A Busman’s (tin-top) Holiday

Every year I do my best to get down to Brands Hatch for the spring British Touring Car Championship meeting. The idea is usually to avoid doing any work and simply enjoy a day of crash, bang, wallop motor racing, just as I used to before it became a job.

But this year I was spoilt. Vauxhall’s VX Racing invited me as a guest for the day, which meant a bit of pampering in the MotorSport Vision building, some top-notch nosh and fantastic views from the roof of the good old Indy circuit. How could I say no?

I decided to take my son Nathaniel with me on Sunday, which included an element of risk. He’s not quite five years old, so patience is not one of his strengths. But he enjoyed his circuit debut last year (the Masters Festival, again at Brands) and this time he was champing at the bit on Sunday morning. He even got dressed in less than 45 minutes, without any rows.

I was intrigued to see how the BTCC has shaped up having attended the media day at Rockingham a couple of weeks ago. I’d been encouraged by what I saw at Rockingham, and happily that transferred to the first race weekend at Brands.

Losing the factory SEATs over the winter was clearly a blow, with Vauxhall left as the lone works effort on the grid – a sharp contrast to the heady days of the 1990s. But comparisons to the Super Touring era are pointless. Those days are long gone, and we’ll probably never see their like again. Better to be realistic and just deal with what we’ve got now, during a crippling recession.

Considering everything, the signs in the BTCC are extremely positive, even if the series could do with a few more cars. Strong and well turned out privateer BMWs (Team RAC and Airwaves BMW), Dynamics Honda Civics, SEAT Leons, a pair of new Ford Focuses from Mike Earle’s Arena Motorsport and of course an RML Chevrolet for BTCC favourite Jason Plato offer depth and variety.

There’s also enough young driving talent to keep it interesting. At VXR champion Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Neal have the promising Andrew Jordan to keep them busy, while the likes of Colin Turkington, Stephen Jelley, Adam Jones, Dan Eaves and Jonathan Adam are all potential race winners.

In fact Adam appeared to have scored a victory on his maiden BTCC weekend. After Neal had headed Giovanardi for a Vauxhall 1-2 in Race 1, and veteran Rob Collard had scored for BMW in Race 2, Adam dominated the third top-eight lottery grid finale. But only after a moment of controversy.

Plato found himself starting from pole, only a few days after confirming his Brands appearance in the Lacetti. The car clearly wasn’t handling to his liking, but his experience was telling around the tight Indy circuit. The only way Adam was going to get past him was with force – and that’s what happened at Paddock, when the BMW unintentionally hit the Chevy hard in the left rear light cluster. Plato’s catch of the lurid slide was deeply impressive.

I didn’t realise until Monday morning that Adam’s subsequent victory had been stripped from the rookie thanks to a time penalty, and that Plato had been awarded a great surprise win. Absolutely the right decision, but Adam had made his point. He clearly has great potential.

If you are a BTCC regular or watch the races of ITV4’s excellent coverage, you’re bound to have a view on the amount of contact that goes on in the BTCC. It’s too much for me, but I can understand a lot of people find it entertaining – and without a little “rubbin’” overtaking is almost impossible at a place like Brands. Still, I’ll never condone a blatant punt, intentional or not.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention. We watched that final race on TV back home. Nathaniel got bored in the middle of the Porsche Carrera Cup race (once the entertainment of watching the recovery vehicle get stuck in the gravel while trying to extract Tom Bradshaw’s beached car had been resolved!), so I decided it was best to quit while we were ahead. He loved his day at Brands and for better or worse I think he’s hooked. Hopefully, in a couple of years’ time he’ll even manage to last to the end of a race meeting…