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I believe the word in vogue is "Ding"
Aug. 23rd, 2010 09:58 amWeekend just gone saw the TOCA (Touring Car) package at Silverstone. We were working Saturday only and watched it on the box at home on Sunday. I spent Saturday on flags at Copse Exit and passed my assessment on it. That's both requirements fulfilled having done the incident assessment at the Classic, so I can apply to be upgraded from trainee to track. Some very nice things put in the comments box on my record too.
I'm ambivalent about the BTCC itself. It can be highly entertaining, but the level of driving standard seems to be betting worse.
As far as I'm concerned a bumper to bumper "kiss" or a bit of door rubbing and pushing wide once you're alongside is acceptable. With the better drivers this is what you get - Giovanardi, Turkington - neither of whom are playing this year, Mat Jackson usually. Too many of the others (Plato, Matt Neal, Rob Collard) have a bulldozer approach to passing. Booting somebody up the rear quarter and continuing to contact or to hit again in order to make them spin isn't. We saw far too much of the latter this weekend and Jackson had become one of the culprits. The other major issue is respecting the edges of the track. The rules say you stay within the white lines. The occasional foray across to avoid an accident or if you've had an issue is ok. Far too many drivers were deliberately running very wide through Copse. This allows them to maintain a higher speed and we saw two or three passes as a result.
In the last couple of years it's mostly been the Clio Cup that's seen the worst of this kind of thing among the supports. They were pretty bad at "four wheels off", but there aren't as many as in the past (maybe 15), so passing was a little better. Unfortunately the bad standards have transmitted down to the youngsters in the Ginetta Juniors. Their second race had to be red-flagged when two of them collided under the safety car. I think there wil be severe words had at their drivers' briefing at Knockhill in a few weeks. The thing is, they're only doing what they see the "big boys" do. If the "best national series in the UK" sets such a poor example where are we headed?
I'm ambivalent about the BTCC itself. It can be highly entertaining, but the level of driving standard seems to be betting worse.
As far as I'm concerned a bumper to bumper "kiss" or a bit of door rubbing and pushing wide once you're alongside is acceptable. With the better drivers this is what you get - Giovanardi, Turkington - neither of whom are playing this year, Mat Jackson usually. Too many of the others (Plato, Matt Neal, Rob Collard) have a bulldozer approach to passing. Booting somebody up the rear quarter and continuing to contact or to hit again in order to make them spin isn't. We saw far too much of the latter this weekend and Jackson had become one of the culprits. The other major issue is respecting the edges of the track. The rules say you stay within the white lines. The occasional foray across to avoid an accident or if you've had an issue is ok. Far too many drivers were deliberately running very wide through Copse. This allows them to maintain a higher speed and we saw two or three passes as a result.
In the last couple of years it's mostly been the Clio Cup that's seen the worst of this kind of thing among the supports. They were pretty bad at "four wheels off", but there aren't as many as in the past (maybe 15), so passing was a little better. Unfortunately the bad standards have transmitted down to the youngsters in the Ginetta Juniors. Their second race had to be red-flagged when two of them collided under the safety car. I think there wil be severe words had at their drivers' briefing at Knockhill in a few weeks. The thing is, they're only doing what they see the "big boys" do. If the "best national series in the UK" sets such a poor example where are we headed?
