your magazine before saying OneDrive and phoned up the
offices to find out and it was OK.
It was Julian, yes. Yeah, the man that had.
Who was it? Who was the great train robber
in his shower? Yes, I've heard about this
story. Oh, it's very true.
It's true. Yeah.
Wow. Ronnie Biggs.
That's it, Ronnie. Biggs Yeah, I I've heard, I
heard this story and and I thought no, but no, apparently
it's true. And yeah.
Further back, James Thompson was recovering from a shaky opening
few laps and looking at making a move on Gian Piero Simoni's Alfa
Romeo. Going into the essays, the
youngster dies to the inside of both Simone and Patrick Watson,
the Peugeot overtaking both cars in one corner.
Alex, that was quite the move, wasn't it?
Potentially the move of the entire season done already by
Thompson I. Mean it was it was very
impressive considering how little overtaking there was in
this meeting. And there's Tomo new kid on the
block diving up the inside of to Patrick was was certainly a
seasoned touring car driver at this point.
And Simone was, you know, he was not a newbie anymore.
He was a second year in a tin top.
So yeah, very impressive move by a very impressive youngster.
Incredible move. Yeah, as you say, quite possibly
overtaking the sorted there, there and then It was, it was
very special. One map later and Derek
Warwick's BTCC debut came to an abrupt end in the barriers at
Mclean's. Until that point, Alpha had
circulated just inside the top dozen and had looked to be
making amends for a miserable practice in qualifying.
Derek Warwick, 12. The head of Brabham and Kay
where with Warwick it's not a happy transition for him from
Formula One into the British Touring Car Championship for
Alfa Romeo. Warwick leads these two out of
the old hairpin. We're with him now, climbing up
towards Mclean's, doing about 125 miles an hour down into the
right-hander and he's lost it into the travel trap, into the
tower wall. He's broken our camera lens.
That'll be 6 grand, please, Derek.
But I don't suppose Derek too worried about that.
Down to the race and it's an embarrassing end to his first
British Touring Car Championship race.
The car just got unbelievable understood, said Warwick after
the race. Eventually it just lurched
around and got the better of me. I'm OK, but As for the car, not
sure yet. Andrew, it's the miserable
weekend of miserable weekend continued and as we alluded to
earlier, made even more embarrassing for Derek as,
fortunately for him, by the Erin a stone flying up into the BBC
camera and Murray being able to do his commentary magic on it in
the edit, wasn't it? Just keeps getting worse,
doesn't it? It does.
It was a miserable debut and it wasn't going to get much better
through the season. As I said earlier, what none of
us predicted was that the Champions will be so poor in the
following season. Wasn't really pro drives fault,
more the fact that without the wings and splitters and the
advantages that the Alfred had in the first half of of 94, it
wasn't really that good a touring car as people thought it
was. And Mr. Warwick, for want of his
things, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time. Obviously Adam thinks there was
a degree of fault on him, but neither Tarquini or Simoni could
get anything like the performance out of Carlo were a
year earlier. So yeah, an unfortunate start to
touring car career for Mr. Warwick.
As for any more overtaking, Thompson took Sugdon in the
Melbourne Loop on lap 9, whilst the lap later Chicoto overtook
Harvey going into yeses. And that was about it, Adam.
An unusually quiet affair by touring car standards for this
opening race, wasn't it? Yeah, it was exactly for touring
car standards, yes. I think the fact that it was
round one might add for something to do with it.
But I also think Donnington, it's very, it's quite a fast
flowing circuit. There's not a lot of stop start
other than the Melbourne loop. So it can be a bit like that
round Donnington if you've got cars of similar speed where it's
a little bit processional, you don't really drop below, you
know, you don't you don't go down to many sort of like second
gear corners or, you know, really heavy breaking corners.
It's very you're on the brakes very minimal really around
Donnington other than coming back into the obviously under
the Dunlop Bridge chicane and then the Melbourne loop and the
and the last corner. But the rest of it is all very
fast and flowing. So it can be a bit like that.
But you know, in reality, you know whether it was down to the
arrow or not. It it.
Was never going to last. You know, there's still
incidents. It's just not as many as
probably what you'd expect. But you can't always expect
carnage all the time from a fan's perspective.
But it was never going to. It was going to be going to stay
that way for the rest of the season.
Cleland stretched out his lead to win by 6 seconds from Menu
and Radissitch Hoy finished in fifth position but as we just
touched on, was initially excluded from the race due to
his incident with Julian Bailey as declared by Clark of the
course. Pierre Ammoniere.
Hoy appealed that penalty successfully and was reinstated.
And then, as discussed in an unprecedented move, Toca
appealed the decision, wanting Hoy's exclusion to be
reinstated. But it never was.
It never was. So they obviously saw something
that lots of us didn't. Is that even more bizarre a
situation because of that, do you think then, Alex?
Yeah. I mean, as Adam said, it's very
obvious that it was who was at fault.
So for for me, for for that person to effectively be
unpunished whilst Julian Bailey is out of the race.
Yeah, I just found bizarre. But you know, it's yeah, there
was obviously something. But yeah, from the outside, a
very, very unusual move to. I certainly wouldn't have
reinstated Hoy if it was down to me, but.
We did in those days get odd decisions were not as rare as
they may be today. There wasn't nearly the
technology available to the people that were making all the
decisions, you know, to argue against.
And there was a degree of we are the people in charge of we say
this is what we think, then this is what we think, you know, and
once and if you tried to other than overturned, you were
struggling. I mean, I mean, TOCA were just
as bad. I mean, my incident later that
I'd told you about what if a couple of years later I found
myself actually a star witness for Ray Mallett trying to get a
ride height infringement overturned.
And it was absolutely clear from what I'd seen on the pad that
the the measurement hadn't been taken properly, but the IT was
still thrown out. No, sorry, we're not changing
that. We've made the decision and so,
yeah, he used to get the odd, very questionable decision in
those days. Rydell made sure not to repeat
his Race One star in Race 2 and flew off the line leading menu
Radisich and Thompson into red game.
At the end of the first lap, the Swede had already pulled out
enough of a gap to weaken the toe behind.
By the end of lap 2, the lead was almost half the length of
the pit straight. I had to make a good start in
the second race, then I pushed hard for the first two laps
until I was comfortable with the gap, Rydell said to Autos Ball
after the race. Andrew, the pressure must have
really peed on. Ricard's make the most of his
pole this time, and he really did make the most of his pole
the second time round. Yeah, it it, he definitely had
the pressure on him. He's less than perfect start
technique. That was an issue we saw
particularly in the early part of the season.
And of course he was in one of the perceived best cars run by
Mr. Walkinshaw, who it really didn't pay to get on the wrong
side of at this stage. We at Super Touring magazine,
well, me, I was the in house senatorial stuff.
We thought Rick Hard was favorite for the championship.
And in fact, our Donnington cover declared who will stop
Volvo. So yes, he you know, he needed
to step up to the mark and make the most of the of the hardware
he had. Yeah, the Volvo was pretty
dominant at the start because obviously Tim won the two races
then at Brands. So yeah, in the early part of
the season, you would look at Volvo and think, yeah, these are
these are going to be winning the title shortly.
It was only John's four or five wins in a row in the middle of
the season that that put John in in contention, really.
Three of the yeses for the 4th time, Thompson found himself
with Harvey's Volvo right behind him and passed Cleland on the
run to the Melbourne Hairpin. I didn't want Tim between us so
I passed her on at the hairpin to get some breathing space then
let him back through, but unfortunately Tim came through
as well. Thompson said after the race.
Adam, some pretty instinctive drive in there from Harvey to
lose her to sort of get a place back in a weird teammate swap
scenario. Yeah, I think Tim just did the
right thing. He could see what was happening
there, so he just made sure he thought, well, if he's going
through, I've got the run as well.
So I'm just going to glue myself as close to that bumper as
possible and just go with it. It's like a free pass, really.
But I thought JT had a great effort, you know, put a great
effort in to do what he did. So it's always worth a shot.
And looking back at the footage, I'd have done exactly the same.
And then, yeah, he did a good job getting past the pair.
But then unfortunately, But it was worth the effort.
No contact made, no incidents. But Tim did the right thing.
Yeah. He just did what he needed to do
and just glue himself to the point where it just didn't allow
any room for for Thompson to come back in.
If when I saw that that move and and and this succession of of
racing this, this succession elapse, it reminded me of
Jimmy's pod with us. And do you remember him telling
us that he passed John in the opening race race meeting and
John went nuts mad. Yeah.
And obviously now with with that added bit of information, it
just made me chuckle thinking and.
Also John, but he wouldn't wasn't expecting all that in
race too, because he'd had such a dominant race.
One. Yeah, yeah.
Then all of a sudden he's looking in the mirror.
Thinking what's going on? Well, he soon got ahead of
Thompson and Radissitch with the 4th starting to suffer with
appalling tyre wear. Alex the tie around the Monday.
That would be a theme that we would hear a lot of during 1995,
isn't it? Yeah, with the Ford, it just
seemed to get worse and worse throughout the season that they
would just end up chewing its tyres.
They actually started the quite competitively the Monday.
But if you look at the season results, once you get past that
halfway mark, especially poor Adesich, his results just fell
off a Cliff. And I don't know what had
happened, but the Ford could not last the race without eating its
tyres. It's a, it's a, it's a shame
because it obviously had pace. The Mondeo that year was clearly
a quick car but just couldn't last the race distance.
And it wasn't the only one. A lot of the time people
questioned Rydell because he was set in all these pole position
times. Primary example here, you know,
7/10 off 2nd place menu in the Renault.
But they had the Dunlops. And from what Ricard said, the
Dunlops were very quick in qualifying but just didn't have
the pace in the race to keep up with the Michelin short cars.
So the the pole positions, Ricard had something like 15
this season. You know, it was an incredible
number of poles. I'm not saying it was just the
tyres, but aided by a good qualifying tyre that just didn't
last. And and Ford could not make
these Michelins last either. So yeah, especially towards the
second-half of 95, Ford just went backwards.
And I think if I'm right in saying Radissick hardly scored a
point in the second-half of the season.
As the remaining laps reeled off, the leaders spread
themselves out and a busy crowd of 25,000 had to content
themselves with the limited action further down the field,
most notably James K who plugged away to give Honda an early
boost with its first points for the impressive Accord.
In the end, however, it was Rydell who cruised home in front
of the boss, Tom Walconshaw, with 7 seconds in hand over
Cleland. We were sure from the beginning
when we reviewed the before we started the program where we're
all sure that given enough development time we could make
the car win. So, you know, we knew it was
going to take time and now it started to win.
Whilst Volvo and Vauxhall were delighted, there were others
with some concerns after the season opener had the new
aerodynamic regulations killed off the spectacle of the BTCC.
TOCA denied these claims, with boss Alan Gal confident that the
racing will survive unharmed. The first race was a bit
processional, said Gal. But that sometimes happens.
If you look at the second race, there was a cracking fight from
2nd to 8th. We've only had two races so it's
too early to judge. I just say how funny it is now
that Alan GAO is here trying to say how exciting Super Touring
is and if you listen to him now he'll tell you how boring Super
Touring was and we were all wearing rose tinted spectacles,
blah blah blah. I just find it funny.
That's because Alan Gao always lives for the moment and what's
coming. He never dwells on the past.
Exactly. Andrew, where did you sit on
this argument at the time? Was there any concerns that you
had about the racing or, you know, people who were in the
panic in the media had concerns after round one?
Yeah. I had concerns, I think some of
my fellows had concerns, but I was also hedging my bets.
If we'd had social media in those days, it would have been
lit up in the days of the break, everyone predicting the imminent
demise of the BTCC. But as I wrote in the magazine,
this was not the first fairly tedious opening meeting that
we've been to. They've happened before and it
was a bit early to pin the blame on wings and splitters, but they
did have the effect of cutting breaking distances which meant
they cut overtaking opportunities and personally I'd
rather the BTCC had remained without them.
But let's face it, if Alpha hadn't have done it in 94,
someone else would have done it soon after and we would have got
them and the FIA would always be forced to come up with a
solution, so it was always going to happen.
I'm pretty sure if if Alpha Course hadn't done it, I think
someone like Williams TWR would have done it.
The the were contrasting views amongst the drivers weren't
there Alex? And you've got some quotes for
us on that. Very subject I have, yeah.
So obviously, first of all, I told you earlier about Hamish
Irvine's nine second qualifying deficit to pole position.
Didn't you say you had a funny story about Mr. Irvine, Andrew?
Yeah, go through your stats because I think we should leave
this to the end. OK, I will.
So we've got some few a few quotes here.
John Cleland at the time said the wings stopped some of the
opportunistic and idiotic outbreak in moves and breaking
distances are down, but I don't think it will be processional.
I'm sure we'll see more overtaking and action at Brands
Hatch. That makes me laugh because ask
Julian Bailey before that, the stupid overtaking moves have
been eradicated. Very true, Tim Harvey said.
People are having to think about overtaking more, so the moves
are better thought out and a lot more decisive.
Paul Radisson said he thought that they took they took it too
far and it made the cars too easy to drive.
They've made more corners easily flat, so there's less scope for
capitalizing on mistakes. It may make for a better
spectacle because you have to do something supersonic to pass.
Like Will Hoy. Tim Sogdon said you don't feel
as. Sonic Scud missile.
You don't feel as inclined to stick in neck out perhaps, but I
wouldn't say it's made much of a difference.
That was Tim Sogdon and finally everyone's friend in this one,
Will Hoy said. I did a lot of overtaking.
I don't think we know yet the car's limits.
With wings. There is still plenty of chances
for overtaking. So there we go, and of.
Course, he would say. That a mixed bag.
He knew the limits with the wings.
He realized it didn't fly down the Melbourne.
Why we were all doing this poor old assassination.
I know poor Will. Can can we?
Can I just point out that the person that was responsible a
season or two before for that memorable phrase the car upside
down is a Toyota? Yes.
When the upside down car was Will Hoy at the Sealstone Grand
Prix, the person that caused that was his then teammate
Julian Bailey. Yes.
What you're saying it's revenge? Andrew, is that what?
He. Want.
Yes, and Will would never have done that.
He was too nice to go. And that was a similar
harpooning, wasn't it, That one? Yeah, yeah.
It was, it was right. Do you want my Hamish ovine?
Story then? Yes, please.
Right. Few days after Donington, I got
a letter at Super Touring editorial office from a
spectator who had been to the meeting.
And he'd taken his son to the to see the touring cars.
And when he got to Donington, he wanted to park on the infield,
but he was really annoyed because it was already full.
So we had to park in the outside car park and then a Scottish man
knocked on his car window. You see, Hamish's deal was so
last minute to run this ex Thompson Peugeot.
He hadn't realised that he needed a road version of the
Peugeot available to take him on the parade lap at the start of
the race to waiver all the crowds, because this was a
requirement of every team to provide the cars necessary for
that. So Hames sent his team members
into the public car parts to try and find a suitable car.
Seconds after this guy's parked up and turned his engine off, he
finds himself driving into the paddock with a paddock pass on
his windscreen, spending the day with the team and then driving
with his son in the car around the track in a line of cars.
We've just retired Formula One driver Derek Warwick just in
front of him and a BTCC driver actually got his roof.
He says that someone's totally gone, smacked by the whole
experience and apparently Hamish even apologised for not doing
very well in the race. Wow.
It's amazing. Story.
Absolutely amazing. That's a very cool story.
Back in those Super Touring days, in the early days, Alan
Gale used to leave that parade lap in the course car, whichever
car he'd been given by a manufacturer, and there was a
season when the drivers kept playing tricks on him.
He arrived at the car one day to find it still sitting on bricks
with all the wheels gone. But the the very best time was
just before the parade lap. At one meeting, he was asked if
this EastEnders actress could go round in the car with him, and
of course he said yeah, no problem.
And apparently qualifying that day was particularly frantic
because everybody wanted pole position to be as close as
possible to Alan's car as it went round the parade lap.
Because when the parade lap started, this EastEnders actress
proved that she was anything but an EastEnders actress because
she started to divest herself of her clothes.
She was a stripper, but Evan's driving at this Woman's Day and
apparently every driver wanted to be on pole position just so
he could see it. They were good times.
Wow, I got told about the bricks story, the the the the car on
the bricks and I got told who was responsible for that.
Maybe I won't hear it, but I've didn't know.
I've not heard that one. I think Mr. Clavin was at the
center of. It he was, it was and sadly his
accomplice is no longer with us so can't be held accountable.
So yeah, I was told it was John and Will wouldn't.
Surprise me, yeah. Yes, back to Hamish Irvine, but
yes, it's a nine seconds was the gap.
Like I say, I'm sure that's not all Arrow, seeing as Hamish had
only had the car on the Friday, but yeah, it's it's certainly an
interesting one. And I'm intrigued to know at
this point, where would you stand with the the aero?
Would you have preferred to drive the cars with it or would
you have preferred the racing an opportunity that the cars
without the aero probably would have provided them on the
overtaking side of things? I think there's this two way.
I've really thought about this and I think there's two ways to
look at it from a from a driver that wants to eradicate the
understeer, the oversteer to give you more grip, more speed
through the corners, fastest laps time, which is what you're
you're trying to achieve all the time.
Yeah, give me a splitter and give me some give me a rear wing
and give me some error. But also think from a spectacle
and which will make it far more entertaining.
Lose the arrow cars run over the place.
Similar to what I think Radissitch.
Before. You read it out about, you know,
some corners are flat now and that weren't before.
You know, with that you want to try and you know you'd be on and
off the throttle or touching the brake slightly to try and get
the car in the position that you felt like you needed to get in
to get the best result. There's a lot more going into it
without the arrow in terms of driving it and and actually
being on the edge and the car's moving around a lot.
So I like, I like that because it it's more about your driving
style. Do we know what the actual lap
time is? Say for, as an example, the
Cavalier with its arrow on and without its arrow?
John Cleland in 94 Donington GP loop his qualifying time was a
140 dead and in 95 GP loop qualifying time 137 seven so 2.3
seconds. Some of that could be weather.
I mean the weather conditions are like tire compass maybe so
that a bit of arrow obviously it's I can understand that.
Yeah. So back to Hamish in his nine
seconds. Apparently he was a bit of a
character. Hamish Irvine, I've heard.
Yeah, it was a nice team, Hamish, his team.
It's one of those ones that was always friendly Labour basically
having a, you know, having a blast.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they were never going to
get big results, but he was enjoying himself.
That's not a true reflection on the lap time of the of the car.
And he for him to get there that last minute, it was, yeah, you'd
have to say lap time throughout the season, I think.
Good. That was just literally just get
the car on the grid. Just just get it on the grid.
Wasn't it for him at round one? It's now time for our question
games. The producer, Dan.
I'll bring you in for the first time in series five to ask what
question have you got for us this week?
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to another series.
And these are just as painful as they've always been.
So while some things have changed, not enough has in the
eyes of some of our viewers. So Johnny Chicarto finished
fifth three times. In 1995.
He finished twice in race one in fifth and the other time he
finished fifth. It was in race 2.
In the first race at the first meeting of the season at
Donington Park, he finished in fifth.
What was the other track that he finished fifth in first for the
first race in Snap? You are having a laugh, he.
Finished fifth in Race 1 twice. One of them was at the Donington
Park. Meeting.
Where was the other one? Where was the other one?
OK, this is just a complete guess because I have no idea.
Brands Hatch, I'll. Go.
See what was that cinema for Brands Hatch?
Should we go any more for any more dental then?
I'll go for Silverstone. OK, Levi.
It's all on you, Levi. Broxton.
And the correct answer is Al Clark was the second Branch or
third Branch meeting sorry, of the season where he finished
fifth in Race 1. He retired from Race 2.
It was Branch at the first round of the season where he finished
fifth in the second race of the weekend.
And that was the best result for him, wasn't it?
That's. It wasn't actually the best, it
was fourth place at. Oh, I don't Autumn, don't know.
No kill. No kill, no kill.
Yeah, I was. Killed but it was, but he his
most regular points finishing position was in 5th place and he
did that three times over the course of the season.
He didn't have a bad season to be fair.
Like like Andrew said earlier, the car wasn't great.
Well, you know he was ahead of David Bourbon by one point, so.
Yeah. Yeah, we actually went to visit
Waltopher in Bavaria that year and they certainly weren't Team
Schnitzer. No, no, no.
They certainly weren't Charlie. No, no.
CC Lamb, who ran Snitzer, was one of the great unsung
characters of the BBCC. Yes, Steve Super was seeing his
praises at brands. He was great person, yeah.
Didn't Jicato race atonement in Formula 10?
I'd like a yeah. It it was 84 where he raced for
Tolman 84 he only finished. He actually finished two races,
one of which he was not classified in, but in the United
Grand Prix he finished 9th. And no star of Dan Mars question
in stories from Super. Tour as as the seasons go on,
these have to become more tenuous.
Browning. At 1990s btcc.com did you get
the answer right? Because if you say yes, we're
not going to believe you. Fingers were crossed that normal
service would be resumed after a rather dull season open at
Dorrington Park in 1995. As we now know, the rest of the
season produced one of the finest championships in history
and one that is fondly remembered by a lot of people,
even up until today. I'd like to thank Andrew Charman
for joining us once again to look back at this race, and we
hope we'll see you on Stories from Super Touring again very
soon. Andrew.
Yeah, I should look forward to it.
As you well know, I I very much enjoyed doing these.
It was nice to have a very extensive reference manual for
this one. Looking back to my first one, my
second issue, Yes, yes, very special time.
And our thanks, as ever go to you guys for listening to the
show. And if you enjoyed today's
episode, please make sure to give us a review, five star
rating and subscribe to the podcast feed on your podcast app
of choice. In the meantime, we will see you
next week. Goodbye.