Thursday, September 28, 2006

Touring car update

It's a while since I've mentioned any of the touring car series, so time for a quick update...

British Touring Cars: Against all odds, SEAT's Jason Plato remains in contention going into the final round, thanks in part to a bizarre crash from championship leader Matt Neal at Brands Hatch. He snuck up the inside of Vauxhall's Tom Chilton two laps from the end of the third race, and found his car launched into the air after a wheel-on-wheel piece of contact. This unceremoniously dumped him into the gravel trap.

It seems like Neal's Team Halfords have it all their own way this year, so I'm hoping Jason Plato can pull it out of the bag. I like Jason, mainly because he's never afraid to speak his mind, regardless of how un-P.C. his comments might be.

World Touring Cars: A while back I wrote about how great this series is, and it has continued to be really, really close. As if to prove my point, the top two drivers in the championship (Andy Priaulx and James Thompson) both scored nothing at the last round in Turkey, giving Gabriele Tarquini and Rickard Rydell a chance to get back into the title fight. With four races left to go, the top 14 drivers are all mathematically capable of taking the championship. Realistically, it's the top 9 that could do it, with a spread of 14 points and 40 points on the table from Valencia and Macau.

German DTM: Although Audi's Tom Kristensen was very much in contention most of the year, a dismal run at Barcelona has given leader Bernd Schneider an 18 point lead with only 20 points remaining. Odds are that Bernd will take it at the next round at the Bugatti circuit at Le Mans. Now, I'm not afraid to admit to being wrong, so I'll refer you to this post. I didn't include Schneider in my list of 5 favourites to win, yet he's once again on form, which always spells misery for his DTM rivals.

Aussie V8 Supercars: The legendary Bathurst 1000 is just around the corner...

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