With arguably the most action-packed championship curtain-raiser in many years now consigned to the history books, the British Touring Car Championship heads next to Donington Park.
Defending champion Gordon Shedden arrives with a slender six-point advantage over the impressive Tom Ingram, with both drivers having taken race victories at Brands Hatch along with Andrew Jordan, the latter on his debut for the returning BMW manufacturer team.
Vauxhall also showed promise on their return to the championship, scoring a podium during the reverse grid race with Tom Chilton and securing Jack Sears Trophy honours with rookie Senna Proctor.
One manufacturer in a less happy state of affairs is Subaru. The Team BMR-run programme scored just four points across the weekend at Brands Hatch courtesy of Jason Plato, before the double champion then tangled with Matt Simpson and sustained heavy damage to his Levorg GT after spearing into the pit wall. Ashley Sutton was similarly in the wars all weekend, whilst James Cole and Josh Price showed development but scored no points.
Mixed opening events for Colin Turkington and Matt Neal after the two clashed within moments of the first race will see both keen to score strongly in the Midlands.
A number of teams will be keen to impress on their ‘home events’ – including Eurotech Racing, who secured pole position amid changeable conditions through Jeff Smith at Brands Hatch, and were validated by the pace of Jack Goff in the Honda Civic Type R throughout Sunday.
Matt Neal, Andrew Jordan, Stephen Jelley, Martin Depper, Ant Whorton-Eales and the MG and Maximum Motorsport teams can also stake a claim to Donington as their home turf.
Brands Hatch – In Brief:
Race One: Ingram emerges victorious ahead of Shedden as heartbreak hits Smith; a broken front-left wheel nut forces his retirement. Adam Morgan takes third. Matt Neal and Colin Turkington clash within seconds of the start – both sustain heavy damage but make the following races.
Race Two: Organised chaos. Jason Plato spears into the pit wall from the start, whilst contact between Austin, Collard and Goff sends the latter two into the gravel at Druids. The restart sees Shedden open his account for the season, with Collard second and a ballast-laden Ingram third. Plato does not make it out for race three.
Race Three: Andrew Jordan wins on his debut weekend for BMW after edging out a grandstand finish with the recovering Turkington. Tom Chilton takes third on Vauxhall’s debut after a stellar defense – Matt Neal is fourth after working his way back through.
Donington Park – Session Times
Saturday 15th April:
Free Practice One – 09:30-10:10
Free Practice Two – 12:25 – 13:05
Qualifying – 15:40 – 16:10
Sunday 16th April:
Race One – 11:37 (all 16 laps)
Race Two – 14:37
Race Three – 17:22
View from the Paddock – Damian Meaden:
Brands Hatch gave us the perfect start to a new season – three different race winners, several dramatic incidents, technical controversy, a new pole sitter, changeable weather and yet, somehow, our defending champion still holds the advantage. Over to you, Donington Park.
It’s a fairly straightforward lap around the National circuit at Donington – three corners to the left and six to the right, punctuated by the two long straights at the end of the lap divided by a tight chicane. Expect the rear-wheel drive cars to be strong in the uphill sections after the Old Hairpin – but less so with weight on board.
Expect the main players from Brands Hatch to be strong – BMW and Honda will almost certainly trade silverware at some stage, whilst improvements for MG after they finally managed their first race runs of the calendar year at Brands might not be out of the question. Subaru need a response, and Vauxhall need to prove their element of consistency to ensure Brands doesn’t become a fluke. The same challenge is true for Eurotech.
Weather:
Current forecasts predict overcast weather on Saturday with sunny intervals on Sunday. Both days have a predicted high of 11 degrees, with fairly comparable wind speeds in the low to mid teens.