Overall a 50:50 weekend for the team. Good results from Darren Turner, especially holding on for another podium in race 2 with a weight laden car. I think Darren had the measure of the setup this weekend, where JP seemingly struggled.

Absolute nightmare of a weekend for JP, sure its one they will want to forget. Not too bad in terms of damage limitation, he finished all 3 races and scored points. Consistency is always important, hopefully they will do a repeat performance of the 2007 results at Donington in 3 weeks.

Adam Jones was a star all day, that final race was a thriller with the conditions. :headhurt: However he held his nerve and put in a great performance. :)

JP put in another superb fight back to get those all important extra points for a top 6 finish. :)

Can't wait for a Donington, the fight back must start there now for SEAT.
 
great afternoons racing. DT did look more at home in his leon, but great driving from JP in the third race.

adam looked good throughout but the last 2 or 3 laps in those awful conditions drove like a star.

they earnt their money today.:clap:
 
I know I have to look at the bigger picture and for Jase' to come on from aout 13th for most of the race to snatch 6th from the man who for so long was leading is a great achievement and a 2nd for DT in race 1 and a 3rd in race 3 is very good; and Adam Jones did anyone who follows SEAT's proud, but I cannot help but wonder what SSUK must do to find the winning formula.

Because despite small positive achivements, if you look at how much the team has damaged VXR in the bigger picture, it just seems no matter what the team does, even though every season SEAT tries to topple VXR, every season VXR out-performs SEAT. Yes we beat them to the Manufacturers title in 2006 and last year beat them to the Teams title but I just don't feel we have been able to achieve and maintain any success over VXR over any long term.

Doesn't it worry any of you that after only 6 races, in the Teams title, VXR have already achieved three figures? They have 111pts. The second placed team, Team Dynamics, only has 75pts whilst SEAT only has a 3rd place total of 72pts.

In the Drivers title race Jase and DT has 35pts and 38 respectively to Giovanardi and Neal's 63pts and 47pts. Only Tom Onslow Cole therefore lags behind with only 20pts.

How aren't any of you guys worried about what this season may bring for SEAT Sport UK?
 
are the points right, as I thought they could only use 2 out of the 3 drivers points for the teams and manufacturers points - so tom onslow-coles points wouldnt cound towards the teams points?
 
Look's like I'm the first one back from the SCN crew who made it to The Rock... Was brilliant racing even tho SEAT didn't get the points haul they deserved! I'll try post some pictures up tomorrow, seen the mk5 Ibiza in the flesh in its tour trailer! (Unfortunately the sun was shining on the windows and I don't think the pics came out!). Entertaining racing from the BTCC, Cupra Cup and those dare devil clios!

As those of you who watched the last race on TV will be able to appreciate I'm now going to try and dry out as 3 hours in the car hasn't worked!
 
I know I have to look at the bigger picture and for Jase' to come on from aout 13th for most of the race to snatch 6th from the man who for so long was leading is a great achievement and a 2nd for DT in race 1 and a 3rd in race 3 is very good; and Adam Jones did anyone who follows SEAT's proud, but I cannot help but wonder what SSUK must do to find the winning formula.

Because despite small positive achivements, if you look at how much the team has damaged VXR in the bigger picture, it just seems no matter what the team does, even though every season SEAT tries to topple VXR, every season VXR out-performs SEAT. Yes we beat them to the Manufacturers title in 2006 and last year beat them to the Teams title but I just don't feel we have been able to achieve and maintain any success over VXR over any long term.

Doesn't it worry any of you that after only 6 races, in the Teams title, VXR have already achieved three figures? They have 111pts. The second placed team, Team Dynamics, only has 75pts whilst SEAT only has a 3rd place total of 72pts.

In the Drivers title race Jase and DT has 35pts and 38 respectively to Giovanardi and Neal's 63pts and 47pts. Only Tom Onslow Cole therefore lags behind with only 20pts.

How aren't any of you guys worried about what this season may bring for SEAT Sport UK?

speed trap times show the potential.. i guess its a question of how fast they can adapt to the new cars. reducing tyre wear etc. then youve got better tracks for the leon to come. they should get more from the cars as time goes on.
 
the leons (maybe with it been heavier been a diesel) but seem to loose their lead in the corners. its like they are flying and when they come to the corners they just brake too early or slow down too much compared to the other motors out there. but then the diesel pull them from the corners but if they could get going in to the corners better they would be unstoppable. i think any way lol
 
i think its early days to be writing us off, look at dynamics, they were slow with the civic now they are winning same with VXR. I just think we've all got used to being top dog!
 
That 30kg over the front axle could prove a difficult burden to carry over some of the technical tracks. You can see the car is almost untouchable on the straights, but the current set up encourages the frustrations of the other BTCC drivers as they can't often get a clean pass. So what happens, they'll end up late braking and tapping the SEAT's off into the corners as it will be one of the few means of successful passing.

I appreciate what they are doing with a diesel is a massive achievement, but in terms of overall strategy unless they can find a way to make them more manageable in the corners they could be in real trouble. Bizarre as its almost the opposite of last year where they didn't have the speed but were better in the trickier stuff - almost turned all their learnings to nothing for all tracks this year.
 
are the points right, as I thought they could only use 2 out of the 3 drivers points for the teams and manufacturers points - so tom onslow-coles points wouldnt cound towards the teams points?

Can I ask first, do you know how ZBOYD on the previous page posted the Free Practice, Sector Times and Qualifying information on the previous page. How can I post the Championship Points standings from the tsl-timing website? Because it is a PDF based doc and I am not sure how to post one of them.

Because I have noticed VXR has 111pts on the Teams Championship for sure on the tsl-timing website but not on btccpages.com.

i think its early days to be writing us off, look at dynamics, they were slow with the civic now they are winning same with VXR. I just think we've all got used to being top dog!

Can we really compare the TDi SEAT Leon to a petrol Honda Civic?
 
Can I ask first, do you know how ZBOYD on the previous page posted the Free Practice, Sector Times and Qualifying information on the previous page. How can I post the Championship Points standings from the tsl-timing website? Because it is a PDF based doc and I am not sure how to post one of them.

Because I have noticed VXR has 111pts on the Teams Championship for sure on the tsl-timing website but not on btccpages.com.

Can we really compare the TDi SEAT Leon to a petrol Honda Civic?

It's because I make a screen shot of the PDF page. :)

Manufacturers points on the official BTCC webpage are listed as 143pts for VXR and 111pts for SEAT

The diesel car is new to the team. I'm not too worried about it's early performance, its finishing races and scoring points. My expectations are I expect the car will come good as the season progresses.

The learning curve has probably been steeper than they expected, and BTCC is not WTCC. It takes time for the team to discover the best way to setup the car. It will change based on the extra weight (+ ballast) and the effect that has on the balance of the chassis and tyre wear.

It's very early days were only 6 races into the year, they had a strong start with the Leon last year, but it wavered towards the end as the competition such as VXR and Honda caught up with development.

I fully expect the same applies to SEAT this year, in that they start on the back foot and develop to be more competitive as the season progresses. Honda & VXR have a year of development under their belts, SEAT will need some time to make up the gap.

Whether they win or lose though this year, they still have my full support and I suspect many of the forum members will support them 100% too. I'm not worried, I want them to win and I know they can win it. However in racing 50% is good team work and the other 50% is pure luck. One the red lights go out, anything could happen in BTCC. :headhurt:

I don't think they have had a bad start really, they have had podiums and points. The points gap that VXR have is not huge.
 
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Championship Points after Round 4,5,6 - Rockingham Speedyway

DRIVERS POINTS
rocky_drivers_points.jpg


MANUFACTURERS POINTS
rocky_manf_points.jpg


TEAM POINTS
rocky_team_points.jpg


INDEPENDENT DRIVERS
rocky_indydriver_points.jpg


INDEPENDENT TEAMS
rocky_indyteam_points.jpg
 
The fact Darren retired from Race 3 at Brands and at Rockingham, is the only real reason they have lost some ground to VXR in the Manufacturers title at this stage.

The fact VXR have 3 cars has no bearing on it, because they can only nominate two cars to be eligible anyway, and if one of the nominated cars fails to finish they can't take points for the car that isn't nominated.
 
An excellent day's racing at a great venue, but a mixed bag for SEAT.. credit where credit's due though and Darren Turner seems to have got the measure of the TDI moreso than Jason.. problem is, this isn't the WTCC and I can't help but wonder whether they're going to struggle on the UK's smaller, more technical circuits.
 
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Can we really compare the TDi SEAT Leon to a petrol Honda Civic?

I Think your just being very critical and not giving JP and DT a chance, so when they get a 1-2 will you be saying oh i knew that would happen? also a true fan would stick with their team defend everything they do, seems theres a lot of glory seekers about ! :rolleyes: