We are barely a month into the season and already on May 1st we have witnessed the third round of the BTCC races at Thruxton, reputedly the fastest circuit on the championship calendar. And what a humdinger of a race it turned out to be with three rounds being held on the day. Honda enjoyed the lion’s share of the podium with Gordon Sheddon taking the honours in race 1 with team mate Matt Neal stealing the limelight in race 2 and Jason Plato taking the third race in the Silverline Chevrolet.
The action-packed BTCC races saw spills and spins a-plenty and the enthusiastic crowd were entertained right up until the last minute. We have created a special movie of VMP stills and short video clips of some ‘between-the-races’ pit garage activities – view the movie below (Siân put all these bits together, and I think she has done a stirling job! You can tell that she is making good use of her degree in film studies).
Also woven into the day’s programme were two rounds of the Carrera Cup which some punters may find a bit of yawn, but not this writer. The 911 Carrera is arguably one of the finest sports cars on the road, and races such as the Carrera Cup and Porsche Supercup have taught those clever Stuttgart engineers some valuable lessons over the years which has benefited the road going cars hugely.
James Sutton won both races (Rounds 5 & 6) on the day with Euan Hankey a close second in the first round, but in the second race of the day the rear tyres on the red Porsche of Hankey went off and in the dying moments Stephen Jelley was able to grab second spot.
As the morning round of the Carrera Cup drew to a close, in fact just three laps from the end, Steve Parish (Pro-Am 2) collected a Dunlop advertising board out on the back of the circuit which promptly plastered itself to the front of his car. When he appeared on the start/finish straight carrying the Dunlop board across the full width of his car, photographers and marshals alike were astounded, and many snappers were caught unawares (including yours truly). Unbelievably he came around a second time and this snapper was ready and waiting (see pic), but Parish was forced to finish the last lap in the pitlane as his no.4 Carrera GT3 Cup was in danger of overheating with clouds of smoke already pouring from the engine bay – the front-mounted radiators were blocked by the pesky advertising board. Unfortunately this incident earned him a DNF in Round 5, but a marshal standing next to me said, “In my 30 years of marshalling I have never seen a car doing three laps with an advertising board stuck to his bonnet.” There you have it!
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