BTCC 2011 - KNOCKHILL

[Julie B]

QUALIFYING

Tom Chilton gave the Global Ford Focus its first pole position by topping a dramatic British Touring Car qualifying at Knockhill.

Three red flags - caused by separate offs for TechSpeed Chevrolet Cruze drivers John George and Paul O'Neill and the Arena Ford of Andy Neate - made for a fragmented session.

Honda Racing duo Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal initially set the pace before a sequence of fast laps took Chilton to the top of the timesheets.

In the closing 10 minutes, when many of the top runners set their fastest times, the Hondas edged closer to the Arena Motorsport driver. But Chilton settled the matter with a 52.999s lap in the last two minutes to take pole by 0.2s. Three of his earlier laps would also have been good enough for pole.

Despite Shedden (running 36kg of success ballast) being only 0.097s behind second-placed Neal (with 27kg of ballast), he ended up fifth. Late charges from NGTC runners Frank Wrathall (Dynojet Toyota Avensis) and Rob Austin (Audi A4) moved them up to third and fourth respectively.

Reigning champion Jason Plato completed the top six after a slow start, topping the normally aspirated runners in his works Chevy.

Points leader Mat Jackson took his Motorbase Focus to seventh as the top 17 were covered by just 0.9s.

BTCC newcomer Aron Smith was 15th in his Vauxhall Vectra, just over a tenth slower than Triple Eight team-mate James Nash.

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap
1. Tom Chilton Arena Ford 52.999s
2. Matt Neal Honda 53.201s + 0.202s
3. Frank Wrathall Dynojet Toyota 53.222s + 0.223s
4. Rob Austin Rob Austin Audi 53.227s + 0.228s
5. Gordon Shedden Honda 53.298s + 0.299s
6. Jason Plato Chevrolet 53.338s + 0.339s
7. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 53.377s + 0.378s
8. Alex MacDowall Chevrolet 53.422s + 0.423s
9. Tom Onslow-Cole Arena Ford 53.472s + 0.473s
10. Rob Collard WSR BMW 53.580s + 0.581s
11. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Vauxhall 53.597s + 0.598s
12. James Nash Triple 8 Vauxhall 53.707s + 0.708s
13. Tom Boardman Special Tuning SEAT 53.735s + 0.736s
14. Paul O'Neill Tech-Speed Chevrolet 53.796s + 0.797s
15. Aron Smith Triple 8 Vauxhall 53.828s + 0.829s
16. Daniel Welch Welch Proton 53.867s + 0.868s
17. Nick Foster WSR BMW 53.886s + 0.887s
18. Martin Byford AmD Volkswagen 54.124s + 1.125s
19. Jeff Smith Eurotech Vauxhall 54.251s + 1.252s
20. Andy Neate Arena Ford 54.334s + 1.335s
21. Dave Newsham Special Tuning SEAT 54.415s + 1.416s
22. Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford 54.777s + 1.778s
23. John George Tech-Speed Chevrolet 55.425s + 2.426s
24. Chris James ES Chevrolet 55.904s + 2.905s

[Julie B]

Me, Greig and Liam are off to watch them tomorrow....should be a fab day

[Rob]

hope you all had good day. It was all action packed again. Good racing. Good day for Flash at his track and in front of home crowd.

[Rob]

KNOCKHILL RE-CAP

Tom Chilton, Gordon Shedden and Tom Boardman shared the wins in today’s three exhilarating Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the highly spectacular Knockhill circuit in Fife. Leaving his home circuit for the BTCC’s next round at the Rockingham circuit in Northamptonshire in a fortnight’s time (17-18 September) it is Shedden who leads the standings by a single point from his Honda team-mate Neal.

Chilton, from Reigate, had achieved the first pole position for Team Aon’s new ‘Global’ Ford Focus in Saturday’s qualifying session and he took full advantage of that to lead all the way in the first of today’s races and give the car its maiden victory as well. Neal and Shedden followed in second and third spots in their Honda Racing Team Civics – a result that meant they jointly led the standings…

Race two saw Dalgety Bay’s Shedden pass Worcestershire’s Neal for a famous win on home ground to move three points clear in the title race. Neal finished second to complete a Honda 1-2. Third, achieving the first outright podium result for a car built to the BTCC’s latest Next Generation Touring Car technical regulations, was Preston’s Frank Wrathall in his Dynojet Toyota Avensis.

In race three, an ecstatic Boardman achieved his and his Preston-based Special Tuning Racing team’s first victory in the BTCC after a collision between his SEAT Leon and reigning Champion Jason Plato’s Silverline Chevrolet Cruze caused the latter to crash out. Hook’s Robert Collard chased Boardman to the line but had to settle for second in his WSR BMW. Taking another third place was Wrathall as Neal and Shedden followed in fourth and fifth.

The pair leave Scotland separated by just one point and some considerable distance now ahead of their rivals led by Airwaves Racing Ford Focus driver Mat Jackson – the Henley-in-Arden racer had led the standings arriving at Knockhill but uncharacteristically crashed out of all three of today’s races.

Shedden commented: “It feels great to be leading it finally, but Matt has two titles on me and knows how to apply the pressure so it’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out. OK, we’ve built a bit of a lead now over the rest but no way is it over – there are still nine races left and a shed load of points to be won and you just have to look at poor Jackson today to see how quickly it can go wrong.”

Neal, from Droitwich Spa, added: “After the awful time I had last time out at Snetterton this was just what I needed to get back in the title hunt. But Gordon has been on great form and he really is now a very difficult driver to beat whatever the conditions. Sure, it’s all played into our hands today but we can’t rest on our laurels. There are plenty of drivers in there capable of messing it up for us.”

A dejected Jackson commented: “I think that’s it now, realistically. They’ve got 20-plus points on me and even though there are more than 150 available from the final nine races (at Rockingham, Brands Hatch and Silverstone) I cannot see both of them giving up a lead like that. The pace of our car this weekend has been terrific but we’ve just suffered some really cruel luck. We’ll give it everything in the final three rounds – we have nothing to lose now.”

Consequently, Jackson’s three retirements mean his lead in the Independents Trophy has been slashed to just five points by 888 Racing with Collins Contractors’ James Nash. Likewise his Airwaves team’s lead in the Independent Teams Trophy has been cut to just one point by 888/Collins. Meanwhile Shedden and Neal’s results have enabled Honda/Dynamics and their Honda Racing Team to massively stretch their respective leads in the Manufacturer/Constructor and HiQ Teams championships.

Elsewhere during the weekend, BTCC officials fined Team Aon driver Andy Neate £250 for speeding in the pit lane during Saturday’s qualifying session.

[Deacon]

Me trish and the wee fella went on saturday,heres a link to few small clips I took,they are all under Ardenbear.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ardenbear&aq=f

[Greig]

Hey Deacon great to see you around, hope family is well mate

[Deacon]

Yeah,all good,still pop in and read whats going on,but not as much as Id like to.Don't even pop into FF much anymore.
See you had a nice day on Sunday,we had horizontal rain and low cloud as usual. but afternoon was good.
Kian thought it was a bit noisy,so he sat in the car next to the track,but last night I was watching clips from Rockingham on you tube,and you couldnt get him away.
Likes his racing,thats him been there 3 years out of the 4 he's been on this earth

[Deacon]

Heres some pics;







You go in here


You end up with this;

[Tifoso]

Deaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaac!