[jasons1]

The only paid drivers in the BTCC are Plato and Neal...
To be fair to Andy, Oulton was a big improvement.

not sure Plato is paid, he has typically had to raise 400k per year to drive, anything over that he can take as a wage.
technically he is only 'paid' once an amount of sponsorship money has been bought to the table.

Plato is quite a shrewd business man and gathered some great sponsorship money, he put tesco 99 on the table, a deal reported to be worth 3million over a time period. Any money paid for him to drive is only through the sponsorship he already found.
I believe Plato had put these deals together before agreeing a deal with MG, there was reported to be a few companies & teams wanting to work with him.


Andy Neate is certainly not a talentless driver, if you look back over his career he was very good but sadly was involved in a racing accident which put him in a coma for quite a time. His return to motorsport since has not been to the same level as before the accident, but to shoot the guy down considering what he has been through is a little unfair.


Neate is a wealthy man, he has bought a pot of cash to a cash strapped team.


I understand MG put in about 250k, now I don't know if this was 1st year alone or what as I also heard their input was worth 500k over 3 years, either way, it was very little money considering race entry for the weekend is about 38k per car.

 

[jasons1]

Matt Neal however, I think his favourite word must be "boost". I'm not sure if it was Croft where he said the Honda's were 7mph slower by the end of the pit straight, strange really as I thought they looked quite competetive.

and at snett today all the teams have been allowed a boost increase except honda, the honda is 9mph slower on the straights.

Neal is within his rights to moan about boost.

This is not about the best team or the best car, its about so called affordability and encouraging more private entries and television.

 

[jasons1]

At least the "bad luck" has moved to the Hondas:

that bad luck is another crappy toca part, the aluminium flexi fuel line and could have happened to any car in the session. It was the fuel hitting and igniting on the turbo that caused this extent of the fire.

Hats off for turning it around so quick, sad it didn't work out for them though.

All the teams are unhappy with the sub standard toca parts (and there has been recent meeting regarding this) and one example of this was the fractures in the subframe 888 had with Platos MG, but this is not an isolated case and many teams are suffering the same probs and more.

The bad luck is from the toca parts.

 

[jasons1]

Hasn't that just reversed what happened earlier in the season so they are back to all being the same now?

MG had their boost cut but Honda didn't earlier in the year.

the honda's run such a small amount of boost if it was lowered any more it would not be worth having a turbo on the car.

9mph slower is a lot in a race, they don't expect a win from a power circuit such as snett, but the fact it puts in credible lap times goes to show its probably one of the best cars on the grid - I wouldn't be surprised if it still finishes top 5.

 

[jasons1]

"to ensure the performance levels of the relevant S2000-turbo and NGTC cars are equalised during the season"

couldn't agree more and basically what I said in my earlier post, although I think toca's idea of performance levels are more relevant to race wins than much else.

If people actually knew the illegal boost cuts that were thrown at the honda team hours before the race start last season (there is a time frame for such changes that was not adhered to) then people would be more open minded to the truth about what actually goes on behind the fa-card of touring car racing. This information is known not just by the honda team or other btcc teams in the pit lane but by supporting teams such as clio cup teams who have corroborated this information. This is not a story, something made up, idle pub talk but fact.