Stories from Super Touring. Hello and welcome to this week's
episode of Stories from Super Touring.
I'm your host Levi Riley and this week we're heading back to
one of the most unforgettable race weekends of the 1995
season, the early season meeting at Froxton.
This race was packed with drama and it started early with one of
the most shocking moments of the season.
Australian independent driver Charlie Cox's massive crash that
left fans gasping as is Mondeau, was left in a crumpled heat.
Thankfully Cox survived, but the crash became a stark reminder of
just how dangerous the sport could be.
Joining us today for the first time in a series is one of our
favourite regulars, Andrew Charlin.
As a seasoned journalist who's covered countless races, Andrew
brings a unique perspective on the drama and action.
His first hand experiences and keen eye for the stories behind
the headlines will give us an insider's views of the highs and
lows of this meeting at Froxton in 1995.
Andrew, how are you this evening?
Good evening. How am I overworked?
Don't tell me underpaid. And well, yeah, that as well.
Unfortunately, I write about the business of new car sales these
days, and there's an orange idiot across the Atlantic that
is keeping me much busier than I want to be for a man of my
advance. So yes.
So this, this tonight is a welcome diversion.
Fantastic. So to keep you on that
diversion, we'll stick with you. First for our usual opening
question, what first comes to your mind when you think about
this meeting in 95? Well, clearly it's that
accident. I mean, we're going to talk
about it more later, but it certainly dominated that
meeting, especially at the end of the day.
I remember we went to have a look at what was left of Cox's
car because Alfa Romeo's, Alfa Romeo's UK press officer, he was
buoyed by the successor that in 94 and he'd set up this little
motorhome that he took to all the meetings.
And one of two of us press used to go and work in it rather than
work in the main media centre because it was a lot quieter
than certain press offices, especially the one at Fraxen
which was quite small and it had an espresso machine.
So it was really nice place to work.
And on this particular day it was parked right at the end of
the outer paddock at Fraxen. So when we were working, at the
end of the day we all decided to have an expedition and it was
quite a walk to find what was left of a very much a scrap
Mondeo. I always thought Alphas press
officer, by the way, he could have been an IndyCar driver.
His name was Robert Woverstone. I thought you know Bobby
Woverstone. Adam coming to you next.
What jumps into your mind when you think about this race at
Froxton? I think similar to Andrew
really, I think you can't really obviously catch your mind that
far back. And if you were there or you're
watching it, it's it was a massive shunt like that don't
come much bigger than that. But I think you sort of he
overlooked the fact that was it Williams Renault's first pole.
Yeah, You know, so that that was that was obviously a big thing,
really. But then it wasn't the time
until the following day where Harvesley Cox had his accident
and obviously he got Thompson that also had his first pole as
well, I believe. So for a young 21 year old, that
was quite an achievement. But yeah, I think the shunt
itself, I mean, he's lucky to to to survive that really.
They don't come much bigger than that.
And finally coming to you, Alex, what are your memories from the
meeting? Actually not.
This is the obvious one. Obviously it's Charlie's
accident, but one memory that will always sort of be etched on
my mind is towards the end of in fact, the last lap of the first
race, which which menu had LED pretty much all the way from
pole position and the Vauxhalls came on strong in the
second-half of the race. And coming into the last
chicane, Cleland is literally sat on menus boot lid and just
the way he flies over the chicane, he's just straight
lines in it. It it, it it's mad because
people use people at the time were saying, oh, these new front
splitters, they're going to stop people curb hopping.
So he didn't stop John that day. It was flew over it and it was
just, it's always been an image that's I've remembered fondly
ever since. And yeah, that's one memory, but
there's obviously another incident that happened at that
corner later on in the day, which which gets most of the
headlines. Yes, yeah.
I mean, I think on that note, there are quite, I think that
there is a bit, isn't there where they're following Cleland
through the chicane on board and he he does hit the curb pretty
hard, doesn't he? Yeah, considering they're told
to generally stay away, especially club, because those
curves are monsters yeah, he he he didn't seem bothered about
them at all. No.
And it was just it was it was great to watch.
I I recommend anyone if they can watch it to try because it's
just a visual. It's a great it's great to watch
it's brilliant. So that's genuinely one thing
that does stick in mind. You've obviously you've got
there the headlines of Thompson and Williams and and and
Charlie, but that's something that's always stuck with me.
And of course, a podium for Patrick Watts in the Peugeot.
Not to spoil it for anyone. As always, we also asked our
faithful listeners what they thought of this race meeting and
they've come up with some of the following.
Unsurprisingly, as we've already touched on, the vast majority of
the comments are about Charlie Cox's horrific accident, with
Alistair Sloane, Daniel Parker, Alex Dowling, Andy Taylor and
Ash Preston all recalling the unsettling moments as the crash
unfolded. We had one particularly vivid
memory being shared by Nick Mann, who was part of Charlie's
team and witnessed the aftermath first hand.
He says he remembers going down from the pit lane towards the
chicane. Charlie was still in the car and
being dealt with by the medical team, an image that he'll never
forget. Andrew Price was marshalling the
event and remembers rushing to the scene only till later hear
Cox joking about finding a spare car to get back into the race of
the restart. Which I think sums Charlie up.
You can hear it already and can't.
There's a story that was told to me first hand by Doctor Paul
Trafford, we'll talk about the medical team a little bit later,
who swore blind to me that while he was treating him in the
medical centre, the second race got underway and Charlie sat up
straight and said the bastards are starting without me.
Tony Flynn has a different memory, one of meeting Hamish
Irvine whilst on his way out of the circuit, whilst Ben Keating
remembers Thompson's first win and Peter Perrin remarked it was
a weekend of thirst wins with Williams also taking the first
triumph in the BTCC. Heading into the meeting, Volvo
were the top dog having won three out of the four races so
far in the season. John Cleland had won the opener
for Vauxhall, failed to score in both races at Brands Hatch.
Let's hear what he had to say about that to BBC Grandstand
prior to the meeting. In the first race I made a bad
choice and I think 15 years of racing at Brands High I
discovered when I looked back on it I'd never raced and I went
there. So I didn't know how long it
took for the track to dry and I made a mistake.
I put intermediate tyres on. That was my fault, and I pushed
probably a little too hard too soon.
I fell off. Simple as that.
That was that was my fault. Second race I felt that we had a
better balance of the car. Everything was good.
You know it's going to be hard between Rick and I and when we
disputed the corner at Kidney when I went off.
The. Front spoiler pushed one of the
brake ducks back and pushed around the brake pipe and what
that then did was it started to leak fluid and with me going
back and forward to sort of get out of the position I was in in
the gravel. When I got back on the circuit
there was no brakes but I had no reason to touch the pedal until
I arrived. Had it.
It was just it was doing 130 odd miles an hour as I arrived at
Paddock and even I wouldn't try to take the corner at that
speed. But my foot in the brake and 9
and I hit it again to try to bring at least some brakes in
the rear of the car and force it.
The car then spun round because it was, I mean it was heading
for the Channel Tunnel nil plan. I said at brands before the
races you must bank points all the time.
You must put points in the bag at every race and I shot myself
in the foot. Adam heading up into paddock
with no brakes. That's probably quite a scary
full full speed, isn't it? Yeah, I think he, he certainly
had limited brakes because I think he, the, the car sort of
the rear end sort of came out, didn't it?
So I think he, it sort of went sideways.
But yeah, I mean, extremely scary with the limited braking
that he did have. But I think what always wowed me
whenever, whenever I was racing anywhere in any category,
whenever I did a trap walk. It's amazing when you when your
feet on the timer because everything just looks so much
different when you're in the car and you look at some corners and
you think, God, this, this looks daunting just looking at this.
I can't believe how fast we come through here.
And I'd say that to myself, and I'm the one that's going through
that. It's also obviously also very
steep, as I remember because I spent 10 years as a photographer
at Brands Hatcher. Up panic at the end of the day
with your camera bag trying to get to the Kent again for a pint
was a snackering in the extreme. Alfa Romeo's lack of performance
was one of the big talking points at the start of 1995.
The reigning champions, now run by Prodrive, had only registered
a lowly 9th as their best result of the season so far.
We have a plan of action, David Richards told Autos Bought ahead
of the event. We are working in close
cooperation with Alpha Course but it will take several months
rather than weeks. Andrew Alpha was still winning
in Italy and Richard said this was down to the BTCC being a far
more competitive series. Was he right?
Or was there also something that Pro Drive and Alpha hadn't quite
got incorrect? He he was absolutely right.
The Italian series was a touring car championship.
The BTCC was basically Formula One with roofs.
I mean I exaggerate but you had 9 manufacturers in Britain with
around half of them likely winners.
In Italy it was basically ALDI versus AR with BMW hanging in
there. Yes, Prodrive struggled in the
early 70s to get back into the BTCCC, but it was basically
Alpha not having the huge advantage they'd had in the
previous year. And it's a shame that when
Gabrielli Tarquini eventually came back he replaced Simoni
because they weren't about to start drop their big star in
Derek Warwick. But it became clear he wasn't
finding it at all easy adapting to the BTCC.
He wasn't the first Formula One driver to find that out, and
with a year's experience, Simoni generally got the best out of a
car that had been overtaken by its rivals.
Rumours was circulating that Tarquini was going to come in
test and race for the BTCC team, which were roundly denied by
sources close to Alpha Course, which claimed the Alpha were
unwilling to cause embarrassment by sending in the reigning
champion as a troubleshooter. Alex, that sounds lasted long,
didn't it? Yes, because by Alton Park,
Gabrielli was in the third car, the spare car, and that was just
as a one off initially. But Gabrielli soon came back
after the Silverstone Grand Prix support race.
I believe that was Simone swan song.
And yeah, it's, it's, as Andrew said, it is a shame that Simone
was the one that that had to make way because he really was
doing really well in a car that really, really wasn't at the
front of the pack. Simone got a few fifth places in
the car. And when Gabrielli came in, I
think he got three fourth places.
So it's, you know, the what he did wasn't doing that much
better. In fact, I think Simone really
impressed in 95 in what wasn't a performing car.
Warwick really struggled, Really, really struggled.
And yeah, just the style of racing I don't really think
suited Derek all that well. Also the style of car, the front
wheel drive car. He'd grown up obviously and had
been in Formula One with. We are, we've we've gone around
this about why so many F1 drivers struggled in tin tops
before. He was just another one.
And they probably lacked a little bit of direction as well
because their star driver was Warrick, who had zero experience
in Tin Tops. So but as Andrew said, the the
155 was just overtaken. Lots of people thought it was
the arrow, Gabrielli insists to this day it was the DIF.
I suppose we'll never know the truth, really.
But yeah, the car had just been overtaken on the development
front and was just not a front runner.
And yeah, Pro Drive really struggled with it.
Nissan's European motorsport boss Han Jan hadn't ruled out a
return to the BTCC for the four wheel drive Premiera Racing in
Germany for selected rounds in 1995.
When the four wheel drive programme is up to speed.
It would be good for publicity if we came back and TIF Nidel
could drive the car for us, he told Autosport.
TIF was reportedly keen to get back into a Nissan as well.
Andrew, we now know that this never happened, but did you know
much about us at the time? And how do you think the four
wheel drive version of the Premiera would have fed in the
BTCC? Well, it was a strong rumour,
but only a rumour at the time. It would have been great to see
them racing. I reckon in 95 they could have
been fairly good and in 96 they would have taken on the four
wheel drivers cars. We're going to talk about in a
minute the Niston's racing in Germany, which is where the cars
were, which was the closest series in terms of
competitiveness to the BTCC. They got better and better as
the season went on and of course later in the year Kiefer Dorr
took a win for them at Arvas just hours before Saturday.
He was killed in the second race there, so I think that probably
upended their programme a bit. But we did eventually see them
back in the BTCC, but that wasn't until 97 and it was a
completely different operation. Another 4 wheel drive entry
being rumoured at the time was the talk of an ALDI BTCC attack
after Doctor Wolfgang Ulrich, head of ALDI Sport, hinted.
I'd like us to do one or two races towards the end of the
season, but only with one of our existing works teams.
Alex, we obviously know that the 1996 entry happened, but do you
think talk of one off appearances at the end of 95
were real? It wasn't towards the end of 95
that I mean the rumours were that it would.
So the German series had this middle of season, mid season
break in July and August. So the thought was that maybe
the German team might come over and run the cards during that
break because there were no clashes.
Then there was talk of maybe the Italian team was going to come
over and then the the Piro was going to drive it.
And that, that made more sense because originally it was going
to be them that we're going to be running this 95 programme
that never happened. And then, yeah, obviously we now
know that none of it happened. But there were, I think they
were more than just rumours. They were sort of like solid
ideas to, to, to, to come and, and race.
Of course the, the other bizarre 1 is that originally it was
thought that Paul Stewart Racing would run the Audi Sport
programme in 96, which they, they obviously were quite keen
to get into touring cars because they also tried to get the
forward contract. That's where Surrey Racing ended
up with. So yeah, Paul Stewart and Jackie
were obviously quite keen on getting into the series.
They never did, but I think it was more more than just rumours.
But obviously as we know, it never happened.
And let's be honest, by the time 96 came, they didn't need the,
they didn't need the experience in 95 anyway, didn't they?
I mean, God help us if they did have the experience as well.
The the Audi programme wasn't actually officially announced
right until the FIA World Cup at the end of the year.
I remember sitting in a little room of Paul Ricard with all the
rest of the journals with Doctor Ulrich making the announcement,
me not realising just how many times I'd be interviewing him in
the following year and enjoying his vice spear.
She was. Oh dear, Oh dear.
But so by then we all knew it was going to happen.
He had been rumours for three or four weeks back in May at
Fraxton. It was only speculation, but in
Super Touring magazine, the issue that covered that Fraxton
race in May, we ran a story that the former GB Motorsport
workshops in Buckingham had been purchased for the 1996 Audi
team, and that story proved to be completely correct back in
March. I should have dug that that
episode that copy out when when I was researching there,
shouldn't I really? Yes.
Yeah. Here's a question for the room.
Based on what Alex said about them not needing that
preparation necessarily in 96 or Audi, do you think if they'd
come over for a couple of races, wipe the floor with everyone,
that might have then led the championship to put some weight
penalties in ahead of the 96 season and actually hurt them?
So God, Can you imagine the moaning?
It was bad enough with rear wheel drive, never mind with
four wheel drive as well. And we know what it was like for
the next two years before they banned it for 98.
I think one thing it might have done and is it might have
spurred on this Nissan programme.
If if Audi had come in and shown, shown them as it could be
done with four wheel drive, then maybe, maybe just maybe Nissan
would have pushed ahead. Maybe someone else might have
done it as well. Well Ford racing with four wheel
drive in the in the German series as well.
Weren't they in the STW? They had Patrese in a in a
Mondeo that was 4 wheel drive so.
And they were absolutely bombing.
Yes, they were. Yeah, they were, weren't they?
Yeah. I remember we went to the newer
burgering and one of my fellow journalists came up to me.
He said betrays. He was just sitting in the
paddock. He had a face like Thunder.
And this young kid came up and asked for his autograph and
Patras, he looked at him and said have you got a pen?
And the little kid shook his head.
Patras. He went well then and stopped
off. They were having such a bad time
in Germany. The Fords.
Wow. After four straight poles for
Volvo's Ricard Riedel, Frauxton saw two new names on the top of
the time sheets, Alan Menu and Vauxhall's James Thompson.
In 1994, Menu halted Alfa Ray Mayo's run of poles and the
Swiss did the same for Volvo Streak in 1995.
I got stuck in second gear exiting the last chicane, he
said. But it's still the pole, so I'm
happy enough. Significantly, it was the first
ever pole for Williams Touring Car Engineering and the icing on
the cake for the team's strongest qualifying showing
yet, Andrew. It took Williams just three
meetings to secure their first touring car pole position.
Was it a surprise in and amongst the paddock that they'd taken to
the touring car waters so quickly?
Not at all. In issue 2 of Super Touring
magazine, after the Donnington and the Brands races, I'd
written that no one doubted Renault anymore.
But they did fear them. This was the most top level of
F1 teams. You had a team manager, Ian
Harrison, later to become one of the founders of the BTCC
powerhouse AAA a year. Just a year earlier he'd been
overseeing a couple of drivers called Ayton Centre and Damon
Hill. It was absolutely clear from the
start, look, everyone at Williams was by no means playing
at going Tory guard races. They were deadly serious and so
the fact that they were right up the front and competitive was
probably the least surprising aspect of the weekend.
Muni's teammate Will Hoy had the left side drive shaft pelant on
his Laguna during the first session and continued to a
circumspect 10th on the grid after a temporary fix.
It felt spooky, he said after the session.
In the second session, Hoy took his first front row position
since 1993's Silverstone finale, missing out on the pole by just
0.017 seconds. We'd changed the engine
ancillaries between sessions and it started misfiring at the end
of the first session and it become felt brilliant.
Alex, After a tough few years with Toyota, was it good to see
Hoy back fighting at the front? Yes, it was wasn't.
It was brilliant actually. Fix a few results around and Hoy
could easily have been a double champion right at the start of
the era, you know, if Silverstone had gone
differently. You know, I know it's all if
buts and maybes, but I do think that you just switch a few
results, just two or three races and Hoy, you probably look back
at Will's career very differently than than people do.
Now. Yeah, yeah.
It was great to see Will. Great driver.
And he'd had, he'd had the sort of the the Jean Alesi effect of
just going to the wrong place at the wrong time or making the
wrong decision at the wrong time.
You know, I really felt that Will deserved a good bit of
luck. And he was another one that he
did have a lot of bad luck in his touring car career.
So yeah, great because that he had a couple of a couple of
Toyotas that were quite competitive.
Then the 94 Castrol car, which sadly didn't go anywhere as good
as it looked because it was a beautiful car, but it was it was
dog and and obviously he got his move to Renault, which was a
competitive car. And I was so, so thrilled that
he had that excellent run at the end of 95.
And and yeah, this, this showed that he still had the speed out
qualifying menu and getting the getting himself back on the
front row of the touring car grid.
Brilliant. Heading Hoy Vauxhall rookie
Thompson rewrite the BTCC record books my becoming it's youngest
ever pole sister just ten days after his 21st birthday.
I made a mistake in the morning session of finished fourth, so
for this afternoon I disengaged my brain around the back of the
circuit and gave it large. I made a small mistake at
Goodwood but just kept it all together, he told Autosport
after the session. Talking of talking of that lap,
one of my favourite anecdotes when when we did the pod with
with Jimmy was Patrick Head was actually at you.
Talk of Andrew talks about all these Williams sort of well
known Williams figures and senior senior figures at
Williams. Patrick Head was at Thruxton
this weekend watching, and apparently Jimmy told us that
after his qualifying lap, Patrick was suitably impressed.
Unimpressed enough to go and actually congratulate him and
tell him how impressed he was. Which, for anyone who knows,
Patrick Head is not. Out of.
Him. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. It takes a lot for him to give
such high praise. So that that's one of my
favourite anecdotes from from, from, from James's weekend here.
And. And something that clearly 30
years later still means a heck of a lot to him.
Yeah. After Volvo had dominated
qualifying so far in 1995, it was hardly disaster time, but
only 5th and 4th for Eidel was still a journey into the unknown
for the Swede. I'm not happy with the set up,
he explained. But that's not surprising with
only 255 minute test sessions. It feels quite bad on the bumps
around the back. Meanwhile, Rydell's teammate Tim
Harvey found himself starting at the back with a 10 second
penalty for the first race after missing the Weybridge.
This place has got us foxed, he said.
I didn't think we could have a worse set up than we had in the
first session, but we managed it for the second.
Let's hear what Tim had to say about his penalty.
The regulations say that you must stop for the red light on
the during the practise session to be weighed, which is fair
enough to stop people you know, doing a practise time with the
car underweight. But at the beginning of the
session I went out on cold tyres, went once round the track
and straight into the pits without ever crossing the line.
So I hadn't set a lap time and apparently I missed the weighing
scales when I should have stopped.
So I don't understand it. You know, if if you fail the
ride height check when they check you in the pits, you're
allowed to readdress the wide height and your time's dis loud
up to that point, but if you fail the weight check, you're
excluded from the whole session? Doesn't make sense.
Anyway, there we go. Adam, did the punishment fit the
crime in this situation or do you think it was a harsh
decision on the 1992 champion? I do think it was harsh but I'm
sure the rules just state that. And whenever you come into the
pit lane, if the red lights only you call to the white bridge,
the white scales and you you you go on it.
His argument, Tim's argument was the fact that he only went out
the pits and come straight back in.
So he hasn't set a time. I understand that as well, like
I really do. And it is harsh.
But to actually, yeah, give him the give him that punishment I
think was. But they're treating it the same
as whether you've just put a pole lap in or whether you
you've entered the pits. It doesn't matter what you've
done. You've entered the pits.
And yeah, I can see both sides, but I'd certainly be screwing
the same as Tim. To be honest, I'd I'd have been
having a a bitch and a moan about it as well.
But rules are rules. But I can just seriously imagine
this now with the FIA currently with Formula One and you can
change it made a lot clearer because it's a bit grey, but but
you could say it was a bit grey. But the same time they'll just
say, well, he says if the lights on when you come in the pit
lane, then you go on, but that is it.
Yeah, unfortunately for Tim, rules are rules.
However, it is very harsh and I can see why he feels hard done
by, but I guarantee if his championship rival had done the
same thing he'd be screaming for them to be sent.
Yeah. And plus, there's nothing more
frustrating than when you're in a rush and you're trying to get
in the pits to get a change done and then get back out and then
all of a sudden those bloody lights are on.
When you've got to go on the way scales, you're like, no, like
you just so I can imagine. I mean, did he see the lights?
You know, and you know, did he not see the lights?
Did he just drive past and then he's obviously have to suffer
the consequence afterwards? Or did he see them and ignore
them and think I'll be all right?
But unfortunately rules are rules.
And I'm saying this from obviously this side.
We don't know how we are. I'd have been screwing.
Yeah, exactly that it's a, it's a very harsh, I mean you can say
rule. Harsh penalty, you think?
It's a harsh penalty. Yeah, you can.
You can still have a, you can still be penalised for it, but I
don't think it needs to be such a hard penalty.
So as Tim said in his, in his interview there, it's not, it's
not the most ideal penalty for that offence, you know, but
there we go. It was all written down in the
rules. So sadly nobody can argue.
But yeah, I I did feel for Tim on this one because it ruins
your weekend, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, she just starts,
just starts bad then then it just changed the mood to
everything. Yeah, exactly.
But the shock of the session wasn't Volvo's minor fall from
grace. Instead it was a privateer doing
amazing things. At Brands Hatch we had Charlie
Cox take in his Mondeo to a fifth place finish in the wet.
Here we had Matt Neil taking his similar car to 7th in the first
qualifying. I had a couple of brave pills,
chuckled Neil after the session. Three of the corners I'd dumped
the brakes for in testing. I just lifted slightly instead
and surprise, it gripped. I'm chuffed Andrew, 1995 really
seemed to be the year for the privateers to start mixing it up
with the works boys, haven't it? Well, some of them, yeah, I'll
be Matt Neil's dynamics operation.
So that was a step above the rest For much of the Super
Touring era. It was a step above the rest, as
we know, especially later in the era.
The others had flashes of brilliance, but they were only
flashes. And also it tended to happen
early in the season because they made hay why they could, because
as the work squads developed their cars and obviously the
privateers had enough money to run a season, they didn't have
money to throw at development. They tended to they they just
couldn't keep up the work squads and ended up fighting amongst
themselves. So you tended to see the
privateers doing really well in the sort of earlier part of the
season and then realising that they, as, as Matt Neil would
find out to his cost in this race that, you know, mixing it
with the work squads was not really normally a very good
idea. Yeah, they tended to Well,
that's it's all this. We're going off topic slightly,
but it is the story of 98 in the Independence Cup, isn't it?
Is that Matt? Neil was by far the quickest of
the of the Independence, but because he was mixing it with
the likes of Derek Warwick and Johnny Will be Daily and Peter
Cox, quite often he ended up in the wall or up a tree.
Yeah. And Tommy Rushdad, I don't want
to discredit, Yeah, I don't want to discredit his championship
win because obviously he did a great job as well in a good car.
But yeah, he didn't have the outright speed of Neil, but he
had the consistency of finishing when Matt, you know, sometimes a
lot of the time actually got caught up in incidents because
he was mixing it with yeah, the good old boys and and various
other characters at the mid grid of the BTCC at the time.
At the lights, menus slotted into the lead ahead of Cleland,
with Paul Radicich's Ford Mondeaux maintaining the grid
order as the field streamed through the complex without
incident. Into the club chicane for the
first time, Riedel tried to take third from Radisitch with a dive
down the outside, but the pair made contact and the Volvo
schlewed off the track. Riedel was furious.
He had me off and after that my car wasn't so good, he said
after the race. Randisich.
Counted. Randisich counted.
He went across my bow and spun himself out.
What do we think of this song, guys?
We'll come to you first, Alex. Something or nothing.
Racing incident. Both angry because they both
thought they were right. But yeah, just I, I didn't think
anything of it. It's one of the few, I agree.
It's one of the few places where you can overtake Rant Throgston
and we see it time and time again where the manoeuvre can be
done, but it involves the agreement of both parties.
But. So you put, and what I mean by
that is there's another scenario where someone goes on the
outside, you've got it, you're taking that risk of being pushed
wide, you end up going over the chicane, ripping you from bumper
off and your race is over. And we all know he can end up
badly. But with that one, well, I've
watched the footage back quite a bit now on that piece and here
he's done the manoeuvre, but it's just as he's about to then
go from the right to turn left, that's where he he turns in a
bit too tight and makes contact Radisic.
Radisic doesn't run in wide Radisic just staying in that
position like you're going in there maximum attack.
So you're trying to keep the the car as stable as you can as
you're braking, you change it down the gears you're turning at
the same time. And it's just it's just the
timing of it of of ride down just turning a bit too much and
squeezed him a bit too much. And that's where he, you know,
another half a second later, he'd have had a left hand lock
on to go through the middle of the scan and then he got away
with it and they'd have just probably just brushed panels.
But yeah, he, he tried his luck and unfortunately it, it didn't
work on this occasion. So it's certainly, but he
certainly wasn't Radisich's fault.
No, six of one, well, probably nine of one and three of
another. The Volvos, they were struggling
at fracs and compared to how they've been in the season so
far, so the tempers were short to start with even before that
happened, so. Yeah, yeah, it's they both could
have given each other a bit more room.
Well, watch it back. And Radish couldn't have done
any more. Like he couldn't, he couldn't.
Like he was just in the position he was in, in that he's been in
every lap. Then Rydell just pushed his
luck. She's trying to get a car that's
the size of a tank through there as well.
Yes, there is. Isn't.
It discipline how big they were, isn't it?
It's massive. When you look at them, they just
look huge, don't they? Compared to everything else,
yes. Thompson was soon passed
Stratosich and into third and set about chasing down team mate
Cleland. At the end of lap 4, Watts had
now passed Stratosich, with the Keely soon succumbing to power
steering failure in his Mondeo. By half distance Thompson was
closing in on Cleland and slowly but surely the pair began to
reel in the Renault ahead. I pulled out the gap in the
opening laps. Explain menu but the tyres began
to go off around mid distance. After that I had to be smooth
and tried to save the tyres. Adam, tell us a bit about
Froxton and tyres. It's the tail as old as Tyne it
seems in the BTCCM. Is it as bad as it seems to keep
hold of the tyres over the course of the race distance?
Yeah, it certainly can be. And we've seen this particularly
like during my era of the toilet cars, the Hondas struggled.
They struggled with punctures with the left front.
And I remember Dunlop telling everybody to to stay off the,
the chicane that left-handed in the middle, particularly for the
first sort of, you know, two or three laps, try and build some
temperature up there, build some strength into the tyre wall
before you start. Because it was a humongous curb.
I think I've changed it now compared to what it was, but it
was massive. So yeah, it, it's always been a
tough one. But I think it's a combination
of car set up where teams are pushing their luck to get the
maximum out of it and just running that bit of a risk, but
also in terms of chassis and just the way they're designed.
And if they're just particularly harder on the front tyres.
But I I didn't struggle for punctures around there, but I
was one of the the four ones. I could make a race distance.
But there's plenty when I did it that that couldn't finish it.
I remember the Hondas vividly having continual problems there
with dynamics. But yeah, it's it's tough, you
know, it is a tough, tough circuit because just the rest of
the circuit, although it's a really high speed circuit, it's
all in a bowl. Like you constantly got right
hand lock on pretty much you've got the left hand of the
chicane, you've got the one in the in the first complex and
that's your lot. So yeah, it's quick as well.
But I think it's a combination of things.
But I remember seeing, I might have been in the second race
where I can't remember the on board footage was of this one,
but you could see Cleland ahead and I think it was, I don't know
if it's a bit I'm doing it behind.
I can't remember, but Cleland was ahead and he completely
avoids the curb through the chicane.
But the car, the in car footage that I was watching was
clattering the curves. Like generally you would unlike,
you know, a qualifying lap or something to try and keep up.
But he could see Purb and you do gain some time by by taking it.
That's why we all take it. But that that middle, that
middle curb. But I could see Cleland just
avoiding it, knowing what what the dangers were.
And it was always a risk. It was always a risk if you
started to take that inside curb.
By lap 14, the lead trio had transformed itself into a loose
gaggle with a growing gap to Watts, who in turn was well
clear of sudden David Brabham's BMW and GM Pierre Simoni putting
up Alfa Romeo's most competitive showing of the season.
Alex, we've touched on it already, but this really was a
fall from grace for Alfa Romeo after their dominance of 1994.
Yeah, I mean, it was, but you mentioned there David Brabham's
BMW. It was a fall from grace for BMW
too. Dominated from, well, they won
9192 and 93 and suddenly, you know, they were competitive
eventually in 94 once they dropped the weight and put the
wings on. So, yeah, it's it was a fall
from grace for a few people. And David Brabham probably
wasn't expecting to be fighting 12th, 13th, 14th places in the
BTCC when he signed up from Formula One for BMW.
But you know, as I said earlier, Simone, I thought was superb in
95 and and that alpha really hit a lot of his excellent drives.
And because that car was not great, not great at all.
And yeah, it's, it's a shame really, because that's some big
names and some big manufacturers with some big history.
I mean, BMW, there's very few marks with more history and
touring car racing than absolutely.
Yeah, than BMW is there, you know, and but yeah, a fall from
grace for a few and some newcomers.
You know, Volvo, I know they had this stint in the 80s with the
European touring cars, but Volvo were very new.
Renault were quite new to this, so certainly was a shuffling of
the of the the sort of the pecking order, as it were.
Suddenly, on lap 16, Thompson went off at Goodwood, A tyre
blown. It was odd, he said.
I'd been keeping it tidy, so maybe I picked up some debris.
At the complex. Without his wingman, Clend
continued his attack on Menu in his Laguna ahead, attacking down
the outside into the chicane as Menu diligently defended his
pace. But down to the chicane for the
last time, Charlotte is charging a desperate effort that gets
through in this last complex of corners.
Left, right. He doesn't make it and Ella Menu
went for Renault. Jubilation all round.
Through the chicane for the last time and the Vauxhall virtually
pushed the Renault through it, but menu was not going to give
this one up. Under breaking.
John was a bit better so the remarkably cool, almost
nonchalant menu afterwards, but I always had the inside covered.
I'm just glad it wasn't another two or three laps.
Cleland was pleased to be back on the podium after Brands
Hatch, whilst a surprised Watts to round up the podium for the
first race. We worked hard on rebuilding the
car since the brand's shunt, he said.
But it was all guest setups that just happened to be perfect.
I think this has shown our potential, Andrew.
It's not a trip to Patrick. What's sympathy corner this
time? It's a decent result for Peugeot
after that huge shunt that Patrick have at Ramsutch.
Yeah, Peugeot looked close to the top in 94 and for a while in
95. That continued despite all the
issues with the lack of factory support that we've documented
many times in the past on the pod and when Watts kept his
enthusiasm at manageable levels. He was a very good driver and
actually so was his new teammate, young Simon Harrison,
who is one of those talents that sort of disappeared.
He was also one of the really nice guys in the paddock.
We had a lot of laughs with him. So, yeah, Peugeot, you know,
they were there and thereabouts. Unfortunately, from here it all
started to go downhill. Yeah, Harrison I felt really
sorry for because he didn't really have a fair chance at the
at the championship really. He just had that one year in a
works capacity. I know he came back and did
those dreadful Class B things in 2001.
But yeah, he didn't seem to have a fair crack of the whip at the
championship and. I do amazing.
Not the only one you can say that about in the history of the
BTC. That is very true.
I just remember him being a
very, very nice man. He was.
St Autograph. So ah.
Yeah, no, he was. He was always a nice guy.
He had a lot of laughs. As the cars were lining up on
the grid for the second race of the day, James Thompson found
himself all alone on the front row as the damage to Wilhoy's
Renault meant he wasn't able to take his position alongside him.
Thompson was into the lead, followed by Menu Riedel Cleland
and Kelvin Burt. His lead was to prove short
lived, however, as privateer Charlie Cox had a huge accident
at the club chicane which brought the red flags out.
Building up to 145 miles an hour and down to the club chicane.
Second gear, 60 miles an hour. Thompson loves his right rear
venue second, right down his third.
No, it is 4th. Bert is fifth.
What's his think? Wow, look at that.
Look at that. Who's that?
I think it was a Mondeo. Out go the Marshalls, Somebody
off in a very, very big way. Oh, I hope, I hope everything's
OK. They don't realise of course, up
front the that's happened. They're still racing.
Thompson's leading menu second, but surely they're going to have
to stop this race. Yes, they are.
Out goes the red flag. Well guys, it's the big one that
we all remember. Does it still make you wince to
watch that one back now? Yeah, it's, it's a horrible
shunt, horrible, horrible shunt. And really, really did worry
that that Charlie was going to be seriously injured or or even
worse. Charlie was very, very lucky to
get out of this one relatively unscathed.
But we do know he still suffers from this accident even to this
day. They don't they don't get much
bigger than that at all. Yeah, you watch it back all
these years later, like if that happened, you know, last weekend
live event that you're watching, you'd think wow, like it's I
think it could have been a whole lot worse.
I don't just mean for Charlie. I mean the fact that there's a
bloody grandstand right there. The fact that he pitched he
pitched to the left as early as he did when you hit the brake
pedal, he's gone off into the gravel.
If that'll have happened a little bit later and then barrel
rolled. We know what happens when you
start gaining air and you and you're losing you're not
scrubbing off speed and you're in the air some sorting.
You can end up over the barriers and and beyond.
So I think, you know, from a Marshall's perspective and
everything, you know, you, you know, that was, that could have
been really, really, really bad. Fraxton has a subsidiary press
box and it's on the inside of the chicane and quite a lot of
the journalists, they like to watch the races from there, even
today, even in the BTCC today. So I was there and I had a front
row view of the shunt and it was every bit as shocking as as it
looks on TV. The other odd thing was that one
of the features we did for the issue that I was working on at
that time of Super Touring magazine was on Doctor Trafford
and his medical team and that included the Toca helicopter.
Now this was flown by a guy called James McAlpine, who I'd
got to know quite well. In the previous series.
I covered Thunder salons because he came racing in Thunder salons
with for a short while with a guy called Jerry, Jerry Marney,
who we don't talk a lot about. And I always remember because
when James first turned up in Thunderstoons at the media day,
we were all having lunch and the other drivers were talking to
him. And they said to him, well, what
does your family do? And he said, Oh, well, we build
things. And he went and he said, build
things. And James said, yeah, Wembley
Stadium is one of ours. And they all went, oh, you're
one of those Macalpines. And yeah.
So James piloted to take a medical helicopter.
And just before the Fraxton meeting, he married Heather
Bailey, who was a female racing driver.
And she's a terrible aside who had a few years earlier been
teaching my wife to, to race. Well, my, my fiancee, she was
there So and in doing this feature, Doctor Trafford told me
that they'd always had this medical helicopter on standby,
but they'd never had to use it to evacuate a driver from the
circuit. And this meeting was the first
time that a driver was evacuated from the circuit because Charlie
was taken off to the local hospital in it.
But looking back at the issue, I wrote that time, I always had a,
a thing in the news called touring talk, which was quotes
from drivers. And I got a quote from Charlie
straight after qualifying. And you we all know church
corner at Fraxen. He's really a scary corner for a
driver because it's full speed. Get it slightly wrong.
You're you're halfway to Andover.
And Charlie said to me that he had a big spin at church in
during qualifying and he went, that's the closest I've ever
come to God. And then he went and had his
accident in the race. Yeah.
And then he met Alex Clark. The race was quickly stopped
with the rescue crews quickly on the scene to extract the still
conscious cocks. Miraculously, he escaped of
little more than bruises and shock and was taken to
Basingstoke Hospital to remain under observation.
His Mondeo, however, was destroyed in the 135 mile an
hour barrel roll just weeks after he scored the best ever
result for an independent in the championship after 5th place at
France Hatch. Charlie told us about the shunt
a few weeks ago, so let's listen back to what he had to say.
In fact, if I'd actually written Thames on the roof and Ford on
the underside of the car, it would have been brilliant.
Thames Forward. Whoa, let me down, Let me down.
Who's that? It would have been epic
advertising, but I didn't have the width for that and somebody
else suggested I actually could have had Thames and Ford on the
soles of my boots for when I was stretching it off.
Anyway, I was knocked out and I finished up in these bloody Rd
works which were going on outside the circuit because the,
the car went down a bank and out through the the circuit and
landed and all these great big piles of dirt.
And I came to, I couldn't see anything out of that eye at all.
And I could just see something out of this one eye, like
looking down a toilet roll tube, which I did a lot when I was 7.
And I was thinking, wow, I was, I'm dead and there was just
dirt. And because I'm looking up at
45° into the sun, I was waiting for God, but all I could see was
dirt and and it turned out I was in these Rd works and all I
could see was a busted windscreen and but it destroyed
the car and and went once again Ford and Carphone Warehouse and
those guys all chipped in and we needed another 100 grand to
build a new car. You might remember Mika Hakkinen
had he wasn't in the same race because hacking it had a crash I
think in Adelaide and suffered the same injury where basically
you drop your inner ear. It's like it's like dropping a
Santa snow globe and all the fibres in it start floating
around and it makes you constantly dizzy and it takes
can take a couple of years for all the fibres to settle down
South. It may go into bed very
exciting. Around 30 minutes later,
Thompson did it all again in a restarted race, now reduced to
17 laps from the original 20. Menu again latched onto the
voxels tale with Burt third ahead of Riedel Radisich, Watts,
Sugden and Simon Harrison's Peugeot.
Cleland was only 9th after a dreadful start.
Alex Kelvin Burt was making a strong stunt his BTCC career
here, running ahead of Radisich a few races in, in a team that
was very clearly Radisich is at this point as well.
Yes, Kelvin had started the season very strong in his first
full season in in British touring cars, in touring cars
because he was the reigning Formula 3 champion and was test
driver at Jordan for the Formula One team.
But he certainly hadn't hadn't done much in touring cars and it
was very impressive what he was doing.
Radicich of course. Double wheel champion, no slouch
and outperforming him so early on in his career was very
impressive. Cleland was beginning to make a
move and was on what's his tale by lap 8.
The pair clashed on the next lap 3 Seagrave, with what's breaking
a wheel in the process. They touched again as they
continued through the complex, and Watts was spun off by the
second impact. One's in the red white carve as
well, and not before when when John's telling now and suddenly
the position he's attending from points and he's attacking once
once locks up his left rear into the whole legs.
There's twenty seats once fell and 5th, 6th, 7th me to the left
hand. Well now the right-hander at sea
grave. Hey, Cleland is going through.
I'll be the sixth position for this contact.
Get off, says Cleland, and that's goodbye to another
John's. Have a mirror and that's what's
going through and off talented him.
Bang off goes the Peugeot cloud of dust.
It's on four wheels. Sir Patrick Watts will be
perfectly OK. You'll be undoing the bells
furiously, I bet. The door opens and out against
the lanky Patrick Watts, safe and sound, but very sorry.
Slam. Cleland said he was slow through
the left-hander in the complex. We went through side by side and
touch wheels. Then he seemed to just stop dead
for the next part and I hit him square in the back.
What's retaliated with? I was a little slow there, but
he forced me wide, whacked into me and broke my wheel.
Adam, from your side as a driver, are you siding with
Cleland or what's on this one? It was a complete racing
incident, you know, when you look at it.
Watts initially slowed himself down by challenging Raditic,
which I'm not sure he meant to initially because when you look
at the footage, he locks up a wheel and you can see the smoke
coming off it going into the complex.
So I think he's then gone wide, which then then you know when
you go through the right and you can dive at the inside for the
left, it's sort of put him in that position.
But when he's attempted to do it, didn't pull it off, he's
then slowed himself down. That's then brought Cleland into
the frame that then gone through the the the right-hander going
back out onto the straight. They've touched naturally, as
you do from time to time. You know, unfortunately what's
came off worse there with with the piece of his wheel coming
off. I don't think at that point you
then realise that there's a obviously he's broken his wheel
and then obviously he's lost the pressure in the in the tyre.
He's then gone into the flat out left-hander.
He just, you know, to the left of Cleland, but then realise
actually I can't, I can't turn into the corner as as much as I
need to realise there's a problem.
Obviously Cleland has had nowhere to go and and just
tagged him, you know, on the back.
So you know, his race was done when the wheel was broken but
didn't realise it until the flat out left-hander.
And by that point, luckily he didn't ruin Cleland's race.
You know, he tagged him and nerved him off but he was
already going off and watched his race was already done.
But yeah, it was, it was unfortunate for him, really
unfortunate. But you know, Cleland got away
lightly, really, because it could have been a whole lot
worse for him. Moving past the 10 lap mark and
suddenly Thompson was edging out a little over the Renault.
It was a good battle at first, said Thompson.
But I edged away and concentrated on looking after my
tyres and keeping a reasonable pace.
Menu admitted his overall title chances became a factor in the
later lapse. I thought maybe he'd gone too
hard too soon but he hadn't, so I saved my tyres and fought of
the championship. Andrew, at this early point in
the season, is this a wise choice for Menu?
He was clearly one of the favourites for the title at the
time and this helped him get into the lead of the
Championship leave in Fruxton. Yeah, as I said earlier, F1 team
quality, Williams had won many an F1 title by this time.
They knew the right way to go about BTCC racing.
So if Allan hadn't have thought about doing this for himself, he
would have very firmly been told by Mr Harrison on the pit Wolf.
So, yeah, yeah. Clellan's charged stalled with
5th after he disposed of Ratasich, with Harvey 7th
behind. All Hell had periodically broken
loose as a train with the likes of David Babin's BMW, Derek
Warwick's Alpha Simoni, both Hondas and even Nigel Smith's
Privateer Cavalier got involved. Alex.
It was quite a battle in the midfield with some previous big
hitters in there as well. Yeah, some big names at that end
of the grid that year, obviously Brabham and Warwick, both ex F1
drivers. Simoni was a BTCC race winner so
so yeah, they were really, really big names and probably
were a little bit miffed that they were down that end of the
grid fighting rather than at the front.
Come on. The outside made off.
Oh, that's where Charlie Cox went off.
But Brabham's gone straight into the tower wall.
He unclips the safety net. Let's just stop their arms
coming out. If the car rolls and the windows
open and David's obviously perfectly all right.
Well, physically anyway. Mentally, he won't be ways to
the crowds. They'll be glad to see he's OK.
He's a replay, so look at Warwick in possibly trying to go
through closing to 60 miles an hour from 145.
Brabham's got nowhere to go except onto the grass and into
the tyre wall. And Derek keeps going.
Oh, there's justice for you. Inevitably, things ended in
tears when Brabham and Warwick clashed at the chicane.
Brabham ended his race broadside in the tyre wall, with Warwick
hobbling around to eventually retire.
Adam, what are your thoughts on this one?
Completely Derek's fault. I've watched it.
I watched it again just in case I made a mistake.
And then I thought I'll just watch it for a third time.
But yeah, this was just one of many moments that Derek had that
obviously said before that he wasn't, you know, a particular
fond time of his life being in the BTCC.
And this is one of the reasons he he's got it completely wrong.
One in there too hot, locked up, hit the side of Brabham, ruined
his race and and that was it being embarrassing really.
But the fact that he apologised afterwards to Brabham, you know,
says it all, doesn't it? Couldn't hide with that one and
try and make out there was a racing manoeuvre.
It was, it was, wasn't it wasn't blatant in terms of he did it
deliberately. He just got it really wrong.
He was on the inside, said Brabham.
Locked up and hit me. He's apologised now but it's
damage I could have done without Adam Andrew.
A real baptism of fire in the championship for David Brabham
in a car that he would have assumed would be more
competitive than it was. He would have done when he
signing the contract. Yeah, BMW dropped the ball in
1995 and they did it by changing teams.
They sent Schnitzer back to Germany and they signed up Team
Warthoffer to come and do the BTCC.
Now, later in that year we actually went to visit Wartopher
in Bavaria and they were in OK outfit, but they weren't Team
Schnitzer. Schnitzer's bar.
So absolutely lovely guy called Charlie Lamb.
He would have rung better results out of the car.
And poor David Brabham and Johnny Cicotto for that matter,
who was actually quite a good driver.
They were simply in the wrong team at the wrong time.
Reading off the final laps, Thompson Judy became the BTCC's
youngest ever winner, 2.85 seconds ahead of Menu Alex.
A really impressive drive from James Thompson there, wasn't it?
Yeah, very impressive. He literally didn't put a foot
wrong all weekend and certainly in this race LED from the front,
took pole position, obviously LED twice from the front because
obviously that that that shunt at the start for Charlie Cox
meant that we had a second race start and he could easily have
folded under that pressure. But no, he's shown and a well
deserved first of many BTCC victories.
Yeah, I think James Thompson is still underrated today.
I think he was one of the true stars of the BTCC.
Probably didn't always have the lap when he needed it.
I mean, that first season would be ruined halfway through with
his big shunt at Noch Hill. And so yeah, yeah, no.
Absolute star of the Super Touring era, James Thompson.
And he shows as well just back to Tomo.
He like just how much loved, how loved he still is by the
feedback. And obviously we got him on the
pod, didn't we? And it was brilliant.
Everyone loved it and it was a little bit reluctant to begin
with, but the feedback from everyone I know, I don't know
how the same with people that have fed back to you as well.
I like, I really like the really wanted him on and we're really
pleased that we had him on And and I think that that proves.
Just what a start he was and how much he was loved in the touring
cars, you know, championship. Now it's time for one of our
favourite segments on stories from Super Touring.
It's time for Matt's Facts. In this segment, our very own
producer Matt takes us through a series of intriguing, lesser
known facts about the race we're diving into.
Whether it's behind the scenes trivia, forgotten details, or
fun tidbits that didn't make it into the headlines, Matt always
has something that will surprise and impress.
So sit back and enjoy as we dig into the history with some facts
that only Matt could uncover. Thank you very much.
It's about the same round of pressure on us.
James Thompson do. You know what I think?
I think you've actually got more there, Matt.
To be fair, that was a bigger builder than Murray could have.
Ever done Well, as we know, this was James Thompson's first BTCC
win, so let's take a look at his other successes in the Super
Touring era of the BTCC. So James scored twelve wins in
Super Touring, and these came at as many as seven different
circuits across 9 different configurations.
He won at Setterton twice, Croft twice, Silverstone International
twice, and then Thruxton Brands Indy, Alton Park, Fosters,
Donaton National, Donaton International, and Alton Park
Island all once. In total, James was on the
podium 38 times with twelve wins, 15 second places and 11
third place finishes. Like his wins, James's podiums
came at a large variety of circuits standing on the
rostrum. 8 different tracks across 12 different
configurations. Knock Hill is the only venue
James raced at in Super Touring without winning.
He actually never won at Knock Hill, not even in BTCT or S 2000
days, and I think bearing in mind how many races he must have
done there, it was a bit of a bogey track for him.
Right from the start. Yes, I think I seem to remember
in 2004 he pretty much wrote the car from qualifying as well.
So he he never had luck there for whatever reason, but quite
surprising he never took a victory.
So as already mentioned, this wasn't only James Thompson's
first win. Race 1 was also the first win
for Williams. So let's take a look at their
other successes in Super Touring.
Renault scored the most amount of victories in Super Touring as
a whole, with 38 wins. 33 of these came with Williams.
Amazingly, this means as a team, Williams scored more wins in
five years than any manufacturer across the entire Super Touring
period as a manufacturer, but across multiple teams, BMW
scored 32 wins in six years and Vauxhall won 31 times in 10
years. Renault also secured a total of
102 podium finishes, with Williams claiming 86 of them.
There were a few other people celebrating smaller successes
this weekend as well. We've already mentioned Simon
Harrison and this was the only meeting in his BTCC career where
he scored points in both races with a 10th in race 1 1/9.
In race 2, Nigel Smith got his best overall result of the
season with P11 in race one on route to winning both
Independence races this weekend. In 1994 he did manage to get an
outright point by finishing 10th at Brandt Hatch.
Tim Sumden's fourth place in race 1 was his best ever finish
for Toyota in a tough couple of years.
His next best set of results was a trio of 6th places.
One team not celebrating too much was Ford.
Race one saw both their cars retire.
The only team to have a double retirement in one race this
weekend. This is, let's call it an
experience that Ford suffered 4 times in 1995, which is more
than any other team. However, they didn't have the
most retirements in total during the year.
The Ford either didn't start or retired 15 times, the same as
Toyota, but Peugeot was 17 along with AR and BMW both with 18
retirements had the most. Which comes back to what you're
saying earlier about the Alfa Romeo and BMW, and therefore
from Grace. Having 18 retirements across 2
drivers from 25 races, but 18 out of 50 is a pretty shocking
rate to their credit. Quite surprisingly, new Team
Honda tied with Volvo for the fewest retirements, logging just
six each. As we wrap up today's look back
at the 1995 BTCC meeting at Thruxton, it's impossible not to
reflect on the highs and the lows that define that weekend.
James Thompson's break free first win marked a new chapter
for him in the championship, whilst Williams triumphs also
left their mark. Of course, the huge accident
involving Charlie Cox served as a stark reminder of the dangers
that are always present on the racetrack.
I'd like to thank Andrew Charmin for once again joining us today
and we look forward to seeing you on the pod again soon.
Andrew. I certainly look forward to
coming back again. As you know, I always enjoy
these. Our thanks also 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 act of choice.
In the meantime, we will see you next week.
Goodbye.