The second round of the BTCC takes place this weekend at Donington Park and there are many questions left unanswered from the first meeting. After three winners from three races at Brands Hatch there are a few important factors for fans to look out for this weekend.
- Trouble with soft tyres and ballast. During race two at Brands Hatch Rob Collard, who won the first race, was given the full amount of ballast, 75kg, whilst also on the soft tyres. This turned out to be the worst possible combination; Collard dropped way down to sixteenth place. The tyres wore down too fast and Collard was defenceless. After finding this out the drivers will be careful to pick what race they use the soft tyres as they have to choose before qualifying and now have to use the tyres three times in each race. It will mean that the drivers going into the weekend with full championship ballast will not pick race one to use the soft tyres as it could ruin the rest of their weekend. This will make the races a lot more strategic as the drivers try to work out how to optimise their weekend.
- Who will be the first BMR driver to win? The new BMR super team looked very quick all weekend and their three big drivers all picked up podiums in the first meeting. Aron Smith, who got a podium in Races 1 and 3 and currently sits third in the championship just one point off third. The young Irishman showed his two champion team-mates that they won’t have the better of him this season. Jason Plato got a podium in race one and was leading most of race two until a puncture saw him retire, he currently stands thirteenth in the championship with eighteen points. Finally, current champion Colin Turkington stands sixth in the championship with 30 points after claiming a podium in race two but unfortunately went off the track in race 3 which meant he only finished twelfth. All three will be gunning not only for a victory but for the first win for BMR this season to get one over their team-mates. It is worth pointing out Turkington put in a very solid weekend considering it was his first race weekend in a front-wheel drive car for a long time and he’ll learn and improve as the season goes on.
- The third talking point was the pace of Andrew Jordan. We have come to expect a lot more pace from Jordan over the years especially at Brands Hatch Indy which has been such a strong circuit for him. Jordan currently sits eleventh in the championship with 20 points. It is believed to down to set up issues and he just couldn’t find the sweet spot over the course of weekend. This weekend it is expected that AJ will be back up the front of the grid challenging for podiums and race wins. Who will get those race wins truly is anyone’s game.
No one expected the Hondas to come out of the blocks as quickly as they did. Therefore between the Hondas of Neal and Shedden, the BMR super team, the MG’s with Jordan and Goff looking for his first win and the BMW’s always in the frame alongside the Wix Racing of Morgan we could be in for an extremely competitive weekend.
