Five things we learned at Donington Park
Six races. Six winners. That was one of the main stories to come out of the second meeting of the BTCC season at Donington Park, with Mat Jackson, Rob Collard and Matt Neal all taking their first wins of the campaign.
But was there anything to be learned from what happened in rounds four, five and six of the season?
Honda are going to be hard to beat…
The six winners in six races would suggest that the 2016 season is going to be wide open, but Honda are still sitting pretty at the top of the standings – and it could be argued that that looks a bit ominous for the rest of the field.
The decision to go with the soft tyre early on Sunday worked a treat when Matt Neal was able to take victory ahead of Gordon Shedden in race three – and all this with the promise of more still to come from the revised Type-R package.
BMR needs time…
While Honda continue to pick up the points, rivals BMR continued a very public test programme at Donington Park. James Cole’s fire was the low point but there was also the high of a top ten finish for Colin Turkington – providing an indication of the potential that is waiting to be unlocked in the Levorg.
It’s widely expected within the paddock that the Subaru will be a potent force at some stage in the season, but those involved also admit that revisions that need to be made to the package won’t come overnight. Oulton Park is being viewed as the round when things may start to come good with the car.
Pace is nothing without consistency…
For the second successive meeting, Tom Ingram took his place on the podium in the first race of the weekend but then picked up just a single point from the other two. As at Brands Hatch, on-track contact would play a large part in Ingram’s undoing and he sits down in twelfth place in the standings as a result.
By contrast, Jack Goff failed to make it onto the podium, but three more top six finishes at Donington allowed him to maintain third in the title race; the WSR man being something of a model of consistency early on.
Bad luck does come in threes…
The old adage says that bad luck comes in threes and Matt Simpson proved that to be correct by managing to pick up three penalties and the first grid drop of the year in the space of a few hours.
Clashes with Rob Austin, Dan Welch and Kelvin Fletcher meant the Speedworks rookie came away from the weekend on -2 in the championship standings – something he’ll want to put right next time out at Thruxton.
AmD really do not like Donington Park…
Croft is a circuit where the BMW teams have always done well. Rob Austin’s Audi A4 excelled at Rockingham. However, when it comes to circuits where teams have endured rough luck, there are few that can match AmDTuning.com and Donington Park (with the possible exception of Simon Belcher and Thruxton…)
Whilst there were indications that the Audi S3 had the pace to push for points at the wekend, Ollie Jackson came away from the weekend with two DNFs – continuing a relationship with the circuit that the team would prefer to forget.
That includes three DNFs for Mike Bushell last year, a crash and electrical troubles for James Kaye back in 2013 and engine issues that forced Jackson himself to withdraw after race one back in 2012.
