BTCC 2014 - the halfway stage

When the entry list was confirmed at the official Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship Media Day back in March, many fans expected this season to be fiercely competitive with a record 31 car grid for the upcoming season, with 7 of those being piloted by current and former BTCC champions from across the years, and the series has duly delivered as we enter the summer break after 15 thrill packed races.

So far the most impressive driver in my view is the championship leader Colin Turkington; the Northern Irishman has taken an impressive 9 podium finishes out of a possible 15 so far this season, converting 6 of those podium finishes into race wins. When you consider that this is his second season in the eBay Motor's BMW 125i since his return after a four year gap, it has shown how he has gone from strength to strength, as has the car which has become more consistent with each race, and also helped team mate Rob Collard to 5th in the points as things stand. Turkington has always been a quality driver since he first made a name for himself in the BTCC, but even by his standards he has had a fantastic first half of the 2014 season, and, depending on consistency, he certainly has the ability to clinch his second drivers title, as long as he and the team pick up from where they left off at a very positive weekend at Croft.

Another driver that has been impressive so far this season in my eyes is one of the series newcomers Tom Ingram, driving the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis. The current Ginetta GT Supercup champion had been tipped for a move up to the BTCC since dominating in the Ginetta support series, starting with the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2010, and made the dream a reality for the 2014 season. He also admitted before the season started that his main target was to  finish consistently in the top 10 over the course of the season, a feat which Speedworks have struggled to achieve since their debut in 2011, and one that has only been accomplished by Paul O'Neill during a guest drive for the team at Knockhill in 2012. However, Tom has proved his critics wrong and has indeed managed to finish regularly in the top 10, getting the best out of the car which at last is showing its true potential. With more consistent top 10 finishes, I believe Tom will be able to go on and achieve great things, and has the potential to be a future champion of the BTCC.

On the opposite end of the scale, there have also been drivers which have been disappointing so far this season. Despite all the hype in the pre-season, I feel a bit let down by the lack of performance from former champions Alain Menu and Fabrizio Giovanardi. Menu has been out of a full drive in the BTCC since 2000, where he drove for Ford in their Mondeo during the Supertourer era, and as a result the switch to NGTC will be a huge change from what he had been used to driving. Still, Menu has been progressing steadily, but perhaps not at the pace as he was expecting, and has had good chances of a strong finish, only for them to be dashed away for numerous reasons, meaning that he will be more determined for strong results in the latter part of the season, especially when he has a strong car underneath him in the BMR Volkswagen CC. On the flipside, Fabrizio Giovanardi has not been progressing as consistently thus far this season, and has been inconsistent in terms of qualifying and race results, which is quite disappointing, especially as he has been out of the series for less time than Menu. Arguably he too has to get used to NGTC machinery, but it also has to be said that the Airwaves Focus is not the strongest car on the grid, but hopefully 'Gio' will be able to get the best out of the Ford and push for strong results in the second half of the season.

It is not just the returning duo that have been disappointing this season. Triple champion Matt Neal has also had a fairly poor season as things stand, and has been caught up in numerous incidents which is unlike him, meaning he too has been inconsistent in his race results. However, Neal has also been inconsistent in qualifying, where he has found himself starting in the middle of the pack and struggling to get near the top of the time sheets. Team Dynamics do have a new car for Neal and team mate Shedden, but both drivers admitted that the Civic Tourer is not much different to the hatchback model they ran for the previous two seasons, so it is hard to find a reason why Neal has been struggling whereas his team mate has fared better, especially when he performed so well when behind the wheel of the hatchback Civic model. 

Looking ahead to the second half of the season, the drivers I believe we should be keeping an eye on are Turkington for definite, especially as he is the championship leader and has been dominant so far this season, it will be interesting to see if he and the eBay Motors squad can keep the momentum going into the later stages of the BTCC season. I also think that Menu and Giovanardi could improve in the second half, which will make for interesting viewing towards the end of the season, as well as Ingram who will be looking to build on a strong start. Another man who can never be discounted is Triple Eight's Jason Plato, who will always have a part to play when the championship comes to its climax towards the last few rounds, and he is also one of the most consistent drivers on the grid so will be looking to get the better of Turkington when the series returns at Snetterton in three weeks time.

One thing is for certain, with 31 drivers all battling for race wins and podiums, there is a long way to go as far as the championship is concerned, and no driver can ever be ruled out or ignored when it comes to touring car racing; it's unpredictability is what makes the series so exciting and what draws the fans in.

Photo Credit: Alan Faulkner 

Mixed weekend for Mealin at Croft

Chris Mealin endured a mixed weekend at Croft in the latest rounds of the Formula Ford GB championship.

The Manxman suffered from a coming together in race 3 of the weekend with Scholarship rival Connor Mills at the hairpin, which put a dampener on what could have been a promising weekend for the 20 year old.

Mealin qualified 9^th for the first race of the weekend and 8^th for the final race going off the second fastest lap times of the session, and was able to secure a 7^th place finish in the first race of the weekend, and finishing 2^nd in the Scholarship Class behind Ashley Sutton who took 2^nd place overall. He managed to achieve the same result in the second race of the day, making it two podiums out of two for the Scholarship, again finishing behind Sutton who won the second race of the day.

However, the weekend ended on a sour note as far as Mealin is concerned; he made a good start to the race, moving up to 6^th after lap 2 and was beginning to show some good pace, but dropped down the order on the same lap after a coming together between him and Mills at the hairpin, as a late lunge down the inside failed to pay off for Mills who caught the rear left of Mealin’s car and sent him into a slide. Fortunately Mealin was able to avoid contact with any other cars and came home 9^th , a result which seen him finish outside the Scholarship podium places, with team mate Ricky Collard taking the final step on the podium in 8^th place.

Despite three top 10 finishes, Mealin was disappointed with how the weekend ended; feeling slightly aggrieved with the result of race 3, but is confident of bouncing back at Snetterton after the summer break. “The last time I saw him in my left mirror [Mills] was on the exit of the right, it’s just that I had the four of them behind me so I knew if I took the wide line in and left the door open I would have been pushed wide by one and they all would have gone through, that’s why I stayed in the middle”.

“He wasn’t even half a car width up the inside when we touched; it was his front right which hit me so I’m disappointed really. This weekend we were aiming to chase down the top 6 but I didn’t have a good qualifying session which then made the weekend a whole lot harder from then on really”.

After an impressive start to his debut season in the Formula Ford GB Championship, Mealin will be hoping to pick up where he’s left off from the first half of the season and will be looking to go from strength to strength in the Falcon Motorsport machine.

Written by Alan Faulkner

Photo Credit: Alan Faulkner

Disappointing weekend for Cook at Croft

Josh Cook has seen his lead slide to just 15 points in the Courier Connections Renault Clio Cup UK, after suffering from contact in round 10 of the championship at Croft.

The 23 year old came into the weekend leading the championship by a healthy 32 points from nearest rival James Colburn. However, despite showing good pace in the free practice sessions on Friday and topping the time sheets, the championship leader was unable to match the pace of Jordan Stilp in Saturday’s qualifying session, with the 19 year old taking pole position for both of the following races, with Cook settling for second.

Cook struggled in the first race of the day, after contact on the opening lap at Clervaux between James Colburn and Paul Rivett dropped him back down the field as he manoeuvred around the collision, and as a result team mates Ash Hand and Ant Whorton-Eales were able to take advantage and get passed on the inside line. After moving off the racing line early on, Cook was unable to recover and had to settle for fourth place after duelling with Whorton-Eales for a podium finish.

After missing out on a podium, Cook was determined to make amends in the second race of the day, again starting on the front row. Unfortunately his race was to be short lived, as Paul Rivett got caught up once again at Clervaux on the opening lap, this time coming together with the championship leader, who in turn collided with the tyre stack at Hawthorn and his Clio sustained significant damage as a result. Despite a brave effort to soldier on, the damage was too much and Cook subsequently received a black and orange flag, forcing him to pit and end any chance of rescuing a point’s finish. 

Cook was clearly disappointed with the way the weekend panned out after a string of good results, but will be hoping to bounce back after the summer break at Snetterton, and will take some comfort about still leading the championship after a poor weekend.

Written by Alan Faulkner

Photo Credit: Darren Hurrell Photographs       

Clio Cup half term report

The 2014 Courier Connections Renault Clio Cup UK has provided close action once again this year, with the series continuing its support of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.  

Despite there being a much smaller number of cars on the grid compared to recent years, the racing has not been compromised, with all the drivers, 14 to date, getting involved with tight bumper to bumper racing that has made the Clio Cup stand out as a huge opportunity for young drivers to test their skills, and has also seen a number of drivers use their experience from the championship to graduate, mainly into the BTCC, such as Phil Glew, Alex MacDowall, and more recently Dave Newsham and Jack Goff.

In the brand new 4^th generation Renault Clio, it has been SV Racing’s Josh Cook that has led the way at the halfway stage as far as the championship is concerned, with the 23 year old having three wins and seven overall podium finishes to his name. He leads the championship on 237 points, just 15 ahead of James Colburn, who has been a regular in the series over recent years and has used his experience to good effect with two wins and four podiums under his belt.

There have been five different winners so far this season, with Cook having the most, followed by James Colburn, Jordan Stilp and team mate Alex Morgan who each have two wins, and Mike Bushell who has one win to his name. However, the championship standings do not follow this same order, with Morgan only being fifth in the standings despite taking the lead after the opening rounds at Brands Hatch, and Bushell in third despite only having one win, showing just how competitive the series is and how one result can massively impact on the overall standings.

This year’s championship has also seen a number of talented young drivers enter the series with the hope of building the right foundations in order to progress into the likes of BTCC and GT racing. Newly branded SV Racing, formerly Scuderia Vittoria, have four hot prospects in their cars this year, with all of them being part of the KX Akademy which was set up by BTCC ace Jason Plato; as mentioned earlier, there is championship leader Josh Cook, as well as Alex Morgan, Ant Whorton-Eales and Ash Hand. Other young drivers looking to test their skills are Westbourne Motorsport’s James Colburn, Team Pyro’s Rob Smith, Jordan Stilp of 20Ten Racing and the series newcomer Charlie Ladell, who joined the championship from Oulton Park for WDE Motorsport. All of the drivers are eligible for the Graduate’s Cup, which they will be going all out for to claim, as well as the overall championship.

It is not just the young guns who are looking to prove themselves either this year, with series regulars Paul Rivett and Lee Pattison battling for the Master’s Cup, which was won last year by current BTCC driver Simon Belcher. There are also two new drivers who are looking to win the Master’s Cup, Craig Milner (20Ten Racing) and Mark Howard (Mark Fish Motorsport). Sadly for the newcomers, it has been the series regulars that have been dominant in the race for the Master’s Cup, with Lee Pattison leading the chase just 12 points ahead of Paul Rivett.

Overall, the most impressive driver has to be Josh Cook so far, who still leads the championship despite his worst race weekend at Croft last week (29^th June). However, he will need to keep his foot down and be consistent if he is going to clinch the title, as he has a number of drivers in hot pursuit who will be looking to take advantage of any misfortune for the series leader.

Written by Alan Faulkner

Photo credit: Alan Faulkner