Race07 - Supertouring, Superstories

[Liquid]

Brands Hatch 1998 - Hit 'N' Nissan

The Pilot

Race Settings

Class: BTCC 1998
Location: Brands Hatch Indy
Laps: 18
Difficulty: 101%
Opponents: 22 [Full replication of 1998 Grid]
Pitstops: Yes [Window laps 6-13]
Flags: Black Only

Driver: Thom Lovelock
Car: "David Leslie" #8 Nissan Primera

And so, the feature race here at Brands Hatch is the scene for our first story.

RML Nissan's third pilot Thom Lovelock didn't have much luck in qualifying, qualifying quite down the field in 15th position. There would be lots of work on for the forthcoming race; Anthony Reid would head the field in the lead Nissan Primera, and 1997 independents champion Robb Gravett would be at the tail of the grid in 23rd. Team boss Lee Brookes won't be happy with that.

As Reid lead from Rydell, Thompson and Menu, Lovelock scythed his way through the field. Straight down to turn one they came, and a love tap from Will Hoy almost ended his race prematurely.

Paddock Hill almost claimed another victim.

The field began to thread out on Brands' narrow and twisty configuration. But into Druids, Lovelock's Primera showed no signs of holding back. Late on the brakes, the Welshman forced his way into 9th place.

Reigning independents champion Gravett's view from the rear of the field heading into Graham Hill Bend.

The opening few laps was a fierce tussle between Lovelock and guest driver, former world champion Nigel Mansell. Old Eyebrows showed that he hadn't lost any of his racecraft, keeping the superior Primera at bay in his inferior, but plucky, Ford Mondeo.

Looking back from Mansell's Mondeo, as Morbidelli keeps tabs on the action.

Feature races are a new addition for 1998. The 'Formula One style' pitstops puts pressure on the pitcrew as well as the drivers. With an 18 lap race, the pit window was between laps 6-13 inclusive. Having pushed passed Mansell at Clearways, the Nissan team made the call to bring in Lovelock and made a left side tyre change.

Roger Moen leads the way, pitting in on lap 8...

...whilst Mark Lemmer finds himself leaving the pits and heading straight into traffic.

Then, disaster for Lovelock! Threading the eye of a needle between Surtees and McLaren, the Primera stepped out just a fraction and found itself hurtling towards the tyre barrier. Having already made his pitstop, he couldn't afford any damage.

Fortunately, he missed the wall by inches, and rejoined in 15th place, but with plenty of others still to pit.

Doing it wrong.

In the end, it was a comfortable victory for Reid, who drove a superb race. Harried all the way to the flag by James Thompson, who displaced Rydell on lap two, with the Swede rounding off the podium.

As for Lovelock, some stunning laptimes and some poor outlaps from his competitors saw him finish 6th and easily into the points. Not a bad result from 15th on the grid.


1st Anthony Reid - Nissan Primera
2nd James Thompson - Honda Accord
3rd Rickard Rydell - Volvo S40
---
6th Thom Lovelock - Nissan Primera

Best Of The Rest

2nd place for Honda's young gun was a fair reward.

Here, he fends off such illustrious names such as Rickard Rydell, Yvan Muller and reigning champion Alain Menu.

Looking back from ex-Grand Prix driver Derek Warwick's Vauxhall, as Harvey, Hoy, Kox, Rustad, Radisich and Lemmer look for any slip-ups.

The race was an absolute disaster for Robb, as he was even lapped by his fellow privateers.

As always, the independents offered excellent racing, mixing it with the works teams on numerous occasions.

Another hairy moment for Lovelock, grabbing some air as he tries to lap the luckless Gravett.

Check your mirrors - Mullers may appear closer than you think.

 

[Liquid]

This was just a prototype.

If there is any interest in other stories, I can work on the style. I came up with the idea of a narration of this race after I'd done it, so any future installments will have full listings, times and more information.

I take race requests;

Any BTCC track, any BTCC season 1996-2000 inclusive.

 

[DQuaN]

Great write up! Is this a PC game? If so FRAPS would be cool. You could give us some highlights.

 

[Liquid]

Thanks for reading and replying! Appreciate it

Considering doing another 1998 race, this time an Audi at Oulton Park. But I'm open to suggestion. As noted, anything from 96-00. 97, 98, 99 and 00 have full grids with independents.

Never used fraps, but if it'll enable me to record actual video, I'll definitely get on it.

 

[DG_Silva]

Try MSI Afterburner, takes less processing cycles than Fraps, and it's free.

 

[DK]

Nice write-up Liquid. 👍

 

[Liquid]

Episode Two - Peugeot Delight

Race Settings

Class: BTCC 1997
Location: Snetterton
Laps: 14
Difficulty: 101%
Opponents: 21 [Full replication of 1997 Grid]
Pitstops: No [Window laps 6-13]
Flags: Full

Driver: Thom Lovelock
Car: "Tim Harvey" #8 Peugeot 406

So it was Snetterton in Norfolk for the scene of today's event. The 1997 season was dominated by Alain Menu in the Williams prepared Renault Laguna. Peugeot drafted in a third driver for the event, hopeful of stealing some points from their rivals.

Qualifying

Qualifying was damp, and Peugeot debutant Thom Lovelock was one of the first to try his luck. He set the first laptime of the session, but this time was quickly beaten by the frontrunners. Track conditions were getting slightly worse, so time was running out. Just 8 minutes into the session, Peugeot's Welsh wizard set an astonishing time of 1:11.109, amazingly set whilst encountering traffic at Russell. John Watson has the rest of the qualifying times.

"Thanks Charlie, and a superb lap from the new Peugeot driver sees him line up in pole position... Rickard Rydell joins him on the front row. The next two rows are locked out by the two Renaults, then followed closely by the two Hondas... Frank Biela, disappointing in 7th, but he's joined by Anthony Reid... David Leslie just behing his teammate, and Kelvin Burt rounding out the top ten... former champions Harvey and Hoy on row six, and Colin Gallie the top independent, joins John Cleland... Bintcliffe a very poor 15th with Matt Nail in his independent Nissan... Radisich and Warwick on row nine, and Brookes, Watts, Gravett and Brunstedt are at the back."

1st Thom Lovelock - Peugeot 406 - 1:11.109
2nd Rickard Rydell - Volvo S40 - 1:12.464 +1.354
3rd Alain Menu - Renault Laguna - 1:12.520 +1.410
4th Jason Plato - Renault Laguna - 1:12.972 +1.863
5th Gabriele Tarquini - Honda Accord - 1:13.094 +1.985
6th James Thompson - Honda Accord - 1:13.412 +2.303
7th Frank Biela - Audi A4 quattro - 1:13.616 +2.506
8th Anthony Reid - Nissan Primera GT - 1:13.935 +2.826
9th David Leslie - Nissan Primera GT - 1:13.939 +2.830
10th Kelvin Burt - Volvo S40 - 1:13.948 +2.839
11th Tim Harvey - Peugeot 406 - 1:15.024 +3.915
12th Will Hoy - Ford Mondeo - 1:15.366 +4.257
13th Colin Gallie - BMW 320i - 1:15.547 +4.437
14th John Cleland - Vauxhall Vectra - 1:15.834 +4.725
15th John Bintcliffe - Audi A4 quattro - 1:15.916 +4.806
16th Matt Neal - Nissan Primera eGT - 1:16.075 +4.966
17th Paul Radisich - Ford Mondeo - 1:16.175 +5.066
18th Derek Warwick - Vauxhall Vectra - 1:17.159 +6.050
19th Lee Brookes - Peugeot 406 - 1:17.674 +6.565
20th Patrick Watts - Peugeot 406 - 1:17.675 +6.566
21st Robb Gravett - Honda Accord - 1:17.697 +6.587
22nd Jan Brunstedt - Opel Vectra - 1:18.435 +7.326

The three works Peugeots after qualifying. Harvey (11th), Watts (20th) and Lovelock (1st) would be in very different thirds of the grid come race day.

The Race

The view looking back from polesitter Thom Lovelock's Peugeot.

Brunstedt's Opel was a long way back.

14 laps around Snetterton's wide, fast and sweeping layout. Wheelspin from Lovelock left him floundering at the start, and Rydell took an immediate lead down into Richies.

Menu does what he can, but it's the Peugeot and Volvo zooming off at the start.

Richies corner; one that can separate the men from the boys.

Down into Sear, and Rydell understeered on a still slightly damp track. Lovelock needed no second asking to regain 1st place.

An all too rare sight; a Peugeot leading the British Touring Car Championship.

Further behind, it was chaos for Nissan. David Leslie in particular. Both the works Primera GTs had muscled their way past reigning champion and touring car world cup winner Frank Biela. But out of Sear corner and down the straight, Leslie got it wrong on Snetterton's generously wide rumble strip. An inadvertent swipe from Biela sent the Scot ploughing into the field, and all the way down to 22nd.

Leslie's Primera decides to go all agricultural as the rest stream through.

Up front, Lovelock's Peugeot had the straight line advantage over Rydell's S40. Both cars were brand new for 1997 and the Ruyton built French tourer found itself pulling away.

Having been runner up in 1994, 1995 and 1996, Alain Menu found himself in an all too familiar position. Watching his opponents simply drive away.

As Rydell's challenge for 1st began to taper off, he fell back into the clutches of Menu. Lovelock's Peugeot had the right set up at the right time on the right track. He was demonstrating that his pole time was no fluke. Leading Rydell by 5 seconds on lap six, one could be forgiven for thinking he was taking it easy.

The leading Peugeot overcooked it slightly down into Russell.

And again at Sear. Fortunately without losing too much time.

Hollywood slide for the cameras, perhaps?

Midway through the race, and midway through the pack, action was happening thick and fast. Russell and the Esses were the primary source of action, with Matt Neal and Robb Gravett fending off works teams in their private Total Cup machinery.

Neal taking a wide line through Russell, with Warwick tight up behind him. Paul Radisich looks on.

Given that one Peugeot was leading, it was the wrong sort of miracle that saw Patrick Watts struggling behind 1990 champion Robb Gravett in his independent Honda.

Action was few and far between up front, but Gabriele Tarquini was fortunate enough to be gifted 4th place. Down into the Esses, Renault rookie Jason Plato was trying to lap Lee Brookes' Total Cup Peugeot, but put himself under enough pressure to lose it and get intimate with the armco.

Looking back from Brookes' Peugeot. Plato loses it under braking. Tarquini saw it all, guv!

It was a bad day for Audi. Already knowing that their 4WD quattro was to be outlawed next season, both drivers had poor showings today. Biela was struggling to remain in the top 10, whilst Bintcliffe tangled with Colin Gallie out of Sear corner. It was a lowly battle for as little as 15th place.

Gallie is the unwitting cueball in another game of Bintcliffe Billiards.

Under no pressure up front, Lovelock took his time in confidently lapping his vastly more experienced competitors. One of the more interesting events was a battle between Vauxhall's good ol' boys. JC and Delboy not pulling any punches in the battle of former champion vs. team manager.

Warwick got mighty close to double champion Cleland.

In the end, it was the team boss who swept through.

Fourteen laps after a dodgy start, Thom Lovelock had converted pole position into a debut win for the Peugeot marque, who had battled valiantly since entering in 1992.

What every TOCA fan wanted to see.

Here's a run down of the final placings.

1st Thom Lovelock - Peugeot 406 - 17:01.341
2nd Rickard Rydell - Volvo S40 - +21.418 [-]
3rd Alain Menu - Renault Laguna - +22.066 [-]
4th Gabriele Tarquini - Honda Accord - +26.751 [+1]
5th Jason Plato - Renault Laguna - +31.299 [-1]
6th James Thompson - Honda Accord - +44.505 [-]
7th Anthony Reid - Nissan Primera GT - +45.357 [+1]
8th Tim Harvey - Peugeot 406 - +48.731 [+3]
9th Frank Biela - Audi A4 quattro - +51.080 [-2]
10th Will Hoy - Ford Mondeo - +1:03.795 [+2]
11th Kelvin Burt - Volvo S40 - +1:12.045 [-1]
12th Paul Radisich - Ford Mondeo - +1 Lap [+5]
13th Derek Warwick - Vauhxhall Vectra - +1 Lap [+5]
14th John Cleland - Vauxhall Vectra - +1 Lap [-]
15th David Leslie - Nissan Primera GT - +1 Lap [-6]
16th Matt Neal - Nissan Primera eGT - +1 Lap [-]
17th John Bintcliffe - Audi A4 quattro - +1 Lap [-2]
18th Colin Gallie - BMW 318i - +1 Lap [-5]
19th Robb Gravett - Honda Accord - +1 Lap [+2]
20th Patrick Watts - Peugeot 406 - +1 Lap [-]
21st Jan Brunstedt - Opel Vectra - +1 Lap [+1]
22nd Lee Brookes - Peugeot 406 - +1 Lap [-3]

A video package of some race highlights was produced, but it was labourious and dreadful and I won't be doing another one if freeware capture software is this bad.

 

[sesselpupser]

A video package of some race highlights was produced, but it was labourious and dreadful and I won't be doing another one if freeware capture software is this bad.

I haven't read your write up yet, just skimmed it for the pretty pictures and to see if you included a video; get MSI Afterburner (yeesh, this site is ugly)! It's as free as freeware gets and is pretty great. Here's a short clip I recorded with it (it's completely unrelated to Race 07 though):

 

[Liquid]

Downloaded MSI, thanks. Hopefully I can capture better videos.

 

[DK]

Was there really such low frame-rates when you were racing?

 

[Liquid]

Not when racing!

Just when running the replay and capture software at the same time.