kals wrote:Any news on whether Nogues has been penalised for taking Engstrom out?
No, Mr. Haven was pretty sarcastic about it. Nogues won the second race but Michel Nykjaer took the Cup. Great to see a circuit in a natural environment again. And no chicane cutting for these boys, there's gravel!
I wonder which circuit they turn up next year. Some pretty interesting venues so far.
HC wrote:I wonder which circuit they turn up next year. Some pretty interesting venues so far.
Well they've been to Estoril, Adria (which was great) and now Salzburgring. I reckon somewhere like Dijon would be good. Also, I'm really disappointed by the total lack of entries from the BTCC over the past two ETC's.
HC wrote:I wonder which circuit they turn up next year. Some pretty interesting venues so far.
Well they've been to Estoril, Adria (which was great) and now Salzburgring. I reckon somewhere like Dijon would be good. Also, I'm really disappointed by the total lack of entries from the BTCC over the past two ETC's.
I want to see an all out dash between STCC and BTCC.
***Some say you should live each day like it was your last... but who wants to live each day in wild panic and extreme death anxiety?
The universe, look at the hugeness of it... it is a dizzying thought that little ol' me is the centre of it all!***
HC wrote:I wonder which circuit they turn up next year. Some pretty interesting venues so far.
Well they've been to Estoril, Adria (which was great) and now Salzburgring. I reckon somewhere like Dijon would be good. Also, I'm really disappointed by the total lack of entries from the BTCC over the past two ETC's.
Don't forget the first edition at Vallelunga, Zanardi managed to win some back then. Only circuit I didn't really like was Estoril, but that could also have been because of the weather. WTCC put on a pretty decent show there this year but I rather see them back at Porto I guess. That's maybe also an idea for ETC. Run a street venue. But I guess there's not enough interest in this all star event to make that happen. But I got my hopes up now. Salzburgring was a really surprising choice and hopefully they will continue with this tradition. Bring them to an old circuit in France or England.
I couldn't agree more. The thing this event needs is decent promotion. Over here you wouldn't know if was happening unless, like me, you stumbled across it on Eurosport TV listings. It's not featured in any of the motorsport press, or any of the websites. Now if there were a couple of BTCC entries there would be plenty of press. From what I've seen over the past few years this is definitely an event for privateer teams. The BTCC is 90% privateer teams. This is an ideal event for people like Team Dynamics or West Surrey Racing to show they are among Europes best.
As for the venue, somewhere like Outlon Park or Donington (obvious I know!) would be great if it came over to the UK. I wasn't a fan of the Porto street event. I felt the standard of the racing was pretty poor and it seemed ever so gimicky.
I think this was discussed on Midweek Motorsport; a BTCC team has never entered the ETC Cup since it started in 2005.
The Porto event is certainly no gimmick, its a resurrection of the old F1 circuit. It came back so that they could held historic races on it. And then WTCC decided to join the bill. Anyway, here's more information on Wikipedia.
I am aware of the historical significance of the Porto circuit. For historic racing series it is great, but for modern series it barely cuts the mustard. The track was narrow in far too many places and therefore which meant any overtaking manouvres ended in contact, the racing line was very dirty, corners were covered in leaves, and then there was that chicane. It wasn't for modern day race cars. I remember the final lap of the second race last year was almost farcical, because the drivers tried to race but couldn't.
Apart from one Chevy outbraking itself (Menu I think) there was quite some racing in race two. The IFM race was a bit of a farce, with one race only have a couple of laps under green. I'm not sure its suitable for open wheelers but I would say its okay for touring cars. But I guess we'll see some changes next year as last year was the first time that modern cars raced on it.
Plus I love the circuit because I see it everyday. I once won a poster from Chevy which takes up half of the wall. It shows the starting grid at Porto with Menu one, Huff two and Larini three.
Was that exciting or what. When Farfus closed the five second gap in basically two laps I thought it was a done deal, but Tom kept him behind. Yvan will now probably take the championship. Tarquini just gave it away at the rolling start. He never would have made that corner.
Very good races today, the re was great action throughout both races. Good to see Tom finally take his first win, but shame that the second race took away the last title hopes for Priaulx, Huff and Rydell. Now it's only between Muller and Tarquini and with the points gap being at 14 points it'll be very hard for Gabriele to catch Yvan in Macau.
Also, where on earth did the Proteam BMW's get this sort of pace? D'Aste was really fast all the way through the weekend and had he not been a bit too fast on the second race could have racked up a seriously good result. And Hernandez took that third place on race two. Excellent result for them. And also, great run for Thommo on the second race, from 17th to 4th, he could have been real contender as well had he not been punted off on race 1.
Crash.net wrote:Imola earns WTCC calendar slot.
Friday, 7th November 2008
Imola replaces Monza on provisional 2009 WTCC calendar.
Imola has earned a place on the 2009 World Touring Car Championship calendar after the latest meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council revealed changes to the schedule for next season.
The Italian round of the season had been due to run at Monza on the weekend of 4 October but has now been moved to Imola on the weekend of 20 September.
The round at Oschersleben has also been moved, from 30 August to 6 September, while the race at the Okayama circuit in Japan is also given a new date, moving from 25 October to 20 September.
2009 WTCC Calendar:
March 8 Brazil Curitiba
March 22 Mexico Puebla
May 3 Morocco Marrakech *
May 17 France Pau
May 31 Spain Valencia
June 21 Czech Republic Brno
July 5 Portugal Porto *
July 19 Great Britain Brands Hatch
September 6 Germany Oschersleben
September 20 Italy Imola
November 1 Japan Okayama
November 22 Macau Macau