The “FIA approved lights” are the official start lights used in FIA-sanctioned racing. They’re there to make sure the race start is consistent and fair for everyone.
An “undercut” is when a driver pits earlier than others to get onto fresher tires. The fresher tires let them drive faster and potentially pass the rival when the rival hasn’t pitted yet.
The Toyota Corolla is a common everyday car made by Toyota. Some racing teams also use it in competition, where they modify it to go faster and handle better on a track. The podcast mentions it because different teams have run Corollas in their racing programs.
“Clean air” means air that isn’t messed up by another car in front. That can help the engine run cooler and breathe better, so the car loses less performance.
They’re talking about how drivers got past each other during the race. The hosts also debate whether some overtakes are “real racing” or more like using a special speed system.
DRS is a system that temporarily reduces drag so the car goes faster in a straight line. The host doesn’t like how it can make overtakes feel more like a button-push than a pure racing move.
Ricky Collard is one of the drivers in this BTCC race. The hosts talk about how he was making progress and also how the seat fit might be different because he’s smaller than the previous driver.
Senna Proctor is a racing driver. The hosts are saying Ricky Collard was driving in Proctor’s usual seat setup, which can matter because the driver’s fit affects comfort and control.
Front wheel steer means the front wheels are what turn left and right. The hosts are using this to explain how the car’s overall layout affects balance and tire grip.
Front wheel drive means the front wheels both steer and push the car forward. The hosts are saying those cars didn’t keep their tires working as well later in the race.
Over boosting means the turbo is making too much pressure (and usually too much power) compared to what the rules allow. If the car does it, officials can disqualify it after the race.
“Soft field” here is shorthand for a race where most cars started on the softer tire compound. Softer tires usually give more grip initially but wear faster, which can strongly affect strategy and how long drivers can stay in contention.
A brake caliper is the part that squeezes the brake pads against the disc to slow the car down. If they have to change it on the grid, it usually means there was a problem that needed fixing right before racing.
When the brakes are “warped,” it usually means the brake disc got overheated and bent slightly. That can make braking less smooth and less effective, which is a big deal at race speeds.
A “soft tyre” refers to a tire compound designed to provide more grip, especially when warm. The tradeoff is that it typically degrades faster than harder compounds, so drivers have to manage pace and temperature. In touring car racing, compound choice strongly affects how long you can stay fast.
“Heat takeover” is when the car gets too hot—usually the tyres and brakes. When that happens, the grip can drop and the car doesn’t feel as quick. It’s especially noticeable in hot weather and after lots of traffic or braking.
An “onboard” is video filmed from inside the race car. It shows what the driver sees and how the car behaves during an action like an overtake. It’s useful for understanding what happened in real time.
A “10 second penalty” means the driver gets extra time added to their race time because of a rules problem. In a race, adding 10 seconds can drop you several places quickly. It’s a way officials enforce fair driving.
Term
full start
“Full start” here refers to a mistake at the start—basically the car didn’t follow the allowed launch procedure. If you move or accelerate incorrectly, officials can penalize you. It’s meant to keep the start fair for everyone.
An intercooler is a heat exchanger that cools the air after the turbo compresses it. Cooler air helps the engine breathe better and makes boost work properly. If it gets damaged, the car can lose power and acceleration.
A “pit” stop is when a race car enters the pit lane to make changes—repairs, adjustments, or tire work—during the race. Here, Dorlin pits after contact to try to fix the intercooler-related damage. The timing matters because a pit stop costs track position.
Some race series limit how much turbo “push” a car can use. That limit is called its boost allocation. If you use it up too early, the car can’t accelerate as strongly later in the race.
A “boost pass” is when a driver times their turbo power to overtake. Since turbo power is limited in this series, the pass often happens when the driver still has boost left. It’s basically using the car’s strongest acceleration right at the right moment.
Topic
boost strategy and regulation (BTCC vs F1)
They’re discussing how race rules for extra power (“boost”) should work. The hosts compare BTCC ideas to how similar systems play out in Formula 1.
“Minimum speeds” means the rules might only let you use boost when you’re going at least a certain speed. That forces drivers to use it in specific parts of the track instead of anywhere they want.
“Harvest the energy” means the driver manages the car’s energy so it can be saved for later. They might back off briefly, then use the saved power to attack again on the next part of the track.
They’re talking about a rule that uses time gaps between cars. If you’re more than about a second behind, you’re treated differently than when you’re close enough to fight.
A “boost system” is a rule-based way to temporarily add extra power to the car. The discussion is about whether the rules let drivers use it too freely, which could change how close and how safe the racing is.
“Lock up” means the wheels stop turning while you’re braking. That can make the car slide and can also damage the tire’s contact patch, hurting grip afterward.
A “flat spot” is when the tire gets a worn/uneven patch from sliding. That patch makes the tire less grippy for a while, so the car doesn’t slow or turn as well.
Power steering helps the driver turn the wheel with less effort. If it stops working, steering gets much heavier, so it’s easier to make a mistake or struggle to correct the car.
Battery voltage is basically how much electrical power the car’s battery is providing. If it’s dropping, some car electronics may not work properly, which can affect how the car behaves.
A massive slide means the tires lost grip and the car started to skid or drift. That usually slows the car down because you can’t accelerate and turn as effectively.
A Stewards inquiry is when race officials review an incident to decide if someone broke the rules. If they think it was improper, they can hand out penalties.
Loss of momentum means the car slowed down more than it should have—often after a skid or mistake. Once you lose that speed, it’s hard to get it back quickly in the next corners.
The alternator is what keeps the car’s battery charged and powers the electrical systems while you drive. If it fails, the car’s electronics can start failing and the car may even stop.
A time penalty is a rule punishment where officials add extra seconds to a driver’s race result. Here, it’s five seconds, usually for things like breaking track limits or driving in a way the stewards don’t allow.
Track limits are the rules about where you’re allowed to drive on the circuit. If you go outside the allowed area (like cutting a corner), officials can penalize you.
A reverse grid means the next race’s starting positions are set in a flipped way based on earlier results. So where you finish earlier can decide whether you start near the front or back next time.
“Engine issues” refers to problems with the power unit that can affect performance, reliability, or qualifying/race pace. In touring cars, even a small engine-related problem can force a team to manage the car differently or accept reduced performance to finish.
Term
robot morsel
This phrase doesn’t look like a normal racing term—it's likely a mis-heard or mis-transcribed reference to a particular car or driver. The key point in context is that the car was sixth due to engine-related issues.
SNET is the nickname for the Snetterton race track. The hosts are pointing out that the podium ceremony happens at the end of the paddock, so it’s easy to stumble into if you’re around the garages.
Person
Louise
Louise is mentioned as part of the ITV coverage team. The hosts are describing who gets interviewed after the race.
Charles Rainford is one of the racing drivers being discussed. The hosts are talking about an on-track incident involving him and what the officials decided afterward.
The “stewards” are the race officials who look at what happened during the race. “Stewards bus” is slang for being called in because of an incident and getting a decision or penalty.
BTCC sometimes uses a random draw to decide starting positions for the next race. “Ball number seven” means the draw came up with a number that gave that driver the front starting spot.
Pole position is the starting spot at the front of the grid for a race. In BTCC, it’s determined by qualifying and/or race results plus the series’ grid-draw rules, and it strongly affects race strategy because you get clean air and track position.
In BTCC, there’s a separate category for independent teams. “Independent win” means the best finish among those independent entries, even if the overall race winner is someone else.
A “medium” tire is a type of racing rubber that’s designed to last longer than the softest tires, but it may not grip quite as hard. That changes how soon a driver can push and how long they can stay fast.
A “false start” is when a driver goes early or doesn’t follow the official start procedure. If you do it wrong, you can get penalized and it can also ruin your launch and acceleration right at the start.
“Bogged down” means the car didn’t accelerate properly and felt like it lost power. At the start, that usually happens when the driver can’t get the engine and wheels working together smoothly.
The “Agostini hairpin” is a tight, slow corner at Snetterton. Because you brake hard and then accelerate out, it’s a common spot to gain or defend positions.
Place
Richie's
“Richie’s” is a specific named spot on the Snetterton track. When commentators say an overtake happened there, they’re telling you roughly where on the circuit the move was made.
Place
Halton
“Halton” is a named part of the Snetterton circuit. Saying the pass happened there helps you picture what kind of move it was—like a late-braking attempt or an outside line.
Place
Oggy's
“Oggy's” is a named corner on the Snetterton track. The commentary is saying the driver kept the lead after the pass—meaning the other car couldn’t immediately take the spot back.
A “cutback” is a driving move where you change your line to get back toward the inside. It’s used to make it harder for the other driver to stay in control and to set up the next chance to pass.
A “soft tire” grips the road really well, which helps cornering and passing. The tradeoff is that it wears out sooner, so you can’t keep the same pace for the whole race.
“S’s” is shorthand for a part of the track with a series of left-right (and right-left) corners. It’s a place where drivers try to keep the car moving well and set up the next move.
“Tyres will fall away” means the tires start losing grip as the race goes on. When that happens, the car can’t corner as fast and the driver has to back off or change strategy.
A “catch-22” is a no-win situation where doing the right thing causes another problem. In this case, it’s about tyres: if you push too much you can ruin them, but if you don’t push enough you can’t catch the cars ahead. So you have to find a balance.
This part is the results recap for Race 3—who finished where. It connects the key moments (like penalties and overtakes) to the final finishing order. It’s how the hosts wrap up the race review.
Josh Cook is a well-known driver in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). Here, he’s mentioned as one of the drivers near the front in the standings.
The NGTC era is a specific set of BTCC rules for how the cars are designed and raced. Saying someone is the best of the NGTC era means they were especially dominant under those rules.
BTCC rules get updated over time to try to make racing more competitive. The host is basically saying that even with rule changes, the best teams can still be so strong that the changes don’t level the field much.
“Space Wagon” isn’t a normal car brand name—it’s a nickname for a particular race car. It’s used because the car stands out in appearance or design and is known for being very fast. The podcast brings it up because it’s one of the notable cars in the racing story they’re discussing.
An “independent entry” means the team isn’t a factory-backed squad. They may have less support and fewer resources than the biggest teams, so it’s harder to compete at the very front.
GT3 is a type of race category for cars based on real production models. Teams build race versions that follow the same rules so competition stays close.
They’re talking about practicing in a racing video game/simulator. It helps drivers learn the track and practice how to drive the car so they’re ready for race day.
Nick Hamilton is a driver the hosts are evaluating. They’re basically asking whether his team is strong enough to put him right at the front like he’s done in other parts of his career.
“Sharp end of the grid” just means the front of the race field. The host is wondering if Hamilton’s team is good enough to be fighting for top positions.
An overtake is when a driver passes another car to move up the order. The hosts are using how often Hamilton could pass people to argue the car had real speed.
“Straights” are the parts of the track where cars go fastest in a line. The host is saying Ingram’s car struggles there, which usually means it can’t accelerate as well as the competition.
A “setup” is the specific configuration of a race car—things like suspension settings, aero balance, and tire pressures—chosen to match a track and driving style. In BTCC, teams constantly adjust setups to stay effective even when rules add restrictions.
“Levelers” is the hosts’ term for performance-balancing measures used by the championship to keep cars closer together. They argue that once teams understand the balancing system, they’ll engineer around it to stay at the front.
Term
median tyre
BTCC weekends can use different tire types. A “median tyre” is basically the middle option, not the best grip and not the longest-lasting one, and the hosts are saying the drivers still did well on it.
In BTCC, the cars use specific engine packages tied to the manufacturer’s racing program. Here, the hosts are talking about the BMW M Sport engine and whether it was underperforming this weekend compared with what teams hoped for.
A stock engine is basically the standard engine type the series allows teams to run. Even if it’s not a fully custom race engine, teams still have to set the car up so it works well in different weather and track conditions.
Straight-line speed is how fast the car goes when the track is straight. If something is wrong—like heat affecting the engine—you’ll often notice it most as a loss of top speed on the straights.
Heat soak means the car gets so hot that key parts don’t cool down fast enough. When that happens, the engine can lose power, so the car ends up slower—especially on long straight sections.
PMR is the name of a racing team. The speaker is saying they’re focusing on PMR because that team seems to handle the problem better than others during this weekend’s races.
LIVE
Sunshades and Snediton, we bring you up to date with the weekend's action.
Hello and welcome back. We had a very, very hot weekend, that's next to the Snediton weekend,
but luckily, relatively, we got away scot-free with the sunburn.
Yes, it's amazing what wearing suntan lotion can do, isn't it? Perhaps you can learn this
for the future. And plenty of umbrella cover and a little bit of wandering around as well.
It was a hot one. First and foremost, everybody has stayed cool and hydrated and all that kind of
stuff. It isn't nursing too many bad sunburns today. I think we should start at the top of a
massive shout-out to the Orange Army because if we were hot in shorts and t-shirt, they are in
full fire overalls, they would be a little bit hotter than us, I think it's fair to say. We've
absolutely no shade apart from boiling hot huts they might be able to get under, which, yes,
wouldn't have to sun on it, but it would also be an absolute sweat box. So fair play to the
marshals. We can't go racing without them and they did a sterling job this weekend.
I was quite surprised by how much cooler it was down actually in the paddock than it was compared
to being up on the banks where we watched some of the races from. Yeah, a bit of shade from the
lorries maybe and perhaps with the nicer air-con from the garages blowing out into the paddock
walkway, which is quite nice. But yeah, a good weekend. A weekend of mixed racing, I think it
is fair to say. Yeah, some races were a little processional. That is the problem with Snediton
at times. I think I said to you yesterday that I think because of the circuit length, you do end
up getting sort of defined splits. You have the top six running together, then a fairly large gap,
and that's part of the problem is that once you get to the top of your pack, it's in a long way
to get to the next one. And I think that's a bit difficult for some of the drivers, unless your
name is Ash Sarton or Tom Ingram, where gaps don't apply. All kind of corners. We'll get to that.
Should we get straight into it then? Yeah, let's jump into race one. So we have covered
Saturday. We were there for both days this weekend. If you've not heard already, we bought a live
reaction from the track, from Saturday's action with our honest opinions of how the racing felt
as a fan on a Saturday. So we're not going to cover anything from there. That is all in another
video. Go and find it. So we'll jump straight into race one with a flicker notebook. And most drivers
elected for softs at the front and most of the mediums at the back, which is fairly standard
for a touring car weekend. Yeah, so the medium tyre was quote the worst tyre to be on this weekend.
The slightly slower tyre. And that's what Sarton meant for because he had to make some
progress through the field, but he knew putting a soft tyre on could possibly ruin the end of his
weekend. So he went to basically try and do his best on that medium tyre, make up the positions
he kind of knew he would with the other people on mediums and get a decent result in race one to
then build on that for the rest of the weekend for himself. Absolutely. So as the lights went out,
the FIA approved lights as soon as we should point out. Rainford is away well off the light
and that was pretty much that for race one on to race two. Yeah, you got a really good start. I was
able to pull I think just over a second lead on that opening lap and he didn't really look back
from there. He was comfortable, not really challenged at any point during this race.
And it turns out that the BMW really does like hot weather until it gets too hot. So the BMW was
it was very good in clean air this weekend. I think it's fair to say as all cars work,
you're not following the pack of a lot of hot air being blown up by the other cars.
But I think it's fair to say that they are still struggling in a straight line with BMW.
It's interesting as well that Hyundai are struggling a little bit in a straight line this
year as well as we'll get to some later racing. So yes, Rainford away well, Ingram got by Cook
at Hamilton in a very Sutton-esque undercut pass, which is quite nice to see. Very well.
And Sutton was up just a mere eight places by the S's at the end of the first lap. So
a little bit of overtaking. Yeah, I don't know whether it's a combination of good starts or just
the quality and caliber of driver that he is, but he always seems to make up a big chunk of
places on that first lap when he needs to. And yeah, he was looking quite ominous.
Him and Osborne then got passed Adam Morgan on lap three. And that's kind of where his position
plateaued on the medium tire. Absolutely. You mentioned Adam Morgan there. So it's
prudent to mention at this stage that all M Sport engines were struggling all bit,
some more than others. So that was your Speedworks Corollas, your Mercedes,
Plata, Kathleen Racing, PMR, Laser Tools, PMR, Audi's and then the Laser Tools
Toyota as well all run the M Sport engine. Yeah, I spoke to Mikey during the day yesterday
and he said, yeah, they're about 20 clicks down in sort of like straight line speed.
And the reason that Cook didn't suffer as much in that first race is because he had more clean air
and was able to get a lot more cooler air into the engine. I think it's also fair though to say
that the probably PMR struggled the most out of the M Sport engines because let's not forget
Sheddon won a race. Yes, I know he would have had clean air in front of him. But also we saw
the team Mercedes do fairly well throughout the weekend. Solid points, if not spectacular. So
I think PMR really were the ones that struggled the most along with Max Buxton and Aaron Taylor
Smith. But conversely, Cook and Sheddon didn't seem to struggle as much. So there could be
something else at play there as well. Yeah, Selby and Patterson had a decent battle in this race
and they were battling for the Jack Sears places and they were giving everything and I've got a
little bit more because they had a little nibble at each other a couple of times, didn't they?
They absolutely did. In terms of passing, it hadn't got any nibbles.
Dillion got past Camish for fourth on a boost pass. I really don't like the boost. I'm just going to
come out and say I don't like it. It shows it in a really bad light with the two long
stripes that we've got, Axe-Nesterton. The fact that we saw a couple of times this weekend where
two drivers went around the outside, there was another driver and something like pincer movement
just went straight past him. It's not racing though, is it? No, it's not racing. You don't see it
like in the Olympics, the 400m dash where somebody can suddenly just pop some rockets on their shoes
to get around. Do you know what I mean? It's not racing. I don't like it at all. With touring cars,
I've said it before, I don't like DRSNF1. I understood why it had to come in because there
was no overtakes happening on a weekend and you needed something. Touring cars has never struggled
from having no overtakes, so I don't really understand the need for it. Collard was making
some overtakes and he'd made some decent progress following quite a disappointing qualifying race
to pole and he was looking a lot sharper on the Sunday. Interesting to point out that he was racing
in Senna Proctor's old seat this weekend, which was surprising. You could see in the car just how
much gap there was between the shoulder pads and him. Ricky Collard is a smaller gentleman than Senna
Proctor, I think it's fair to say. Very interesting to see that. I don't know if that's because he
did have a seat fit. He said that immediate days. I don't know if he has not had the seat come back
yet. It would be a hell of a long time if it hasn't come back yet. Maybe there's a problem with
his old seat and then had to revert to what was in the stocks. You mentioned that De Leon went
past Camish. He was then off to harass and attack Josh Cook and managed to get past him
into Agostini on lap nine for third position overall. I thought the BMW was really strong in
the second half of the race. It came back to De Leon a little bit. Obviously, Rainford was
strong throughout the whole race, but in terms of De Leon, it was there about until the second
half or even the last quarter of the race where he just seemed to go up a couple of notches and
be able to reel in cars that were easier. They held onto the tyres quite nicely. Being a rear
wheel drive with obviously front wheel steer, their balance on tyres gets better throughout
the race, whereas the front wheel drive cars really do suffer. Then the last thing I just
want to point out is that James Doyle had a really good race, well in the top 10, racing
nicely a Ricky Collard as well, showing real strong pace in that car. Looks very settled in
the machine he's got beneath him this year as well. Yeah, but in the end it was a commanding
likes to flag victory from Rainford. However, there was one small indiscretion during the race
and that was Sam Osborne who was excluded after the race for over boosting. Again,
another reason I hate the boost because yeah, I just don't. We'll have to cover this on the
May update to how this actually works because I don't like him. There's lots of things I don't
like about touring cars this year and that's another one I have to say. So in terms of race
one then, Charles Rainford won the race from Tom Ingram, Darryl Daly on taking up the final podium
place. Josh Cook in fourth, good result for him. Dan Kamish, Dan Robottom, Tom Chilton,
Ricky Collard, James Dawling and Ash Sutton making up the top 10. So a decent, you've got to say,
on the wrong tyre with only one lap of boost, pretty good effort from Sutton to get himself
into the top 10. Yeah, there was only one other driver ahead of him on the mediums and that was
Tom Chilton. Absolutely. And then Rowling at your points, Paying Positions, Adam Morgan,
Louis Selby, good result for him. He means him quiet but very good race. Gordon Sheddon,
Mikey Dable and Chris Smiley making up your top 15. There's some big names not in there including
Moffat, Paterson and Taylor Smith. So race two then, yeah, which is probably the most interesting
of the day. Certainly the most exciting. Now obviously the top three would go on to start on
the medium tyre and also I think Hamilton on Osborne also started on the medium tyre for race
two. So it was a majority soft field. Yep, I think we should just give us a little thanks to WSR
for allowing us into the garage for race number two as it was probably the hottest of the three.
And it was quite nice to be in the garage with a few fans going etc. Not just fans of
Rainford Go and Go Rainford actual fans that blow. Yeah, it was significantly cooler in there.
So that was very nice for us to be able to go in there for race number two.
And it was WSR that got off to a good start. De Leon managed to get up behind Rainford into
turn one, which we kind of expect nowadays with that rear wheel drive BMW power off the line.
But Ingram did fight back into Wilson and go back into second position.
Yeah, a few things just before the race. Sorry to jump back. Sorry that Camish had to have a
caliper change on the grid. Harvey said in commentary that the old brakes, there's a
problem getting hold of some of the old brake parts through supply issues that have had to move
to a slightly different model. I think Camish said that at the end of race one, the brakes had
warped, which is not ideal in a touring car going over 100 miles an hour. You have very good luck
with brakes, does he? Too soon? So here's a caliper change on the grid. And as I said before
the race, that's the last thing you want in these conditions going where the brakes are already
running naturally hot to be sort of pressing the brake pedal and hoping that the car bites.
You say that. He did look quite racey in the early stages though. He did. Cook did manage to get
shuffled backwards even though he was on the soft tyre. I assume getting into traffic and
that's where we saw the heat takeover and the performance start to dip in that M Sport engine.
Absolutely. Ingram would then get by into first, not overly contested by Rainford,
I think that it was probably felt from Charles that he had to look after his tyre, his engine,
his race and just damage the limit a little bit. And I think as Charles alluded to in an interview
over the weekend package, as I get to know him, he did sort of mention that they are struggling
for pace on the straights and think Ingram isn't in the same way. So sensible. No. And then another
high end I made up good positions with collard up to fifth already at the start of that race.
He was trying to work his weekend back to something good, especially where he is now
sitting in the championship. I have to say that there's a good onboard of car before that overtaking
robot. I mean, that rear of the Mercedes looks very or looks very, very loose and could have
just been a setup issue for that race. But of course, new car, learning different setups,
learning different ways of racing. They've got no data to go on at all. And this weekend, it's hot.
They can probably use some base data from previous years, but they won't be the same
car, same temperatures. So it's difficult to get the setup right.
We saw a 10 second penalty handed out to Dexter Patterson. This was for a full start,
unfortunate, but it's happened to pretty much everyone on the grid. It happened so much nowadays.
There's at least one person a weekend that gets hit with one. Yeah, talking of that, I thought
Rainford was a little lucky because he was very tentative getting into his box at the start of
the grid. And it was interesting that they're allowed a mechanic on the race wall now at the
start of to get them into position, and they must leave the wall. Only marshals can be on
the grid wall for the start of a race, but they are now allowed a mechanic to sort of
feed them into position. But given that Chilton got a penalty for being out of position yesterday.
Massively. Not just half a cent. No, in fairness to Rainford, he wasn't out of
position by the end of it, but did well to correct it. But it's going to be interesting to see how
that carries on throughout the season because it does appear to be that it's sent the toker of
very hot on this year. It certainly is. Bad news for James Dorlin as he had to pit due to contact
which crushed an intercooler pie. We spoke to him between race two and race three, and he was
really disappointed because he knew what good pace and he showed it in race one was the pace he
had this weekend, came into the pits, the team tried to fix it, but ended up not being able to
do anything. So they just took the pipe off and he practically ran the rest of the race with no
boost and therefore right at the back. I think also a lap down at that point. But crucially
was able to get back out and therefore continue to contest the Jack Sears, which is scoring points.
This is how you win the Jack Sears. And we'll get to that later in the day is by making sure you
finish the races. Both the BMWs used up their boost allocation early on, which kind of made
them sit in ducks from lap five onwards. And that was really evident when sort of like the soft shot
runners came up behind them. They were made easy work of, I said earlier that we had a couple of
drivers passing around both sides of them down the both the back straight and the pit straight.
I was about to say, yeah, so I've got here that, yeah, Camish finally got past De Leon
with a boost pass, just drive past one straight. And then, you know, Sutton and Collard that went
either side of De Leon down the pit straight one. What I found really interesting standing in that
WSR garage is they were giving feedback to the drivers of what their teammate had used boost-wise
and how they were expecting the other drivers to just go, oh, he's going to boost past you now
sort of thing. It's not particularly what I'd like to see. But it's good awareness to
then not getting the way I'm not causing the incidents by knowing who's on boost on what that.
Yeah, I will say that I don't like the boost passing. I do and we'll come to it more in race
three. I do like the boost defending a little bit more because there's a little bit more
tacticalness to that. To me, there's no tactics involved in, I'll just press the button that
gives me extra speed and drive around the outside on the straight. That's not, to me,
I know that's a good thing and I'm not a racing driver. Whereas I think that when using it to
defend as we'll get to have shed in race three, that is a little bit more interesting and makes
it a little bit more racing. So my question for you at this point is, would you rather see everyone
with a boost allocation that is either the same or near enough the same to be able to carry out
that defense and attack and that tactics of being able to use it where you want, when you want,
in best circumstances? So yes and no answer to that. I think that if you gave it the same boost,
it becomes absolutely obsolete. So no, I reckon so because I think even if it's not for the
whole race, so even if you give it for sort of like six out of the twelve laps that we had at
and the drivers then get to decide and the teams get to decide when they use it, save it for later
in the race. I mean, since they'd have full location, I pretty much all laps. Okay, no,
if you would say that it could only have it for half race distance and everybody had the same,
then yes, I think that would be a good idea. And I also like the idea that you can use it
wherever no minimum speeds, no, just you use it where you want to use it. I think that would make
things better. Yes, I agree on that. I think if you keep the minimum speeds in there, that could
be the way that they want to regulate how it can be used rather than having such vast differences
in the amount of boost that people can use across a race. You're almost, it's almost a,
and we like, BTC seems to like to copy F1, so why not? It seems similar to what we've got in F1
at the moment to a degree, you've got more freedom to choose where you use it and you'll see some
overtakes where the driver in front relents, lets them through knowing that they'll then
harvest the energy for the next part of the track and come back through, which we saw.
I've had a completely contrary idea to F1 though.
That won't go down well, we don't do that.
If you're sort of like further than a second behind a driver in front of you,
you're allowed to use it and then once you get within that one second,
do we not allow them to use it and allow them to race?
I think it would close the grits up.
I think it would close the grits up. I think you'd probably then get too many accidents,
I think you'd probably get too many, what's the word I'm looking for, cork in the bottle
situations. I think that if Boost is here to stay, I think that they does need looking out,
because it is a little bit farcical that, I was going to cover this at the end, so we'll cover
at the end about where the championship currently is, so we'll come back to that.
But yes, I think there needs to be a level of change to the Boost system.
Where do we actually get to? We've got Lassos lost there.
Sutton got cleanly passed down Hamish on lap six, no real defence going down into Nelson and Bundle,
and then he only had Rainford and Ingram to catch and pass, to basically take another win.
Yeah, he got into second at riches and then was able to hunt down Ingram.
This point in the race, Rainford started to bleed places. He'd held on pretty well in the first
three quarters of the race. It's a long old lap it's there, and I was sitting there watching
about this morning thinking, it's lap nine and Rainford's doing his third. I know I thought
knife, how did that happen? But it's such a long lap that there is such a lot of opportunity to
tumble down the order. We then saw an rare error by Tom Ingram. Very uncharacteristic, wasn't it?
I don't know whether the aura of having Sutton in your wing mirrors, maybe Missy's breaking
point going into Wilson, but he locked up, went straight on and almost kept it on the track,
but lost, I think, five positions in total from that lock up, and then it has a knock-on effect of
having a flat spot on the tyre. That being the point of where the car wants to stop or slow down
on each and every time, it has to be really careful on the brakes there forwards.
I would say in Ingram's defense that he has had no power steering since around about lap four,
I think he said, and the battery voltage had been diminishing up on lap. I'm not a racing car
expert, I'm not a racing car driver. I don't know if that would affect braking or not. I would
assume not, but I don't know for sure. There was a course of possibility that he would be
incredibly fatigued by this point, having to drive a car with no power steering in 60 degree
temperature within the car, door then liking it to go into your local spa and sitting in there with
all your racing gear on, and then it would still be only a little bit cooler than what it's like
in the car. I do wonder if that played a little part as well to be fair. I know adrenaline will
take you so far, but yeah. Yeah, that put him down to fifth at that point. Meanwhile,
on the next lap, De Leon had a massive slide at riches. I couldn't see if he was helped or not,
because I couldn't either. Because the Mercedes was slid with him, if that makes sense. Now,
I don't know if they just both slid a little bit, or there was a little bit of contact. I can't,
there was no Stewards inquiry afterwards, and there have been a few Stewards inquiries this year,
and this weekend even, around BMWs, as we'll get to on the podium in a moment.
So yeah, it was difficult on the replay. We didn't see a replay, we just saw it live as it
happened. Hard to know if there's any extra involvement. Yeah, that loss of momentum,
though, did mean Morgan and Sheddon coming through and dropping De Leon, I think down to tenth at
that point. Yeah, and then Tom Ingram's car decided to switch off completely on lap number 10,
leading him to another non-points finish. Just coming out of the S is the car, basically just
turned off. The robot helped him off the circuit for good measure. In fairness, that is tongue
in cheek, there's nothing a robot can do. He was running behind Ingram, and you don't expect the
car just to stop in front of you. No, an alternator failure meant all lots of electrics. Had, as you
said earlier, caused the power steering failure, and then he pulled off that bomb hull to be
pushed back into the barrier. Went into the gravel pit, mainly, to make sure there's no
possibility of the grass catching fire. And that was pretty much the end of the action. It was a
big win by Sutton. He finished the race by over six seconds on record, which would be fortunate,
because he was hit with a five second time penalty post race for gaining an unfair advantage with
two wheels off the circuit. Now, having looked back, I can't quite work out where it is. The only
place I think it might be is the pass down to Leon on the pit straight. He does go over the white
line before the barrier. Now, I don't know if that counts as the track limit or if the barrier is
the track limit. I'm not sure. I don't work in those scenarios. And I also understand from what
Tim Harvey was saying commentary is that it was more of a point than anything else, i.e. it was
five seconds to prove a point from the clerks that you can't be doing this on a regular basis.
What I will say is from what we saw on the TV action, that's the only one I saw that might be
possible because Chilton mentioned in his ITV interview afterwards that Sutton managed to go
around the outside of him at Corum, which was a ballsy and brave move, but he wasn't complaining
about it. He was making the point that risk and reward and it paid off for him. And Chilton has
complained about a few driving standards over the weekend. So I would have thought that if there was
to be a complaint about that particular move, I think Tom would have probably made that very
clear at the time. Yes, yeah. Morgan and Sheddon managed to have a quietly good race as well,
both up six positions, managed to get them into the top seven positions, which would be quite
crucial for the reverse grid draw. So I'll just take you through race two and then we'll just
quickly discuss the Chilton comments on the podium. He also made them to ITV as well. Yes,
he did. So he was doubling down on this, which we'll get to in a moment. So Ash Sutton won the
race from Ricky Collard, Tom Chilton completing the podium, Dan Kamish in fourth, Adam Morgan,
fifth, good result for the plate. They're racing with a robot morsel in sixth, given the engine
issues this weekend as well. Good points finishing. Sheddon seventh, Rainford eighth, Smiley ninth,
De Leon tenth and then Selby again in the points, Cook, Doble, Taylor Smith and Moffat
making up the points of paying positions. So we watched two podiums this weekend. It's a nice
thing about SNET is that the podium is at the end of the paddock. So if you were hanging around the
paddock for whatever reason, and we were in two, race one and two, where were we for race one?
We'd come down. We have come down. Right, yes. Anyway, you can see the podium in full effect
and they give the interviews to both Alan Hyde and to who's the circuit commentator and also to
Louise on ITV. And Chilton made the point that he enjoyed racing side by side of Ricky Collard.
I'm going to paraphrase here. It's not a direct quote. He says like along the lines of Charles
Rainford could learn a thing or two around how to race side by side, a little bit spiky. And I'm
not a fan of this particularly. I think it's a little bit classless. And it was in reference to
the incident that happened in the race to pole in which Charles went on to win the race. And the
the stewards bus basically gave him a small ticking off, but no first lap on the wrist. Yeah.
My view on that is that it's been left in the stewards bus on the Saturday. You've got to move
on. There are lots of decisions that go in sport, not just touring cars. We are both football fans.
And there are lots of decisions that go against you. And you can't you as annoying of Australian
ears, you just have to move on and let them go. It's it's it's frustrating. It's annoying. Obviously
he feels he was wronged, but I just don't think it's great that he's then bought that into the
next day, particularly it's been dealt with. The stewards have decided on what they've decided on.
Everybody involved has a right to appeal. I think it's important to note. So,
yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of that. However, on the flip side, because I've been suggested I'm
sometimes too negative, it is always nice to have a little bit needle in sport. I wasn't
necessarily expecting a rain for Chilton rivalry to begin this year. But that was on my bingo car.
But we'll see what happens. But yeah, I just kind of think that once it's been decided, once the
stewards have had their say, it kind of needs to stay with that decision. Yeah. And you nearly
always get more needle the further up the grid you get because there's more at stake. Absolutely.
Right. Shall we go on to race number three then? Yeah. So ball number seven was drawn at the end
of race two to put Gordon Shedden on to pole position. He had taken the independent win in
race two and would start up from alongside Robotham and then Morgan of Plato racing.
Absolutely. And it was actually the best start was gained by Charles Rainford. However, he could
only get boxed in, unfortunately. So he got absolutely demon start. But yeah, couldn't find
the way through the cars because they sort of box him off going into turn one. And notably,
off those cars up at the front, Robotham was pretty much the only one up there on the medium
tire. Shedden, Morgan, a couple of the other drivers, then just behind that rule on the softs.
Yep. And we're trying to make the most of it early on. Robotham did try a few attacks early
into the race, but Shedden did hold those off really comfortably and very well indeed. And then
we got another 10 second penalty for Ricky Carr's false start. I haven't actually seen it, but I
think they said on the commentary mic that he sort of reversed went forward and went forward
reversed, went forward, sorry, went forward, reversed and then bogged down on the actual
start. So it was a compounded start by him. Ingram following his retirement in race two
was obviously coming from the back and on the opening lap had made up six positions already.
Yep. Not quite as good as some, but there we go. He did better overall though as the race
went on. Morgan was then let by Robotham and made perfect sense coming out of the
Agostini hairpin. As you already alluded to there, Morgan's on the soft robot on the medium.
If you're going to try and get a win for play, a racing, the soft guy is more likely to succeed.
Exactly. Ingram was up to 10th by the end of lap two and pretty much had his tail between
his legs and was just going for it. Yeah, although to be fair, the difficulty for Ingram was that
Sutton was also well on his way to third by this point as well. Robotham was struggling earlier
than some of the other drivers perhaps on the medium tie. Again, race three was very hot.
Yeah. He was on the defense against both Camish and Sutton and Sutton actually sailed around the
outside of him at Richie's on lap five. Yep. Yep. Absolutely right. Ingram, as you've already
said, was gaining places throughout the field. We didn't actually see many of the overtakes back
on the footage, but like some of the Sutton, you don't see them. They're just regulation passes
and it's what they do. Yeah. Yeah. He had a good move on the Leon at Halton. Again,
round the outside and made the position stick going into Oggy's. At this point, Robo was in
free fall, obviously due to being on the medium tire. Yeah. Further forward Sutton did actually
take the lead all bit very briefly and this is what came was discussing earlier that we actually
saw some really good defensive driving by Sheddon using the boost to his advantage to
give himself that extra little bit of speed out of the corners, giving him a chance to sort of
keep the car in a defensive position, but not lose time because obviously when you're driving
defensively, you're driving a narrow line, generally speaking, which means you're losing time.
But using the boost, he was able to offset. He was obviously still slower than if you're
pushing at fastest optimum cornering, but the boost was enabling him to make sure he's getting out
of the corner as well and making it difficult for Sutton to get that traditional cutback that
he's always looking for. Yeah. Ingram seemed to be following Rainford through once he got up
into the top 10. They were both on the soft tire at the time. He managed to get past Camish and
Chilton who were both out of boost by lap seven. Yeah. It's interesting to see how some drivers
prefer to use it early on with the defense. Obviously Sheddon was able to leave it until
as late into the race as possible to use his and Ingram with a full allocation was pretty much to
use it nearly unlimited. Yeah. Back at the front, Sheddon was putting the car in all the
right places. Sutton was really giving him a hard work and actually Sutton used his only lap of
boost to try and get past. Again, briefly managed to get by, but Sheddon just put the car in the
perfect place to have the inside line for the next set of corners. I think as defensive drives go,
this has been the best I've seen in a long time from Sheddon, but especially when you consider
the caliber of driver he's up against. It was pretty much two solid laps of battling between
those two drivers and then meanwhile on lap 10 Ingram managed to get past Morgan going down into
the S's and De Leon then followed him through a lap later. Yeah. Morgan sort of fell away in the
last few laps. It was a bit of a shame. I wonder if he perhaps took a little bit too much out of the
tyres and trying to build the advantage. It's so difficult to know what to do because it's hot.
The tyres will fall away. Do you try and push hard at the start and build an advantage and hope
nobody catches you or do you save them for the end, but then you might not be able to catch up? So
it is a bit of a catch 22 on how to look after the tyres. Yeah. So Sheddon took a very good defensive
win in the end from Sutton and then Ingram having made it all the way up onto the podium from the
back of the grid. However, he was then struck with a 10 second penalty for exceeding track limits.
Yeah. So that was win 54 for Sheddon. I just want to cover that off because Sutton was closing in
on the win tallies. As for Ingram, he kind of basically held his hands up after was in the
interview of the Wies and said that he had gotten a third by cutting every corner and pushing every
track limit. When you sent me that this morning, you said that. Yeah. So I think he probably knew
in the back of his mind at that point that he wasn't going to get the podium, particularly given he
was quite emotional after the race. I think he probably knew that he was or potentially had an
inkling. And actually, I will say we spoke about potentially some of the spiky comments from
Chil and I thought it was really good. Ingram basically wanted to, he tried to cut his own
interview short. So there'd be time for Nick to speak. Unfortunately, there wasn't, which is a
big shame because Nick Alton took home the Jack Sears trophy for the weekend, which is an incredible
effort by him. And we haven't cut him up because there is going to be a chat about him in a moment.
But yeah, I think Ingram perhaps knew that there was going to be likely soaking the post.
Yeah. Consequently, that did promote De Leon up to third position and dropped Ingram all the way
back down to eighth. Good podium for De Leon, two of the day. And it was a good day for WSR.
They bounced back pretty well after a disappointing brands. It would be rubbish.
Yes, well done. So the final standings for race three, which are also a little bit
possessional, has to be said, although given the temperatures and how tired everybody was feeling,
I'm not surprised. So Gordon Sheddon took his 54th race win from Ash Sutton,
who has now made it eight out of nine podiums. Not bad going.
Darryl De Leon in third, Chris Smiley, great result, came off to fourth. Really good. Probably
he's going to be his best result of the season. I hope it gives him something to build on.
Charles Rainford in fifth, Adam Morgan, sixth, Tom Chilton, Tom Ingram,
Dan Carrish, and Dan Robotton making up your top 10. Mikey Dable, Aaron Taylor Smith, Sam Osborne,
Aidan Moffitt and Josh Cook rounding out the top 15. So before we go into predictions and awards,
etc., let's just talk a little bit about where we are with the championship, because
it is obviously incredible that Sutton has managed to get eight out of nine podiums. He is
obviously a very talented driver, arguably the best to ever do it in touring cars,
certainly the best of the NGTC era, I believe. I would say with what it looks like he's going
on to achieve this season, and it's probably quite early, but a lot of you probably know what
I'm about to say in taking a fifth title. It will put him above the rest in terms of championship
wins. Yes, he's nowhere near the numbers of race wins that Plato is at, but that was a very specific
era where there were fewer challenges. I also, just to jump in there, I think if you'd offered
Plato less wins than five titles, I think I know what he would take. I'm just going to say it.
But yeah, in the time that Plato was racing, there were sort of like three or four drivers
that would probably take the win certainly across the seasons, and that's probably why
he ended up with more wins across the whole. And he's had a longer career than Sutton has
in touring cars. There is that as well. There have of course been the usual conspiracy theories
online that they've been engineered for Ash to win. It's nonsense, and I'm going to give a little
bit of a thought on this. So I think the biggest problem the touring cars has is that every season
we get introduced new rules or regulations or gimmicks, if you want to call it that, which I
will be, to try and stop dominance and to try and encourage competition across the grid.
Then the problem with that then is that you've got Tom and Ash who are just, they're a level of,
not even a level, they're not even a level of anyone else. They are several levels above
everyone else. It's as simple as that. Which then means they are faster, which makes the
new rules look a bit farcical. Jade Edwards said today, sorry on the sort of punditry essay that
she's disappointed to see cars with no boost overtaking cars with boost, and I get that and
I agree because that is a bit farcical because that's completely goes against the whole point of
the boost, which I think is true. But I think you have to look at some of the simple facts.
There's no conspiracy here. Tom and Ash are ridiculously fast and always have been. Sutton
has won a touring car championship in an infinity, which nobody would ever have thought of racing.
He's won it in a Subaru, which was a state, which, you know, when they brought it to the
grid, he looked at it and went, what an earth are they doing? They've bought a hearse to the
touring car grid. He won a championship in that as well. He's won it in rear wheel, front wheel.
He could probably win it in a horse and chariot. He is ridiculous. Tom Ingram nearly won the
championship as an independent entry and became very close to doing so. Knock hill, watergate,
a scandal aside. These two have always been quick. They've always been a fantastic drivers.
And then you add the other bits and pieces to it. Virtua and Napa are so well resourced. They can
build the best cars on the grid. They have done consistently for the last couple of years. Then
you add into the situation the race engineers. Spencer's doing some work with Ferrari team at
GT3s and stuff like that. Yeah. He's literally been headhunted to be able to engineer race cars
elsewhere across the world because of how good a quality job he does in the British touring cars.
And you've got Tony Carosa at the other side and Napa who, yeah, again, these are two top quality
race engineers. There isn't a conspiracy in place. You've got the best drivers with some of the best
back teams or some of the best backed or best engineers in the game. It's as simple as that.
I think the biggest problem is that the championship keeps trying to bring in these,
oh, we'll do it this way. We'll bring in this little thing to try and pull people back.
And then these two just drive around the issues with help from the team.
And as I said on yesterday, Sutton has been throughout the winter practicing in the sim
with only one second of or one lap of boost because the lowest amount of prepare for worst case scenario.
Yeah, which is an elite mentality where you're thinking about things. You've always got to try
and one challenge yourself, but to have the expectation of being as good as you are and put
yourself in the worst position to excel even further. It's also nonsense to suggest it's the
cars because Camish, I think it's been a little disappointing so far this season. So not have
a race win by now is a bit surprising. Chill when it's been hit and miss, I think it's fair to say.
Yes, so Ben Osborne have had decent results, but they haven't, in my opinion, haven't really
exceed anything you'd expect them to. And if the car was amazing to the point where anyone could
drive it to the victory, be expecting to see a podium probably for Osborne by now. We haven't.
Collard's had a very good start since I can't deny that, but Collard is also, as he pointed out
himself, he has raced GTs. He has raced against some of the very best drivers in the world. He's
raced against the current F1 champion beating him when they were doing Formula Fours and stuff.
He has raced in very high levels. He has won the GT championship with his father.
He isn't a muck who's just sort of got into a car and, you know, he's a serious peddler and
has been all of his racing career. And then you've got Nick Hamilton, who's racing some of the best
he's ever raced in the series. Absolutely 100% wouldn't disagree with that. But for the first
time in his racing career, I don't know if it's a serious team, because that's a little bit of a...
Is it a team that is at the sharp end? Yeah, is it a team who's at the sharp end of the grid?
I mean, that's probably the nicest way of putting it.
Manufacturer back in, being able to use the resources that he exactly needs to be able to
take the car to his limits. And he showed that this weekend in the quality of driving and the
amount of overtakes that he was able to make. He wasn't sitting there at the back of the field
23 seconds off the back, because that's what the car was allowing him to do. He was there
battling with the other drivers around him. That's the reason that he took home the
Jack Sears trophy this weekend. Absolutely. So yeah, in short, are the cars good?
Yeah, of course they are. Of But they're not the best, because we've seen that
Ingram's got problems in the straights. We've seen that the Napa car is phenomenal in the corners.
They've really tuned it this year. So they are so much quicker in the corners,
but they've tuned it. That's the whole point. They've not just taken a Ford,
chopped the end off and decided that we'll see what happens, boys. They've spent all winter
working on it. It's a technology and development battle. That's what motorsport is.
Yes, okay, you've got to try and find the best drivers to put in those cars, and that's exactly
what these two teams have done. And when you do that, you're going to come out with a pretty close
scenario normally of the two top drivers and the two top teams being the two top drivers in
the championship, because they're good. Yeah, it's what you expect to see. We had ballast before,
but unfortunately, I see you saying unfortunately, teams are able to work out ways to make setups to
get around that. And dare I say, we're seeing some of the top teams like Napa learning how to do
setups to get around low boost allocation. This is part of the problem with the championship,
is that if you have these sort of levelers, if you want to call it that, teams will be encouraged
to find ways around them because motor sport, as you've said, is development, and it's also a race
to solve problems. I was going to say, I wouldn't even see them as problems. They're hurdles that
teams have got to be able to get over to stay at the front and keep at the front. And if you've got
the best people behind the scenes trying to work out how to solve those issues and those problems,
who'd have thought they're going to be back at the front? Yeah, exactly that. And then you then
you stick in two of the best peddlers we've seen. I mean, they're certainly up then the two of the
best that I've seen in my generation. In terms of speed, I think they're probably the two quickest
I've ever seen in terms of pure outright speed. Yeah, being able to place the car exactly where
they want, be able to do the overtakes where you look at them and you go, you shouldn't be
able to do that really in the limitations of the regulations that we're involved with,
but they do. And it just shows their quality. Yeah, and people hark back to the player on
Neil Dayes, both very good racers are not going to lie. However, regulations are slightly different
that you could unsettle cars more, shall we say, whereas in this era, it is a much less contact
sport frowned upon. Yeah, exactly. The contact is frowned upon more. And I think that these two
are so precision based in how they do their overtakes, it's an absolute joy to watch. So
yeah, long story short, I think we do probably need to look at changing the regulations to
remove some of these gimmicks. I personally would just say no gimmicks at all, just
you know, just you race. I don't want to see, you know, we'll do this here, or you have to have
a engine turned down for this weekend or blah, blah, blah. The regulations, you don't exceed them.
Who can set the car at the best? Predictions? Predictions. Right. I've had another
horror weekend. That's back to back weekends. I haven't scored a point, which is not good news
for me. It's a dry spell, mate. It is a very dry spell. It's a very dry spell at the moment.
I didn't do that much better, though. But you did better. That's the key here. Yes. So,
Neva's got the pole sitter right. You went for a certain overday of all. Neva's were really close.
In terms of the race winner, for sprint race, sprint to pole race winner, we both went cam-ish,
no. In terms of the three race winners, I went cam-ish, robot, and doble. I had to happen to
pick two cars with the M Sport engine that didn't seem to want to perform this weekend,
so that went well for me. You went for Ingram, Sutton and Collards. You do get one point.
They were all very close to the top end of the field as well at one point.
Yep. Obviously Sutton taking another victory. And then both of them for Patterson in the
Jack Sears with the M Sport engine problem. Yes. Absolutely not good for there.
And in terms of our general three predictions, I had more control outscore Chilton.
No. Nope. I haven't bothered adding it up, but I'm fairly calm.
Chilton had a decent weekend. He had a podium, so he's already won that race, I think.
I had the race winner, this is the closer thing I got. Race one winner to finish outside of the
top 10 in race two. Race finished eighth. He finished ninth, but then the penalty put him.
Yeah. Still not good enough. It wasn't good enough. No, I agree with you. It wasn't good enough.
And yeah. Oh, so I didn't want to celebrate. Had you fallen out of top 10?
Being where we were. Yeah, that's true. Celebrating. It might have been a little bit tricky.
And then I went for a new independent Jack Sears leader within the weekend. We have
no independent leader. We do. But we don't have a new Jack Sears leader. We'll cover off
who's leading what at the end of the pod. You went for a no BMW podium on Sunday,
which went well for you. Now, some say you got it wrong, but that really eggs them on.
And they wanted to prove me wrong so much that they had a double podium in that first race.
I mean, some of the associate with WSR did point out you made this prediction and did say to you
that you're an idiot. So yeah. Sutton or Ingram outscored over the weekend. Yeah. Ingram has been
outscored by somebody other than Sutton this weekend annoyingly. And then a Plato racing
podium, which did not come off. It was close. I was really hopeful in that final race when I
knew that Morgan was on that soft tire. If he'd had just got it to last a little bit longer.
But when you've got two drivers like Sutton and Ingram coming through the field back on a soft
tire, it's really difficult to look past them. So that puts you seven points up to my four.
So I'm not out of it because you haven't really. It is a gap. The most of it is a gap. But
if you'd offered me that, if you said you're going to score no points two weekends running
and only be three points behind, I would probably have taken it to be fair to you.
Right. Shall we do our awards for the weekend then? And then we'll bring you up to the speed
of the championship tables and then we shall get out of this hot sweaty room and go outside
to a hot sweaty outside. Who is your driver of the weekend, sir? Nick Hamilton. I'm giving it
to Nick Hamilton. He has made history this weekend. I've deliberately saved this till
I asked him to talk about Nick. So Nick won the Jack Sears trophy for the weekend, meaning he
scored the most points in that this weekend. That's the first Jack Sears trophy. I think he's
won. So the first weekend is won. He had 22 second places and a fourth in the Jack series
championship itself, which meant that he gained the most points this weekend.
And that was his real goal and ambition this season was to have a trophy at some point.
Yeah. Absolutely. Incredible to see him on the top set, on the podium, top set for the podium
for the Jack Sears. Yeah. I mean, the barriers he breaks down, it's very difficult as a
white middle-class able-bodied male to talk about this without sounding condescending, but
the barriers he's overcome to get to where he's got to in motorsport is genuinely inspirational.
And then to go and do it on one of the most physical weekends of the year. Absolutely.
One, it's the longest circuit. And two, it's the hottest weekend we've had so far in a car that
he's only spent three weekends in. It is an excellent achievement. It's a stunning achievement.
It's also testament to what we've always heard about the Jack Sears is that you just have to finish
it. And that's not as easy as it sounds. It sounds very easy to say, well, finish and you'll
score points. But he's done so well this weekend. And also, he was racing well within the pack.
It's not like he was finishing at the back of the grid. And by doing that, he's won the Jack Sears.
No, he was well amongst the pack all weekend. And I think it's an incredible story. So congrats to
Nick and he's my driver of the weekend. He's my surprise good for those exact reasons. But my
driver of the weekend, it was a toss up between De Leon or Rainford, just because of how well
the BMWs have performed as a whole this weekend. And I think just on positions, De Leon gets it.
Okay, two podiums. Only because of points scored in the end, basically. They were both as good
as each other this weekend. And they did, I think probably as well as they could on that
median tyre in race two. I would agree if you're there, though I'd have probably gone for Rainford.
There you go. In terms of my villain of the weekend, I'm going to upset some here. I've gone
for PMR. I think that yes, I totally accept that the M Sport engine was struggling. However,
Shedham won a race on an M Sport engine, albeit, okay, yes, here, clean air.
Robotton and Morgan scored really good points throughout the weekend on an M Sport engine.
I accept they were struggling. I don't think they were able to find a solution to that problem
this weekend. And that's, and as such, a circuit where I think they would have expected to go
by that, they haven't done. I think that is why they've got to be my villain of the weekend.
Mine is going to be the actual M Sport engine itself. I think it will.
Race. If you're going to build an engine, you've got a fourth. Let me finish. If you're going to
build an engine that is a stock engine for several teams within the series, more likely
than not, independent teams within that series, you need to be able to build an engine that is
competitive in all seasons, all temperatures, all environments, not something that's going to be
20 kph down in straight line speed when it's too hot and in traffic.
Okay. My response to that would be if I was defending the M Sport people, which I'm not,
I'm not their lawyer. They've provided the engine, it's up to teams to get it set up to support it.
And they could quite rightly point and say, well, Cook got fourth in race one,
no clean air, Sheddon won a race. More clean air than most.
Okay. Morgan and Robotton were able to sort of get good points in race 12 and Morgan
got fourth, not in clean air. So, if I was defending them, I'd say that actually,
yes, there's been a problem. There's no denying that. However,
some teams are able to get around that. I don't think you can point solely say that
Sheddon managed to get seventh in race two in the pack and then convert the win in race three
purely because he had clean air. I don't think that'd be fair.
No, I think he converted the win in race two because he had soft tire and clean air.
Yes, but also, but if the engine was that bad, he had Ingram and Sutton behind him at points and
neither really got close to him. I'm just taking down what, what Mikey said to me individually
is that there are 20Ks down in a straight line because of the heat soak.
Yeah, but was that purely at PMR at 20K down? We didn't speak to other drivers on
MS4 engines to ask the same question. And that's why I've gone for...
They're all trying to sit in their pools and cool down.
That's why I've gone for PMR specifically because I, yes, I accept, I'm not arguing
that there's an engine problem this weekend. And I do agree that you've got to provide an engine
that's fit for purpose. However, I would say that some teams are able to cope better than others
with it and PMR didn't. We'll see how the heat obviously develops throughout the season and
whether MS4 do come up with some sort of cooling solution. Because if we're going to have a summer
like we've got at the moment, it could be a long summer period for all of them.
Sam's global warming watch, everybody. Right, you've covered your surprise good with Nick Hamilton.
There's nothing more to say there for you, really. Did she want to say anything about Nick yourself?
No, I echo everything that you've said there. It's a fantastic achievement for him this weekend.
And let's hope it's the springboard for further results like that throughout the year.
Here, here. My surprise good is Gordon Sheddon. I think that we had before the weekend and the
MS4 issues kind of suggested that there was a May struggle here, boxy shape, etc., etc.,
albeit they've gone well here in the past, but the shift has moved towards a different style of car.
And actually, he was solid throughout the weekend. He scored points in all three races.
Obviously, a good result in race number two, to finish in that you've got yourself a chance to
reverse grid, and that's exactly what he did. And then race three, he converted it brilliantly.
And I think if you'd said at the start of the weekend that Sheddon would have won an independent
race and an outright race, I'd have said no. And he won both.
My surprise bad is going to be Moffitt more specifically, because he was the slowest of
the three PM drop PMR drivers this weekend. Yes, I know Patterson had a penalty in there as well,
but he was consistently right down at the back battling with those quote back markers.
And we know that the car struggled all weekend. And considering how they've been doing for the
rest of the season, I thought they were going to do better. And he was just the worst of the three.
Controversially, I've gone for Dan Kamish, because I just expected more. I find it bonkers that has
he been on the podium this year once. But he wasn't anywhere near it again this weekend.
I just think that in race one, something's at the back of the grid, you've got a real chance to be
the leading driver as it were. And okay, I know you've got to make the most of the tires and there's
all the other bits and pieces. I get that. I was disappointed a little bit with qualifying. I thought
that not just because he didn't get pulled, but I just don't necessarily think he's maximising the
package at the moment. And I really thought this is a track he generally goes well round.
He was solid this weekend. There's no denying. I'm not going to suggest he's had a bad weekend.
I just think he, in my mind, I was expecting a better one. That might be unfair because that
might be my expectations are not where, you know, not fair and not where the car necessarily is. But
I don't know. And this is my argument that I don't think it's just the car because I don't
think he's anywhere near as comfortable or as quick in the car as Sutton is. But yeah, I just,
I just feel there's more to come from Cambridge at the moment. I just don't think we're getting
top level. I think we're seeing Cambridge drive better than we're seeing at the moment.
That's fair. So let us know your thoughts down in the comments who your driver,
villain, surprise good and surprise bad are of the weekend and whether you think any other
championship regulations should be adapted or more taken away. I don't have a surprise good.
Just very quickly. Okay. You wearing sun cream was a surprise good.
Well done. Everyone's very pleased. There's no burns today to see if on you.
I'll cover my shoulders from the Saturday where I'm just being split.
But you will. But yeah, no, it was a decent weekend.
There you go. There's a lesson to everybody there that if Sam can do it, you guys can see.
Should we quickly run through the standings then before it's worth Sutton?
Yeah, Sutton has claimed his fifth championship here. He is currently on 174 points.
Did you see that? Was it Moffitt that had put that off on Twitter?
Not seen it yet, but apparently. Yeah. Yeah. Tom Ingram is back on 117, which is a gap of 67.
Your darts is helping you.
It is, isn't it? That's a long way back, isn't it? A long way back.
Rainford has pulled himself back up to third. He's on 106.
He's yo-yo-ing at the moment.
Absolutely. Camish fourth, Collard fifth, De Leon sixth, Shedden now up to eighth,
Mikey Doble, sorry, Shedden up to seventh, Mikey Doble eighth,
Morgan tenth, and Tom Chilton rounding out your top 10.
In terms of the manufacturers, congratulations to Alliance Ford.
They are nearly 100 points clear of Accelerate and the top of that one.
Mercedes are only actually five points behind Accelerate now, which is interesting.
In terms of the teams, Napa Racing are well ahead in that as well.
247 plays 174 at WSR, which is interesting. They are ahead of Team Virtue.
Independent drivers at this stage, Gordon Shedden and Mikey Doble are absolutely tied at the top.
Shedden is higher because he's had one extra podium than Mikey Doble.
They are both on 123 Doudly on back on one.
Oh, I'd have tried to have argued that if you'd had dual row.
Jack Sears driver change.
No, because Shedden is now top of it.
Charles Rainford is back on 120, so there is only literally four points separating the,
or three points.
He's going to be a really interesting championship that this year.
They made Adam Offert, Chris Miley, Adam Smith, James Dawley and Dexter Patterson
make up that number.
And then in independent teams, LKQ lead that by four points over Laser Tools Racing with
MB Motorsport, WSR only a further three points back.
So that's looking quite interesting as well.
That might be where the money is this season to all the interest is.
And in terms of Jack Sears, James Dawley has extended his gap at the top of that.
145 plays 135, Dexter Patterson getting himself back to second.
He started at the weekend, I can't remember where he started the weekend, but Osbourne
117, Salby 116.
Pretty good for Salby.
Again, this weekend.
Nicholas Hamilton now gets himself up to 94 and Max Buxton cut a drift a little bit on 71,
which is looking to be a long season for Max.
I think it's fair to say.
Any further thoughts?
Two weeks to the Alton Park.
Yes.
Obviously review to come or preview and review to come for that.
I kind of think that virtue need a really good weekend at Alton.
And I think it's a circuit that could suit the more than Napa.
However, this Napa car in the hands of our certain seems to be doing ungodly things.
So I don't know.
I think the championship is in a good place.
If you know where to look, if you take away the main championship and look at
of certain independence, that's going to be a cracking championship.
Am I a little disappointed that it's not closer?
Yes.
But I think we also have to taper our expectations.
We're only three rounds in last season at the halfway stage.
We gave our side of the championship and looked rather silly at the end
when Tom Ingram was holding it.
There's a lot of races to come.
There's a lot of twists and turns to come.
We don't know if there are any regulations brought in to sort of bring back certain cars,
etc. I hope not.
But yeah, Snatterton was what I expected Snatterton to be a little bit processional.
A few good bits here and there.
But I'm very warm.
Very warm.
How did you find the weekend?
Yes, sticky, dusty.
Oh, God, it was dusty.
It was dusty.
I'm kind of glad that it's over and we can try and cool down now,
even though today seems to be even hotter than those two days.
Yeah, I feel sorry for anybody at Orton Park doing the GT racing today,
because that is going to be very hot.
That's all right.
Let's hope it cools off a little bit for Orton Park in two weeks' time.
That'll be the first half of the championship done before we get our mid-season break.
So yeah, looking forward to seeing how things are going to sit after Orton Park.
Yeah, that'll be a better indication than where we are now.
Agreed.
As ever, thank you so much for listening.
Please make sure you've liked, subscribed, shared all that kind of stuff.
We enjoyed speaking to some people at the circuit this weekend who recognized us
and gave us some good feedback.
It was always nice.
If you can leave a review on Spotify, Apple Podcast, etc., please do.
Four on above is preferred.
But it really helps the algorithm.
Nice thumbs up on YouTube.
Thumbs up on YouTube.
And make sure you get the bell on to make sure you don't miss any of our content that's coming up.
Litch takes you a couple of clicks of your thumb or your mouse.
It promotes the podcast beyond ways you could never know.
We had a couple of people come up to us this weekend saying they've never heard of us before,
but we're atop their YouTube page, which is, and that's how they got into us and listened to us
through that, which is great to hear.
We might be understanding or at least breaking through the YouTube algorithm, which is,
I'm fairly sure there's people at NASA that might struggle to understand that algorithm at times.
Yeah, our next video will be the May update.
We'll take you through very quickly all of the action that we've had at Donington and at Sneshton.
Brands.
Brands, sorry.
Yes, brands and Sneshton and any other news that there is in the meantime.
We'll also do a boost sort of overview on that because we need to understand it.
So we'll go away and understand that and actually bring an update so we can all be on the same page
for how these overboost infringements happen and what is a significant and what is an insignificant
overboost because, yeah.
But until then, we'll leave you two bank holiday weekend and we'll speak to you again soon.
Bye for now.
About this episode
Snetterton delivers a hot, sometimes processional BTCC weekend, with the circuit length creating “defined splits” and clean-air making a real difference. Tire strategy leaned soft up front and mediums at the back, while boost timing shaped overtakes—though the hosts debate whether boost/DRS-style systems are “real racing.” Mechanical issues, from warped brakes to alternator failures and overboost exclusions, swing outcomes. Sutton’s dominance continues, and the team looks ahead to Alton Park as heat and regulations remain key talking points.
