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DONINGTON PARK GP BTCC REVIEW 2025
DONINGTON PARK GP BTCC REVIEW 2025
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About this episode
The Donington Park GP BTCC Review dives into a weekend filled with drama, driver changes, and unpredictable weather. The hosts discuss Josh Cook's return to the grid, replacing James Doran, and the implications of such frequent driver changes on the championship's integrity. They analyze the qualifying sessions and race performances, highlighting standout moments, including Tom Ingram's impressive victory and the challenges faced by various teams. The episode wraps up with predictions and awards, reflecting on the impact of the weekend's results on the championship standings.
Topics:
driver changes
qualifying analysis
race performances
championship integrity
team strategies
weather impact
podium finishes
independent drivers
tire strategies
AFTER A PIVOTAL WEEKEND IN THE BTCC DOES INGRAM HAVE ONE HAND ALREADY ON THE TROPHY? WE GET YOU UP TO DATE WITH ALL OF THE ACTION FROM DONINGTON PARK GP
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A weekend of earth, wind, and fire, and water. Lots and lots of water. This is the Donnington
Park from pre-loop review.
Hello, and welcome back to the British Touring Car Podcast. We're going to bring you up to
date with all the action from Donnington this weekend just gone. We were there. We were indeed.
We had some exciting recording to do, which, if you listeners might be able to figure out,
but we'll bring you that later this week as a special interview with the driver that
we did on Sunday morning.
Yes, the rumors were true. You may have seen us entering a back of a truck somewhere, and
that is, if you say, to do that interview, which is excellent. We're very much looking
forward to bringing that to you. Well, thank you properly at the time, but thoroughly enjoyed
our chat with the young man who was very, very good indeed. As you say, we were there
this weekend, but before we got there, there was news in the touring car world, as is
always the way we do these things.
Yes, it's always the case of once we've released something or recorded something,
then gets released and we don't get to cover it. But yeah, there was a little bit of news
that came out just before the weekend after I stood on the preview.
The rumors were basically not going to fruition.
They came to fruition. Yes, they did.
So Josh Cook is back on the grid for the rest of the season in theory at this time.
Josh Cook is back on the grid for the rest of the season in replace of James
Dallin at Speedworks Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Thoughts? I think that my thoughts coming to two strands.
First of all, obviously Josh Cook is in the echelon or driver that you want on a
British touring car grid. He's very good. He's very fast champion in waiting
arguably as well. Yeah, you want that kind of caliber of driver on the grid.
That's that's fair enough. However, on the flip side of things, this is by my
maths. My maths isn't great. So feel free to correct me if needs be.
This is Toyota's seventh change at the team this year, which means that almost
each one of the drivers have been changed at least once on pure maths.
I also make it that this is the 10th driver to either enter the grid,
enter the season or have a change teams during the season or not
compete the full season. There you are. That's a very roundabout way of saying
drivers aren't staying at teams and completing the season.
Now, we used to mock a we not necessarily, but the motorsport world
used to mock and laugh and point and, you know, shake fists at a certain team
that's not no longer on the grid for their merry-go-round of drivers.
If you look at 2011's, we kind of get frustrated or 2010's not 2011's.
2010's one gets frustrated about the amount of guest drivers
and changing and moving's about, et cetera.
And we've still got it in 2025.
We've been assured this would not be allowed to happen.
And this was this was a thing of the past and we wouldn't see this
so much anymore. And arguably this season, we've seen it more than ever
before across the sport as a whole.
When I say it's great to have cooked back on the grid,
but I do think have this not been cooked, there'd been a lot more anger about it.
There is a small loophole in the regulations as to with obviously drivers
changing between cars and between licenses and having swapping
chop and change to be able to sort of like keep them on the grid.
And as you say, Josh Cook is exactly the type of driver that we need to have
on the grid. He's one driver that should be racing up at the front
and being able to be competitive and through possibly no fault of his own
this season, he's unfortunately had to step away from one motor sport
and has been given this opportunity by Toyota, which he's grabbed at
a team that he knows fairly well from having been there the last couple of seasons.
Is it the right way to go?
I don't I feel really sorry, first of all, for James.
Yes, it's kind of the cost of what is looking to really promising season for him.
Now, is that funding problems of him?
Which, you know, where do we get to?
Do we get to the point where if you cannot prove you can do a full season
and they're so un catastrophically, un sort of,
you know, muscle look for unprecedented happens that you can't compete
because he's not been in a massive smash that I can remember.
But then you would argue, would we see drivers like Dan Lloyd
be able to get a complete season?
Well, I agree, but it's a case of what do you want?
Do you want do you want a consistent championship?
Because if you want to be real, take it to the end of the degree
and be really predictive about it, which I like to do from time to time.
I have noticed what integrity does this give the championship?
Because now Toyota have potentially got a third car
and they did this weekend mixing at the front at this stage of the season
when they could be getting involved in the championship battle.
Is that fair? Was that just part of motorsport?
Where would you look at it? I mean, it's something that we have seen
to actually a more extreme extent.
Yes, earlier on in this sport and when teams and drivers
would come into the sport towards the end of the season to be able to boost the point.
So it's certainly nothing new.
But it does raise questions.
It does. It always raises questions.
It always raises questions when we're losing a driver and gaining another one,
depending on who that driver is, their experience and stuff like that.
Because as good as Doran has been, and of all due respect,
Josh Cook is an upgrade on James Doran. It's as simple as that.
So as I say, if you want to be really predictive about it and really awkward
about it, is this having an undue influence on the championship at the front?
If Cook is mixing at the front, takes a win off Ingram or Sutton at some point
in a way that would not with all due respect would not have happened with James Doran.
Well, one way I don't think it will have too much effect
is the other small part of news, especially from Toyota in the fact
that two of the Toyota cars this weekend, Aaron Taylor Smith
and Sheddon ran the M Sport stock engine.
Which is the first time that Sheddon's ever ran an M Sport engine.
It's NGTC career.
Yeah. So the other half of the team with Cook and Buxton
ran the Toyota built engine, which we've seen have great struggles
with top end speed this this year.
And I think there was a noticeable change in the performance
of Aaron Taylor Smith and Sheddon this weekend.
I completely agree.
Could you argue that that's against the ethos of the sport?
I did have a rye smile thinking that you've bought in his engine freezes.
So you can't do engine development.
OK, I'll just plug in everyone in then, which also seems a little bit strange.
But yeah,
on that one, what I will say is that if there's a loophole to be exploited,
you can guarantee that teams would exploit it and Toyota have a promise
that all season if they can take I think both drives are taking a 10 point
deduction, the championship will be grew up.
They're not in the championship race anyway.
And Toyota sure as heck aren't in the manufacturers either.
So you take that again.
We talked about these about pennies before.
There are sometimes penalties that you will take the short term
paying for the long term game.
You'll take the five second penalty because you think you can get up the road.
You'll take these sort of penalties because it doesn't really affect you.
Yeah, that one I'm less angry about.
It's not just touring cars.
It happens in it does happen in all forms of motorsport.
Everyone is always going to look for loopholes,
look to gain that advantage where they can,
whether on purpose or not on purpose.
Let us know your thoughts.
What do you think about Cook coming into the Toyota team?
Well, we know everyone likes it.
Everyone loves it because it's Cook.
We just find he's going to boost their their championship
bids towards the end of the season.
Do you think he's going to get involved in the title fight
in some some way or reason?
We all know that he's a very good friend of our son.
Just putting that out there.
Yeah, we shall see. We shall see.
We'll move on from that.
Yeah, we'll we'll get on to the all the action from this weekend,
starting with qualifying on Saturday.
And it was a little bit of a damp affair.
Well, it was very mixed.
Some sessions were drier than others.
It was certainly ever changing from when it was wet
and when it was just damp as well.
Yeah, that was notable in the times that were set,
especially between the first two groups.
Obviously, now we've got the first two groups
setting up on each side of the grid rather than actually on times.
And this is the perfect example as to why.
Yeah, agreed.
So we had sort of like Josh Cook, yes, set 134-2
and just in front of him on the group of Sam Osborn with 137-6.
And that was because of the changing conditions.
Absolutely.
And some sort of casualties was obviously
cooked to go out fairly early.
What auto-oaches fell out in the first session?
Fairly early on, yeah.
And along with obviously Charles Rainford as well.
A couple of BMWs going out early on.
They don't like mixed conditions, do they?
No, and Aaron Taylor-Smith would have got through
to the second part of the qualification rounds,
but he had his best time removed for track limits.
Did?
He didn't feel he'd made that track limit infringement.
Obviously, the stewards felt he had.
Once again, we won't go down the old path of chopping this one,
but it is ridiculous that some corners are done and some corners aren't
because we saw, even in the race on Sunday,
that some corners that weren't being track limit tested
were just being mickey taken of how lines were being had through them.
But there we go. That's the way. That's where we are.
Jake Hill was a notable casualty early on,
finishing 11th in the session with Asher
and only one place ahead of him in 10th.
But it was really all about the high-end eyes
and the high-end eyes dominated.
All six of them were in the top nine positions
to finalise the qualifying order.
Although Dobble was in there as well,
he eventually got this qualifier from the session
due to a ride-high issue.
There's not too many complaints about that.
The roller just simply didn't go under the middle part.
I think there are complaints, but...
The roller simply didn't go under the middle part of the car.
It went under both edges, but not in the middle.
Unfortunately, that is the problem when you run a dry-to-wet
or wet-to-dry setup, is that the tyre degradation
and the way that they wear on the car can...
The wets will wear quicker on a drying track,
which means the car will naturally drop.
And obviously, I think in the third iteration of qualifying,
the track was dampishy-wet, where you could probably...
It was one of those who were probably on a dry setup
with wet tyres, and I think that the margin is so tight
in that scenario that you've got to be absolutely spot-on
with the ride-high setup.
Talking of tyres, et cetera, Sutton and Roboton
both got their tyre strategy wrong in Q2.
Sutton missed his window by about 30 seconds,
as did Roboton.
They both went out on the wrong tyre,
Sutton on wets on the dry track,
I think it was, or vice versa.
Roboton dries on a wet track, or, as I say, vice versa,
so they messed up their tyre with those.
None of the Napa racing cars managed to get through
to the fast six shootouts.
Which was an early point for me.
It was, but Team Virtue did have a good run
with Tom Chilton taking pole position,
his first since 2011, back in Knock Hill.
Obviously, since then, he's had even time out of the sport,
so it's been quite a while coming.
It is the longest gap between poles in touring cars,
which is interesting, so that's a pub quiz buster for later on.
First-ever Team Virtue front-row lockout.
Is it? Yes.
Which I heard the other day.
Chris Miley finished the session
after Doble's disqualification in third
from Darryl De Leon in the WSRBNW fourth.
Good effort given the conditions.
And Senna Proctor in fifth.
Just to finish out the top ten was Camish Roboton,
Morgan, Lloyd and Sutton,
and they were obviously all moved up position
once Doble was disqualified.
Shall we move on to a race one?
Yeah, I mean, race one is probably going to be the quickest
and easiest to cover for a long time.
So just to give a brief overview going into the race,
we did have a few cars opt to start on the hard tyre.
Lloyd in ninth, Shedden in 12th,
Rangewood in 15th, Moffat in 16th,
Osbourne in 17th, Cook in 18th,
and Buxton in 20th all opted for the hard tyre.
This weekend it was medium and hard,
so not as much of a drop-off between the soft
and the hard as we've seen,
but obviously a drop-off nonetheless.
I mean, okay, so start by Chilton,
but he retained the lead.
Ingram half thought about going around the outside
and then decided it was probably a better thing
to just hold position.
De Leon got shuffled down by the Napa Fords.
They sort of sent Roboton out to be the assaulting car.
He was definitely assaulting this weekend.
As he hunted down, not in this race,
hunted down Smiley.
Roboton would have a very nice move on Smiley
at the Melbourne Hairpin.
At the same moment he did that,
Ingram took the lead from Chilton.
Chilton moved onto one side to let Ingram through.
So I would then get by Smiley about the real trouble,
but Kamish decided that the championship
meant nothing to him
and would not let something through about a fight.
That was very strange given the circumstances I felt.
Yes, especially how we've seen both him and Roboton
step aside for certain already this season
to be able to take more points
towards that championship fight.
We are obviously of the understanding
that Kamish and Roboton are still fighting
for that third position in the championship
and want to make the most of the points that they can.
But yeah, it does feel like Kamish sometimes...
Resents that somewhat.
Yes, yes, I think that's the right word.
Yeah.
Tim, don't seem to present this position there in.
Chilton and Ingram then swapped back.
So Ingram had led a couple of laps,
so he got the point for the lead leading a lap.
And then he swapped back behind Tom Chilton.
So then did a trademark pass on Smiley on lap 8.
A lovely sort of faint to the outside,
jinked back to the inside.
It's what Sutton does, millimeter perfect.
Kamish then nipped by Smiley on boosts.
I don't really know why Smiley tumbled the way he did
because he was on the better tire.
In a car that was very quick,
I do wonder if they've not quite got the race pace in that car.
You say better tires, they're still on the same tires
as the cars around him.
Yeah, he was on the better tire.
Yes, but still falling through and losing positions,
fairly uncharacteristically as well.
And then, to be honest, I've got to say
nothing else really happened because it didn't.
That is race one.
There was, for me, a couple of funny bits
and these came as a result after the race
that Chilton actually tried to allow Ingram
to take the fastest lap.
But he had so much boost left that he used it
and then accidentally took the fastest lap.
I think you've got to give RoboM a little bit of credit
because Chilton did say in his post-race interview
that Barry Plougham was getting a little bit nervous
by how RoboM was catching up.
And RoboM was fast.
He clearly had pace in that car all weekend.
His progress through the field in race one
was really, really good.
And he did it pretty practically the same
in race three as well.
Yes, exactly.
So he had a really good car under him this weekend.
And I do get to the reasons that Virtue gave
and I do believe them as well.
But I do also think RoboM maybe made
just a little bit trickier to have them to swap positions back
because it was close enough that if Chilton slowed down
that RoboM could potentially get involved, should we say.
But yeah, after the race, Ingram
said that the policy where they are
is that you don't take race wins off each other,
which I think is a very, very good policy
and a very, you know, it is.
It's something that you mentioned as well at the track
and we were watching it happen.
And we thought, they've got to swap.
They need to swap, but if they've got that policy in place
or fairness to them and it did seem like
the similar sort of story came from Chilton
at the end of the race as well
and that he was very jubilant to take a win.
He only seems to take wins at Donnington now.
I think it's part of the Tokyo regulations
if you delve in deep enough.
But yeah, it's very honorable from the way the racing.
I also, I do like to read too much into things, you know.
I also wonder if they just don't see
Napa car as a long standing threat for the rest of the season.
I think they know in their heart,
they wouldn't admit to it publicly, of course you don't.
I think they know the championship's done.
I think they know they've got a car that is really,
a really quick, really good
and barring something unprecedented or a big incident
which you can't control it.
But yeah, exactly, that's the bit that gets me.
But if that happens, the two extra points
won't make a difference anyway, potentially.
Possibly.
So I said to you at the end of this race though,
if Ingram had taken those extra points,
he could afford a DNF and for Sutton to take a pole,
take the lead lap win and the fastest lap win
and he would still be in the lead of the championship.
But the way that weekend's panned out,
he's got that anyway.
Yes, but you don't know that at that stage.
No, you don't know that stage,
but also team harmony is a wonderful thing.
We've seen it in F1 with Oscar and Lando
last year in Hungary about,
and that line has stuck with me from that event
that you don't know when you're gonna need your team mate.
And I don't think children's are sort of
a person with chuck of dummies out in the frown,
Allah, somebody else on the grid remember their team mate.
I'll let you decide who I might be referring to there.
But I also think that you keep those people
as onside as you can.
And out there in the last race of the season,
it was Ingram needs to win, needs to have a point
and obviously it's gonna happen.
But at this stage, A, I think they know
it's probably done and B,
team harmony is a really good thing.
And I do quite like the fact that they don't wanna take
the wins off each other.
That to me is quite nice.
Yeah, let us know your thoughts,
how you think they should have dealt with it,
whether they dealt with it in the right way
or whether you do think that Ingram and Chilton
should have swapped.
Is he gonna need those extra points
right at the end of the season?
We don't know what's yet to happen.
We've got six races.
We've got six races left to go.
Anything could still happen.
We've seen the championship lost.
It's done.
Before on the final race in the final laps.
I'm almost willing to say who it doesn't,
it's done and if it's not...
Here we go.
Here we go.
If Ingram doesn't win this,
I will half my points in our own.
It's done.
It is done.
Over at Napa,
Robotton was desperately trying to get Sutton
to come by into third,
but obviously that would have given Sutton
the harder tire for race two.
So Sutton rather said,
no thank you, I have to climb that offer
and by his own admission I actually started
to hang back towards the end of race one
to make sure he couldn't overtake Robotton
and get that tire.
I think we've discussed it before.
It just makes a mockery of the rules that we've got
because that is a four-time champion saying,
I don't want to go on a tire because it's rubbish.
And if that's not the most damning
and reverberating noise in the sport,
I don't know what is.
Dare say it was far less evident this weekend
when we go through the races,
but I can understand his tactics
of wanting to do this in race one.
Yeah.
But in the end he did finish
over three and a half seconds behind Robotton.
Yeah, but let's see,
four-time champion saying that tire is crap
and even got an Ingram who is a champion,
potentially double champion in coming
after saying, well, that's a site on winning race two.
So it's not a great look.
We've been down this road before.
Let's hope something changes for 2026.
Yeah, the finish in order for race one
was Chilton from Ingram from Robotton.
As we said, Sutton in fourth,
closely followed by Dan Hamish,
Jake Hill in sixth, who had a fairly quiet,
but an A race from Morgan in seventh,
Dr. A Smiley in ninth,
where he fell to eventually Taylor Smith in tenth
from Darryl De Leon, Shedden,
Rainford, Lloyd and Moffitt.
Obviously, Shedden being the top running hard runner.
Decent result there as well on the hard tire.
And actually, we'll get to it.
I thought Shedden had a really good weekend.
He did, he did.
So yeah, Darryl De Leon took the Jackseys in that race.
He did indeed.
Right, race two a little bit more happened,
should we say.
Just a little bit.
So as you already know,
the top three would have to start the race on the hard tire
and no one else throughout the grid did.
And there was a weather forecast suggesting
that rain would hit at some point during the race.
Now we had a little sprinkling early on,
which you moaned at me for.
You put your umbrella up.
Put the umbrella up and it stopped.
Yeah, you jinxed it.
We did get a little bit of chaos later on.
Anyway, Sutton managed to get Robotton off the line,
a fairly clean start at the front.
And it was what he needed to do
and what we thought he would do,
especially on that tire deficit.
However, once they all got down to the old hairpin,
it all concertinaed up quite tightly, didn't it?
Yeah, I was slightly surprised
because as the race sort of stretched out from here as well,
it seemed that Ingram was almost trying to be the blocker
to let Chilton get away.
Whereas you'd expect it to be the other way around, really.
But equally, with the way the start went,
there was never an obvious time for that switch to happen.
Ingram starts on the outside of the grid being second
and you don't want to be going round the outside of turn one
at Donnington Park because the rest of the pack
will come from the inside.
Yeah, certainly.
With that concertinaing that happened down at the old hairpin,
there were a couple of drivers that were really held up by it.
One of those being Proctor,
who had further drama up at the plains,
when it looked like he dipped a wheel onto the grass
on the right-hand side,
which sent the car into a spin
and t-boned the side of Aidan Moffitt,
who was a completely innocent party.
And then out of complete sympathy,
Osborne did exactly the same, but didn't hit anyone.
Yeah, he looked at it like, that looks so fun.
Let me try that.
Yeah, this is the first real mistake
I've seen Proctor make all season.
I'm not counting the mistake
in Thrux and Qually where his car switches off
because that's not really down to him.
And it's quite a poor mistake, dare I say.
Yes, there's a little bit of bunching.
There is a little bit,
but he's got plenty of room not to do that.
It's quite a misjudgment to dip your wheels.
Certainly on the inside there,
possibly more allowed on the outside,
but as you say, there are a lot of cars in the vicinity.
And a lot of ways you have to keep looking
to make sure you don't run into other people.
Yeah, as you said, I do feel for Moffitt
because he's not been able to really catch a break
for the last three years in touring cars.
And this is another one of those,
where you are minding your own business,
you're driving fairly sensibly,
and then you have a Proctor in your door for...
Moffitt was able to continue on through the gravel,
albeit well down.
Yeah, we've seen his interview afterwards.
He's saying that the steering wheel was like that
for the rest of the weekend.
He had a headache,
and the thing was rattling in his hands
for audio listeners who can't see me
doing a visual representation.
That doesn't surprise me at all.
As I said, he did manage to continue on.
And then Osborne managed to get the car restarted,
having just rushed the barrier
and drove off out of the gravel as well.
Both of them had dropped down to the back
and the safety car was called out at this point.
To retrieve Proctor, who couldn't get back going
because the car was too damaged.
Yes, quite damaged.
And then we saw on that for those early rain spots
start to show on the camera and start to fall.
Nothing of any real significance.
It was just like one cloud passing over,
depositing what it had.
Yeah, and I think you can get a bit carried away.
I think we saw it in the F1 this weekend as well.
You need a lot of rain to really affect a racetrack.
Because the tarmac will naturally absorb some of it anyway.
And you need a lot of it to cause a problem.
Well, yeah, and the way that the tarmac works
and the heat that it gets us to a lot.
Just evaporates straight away.
Yeah, it has to cool it first of all
to then be able to accept that water on the surface.
It's almost like in this country,
we say it's too warm for the snow to settle.
Like you have to have the cool ground
to start to really cool.
On the restart,
Chilton seemed to let Ingram go into regating the heat.
Makes sense, doesn't it?
And then unfortunately got caught up in a slight napper incident.
Yeah, I mean, having just said how much rain
is required to make a racetrack difficult,
Robotham found a particularly damp patch it would appear.
Well, that's what he says anyway.
Locked up and punted the back of...
He chose a valverine car to punt
and he opted for Sutton.
Which, I mean, look, it's devastating
when it's your teammate at the best of times.
It's even more devastating when it's in the midst
of a championship battle and Sutton is almost guaranteed
to win that race.
It's a mistake.
It's as simple as that.
Robotham was very frank of it afterwards
and in some script interviews throughout the day,
it was an error.
He's apologised.
Yeah, errors do happen in racing
and this is just one of them.
It's sent Sutton completely sideways.
Ingram is so lucky as well
because Sutton does clip the back of Ingram's car
but not enough to unsettle it.
He nailed the throttle.
Yep.
Chilton got caught up right on the outside of this
and had nowhere else to go,
which put him down the pack along with Sutton
and along with Robotham.
And then Sutton's misery didn't really end there, did it?
Well, I think that one would say
the red mist descended a little bit
because I would say that the move on our Italian speed
into the old hairpin was a little bit...
Optimistic?
Optimistic, out of control, arguably.
Fueled by a little bit of anger.
Basically trying to sling one down the inside
of our Italian speed at great speed.
Which we have seen him done multiple times
before at the old hairpin.
But that was a bit too fast and a bit too optimistic.
To quote Martin Brundle,
a day late and a dollar short comes to mind
and both would just take a chip through the gravel pit,
which put our total up to two for running wide
at the old hairpin.
Yes, it's pointless keeping count.
Yep.
Yeah, as you say, both of them down the order once again
as well and it was really a race
that Sutton now just had to try and fight
for as many points as he could gain.
What I would say though is that knowing what that happened,
I then found Ingram's next few steps quite odd
in the fact that Camish was coming through on a better tire.
I'm sure you'll get to in there.
Yep.
And he didn't half fight it, did he?
He didn't half fight it.
And I know the racing driver wants to fight it.
I get that.
I know they're in a manufacturer battle as well.
I get all of that.
But Sutton's, if he's scoring anything,
he's scoring a few points this race.
Just let Camish go.
Morgan's then behind you, you probably finish second.
Seeing how Ingram and Sutton then fought in race three
on the alternative tires between the two of them,
it kind of makes a little bit more sense now
as to why Ingram fought it.
I think you felt that he had that competitiveness
in the car.
But why risk?
I know.
I know.
Dan Cam's not the kind of driver
that's going to put you off.
He's an incredibly clean, fair driver, absolutely.
But why risk it?
The thing is, as soon as you start to go toe-to-toe,
wheel-to-wheel, anything can happen.
We saw that at Cross a couple of weeks ago
where just Sutton's knocker was cutting across
the front of the chicane.
So was the car?
We questioned him doing that at Cross as well.
Maybe it's just how he's feeling in the end.
He's clearly got ultimate confidence in the car.
Why wouldn't you?
It's an absolute beast that they've built.
And you talk to the fans, you talk to some of the drivers,
and they cannot believe that the car that they've put
together this season.
But I just found it very strange that, again,
you can trust Camish.
I get that.
But you're taking the risk.
And with Sutton scoring very few points,
and with Morgan behind you, so really,
second or third, it's about what you're going to finish.
Why take the risk?
Yeah, as you say, Camish managed to get through on lap six
eventually to take the lead from Ingram.
And then Morgan managed to get past Ingram a lap later.
That wasn't really thought at all.
No, but again, I partly wondered on that one
whether it was a team going, OK,
Morgan, go after Camish, see what you can do.
See what you can do.
Because also, if you two have a little bit of a scrap,
Ingram might be able to come through.
And also, there is the manufacturers to think of as well.
A driver making a little bit of progress through the field
was Hill, had a nice clean move on Lloyd
down at the Melbourne Hairpin.
Nice late-breaking.
Yeah, it was nice, that was.
He had it up the inside.
Yeah, very nice.
And then we had an uncharacteristic,
I'm going to say, error from Rainford,
coming out of the final hairpin,
trying to get a better exit to try and overtake
Aaron Taylor-Smith.
Almost timed it a little bit too well.
Got on the power nice and early,
clipped the back of Aaron Taylor-Smith
and actually sent the car into a full 180 spin.
His car, not Tony Smith's car, yeah.
His car into a full 180 spin,
ending up in the pit entry.
And a little bit red-faced, I would imagine.
Yeah, it's one of those where,
I think Tim Harvey said it well on commentary.
I know, I know.
Oh, that makes a change.
That these cars aren't easy to drive
and sometimes you can just push the throttle
a little too eagerly and that can be the result.
It's actually in a rear-wheel drive car.
There is no ABS, there is no traction control.
You are, you know, in complete control of your destiny
and yeah, I think you perhaps
just push the throttle a little bit too early.
Potentially a bit of dampness around there as well.
Maybe if we're looking to be really generous.
But yeah, it's a greed, uncharacteristic error, yes.
And then the race kind of settled down a little bit
and we were kind of just seeing how people
were just limping for positions.
No real big moves at this point.
Until lap 15.
I've never seen anything like it.
When all drivers were coming down,
we were watching at the old hairpin for the first two races.
We saw drivers come down the hill
and thought, okay, nothing much happening.
They go up to McLean's
and there seems to just be a wall of water
and the cameras switch quickly to see
Hill almost locked up going off into the gravel
and then the cameras switch to see seven of them.
Yeah, it was a real good sort of clever play by the camera
because like you, I thought, oh, okay,
Hill's got a baby wet in a rear-wheel drive.
Okay, yep, seen that before, fair enough.
And yeah, then the panning comes in.
You think, look, they're carrying stuff
and they're like, hang on, Ingram's off, Morgan's off.
Yeah, I think the only two drivers
that managed to keep it on the island at that corner
were Buxton, who was being lapsed and going slowly anyway
and Shedden.
Yeah, Shedden kept it on, yeah.
And I was just like, what the hell has happened?
So yeah, everyone was off.
Lloyd had a massive slide through the gravel as well.
I liked that though.
I mean, commit to it.
If you're gonna go in the gravel,
just pin the front on and commit to it, yeah.
And there was complete shuffle with the top order
and yeah, then safety car was called almost instantly,
just like that, just because of the major changing conditions
and how quickly it changed.
I don't hate, I've been moaning about
this sort of stuff in the past.
I don't hate that because it was so freakish
that I Shedden said in his post race interview,
coming down the first part of the story, it's bone dry.
And then you just hit by the sheet of water.
It was almost reminiscent of when we were up at Knock Hill
and we saw drivers coming down into turn one complex
down the hill and they're like, they've got their wipers on.
Why have they got their wipers on?
And then the wall of rain came across the circuit
from the head in first.
So yeah, safety car called neutralize the race.
All drivers managed to shuffle back into their positions.
There was a little bit of controversy over whether
Shedden or Morgan was ahead for second and third.
Yeah, but again, it was all sorted out.
Yeah, it's bigger up Shedden's post-resident view again.
As he said, basically rid of the lines.
I'm in the third. I shouldn't be in third.
That's not risk fighting in the steward's bus afterwards.
We'll take the podium tonight.
You know, it's, it could be second, but it's not, you know,
what second to third really in the grand scheme of things.
Especially where he sits in the championship,
how Toyota are doing, they're more than happy
to take a third rather than have 10 seconds.
Yeah. And then the conditions as well,
just air on the side of the court.
I think it's actually sensible from all parties involved.
Just be sensible about these things.
Agreed.
Drives are sensible.
The more that we are to actually put a race of rain.
So the final order eventually shuffled itself out to be.
I was disappointed we finished under Safety Car.
I have to say.
And Kamish half said he was disappointed
in his interview after saying it could probably
have got round a lap on Slick's properly.
Although it was probably the right thing to finish
trying to save the car. He also said, I think.
Part of that was because obviously we'd have
the Safety Car early on for Proctor.
Yes, of course. Yes.
So we couldn't actually add any more laps on
than what were left.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, yeah, they could have possibly gone racing
for the final lap, but I think it was sensible
with what they did.
I can't have too many complaints.
I would like as a fan, I would like to have seen it,
but I can't have too many complaints.
So Kamish actually did manage to hold on to the lead
and took the race win from Morgan and Shedden,
who swapped back round once the Safety Car was out.
Smiley finished fourth on the road,
but was later disqualified for ride height in infringement.
It's a conspiracy.
I don't know whether that was because he went rally
crossing through the gravel. It's a conspiracy,
but I assume so, which then promoted Ingram up
from De Leon, from Cook, from Aaron Taylor Smith.
Sutton managed to finish ninth overall from Hill,
from Lloyd, Moffitt, Robo, Osborne,
Doble and Chilton, just squeezing into the points
with that qualification.
Yep. For race three,
ball eight was initially pulled,
which would have put Aaron Taylor Smith on hold,
but because of Smiley's disqualification,
it bumped everyone up a position
and therefore Sutton took pole position.
You can't write these things, can you, Alan?
Don't feed into these gross theories
that they're floating about,
about the three different rollers,
depending on what the outcome needs to be.
Yep. Yeah, there we go.
Race three then did see a mixture of tyres
be very big mix, yeah.
Which I'm going to ask you,
does this make for good tactical by the teams
throughout the day, or is it ruining racing a little bit?
Because there's a lot of drivers here
who are in the top parts who are on a hard.
Yeah, what's your thoughts?
Does it add an extra of tacticalness to the weekend,
which is good, or does it sort of make it
a little bit gimmicky and ruin racing?
I certainly think it does add tactics to the weekend
and we've spoken about this many times over before
and what we both believe should be the way it should be run
or shouldn't be.
And the difference we had between the medium and the hard,
the delta between the two this weekend,
I think actually worked quite nicely
and we saw that with how Sutton and Ingram
were able to battle in this race.
Eventually we were probably knowing
that Ingram was going to win out in that battle
because he had the best tyre on.
The Sutton didn't half give it a go, didn't he?
And I'm going to be perhaps very surprising here
that I don't mind that in race through.
I've always said that if you're going to go with two tyre compounds,
then it should be free for the team to decide what they can do.
And OK, the only people that haven't had that freedom
are three from race one.
Yes. So by and large, the grid for race.
It's arguably has benefited them in this final race.
It has, yeah, that's why I don't like the nature
of mandating when people have to run it
because it does take away a little bit of the tactical element
to a degree.
But if you're going to run two tyres, I quite like the idea
OK, it's entirely up to you when you do so.
That's up to you.
And actually, yeah, that does bring into a little bit of tactics
for race through. So I'm not completely against the way race
free pans out those on the hearts.
Sutton from first, Aaron Taylor Smith from second,
Dillingham from fourth, Morgan from seventh,
Camish from eighth, Hill from ninth,
Doble from 14th, Patterson from 16th,
Halstead from 18th, how did he get there?
Hamilton from 20th, Proctor from 21st
and Smiley from 22nd.
So it was definitely a shuffled grid
and a shuffled selection of tyres
and then Cook was slightly rolling.
He did. Yeah, I think because in the end,
he just had a terrible race and finished so badly
that the stewards forgot to bother investigating it
because it certainly looked strange on the camera.
The only thing I can say is the real
the normal speed replay I saw, I thought I saw Cook move.
And then I saw a slow moment of it and I thought,
has he moved actually?
But I think where he's already set up in his grid box,
he doesn't move beyond a certain point.
I don't think that mattered, though.
I thought if you moved on the start, then it was a
unless you can argue, didn't get any advantage from it.
But yeah, he certainly didn't get any advantage from it
because it was a fairly even start at the front.
It was fairly even start.
Sutton got away well, Cook came into second,
as you say, his start was investigated.
Investigated, but I don't think anything was that not given out.
Ingram managed to get into third off the start,
but was passed by Aaron Taylor Smith, also on the hard tyre.
We then saw Ingram make his moves with a great move on Cook
to get into second has to be said,
he really came tight out of the hairpin and then hung it
out around the outside of term one.
So very good move from Ingram for that one.
Aaron Taylor Smith was running third at this point,
was able to get through Cook, which is impressive on the hard tyre.
It was. I don't know whether that is the engine offset
between those two cars, showing that that engine offset
can offset the tyre difference.
Lots of offsetting.
Lots of offsetting, yes.
But I also think that the way that Cook slowly fell through
the field, you could see that you hadn't been there for a couple of
weekend and sat in that car this year.
He had a few gremlins in the car as well that were reported to.
So that's probably part of it as well.
Ingram is pretty much right on the back of Sutton.
And we did finally see some racing because they're absolutely right.
The way the season has gone with the tyres and the other stupid rules
whilst they are top two in the championship, they very rarely get
an on-field battle because basically they just decide
which races are going to win between them at the start of the day.
But we did see some really good, fair, rough racing.
Ingram initially trying to come around the outside of Sutton
through the Melbourne hairpin Sutton.
Having none of it.
Held his line and forced Ingram wide.
Now, I know he's supposed to give a cars width on the outside,
et cetera, but I personally.
That was a gap that was always going to close.
Yeah.
And although Ingram was ahead in the braking zone into the corner,
you knew Sutton was going to be down the inside
and you knew Sutton was going to run you wide.
And I think the way those two drivers have raced them
each other over the career, not just in the touring cars,
but in lower formula as well.
They know exactly what each other is going to do.
And if the run for reversed, Ingram would have done exactly the same.
I think you're right.
And I think that is one of those from Sutton.
He's done it a couple of times this year,
where it's just about on the right side of the law.
What I would argue is that he does hold his line.
He doesn't move the car.
He holds his line and he just opens the steering out
as you would coming out of a corner.
And it just happens to be that Ingram was put onto the curb and onto the ground.
Is it really terming him who was back for a second bite and that later?
And then we saw some really good racing with Sutton
desperately trying to hold on for the for the lead
with him cutting back to take the position back
and then running side by side down the pit straight into term one.
What surprised me quite a lot, actually,
was that cutback maneuver that Sutton did on the final hairpin.
He then still had the grunt to get alongside
and actually pull in front of the Hyundai.
Potentially on the boost.
Potentially on the boost, yes.
But we know how strong that Hyundai engine is.
Yeah, absolutely.
As I say, I think this is really good racing from the pair of them.
It's just a shame that they weren't on the same tire.
So we could have seen it go on for a couple more laps.
But Ingram would eventually get one race at the end of the season
where they're on the same tire just for fun, just for fun.
Yeah, just to see who wins out.
I couldn't agree more.
So you've got to give credit
certainly for the way he battled on the the inferior tire.
You again, we know the offset between the two of two tires isn't as great
as it has been forever rounds this season.
I mean, that raises all sorts of integrity questions as well.
But there we go.
But it's still with the worst tire
and Sutton still did a very good job, I think, to try and keep Ingram behind.
But it was always going to be Ingram's place to take, wasn't it?
Yeah.
And in the robot of a further back was pulling his way through the field
with some good overtakes.
Again, he seems to have really got confidence in the car show.
He could just do it's going to sound really sort of obvious.
But just basic where he wants.
But just simple overtakes with minimum fuss.
Yeah. As Wayne Mardell would say, there's no faffage.
There's no faffage of his overtakes, which I quite like.
You know, he's just making moves, which is what
it sounds simple, but a lot of drivers have been struggling to do it.
And he's just making moves of minimal faff.
And I would say that another driver that looked very much on the same lines
as him this weekend was Chilton as well.
Yep. Chilton was fighting his way through the pack on the medium tire in this race.
I'm almost following Robotton through at times.
Agreed. Robotton would get past Arangelis Smith for third.
And I was then slightly surprised that he didn't let him go after Ingram
on the same tire.
There was plenty of time to swap them back.
Arangelis Smith, at this point, was in fourth and doing a very good job
in fourth, it must be said, on the hard tire.
And there's a little bit of a gap between Robotton and Arangelis Smith.
So I'm slightly surprised that they didn't say to Sutton, OK,
let Robotton through.
See if you can catch Ingram and do anything about it.
If he can't, we'll swap back.
The only caveat I think there was is that with all the fighting
that Robotton had been doing, he had been using the majority of his boost.
Yeah. And by the time he got through into third,
I think he only had one lap of boost left.
But he was lapping at points three, four, five attempts quicker
than the cars in front of him.
So and also, I mean, look, is it going to upset Ingram?
His mindset, probably not his elite mindset level.
But if you're suddenly told you've got down Robotton behind you,
pushing and closing you down, do you then, does Ingram start pushing
to keep the gap as you make a mistake?
He did make a mistake in the race.
He did a very slidey line for the old hairpin.
Yep. If you've got Robotton in the back of him,
can you potentially coke some more mistakes at him?
We've seen Colin Turksen here.
Was it last year?
Make a mistake all of his own with pressure behind?
It pressure can do funny things.
As I say, I'm slightly surprised that wasn't explored by Napa
because you can always swap positions back, of course.
Yeah. And then Halstead had a slight moment coming into the chicane
at the end of the back straight anyway, where he managed to lock up
and spear off to the right hand side when it's a left hand corner.
End up going through the gravel, turn the car around in the gravel,
which to me was slightly strange.
Yeah, he kind of got away with it.
It's like there's any sort of skimmed part of the gravel
and then decided, I'm not doing a good enough job here.
I need to, you know, rev as many stones through the car as possible.
Yep, which may have come back to bite him a little bit later,
still to be confirmed what caused it, but quite a significant engine failure
coming out of Redgate, which he then spun on his own oil
and parked it up against the fence.
Yeah, I've got a slight more sympathy from spinning his own oil
to be fair to on lap nine. I do it.
Yeah, that was I've slight more sympathy for that.
But and Tim Harvey was quite good this weekend.
I know I know he also said, well, maybe that was the stone
through the part of the car from his earlier exploits.
We have, of course, seen stones through the radiators
at this time here before talking of cars of issues.
We saw a further two cars have to fall foul of these unfortunately
could excited to tumble through the order.
He'd had clutch gremlins all day, potentially a continuation of that problem.
And Morgan, who was having a good weekend, also had to pit with an issue
in this race, which crushed your hopes of your prediction a little bit.
Fully sure whether it was a puncture or just something
not quite right at the rear end.
They certainly took one of the rear wheels off to have a good inspection
around there and following that up.
Smiley also got a puncture late on in the race.
He did indeed on the safety car restart or fairly civilized.
What I again found interesting is that road bottom was a defender
of on the restart, not the attacker.
So Sutton and Ingram kind of went away as robot
and held back a little bit at the end of the race
in trying to make up for what happened in race two.
Yeah, I can understand that to a degree.
And obviously Sutton did try and have a few attacks
on the safety car restart.
But really, on that tie, it was never really going to come up for him.
Chilton, who mentioned that he was having a great race,
and but he had met a rolling roadblock that was not for moving.
We now tell you, Smith, who you have to say on the hard tire,
the car that has been a little bit difficult this season.
Yeah, really well, didn't he?
He kept Chilton behind him for the race.
And Hill Hill was also involved in the battle
and was making a nuisance of himself.
Yeah, Hill got through Chilton for a fantastic move, the copper.
So, you know, you have to say it's a brilliant move
by Hill Sutton-esque to a degree
and just made a made the move very, very well indeed.
I think that's pretty much the race, apart from to say that
with the Ingram win, is that the championship over?
Yeah, Ingram took the win from Sutton, from Robotom,
Aaron Taylor Smith, and a fantastic four.
Yes, I agree.
From Jake Hill, from Tom Chilton,
Gordon Shedden in the other M Sport engine Toyota in seventh.
From Dan Lloyd in eighth, who went on to win the independence title
or title trophy trophy this weekend.
From Darryl Leon, who took the Jack Sears trophy in ninth.
All three wins this weekend.
Yeah, the one we came in it back in.
Yeah, exactly.
Charles Rayford in tenth, followed by Josh Cook,
tumbled all the way down to 11th, Dan Kamish in 12th.
He was 15th at one point and managed to fight a little bit back through.
From Aidan Moffitt in 13th, Osborne in 14th and Proctor in 15th.
So in terms of the title, which I'll quickly bring you up to speed on
before we go into our awards and predictions, that does leave
Tom Ingram on 377 points, which is a 32 point gap on Ash Sutton on 345.
Kamish is back into third on 264 with Roboto on 248.
Surprised the gaps opened up that much because in my mind,
Roboto had a better weekend.
But yeah, there's mainly what a win can do.
Jake Hill on 225, potentially started to reel in, maybe,
maybe the Napa Fords ahead of him.
Bit of a resurgence, I don't think so, but we'll see.
What I will say is that's pretty impressive, because if you missed a round.
Yes, yes, agreed.
Obviously, he had a massively good round up at Noctale taking two wins.
It is certainly catapulted him back into the possible competition
for the position in the championship.
Tom Sheehan on 204, Adam Morgan on 196, Charles Rainford on 143,
Dowder Leon on 132 and Senna Proctor into the top 10 on 125.
In terms of the independence drivers, well, we've said it before,
finishing races is what you need.
And Mikey Dabel is back at the top of that leaderboard on 324.
That's two points ahead of Daniel Lloyd.
And that's three points ahead of Chris Smiley is so close in that one.
Yeah, that is probably going to be the most exciting championship going into.
Well, you say that.
But the Jack Sears is also still quite close.
Dowder Leon on 369, Rainford on 355 and Osborne on 324.
But I agree with you.
That does look very exciting indeed.
And the Wingfoot, don't forget the Wingfoot, please.
Ingram might be able to take a unprecedented double.
Have you ever seen a double in that?
He's on one three two, Camichon one one eight, one one eight.
Those two are significantly ahead of other drivers as well.
They've both qualified very well.
Sorry, Ingram has had a very good year for qualifying,
even with the DAC of TTB.
Absolutely.
Well, look at you, if you use the acronyms.
Well, right, right.
When the drivers forget what it's called.
So do the commentators.
So do we to be fair.
Right, we'll take a very quick break
and then we'll do our predictions, awards and summing up thoughts.
We've all had that sinking feeling
when we've missed the delivery or missed something on the telly or whatnot.
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Content comment on content comment on content back to the show.
Right, then, let's get our predictions and awards,
which do you want to do first?
I was going to ask you the same question.
What do you fancy?
I'd like to do some awards first of all.
OK, that's to the awards
because we're pretty much in agreement on all these anyway.
Amazingly.
Yeah, so driver of the day is
Tom Chet, no, Tom Ingram.
Yeah, I'm going to give one of our mentions to Robo and Chilton,
who have both thought had good, strong weekends
and drove very well as well.
They did.
Other than one of them hitting the 188 and
title.
Mate, good entertainment.
It did, yes.
I think Ingram has probably sent a case of whatever beer
he was once sponsored by over to Robotum in the post.
Yeah, no.
At first, the second and the fourth ring in this weekend.
And let's be honest with it,
it would have been a third had the rain not come
because he was comfortably in the podium place in race two.
Yes.
And he could have quite easily had the race winning race one
if team orders weren't involved.
So, yeah.
No, I completely agree.
If you've been another weekend,
it has to be smiling.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Agreed.
A poor showing.
Race one tumbled.
Yeah.
Disqualified.
Okay.
That's not really your fault.
Not necessarily his fault.
But then race three just made,
let's be honest, the puncture is unfortunate.
We hadn't made any progress anyway.
Had he really?
I mean, he was on the coattails of 15 for something.
Yeah.
Yes.
He was on the harder tire,
which I'm quite surprised to see a puncture from.
But yeah, it just wasn't his weekend.
No.
Surprise.
Good.
We're also in agreement.
Of it's half of Toyota,
specifically the half that are running new engine.
I fought our tennis with and she had a brilliant this weekend.
Okay.
She had his luck into a podium to a degree.
Yes.
But equally they were.
Keep it on the circuit.
You do.
And both of them are in the top 10 throughout the weekend.
And actually,
had seemed to have genuine pace.
And Taylor Smith taking that fourth on the hard tire
in the final race was just.
Yeah.
Excellent.
Showing from him.
Excellent.
And then the bit where we don't agree.
No.
On a surprise bad.
You go first.
I'll go for proctor.
Obviously qualified.
Okay.
Made a mistake in race.
We didn't really get her in race one to be honest with you.
Further away.
I wasn't really pushing for the podium places.
Mistake in race two,
which ended his race and obviously damaged Moffat and
Osborn did what he did.
And then in race three,
didn't make any progress whatsoever from the back of the grid.
Okay.
Again, the hard tire,
but in the superior car.
Yeah.
So it's a struggle.
Yeah.
It's coming to be his worst weekend since I'm coming back.
So that's why I was surprised.
Agreed.
I have gone for rain for this weekend.
Not only did we both back him in the Jack Sears.
He made a mistake of his own accord spinning the car round
and didn't look as competitive as the other BMWs.
Moffat had an average weekend from Moffat,
but the Leon was certainly a small step above him this weekend,
taking all three Jack Sears wins.
Yeah.
Jack, he would necessarily think BMW would go very well at anyway.
No, but I'd expect him to be there alongside the Leon this weekend
and he just fell a little bit short.
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
In terms of the Jack Sears,
did the Leon won all three
and the independent overall winner for the weekend was Lloyd,
who won two out of the three.
He did.
Moving on to our predictions from the weekend then
and it was quite a mixed bag, wasn't it?
It was.
So it's two, two overall this weekend,
which is not helpful really.
Thankfully.
The championship closed, isn't it?
I was a little bit worried towards midway through race three
and I thought you were going to snatch a couple more points,
but I'm glad it didn't play out that way.
Absolutely.
So we both went for different pulses.
I went for Proctor.
You went for Camish.
Obviously both of us were incorrect on there.
Yep.
You got two race winners.
You went for Camish and Ingram,
Smiley being your third, which let you down.
I went for Ingram for a race win.
So I got that and then Sutton and Proctor,
both of who didn't pull through.
I went for Rainford in the Jack Sears,
so no points there.
In the general, you had a stinker.
No points at all.
That should be a minus 10, really.
No.
You had...
I'll come back though,
because I still don't feel like I understand it.
I'll explain that one.
You had Moffat to outscore Double.
Sorry.
You had Moffat to outscore Darude Leon
or Charles Rainford.
Yeah.
Lever happened.
You had Restart to outscore Toyota
and Toyota promptly responded
by having their best weekend.
So good for you.
Yeah.
And Restart having a poor weekend,
especially with Smiley.
Mm-hmm.
And you had running wide at the hairpin of two.
I think I counted three overall this weekend.
There was one in race three, I think.
But it doesn't really matter.
I had 11 and it was nowhere near.
And then you went for the top three scoring virtues
outscore the top three scoring nappers.
So the top three scoring virtue drivers
were Ingram, Chilton and Morgan.
So Ingram scored 54 points this weekend.
Chilton scored 35.
And Morgan scored 26.
So I would take those three drivers
and then I would reverse them off
against Napa drivers
and the points that they scored.
So the top scoring napper was Sutton.
So Ingram outscored Sutton.
So that was a win for me.
And then it went downhill.
Oh, I see.
So Camish scored 36 points this weekend
outscoring Chilton who only scored 35.
And then Robotton scored 34 points this weekend
who outscored Adam Morgan on 26.
Right.
So yeah, it was poorly calculated.
I didn't think Napa were going to do
as well as they had done this weekend.
No.
In all honesty.
I went for all six Hoon days scored twice plus.
And I came close because it was looking fine
until Smiley's puncture, race three.
Yeah, but the way that the...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I had at least one BMW podium.
Dillion teased me a couple of times throughout the weekend
but ultimately didn't get there.
I had two of the top four to miss out on the fast six
in qualifier.
At least two of the top four.
At least two of the top four.
Yeah.
And then I had running wide the old hairpin nine
and obviously I was close to the three.
So a point there which makes it two, two.
I must say on that running wide
with the old hairpin.
I do think they extended that curve this weekend.
I think they might have done.
Yeah, I think they might have done.
Yeah.
Should we just...
That means that the overall scores for us...
Yes.
...sit at 22 points to 20 in my favor.
And with only two more race weekends left.
Still nice and interesting.
Absolutely.
I will just cover off penalty corner
very, very briefly as well.
Josh Cook was deducted five points
for having an engine change.
Because in racing we deducted 10 points
for above the number of engine changes.
Engine change, yeah.
Obviously, we know double was disqualified
from qualifying.
We know Chris Smiley was disqualified from race two.
The Cal State received a 30 second penalty
in round 23 of the challenge of pit lane speeding.
He hilariously decided that the race was
not going to finish under safety cars
and wanted to go out on the wets
and then spend on the pit lane anyway.
My confusion around that is,
okay, fair enough if you want to come in
for the wet tyre
and you don't want to run on the slits
in that condition.
But surely his engineer must have gone.
There's not that many laps left.
No, there are two laps left.
It's finishing the safety car, yeah.
It's probably going to finish under safety car.
You're just going to have to battle it out
and you're not going to be scoring points anyway.
And then in race three, Chris Smiley
received a verbal warning for causing a collision
and gaining a position in an instant
involving Mikey Doble.
Wasn't picked up on the cameras.
Wasn't picked up by us.
So can't add anything there.
Right.
Should we go into our final thoughts
for the weekend?
I'll let you go first.
Put it on the spot.
It's looking very ominous.
Stop my final thought.
Oh, really?
Sorry.
Yes, it's looking very ominous
as to Ingram taking home the title
for 2025.
A 32-point gap at this stage of the season
is a big gap.
We have seen it
chased down before, I believe.
But we're going to a circuit
where she loves next in Silverstone
and always goes well.
Hasn't had a win at Silverstone every year.
He's competed or something ridiculous.
He's stupid like that.
And dare I say, Sutton from memory
from when I did the research last year
hasn't necessarily gone fantastically
at Silverstone in comparison.
The only thing that might come into Sutton's favour
is that maybe there'll be some rain
in these last few rounds of the season.
But I'm with you, I think it's done.
He needs a lot to fall in his favour
for him to take home that title.
However, the independent drivers
is certainly one to keep your eye on.
Even if they are midfield battles,
they're still ones that are going to be entertaining
all the way to the end of the season.
Yeah.
Let us know your thoughts on this weekend down below.
Because race one was a little bit boring.
Can I add to my...
I'll add a different final thought.
The support package was terrible this weekend.
It was so boring. It was so boring.
You had a nice sleep.
Twice.
I know it's a broken record on this,
but the Porsches were so processional.
The F4 wasn't particularly exciting.
Well, I don't know how firstly to be fair.
And the minis weren't the usual minis.
And yeah.
We've been here before. We've tried it before.
Something needs to change for next season.
There's probably no point moaning about it for us this season.
Now we've only two rounds to go.
Let's just hope that 2026 is a little bit different in that regard.
Yeah. And if you haven't done already,
make sure that you do go down below,
subscribe so you don't miss on any content coming out.
Especially with what we've got coming out
later this week.
But until Silverstone in three weeks time.
Two weeks, isn't it?
Three weeks.
We will have another video or two
between now and then.
And we'll get ready for that.
So we speak again.
Bye-bye.
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