Clio Driving Standards

[Jamie P-E]

i have followed the series for several seasons and have always enjoyed the rough and tumble of saloon car racing.

Sadly after the croft race on the saturday my opinion have changed. I felt the drivng standards were awfull and the drivers completely disregarded their own safety and the safety of others. i felt that after the tragic events at Thruxton you would have thought that the drivers would have calmed down but after seeing 95% of the cars damaged this was not the case

I feel that something has to be done before someone gets seriously hurt or (with respect) we will have another fatality

:mad:

[Claw]

The driving has always been like that since I started watching it in 2001.
It's the nature of the racing, but it can get over the top at times. Thruxton 2002 will stick in my mind for a long time cos I watched it live and it's the craziest race i've seen.
Apart from that there were also some real big accidents that year, Bob Smith at Brands (he never raced a Clio since the accident) and Daniel Stilp at Croft.
This year the driving has calmed down a bit, untill Hunter's big off at Oulton. With Kevin Lloyd I don't think any other driver was involved, so I don't think that has anything to do with driving standards, just a sad tragedy.

But to be honest with you i've fallen in love with the series of late.

[codename_47]

Ironically enough I wasn't expecting this after the very calm race I witnessed on Motors TV on the Sunday.
Quite unlike the Clio's I thought, but then they were behaving themselves I guess after a collective bol....err, telling off from both the clark of the course and probably their own mechanics/team bosses on the Saturday!

Saturday's race seemed to be more than the typical Clio excitement though, from what I hear.....would've made amazing TV too....but then it's so....err Murphy's law that give a series 2 races over a weekend, and one of them is on TV, the one that isn't watched by the camera's turns out to be the more exciting, by far! :eek:

[Les]

It is difficult - on one hand you want the door handle to door handle racing, the love taps and the sqeezed out excursions in to the gravel (especially on the first couple of laps) but on the other hand you don't want the blatent shove into the tyres or field or at the last corner.

Croft is always an incident waiting to happen - that first corner is there to make it happen - the same goes for Thruxton - that speed and Clios means being right on the edge and Brands just tries to tip Clios into the gravel traps - nature of the circuits.
Add to that a large and very tight field of cars and incidents happen.

A fine line has been drawn and it's upto Renault and the CofC to make sure anyone crossing it is reprimanded - like Jonathan Adam this weekend.

[Knock-on]

I didn't get up to Croft till quite late on Saturday so I missed what sounded like a right stonker of a first race.

The race on Sunday seemed quite well behaved though.

At the end of the day, a buzz goes around the circuits when Clios are next out. People love the action and excitement that they bring. Blatent transgressions are punished but you have to be carefull not to curtail the series too much.

[Jamie P-E]

Can i stress that I am fully Aware that the tracic events had nohing to do with the standards and was purly a dreadfull accident.

On the other hand the point i am trying to make is that the rate they are going someone is gonna get hurt and as an ex kart racer who has been injured I dont want to see that happen to anyone else and I am sure everyone will agree

[kevin ritson]

Can the championship organisers now say nice things to the drivers, today's race was as dull as the Formula BMWs! At least Saturday's race had some action!

[Alsicole]

Agree completely. We thought they'd had a talking to yesterday, as today was very processional, which is not Clio territory at all. Roll on Snetterton.

[Monkey Man]

Don't you think that was a little dictated by the circuit? It is hard toi overtake at Brands and must be even harder in a one-make championship. Snetterton should see them returning to normal, especially coming down the Revvit straight

[Les]

Saturday's race was a lot better than Sunday's where it just got too spread out and boring....

[kevin ritson]

Circuit layout's never been that much of a problem, plenty of exciting Clio races in the past at Brands and the BTCC races certainly proved how possible it is.

[Peter]

Very true. The circuit layout is only a problem for single seaters. Brands is usually one of the better venues for tin-tops.

[Les]

It was probably because the front runners were so focussed on finishing and getting the points for the championship.

[byron]

I say leave the clios alone these guys are enjoying themselves and its enjoyable to watch its good to see full on racing for a change.

[JLD]

got to agree with you there. Those guys always race to finish as high up as possible.

[Les]

roll on the weekend.... (oops maybe 'roll' is the wrong word for Clios)


as an aside - Steve Wood (or Mr Gravel as we call him) doesn't do very well in Clios yet put him in a Vento in the VW Cup and it was 2 podiums for him this weekend. Well done mate.

[codename_47]

Originally posted by Les
roll on the weekend.... (oops maybe 'roll' is the wrong word for Clios)


Ok, you cursed it! Because guess what's happened in race 1!

Yep, Mr Tom Onslow-Cole has rolled it....though sadly I know no more details at the moment.......he's OK though.

....and they're so quiet when they're on TV! :eek:

[acf8181]

yep, i heard he flipped it end to end a fair few times before landing upside down in the middle of the track.

[Les]

imagine what a pickup truck looks like and that's his car - no boot at all - and it happened right in front of me.
Barry Simes tried it first - across the grass, bounce fly and landed hard but continued.
Poor Tom bounced, flew, came down nose first and went over nose to tail and ended up on his bonnet. He got out after a couple of seconds with his Hans device on and seemed perfectly ok.

[codename_47]

Originally posted by Les
imagine what a pickup truck looks like and that's his car - no boot at all - and it happened right in front of me.
Barry Simes tried it first - across the grass, bounce fly and landed hard but continued.
Poor Tom bounced, flew, came down nose first and went over nose to tail and ended up on his bonnet. He got out after a couple of seconds with his Hans device on and seemed perfectly ok.

And they're so quiet when they're on TV! :p

If only you had a camera on you...could've made a fair few quid out of the TV people! :D

[Les]

well I did happen to have the camera and as Tom is fine...

[acf8181]

that engine bay looks very filled up with soil!

[Les]

well I reckon the roll cage was fine and thank goodness for that but not a lot else

[Knock-on]

Even if it were possible to curtail the Clios, it would be wrong. They are like a shaggy mongrel that bounds along till your screaming HEEL and then grudgingly falls back a few paces until it's enthusiam takes over again.

They are also a pretty safe car. I looked at the one that was "modified" and was truly suprised at the integrity of the cage after what was a monumental off. You have to remember that these aren't openwheel cars and take a bit of punishment.

Just need to ensure it doesn't get silly :D