ASCAR Action

[bramble]

Wow, what a days racing. I can't believe there were so many accidents. It was good to see a bit of clean truck racing, putting the ASCAR drivers to shame really.

[touring fan]

Where did all those spectators come from? I've never seen it so busy! I hope John Mickel is ok, I saw the remains of his car on the back of a truck in the paddock and it looked nasty.

[Claire]

Certianly was the busiest I have ever seen Rockingham and that includes last years 500. The racing was good when they weren't under yellows because of all the carnage, I think John Mikel is ok although I expect that will be a rather large repair bill to sort out the car, and he won't be the only one!!

[Alan]

More yellow flags than I have ever seen that is for sure!

Hopefully the new guys should get their eye in next time and there should be less disruption.

Brilliant race for the last fifteen or so laps of the second race - Ben Collins, Michael Vergers and Roland Refeld (hope that is spelt correctly) had a ding dong race - excellent.

Anyone working for a gaffer tape company should be doing good business today.

Crowd apparently (they told us) beat Brands for the Champ cars last weekend - well over 40,000. Good show Rockingham.

[Amanda]

I think there were more accidents in the two races yesterday than we saw in the whole of last season! The safety car did nearly as many laps as the ASCARS!!! When they eventually sorted themselves out the racing was excellent and I still think the cars sound fantastic.

I have never seen so many spectators at Rockingham and would be interested to find out how many people were actually there. The other question is ~ were they they for ASCAR or for Busted?!:D

[bramble]

Well the figures were 40,000, but the stands did not look that full to me, I expect a lot of them were there for Busted; shame really cos they missed out on some great stuff.

[bramble]

"Former ASCAR Champion John Mickel, who caused the opening race to be red flagged for 20 minutes while he was released from his car, was last night released from hospital after observation for concussion following his 150mph crash. He expects to be fit to rejoin round 1 and 2 winners Michael Vergers and Roland Rehfeld for the next race on June 8."


Good news.

[lauz]

the racing was amazing! but i wouldn't be surprised if the flag man has a sore arm today. what a great start to the championship. ( busted looked really good too, and they are great live!)

[Ann]

It was good to be back at the Rock bt where did all those people come from?!!

Good to see some familiar faces from last year & start to work out who all the new ones are (drivers that is - I'm not trying to work out who the other 39,999 people were!)

A crazy amount of incidents and yellow flags - as Amanda says, surely more in one day than the whole of last year put together. Just glad no one was seriously hurt although the car repairs bills will be hurting a few bank balances I'm sure - especially as John Mickel now has a convertible!

Such a shame there are BTCC clashes so won't be able to make all the rounds.

[Reynard]

Ann - if you want to see pics of John Mickel's car, I had a good look at it while I was working down in Turn 4 during the second race... Am waiting for my films to be processed.

BTW, when you see the TV coverage for round two, I am the photographer with her back to the Hodgson-Lince incident! I turned around just in time to see this bright yellow ASCAR coming straight towards me thinking "where the $@#!%* did he come from?" :eek:

According to the people in the media office, my expression was an absolute peach...

I just thought it was crazy... Last year the lads managed to keep their noses clean - most of the time anyway, and to be brutally honest, I just don't think we've got the same quality in terms of drivers compared to last year. Just look at the Deuce-RML drivers for instance...

Ben Collins: good, but very underrated, undeniably unlucky in race 1 on Sunday

BUT....

Steve Grissom: very definately overrated for a supposed Busch Series front-runner

Anthony Swan: fast over a single lap but has no clue how to put a race strategy together

Alex Lince: a complete lunatic and a big liability to the team. Caused two major crashes, Proctor in Race 1 and Hodgson in Race 2. Needs to calm down or could be in trouble...

It's a right old contrast from Kelvin Burt and Nicholas Minassian - probably the best driver pairing that ASCAR have ever had.

Thoughts anyone???

[Amanda]

Reynard ~ I agree with you! Now that ASCAR has lost the likes of Kelvin Burt, Jason Plato, Darren Manning, Nic Minassian and Darren Turner the driving standards have deteriorated!

I will miss the next round as it clashes with BTCC at Silverstone hopefully things will have improved before I go back in July!

[bramble]

They had calmed down a lot in the second race, perhaps it should be put down to first race nerves and over eagerness.

[touring fan]

I hope it doesn't result in some drivers pulling out of the rest of the season.
John Mickel is hopeful his car can be repaired! The only undamaged bit I spotted on it was the number 24 on one side of the car:eek:

[Amanda]

It says in Autosport that the Safety Car lead more laps than anyone else!

[Reynard]

Hah, I'm not surprised about that little bit of info. The chap driving the safety car had a busy afternoon.

So did I...

I had to move pretty sharpish when I found this coming my way down at the entry to Turn 4 - hence the somewhat blurred photo... :eek:

[Amanda]

I have just checked Autosport again. The Safety Car led 57.5% of the 120 ASCAR laps!! So it was a very busy day for Stuart Bradburn and he got a photo of his Safety Car in Autosport!

[bramble]

Nice photo. There was a lot of flying debris from that if i remember.

[The Stig]

Reynard, was the south end of that "vehicle" hurrying to the scene of an accident at which you were situated ? If so, to wait one more second to photograph it was very commendable. Clearly, I don't know what I'm missing. Where can I catch ASCAR televised highlights. Haven't really bothered this year with Plato et al elsewhere.

[Amanda]

ASCAR will be shown on Motors TV starting on Saturday night. Highlights will also be shown on C4 but not sure when!

[The Stig]

Thanks Amanda. Knew I could rely on you for info.

[Ann]

Good photo, Reynard. Poor Stevie - not a good way to end his weekend. Had a look at the remains back at the garage - the Xcel boys will be busy putting that back in one piece!

Looking forward to seeing it all again on Ch4 (I think!) so I can work out exactly who did what to whom. There was too much going on to keep track at the track (if you see what I mean!)

[Reynard]

Ann: glad you like the pic - poor Stevie indeed... I didn't even dare to ask him if he was OK, because he didn't look like a happy bunny. Anyways, he was glaring at Lince and at one point I was convinced he'd go over and thump him... (Would have made a great shot!)

Stig: Lince had already bit the wall by this time - the truck in the background was already responding to that. Thing is, the original impact happened at the exit of Turn 3, but they only hit the wall at the entrance to Turn 4. It was a case of "grab shot and run for dear life!" :eek: Hodgson's car was on fire at this point, I think it was a combination of broken oil/fuel lines and that infernal expanded polystyrene on hot engine...

At least I knew what to expect (more or less) as I originally had my back to the crash and was given a rude awakening by Lince hitting the wall where I was standing - I was ready by the time Stevie came sliding towards me, but I was set up for a pan shot hence the camera shake... It all happened so quickly I didn't get the opportunity to increase my shutter speed from 1/90s. Thought it would be better to have some sort of a shot than none at all...

Btw, the rest of my photos are available online should anyone be interested. (go via my profile) ;)

[bramble]

Motors TV will be showing the highlights all next week at various times, check out Rockinghams website for when races from that circuit are on TV.

[Peter]

Thanks for the info, Amanda. Sounds like you had a great time!

I'll be tuning in tomorrow night to see you!

[Amanda]

Peter ~ I was just glad Jason wasn't out there. If he had been I would have had to find a hiding place where I couldn't see or hear anything!!

I hope I won't be making an appearance on the coverage ~ I was looking rather windswept and wearing two coats!!!

[Amanda]

Has anyone else noticed that Motors TV are still showing an ad which says the next ASCAR round at Rockingham is on 11th May?!:p