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The British Touring Car Championship finishes its Northamptonshire double-header as the cars and teams make the short 40 mile trip from Silverstone to Rockingham Motor Speedway for the penultimate weekend of the championship and rounds 25, 26 and 27 of the 2009 series:


Silverstone was all about Chevrolet, with Racing Silverline picking up all three race wins (two for Mat Jackson, one for Plato). In the championship, Colin Turkington increased his lead very slightly so it now sits at 11, but this championship is going to go down to the wire for sure:

1.  Colin Turkington     232
2.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  221
3.  Jason Plato          190
4.  Matt Neal            153  
5.  Mat Jackson          136
6.  Rob Collard          124
7.  James Thompson       114
8.  Stephen Jelley        93
9.  Andrew Jordan         86
10. Jonathan Adam         85
11. Adam Jones            62
12. Paul O'Neill          52
13. Gordon Shedden        27
14. Harry Vaulkhard       22
15. James Nash            17
16. Tom Chilton           12
17. Dan Eaves             10
18. David Pinkney          9
19. Johnny Herbert         3
20. Martyn Bell            2
21. Alan Morrison          2
22. Martin Johnson         1
23. John George            0
24. Liam McMillan          0
25. Nick Leason            0
26. Tom Onslow-Cole        0
27. Anthony Reid           0

There will also be a new face on the grid as 19 year-old Matt Hamilton enters in his Honda Civic Type-R. And Gordon Shedden will be returning, this time with the GR Asia squad.

Sunday timetable
10.00 Elf Renault Clio Cup with Michelin
10.35 Ginetta G50 Cup
11.20 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship
12.00 Michelin Formula Renault UK Championship
13.15 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain
14.05 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship
14.45 Ginetta Junior Championship
15.15 Elf Renault Clio Cup with Michelin
15.55 Ginetta G50 Cup
16.45 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship

TV coverage
ITV4 @ 1100-1730, Sunday 20 September (Live BTCC & Supports)

No highlights being shown on the ITV channels looking at their schedule, presume Men & Motors will show them the following weekend.

Weather forecast
Saturday: Cloudy, Temperature 18°C, chance of rain 20%
Sunday: Sunny with Scattered Showers, Temperature 19°C, chance of rain 30%
http://uk.weather.com

tast track

Agreed, love the oval corner especially in the wet.

And for those unfortunate enough to miss the last BTCC race held at Rockingham, make sure you watch this:


Absolutely incredible stuff.

May well be going to the meeting, first time this year

That was such a bloody good race

Hope we get another like it.

This will be my first time to Rockingham. It takes 3 hours to get there, so an early start for me! I wouldn't want to miss the Clios!

I did want to go this weekend, but now I'm probably going to the season finale at Brands Hatch instead.

Is Jason Hughes finally going to make an appearance this weekend? I think someone said in the Silverstone thread that he might be.

Doubt it.

I find that quite interesting tbh....

I guess it's pulling in good ratings for ITV4 but the repeats aren't good enough for ITV1 even at Midnight...
So where does that leave us when the contract runs out...hummmm...

Anyway, two Clio races on a Sunday is something exciting. If we're lucky ITV will show the first tape delayed instead of showing the FRenault race, they seem to always want to show a race that's already happened they know is exciting than one that could potentially be boring live.

Also appreciate the Ginetta Juniors awesomeness while they last since they're upgrading their cars to the G40's for next year, so who knows if they'll be as good in 2010...

http://www.ginettacars.com/news_details.php?id=164

The Ginetta Juniors will be fine. It's not the cars that generate the exciting racing, it's the lack of experience on the part of the drivers.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

That I agree with, especially looking at the new car

You should come this weekend. It would be great to meet up (and with any other members that are going). Anyone want my mobile number?

_________________
"Many people ask me why I always sign off Till We Meet Again, because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon." -Marty Reid

I've always wondered why the Clios have their double Sunday round at Rockingham. I mean, out of all the tracks they go to, they chose the one with a concrete wall around the outside .

Anyway, it should be a great weekend.

The answer is Rockingham is awesome and we love 2 Clio races on Sunday

_________________
"Many people ask me why I always sign off Till We Meet Again, because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon." -Marty Reid

Aside from the start people rarely hit the wall anyway. Its a flat out kink for all the series racing there, so unless anyone does anything really stupid, you're going to have your accident in the braking zone of turn 2 and there's a whole heap of runoff down there.

Aside from the first 2 turns the rest is quite open with not much to hit.

I doubt this has much to do with it anyway, it's probably something like Rockhingham has less Saturday track time than the other rounds, we all know Clios prefer to spread out their races over the weekends so they can repair damage etc.

Didn't the Clio's have a big start crash in the 1st corner in 07 into the concrete wall? or was it 06?

There were a few spins before turn 1 in '07 and a big crash last year (Lea Wood broke his ankle, iirc).

I've just had a look at the support series practice times from earlier today and I cannot describe how astonished I am with Robin Clark's consistent lack of pace. No words can emphasise how truly bad he is, so I'll just post the times:

1 - James Sutton - 1:20.562 (38 laps run)
...
21 - Robin Clark - 1:37.861 (26 laps run)

17 seconds!

He makes Milka Duno look talented...