Most Entertaining support championship?

[Invincible]

So from last year what was the most exciting BTCC-supporting championship?

Personally, I think the Clios are the most entertaining but its your choice!

[cos]

Clios - no question!

[Sim_Da_BTCC_Man]

From the first ever clio race we knew this would be a great championship, and the place to get your car ruined;)

[King Cleland]

I think everyone will say the Clio's they are awesome! :d

[Invincible]

I thought everyone would say Clio's!

This is going to be pretty one sided isn't it?

[Les]

am I right in thinking this is their last year though??

[Invincible]

What 2003 is the last year of the Clios? I hope not :(

[MG-ZS EX260]

the clios rule! i love them, they always have close racing, very close! and some times 2 close! and virtually every race ive seen of them this year one has rolled over! (very strange) good, relativley cheap, fast motorsport.
I LOVE CLIO RACING!

[thommo_fan]

clio's, no doubt.
i'd like the porcshes more if the grids were bigger.

[V6.]

The clios no question. When i saw them at brands some guy named coffin (Unlucky name) had a monster crash a paddock.

[bramble]

From the first time I saw the clios I was hooked. Great fun.

[Claw]

The only Clio race I saw live was Thruxton and it certainly made an impression on my mum and dad!

The Clio's by far.

[Carl Breeze fan]

Absolutly no question, it has to be those Clio's! If Renault had more commercial sense, they would scrap Formula Renault and have more Clio races!!! Well, that would be better commercially if Kimi hadn't promoted it! But imagine him going from Clio's to F1!

[AussieV8]

I'm not embrassed to say that I voted for the Old fart cars.

Never seen the Reno's but our old timers put on a great race.

[nitromaster]

The Clio race stands out as one of the best parts of a toca weekend :D

Another vote for clios..

[Amanda]

The Clios are great. I also enjoy the Porsches and hope there are more of them out there this year.

[Claw]

Well the Clio's are leading by a country mile!

[bramble]

A big part of the reason they are proving so popular I'm sure is the size of the grids. There are so many cars on track that something is always happening.

[Ann]

It can't really be anything but Clios can it? They are nothing if not entertaining!

I'd rather not come away from a race wearing bits of Clio though like I did at Thruxton - that's way too much entertainment!

[Frank Rizzo]

I'm not bucking the trend - Clio's over here.

At Brands last year, first lap I think, a TCR (may have been Templeman) car goes wide exiting Paddock, gets in the gravel. Keeps his foot in, loads of opposite, comes out, but facing sideways. Gets traction and shoots straight across the track, catches the kerb on the infield as he goes, TAKES OFF, and hit's the tyre barrier on the inside of Paddock about THREE FOOT IN THE AIR!!!!

That's what I call a crash. He sat on the hill for about 10 minutes, completely winded. I think they lost about 8 cars in the first lap!:D

[thommo_fan]

robert huff did a excellent job last year to finish 3rd in first year of racing.
the clio's are very close to the spec of a production car as well aren't they?

[Frank Rizzo]

They are faster than the proddies round some circuits, I believe. And as far as spec is concerned, they are better imho. Sequential boxes, which proddies are prohibited from running.

[speedy king]

Reanault Clios were by far the most entertaining and at times frightening as a spectator, I still see images of poor old Jason Coffin going in to the Wall at the bottom of Paddock Hill Bend at Brands in the opening round!

Lets hope for the same action this year, perhaps missing out the injuries though...

[speedy king]

Originally posted by Frank Rizzo
I'm not bucking the trend - Clio's over here.

At Brands last year, first lap I think, a TCR (may have been Templeman) car goes wide exiting Paddock, gets in the gravel. Keeps his foot in, loads of opposite, comes out, but facing sideways. Gets traction and shoots straight across the track, catches the kerb on the infield as he goes, TAKES OFF, and hit's the tyre barrier on the inside of Paddock about THREE FOOT IN THE AIR!!!!

That's what I call a crash. He sat on the hill for about 10 minutes, completely winded. I think they lost about 8 cars in the first lap!:D

I saw that, it was Jason Coffin (see last post), i think it was lap 7, hurrific accident, he almost went completely over the barrier roof first!!!

Luckily though Coffin may be entering the clios again this year!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Let's hope though he makes it further through the championship than he did in the air though!!

[V6.]

I saw that too.

[Claw]

Originally posted by speedy king
Reanault Clios were by far the most entertaining and at times frightening as a spectator, I still see images of poor old Jason Coffin going in to the Wall at the bottom of Paddock Hill Bend at Brands in the opening round!

Lets hope for the same action this year, perhaps missing out the injuries though...


..and also missing out the horrific smashes we had last year!

Thruxton pile-up
Templeman-Smith fire ball
Stancombe roll
Griffiths roll
Buxton climb the bank stunt

[Alfa Fan]

Originally posted by Claw
..and also missing out the horrific smashes we had last year!

Thruxton pile-up
Templeman-Smith fire ball
Stancombe roll
Griffiths roll
Buxton climb the bank stunt

Whats wrong with crashes....as long as no-one is hurt??

[Claire]

The Clio's were awesome. I thought that the racing was fantastic and very enjoyable. Had a couple of driver's I supported which always makes a difference. We were very lucky that there wern't more injuries with some of the accidents that happened. I can't wait for them to join us at Brands. The entrant list is already looking good.

[Claw]

AF, nothings wrong with crashes, it's just horrific ones that I listed. No one want's to see crashes like that. If you like them so much AF, go and watch Stock-car racing.

[Cleland Fan]

Originally posted by Alfa Fan
Whats wrong with crashes....as long as no-one is hurt??

Not every team has a bottomless pit of money to reshell their cars everytime they have a big shunt. I wouldn't want to see the teams suffering from having to do too many repairs and maybe even pull out because they didn't have the funds to reshell the car get back out on the grid. Danny Buxton didn't have the cash to reshell after Thruxton and struggled for most of the rest of the season with a bent car.

[John]

Whats noticeable about Clios (and also some production cars) is that they go out at the start of the race already dented, which shows the team cannot afford to fix every little dent each time. Compare that to large teams and Tourers where anything thats not perfect (especially on a works car) is replaced.

Did you see the piece on last weeks rally about Pug and their rear bumpers??!? They cost over a grand each and I forget how many they went through at Sweden but it was quite a few!

[speedy king]

I know what you mean about every little detail on a works tourer having to be right, last year during the pit lane walk about i saw some guy from MG painting over stone marks on the car

[John]

Although saying that if you get really close to them some of them have loads of chips and blemishes on them - but on the track/TV they look nice and shiney so we'll not complain too much!! ;)

Keep meaning to go and park my car in a pit garage and see what they can do to it in a few hours!! :p

[Peter]

I am going to be different!

For me, it is Formula Renault which raises the most hairs on my neck! I adore the car control and speed of those cars as young up and coming drivers battle for supremacy.

Formula Renault discovered the likes of Kimi Raikkonen. Thus I am always extremely interested in learning as much about the drivers as possible. You can then boast that you were one of the first to hear the name of an F1 world champion!!

[Paul Rayner]

On a turn-up-and-watch-without-knowing-much-about-them level, I love Clios, they are really entertaining. The Winter Series races at Brands last year, and one of the Donington ones, were great.

My favourite championship though, and yes, I'm completely biased on this, is Formula Renault. Watching all the background goings on to a series and knowing the drivers adds an extra level to the racing, and that's why I really like it. The racing is good though and, like Peter says, it's great to watch the drivers and try and figure which ones will go to F1.

[Reynard]

I've been following all sorts of different stuff for years, so I wouldn't know where to start. So here's my views:

Junior single-seaters are good to watch as you have a gaggle of drivers who are still learning their craft and making loads of mistakes. That in itself can be quite entertaining, but there's also the thrill of watching the next big talent come through.

Single make series such as Porsche Cup and Clios are fun because all the cars are essentially the same and so the racing is invariably close and sometimes far too close - I got a lot of pleasure out of KB driving the Porsche guest car up at Knockhill.

Classic tourers - well, I grew up with classic cars so I just have a soft spot for them. I still have a classic as my road car to this day.

But the one series that made MY hair stand on end last year (but not for the racing itself, which was a shame) was the Historic Sportscars. I can just about remember Group C being born in the early 1980s and to me, they always epitomised what an endurance / GT car should be like. For me, it was fantastic to be able to see the cars in the flesh and actually see them run. As machines they are totally awesome and watching them is a unique experience...