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Phil Bennett got banned for one race meeting for much less in 2001.

But think back just to Silverstone... Austin and Welch made contact, nothing more than a racing incident during a great race. Austin got DQ I believe.

Austin went to the stewards on his own accord there because he felt so bad about himself for the incident. If he hadn't have said anything, no action would have been taken.

I might be making this up, but I think he actually threatened to take someone out, which made the penalty worse.

Bennett bags ban for Croft sprint...

Tuesday, August 14th 2001, 14:55 GMT

Vauxhall driver Phil Bennett has been banned from the sprint race at the Oulton Park round of the British Touring Car Championship - but will not compete in the feature race either after being withdrawn by his Triple Eight Engineering team.

Bennett's Egg-backed Vauxhall Astra was involved in five separate incidents at Croft last Sunday including scrapes with 1992 champion Tim Harvey and team mate Tom Ferrier, the Peugeot of veteran Steve Soper and Thomas Erdos' Lexus.

The Brit was awarded a one-race ban for his trouble, but rather than draft in a replacement for just the sprint race, Triple Eight has decided to withdraw Bennett from both races. With only one qualifying session for both races, it would have been too complicated to have two different drivers trying to set a time in the same half-hour session.

"It's not an option for us to have two different drivers," said Triple Eight team manager Ian Harrison, "because it's just not physically possible."

Bennett eventually retired from the last Sunday's race after crashing out at Tower corner. His race licence was also docked and the team is attempting to find a stand-in during the next week.

It's been a rough time for the Vauxhall team recently as the battle for the drivers' title intensifies. Bennett's ban follows the decision by Toca officials to give Jason Plato a time penalty for his driving during the Snetterton night race a week before the Croft meeting. Plato was relegated to third place after the clerk of the course decided he had gained an unfair advantage during a tussle with, ironically, Bennett.

Round-up: Shedden targets top class

Monday, July 23rd 2001, 16:01 GMT

Standout BTCC debutant Gordon Shedden is targeting a BTC Touring drive after taking a second and a win in his first two BTC Production races in the GR Motorsport Ford Focus at Knockhill.

"I've just got to work as hard as possible for a drive for next year. BTC Touring is definitely the aim," said the 22-year-old Scot

Meanwhile, there's still a possibility the former Fiesta racer will be seen again in a GR Focus later this season. "We'd like to have him in the car again," said GR's spokesman.

But Shedden was not so sure, reckoning the lack of budget would "probably put me back on the sidelines."

Last year's BTCC runner-up Anthony Reid reminded tin-top fans at Knockhill of his no-nonsense style with a couple of lairy laps of the Fife circuit in MG's wild ZT XPower 500, a promotional machine which puts a 500bhpV8 and rear-wheel drive into a 75 shell.

Reid also put in a number of impressively committed laps at the wheel of the BTCC's Audi RS4 safety car, helping the BTCC boys keep their tyres right up to temperature while the wreckage of Colin Blair's rolled Alfa 156 was removed from the circuit.

And while looking briefly at the 2001 archives, I stumbled across this...



11 years back the Production class was highly entertaining. For me the standouts that year were a certain trio in that class, Rob Collard in his little Renault Clio, Tom Boardman in his pink 306 and a certain Mat Jackson in a Ford Focus.