Seat Cupra in the Toca Tour.

[Jamie P-E]

I would prefer to see the Seat Cupra series in the TOCA Tour rather than the F3/GT Package because most people would see it as a stepping stone to the BTCC not GT Racing. Who else Agrees???


Jamie

[lauz]

i agree. i think that the seat championship is much more suited to support the btcc rather than the f3/gt's.

[touringlegend]

Your joking surely Jamie ?!


I thought it was a stepping stone to banger racing ?:confused:

[Amanda]

I would love to see the Cupras as part of the TOCA support package and have a feeling they will be next year!

[Peter]

Whilst I agree that the Seat Cupra championship would be very popular at Tocatour meetings, I think the Seat series could be used in front of the F3/ GT crowd to give a taster of what can be found at Tocatour events.

[Jamie P-E]

Originally posted by touringlegend
Your joking surely Jamie ?!


I thought it was a stepping stone to banger racing ?:confused:


Does it sound like I'm joking?!!. I really think that they will be in the TOCA Package for 2004 but I think the size of the Seat village might cause a problem with Toca as takes up so much room thats why they couldn't go to Castle Combe.

I think that the Rockingham race on the basis of contact was bit over the top with all bar 2 drivers going to have their hands slapped but People shouldn't judge the series on that one meeting I sure that most of the time the racing is clean and fair.


Jamie

[Mocko]

Originally posted by touringlegend
Your joking surely Jamie ?!

I thought it was a stepping stone to banger racing ?:confused:

Go easy on him, TL, he makes a valid point.

Surely he's saying the SEAT series would be better suited in the TOCA tour like the Porsche series would be better suited to the F3/GT package.

[touringlegend]

I didn't mean to offend - it was all light hearted. :( I actually agree that it'll be on the TOCA package next year..

Sorry :(

[Paul Rayner]

Seat are doing some great promotion of this series, and some more promotion towards the TOCA package wouldn't be a bad thing. I'd rather see Seat racing in the BTCC though.

Seat's other option is to continue as the potential headline act of the F3/GT package. If they wanted to get decent crowds in to see them though, they'd have to throw a lot of money at promoting the events themselves, because BMP don't seem to want to do much to push F3/GTs any more.

[Amanda]

SEAT are doing some great work to promote the series. Ticket prices for the next round at Thruxton have been reduced because SEAT put up a lump sum.

I think that if the Cupra Championship became a support race we would also see SEAT entering the BTCC.

[Croft fan]

The Seats would be good for the Toca Tour, and with the V8 thing joining the F3 and GT next year:confused: or supposed to be joining them, where would that leave the Seats with that tour?


Plus there are rumors that the production class is about to get its own race and not continue in the same race as the BTCC touring class, that would leave even less room for the Seats. Anyone know anything eles about the production class getting its own race?

[Stuart]

Running the SEATs on the TOCA Tour would certainly make it easier for aspiring Touring car drivers to get noticed, but would limit their possiblities should a BTCC deal not come together.
Whoever is at the forefront of such a high profile series will get noticed by the BTCC teams no matter what happens, even if it means the team personnel going to an F3/GT event to take a closer look at a promising driver.
Now, this might sound a touch naive, but the SEATs look too similar to a Tourer in so much as they have the aero pack on them, where as the Porsches provide some welcome variety to TOCA Tour. The SEATs provide the same variety to the F3/GT package.

Personally, I would say let the SEAT's do their own thing - a few races on F3/GT, maybe a couple on TOCA, DTM & LG Super-race Weekend slots at Donington and howabout a couple of ASCAR support slots to make their days a little better value for money?

[Les]

lt looks as if Porsches won't get a championship, the V8's won't be racing with F3/Gts, Clios have probably one more year to run before the plug is pulled on them so Seats are in a very good bargaining position.
Unless something untoward happens in the next few months the Seats will be with Toca next year. I just hope they are as generous with cheap tickets etc as this year but it does look odd that a 'support' package is headlining the bill.

[Alan]

I hope SEAT come to the TOCA package, as both will benefit I feel.

The amount of publicity and advertising which SEAT are doing is good for them and would be good for TOCA.

I think the SEAT's would compliment BTCC, although there are arguments both ways of course. They could be seen to be replacing the Vectra's we used to have - remember them Les?

Having seen some of the publicity material, VIP arrangements etc which they are organising, not to mention merchandise etc, I do rather think it would perhaps make TOCA look to their laurels in this area (and I haven't even mentioned the "marquee"!!!:D )

[Claire]

Having the Seat's in with TOCA can only be a good thing, as mentioned in previous posts it would be a good feeder to the BTCC with the pace and style of the cars closer to that of the Clio's or fiestas before them.
I do agree with Alan that TOCA may have to look at their facilities, at the moment Seat wins hands down, they of course won't need garage space just a great big field or piece of tarmac!!
I would be really pleased if they joined us. :)

[Invincible]

I would certainly like to see the SEAT's on the TOCA package

[touringlegend]

Think I remember reading a Clio driver (maybe it was Danny Buxton) that said Touring Car team bosses take hardly any notice of the Clio's. You have to wonder if Seats would be any different ?

Seats would be good on the TOCA Tour but as many have said they aren't far off the pace of a works Touring Car - this could confuse newcomers as to why the headlining series seems to be no different to a support race. Having not seen Cupras in person this year do they visually appear much different speedwise to a BTC Tourer ?

Seats promotion would be great but you have to ask yourself once they'd had enough of it whether the crowds would dissapear again?

[Invincible]

Originally posted by touringlegend
Think I remember reading a Clio driver (maybe it was Danny Buxton) that said Touring Car team bosses take hardly any notice of the Clio's. You have to wonder if Seats would be any different ?


It is worth noticing that apart from Buxton - the only other Clio driver from last year to progress to the BTCC was Paul Wallace who (without being offensive) wasn't exactly a front-runner although he hasn't done bad this season.

The drivers to have progressed to the BTCC from Clios since it began in 2000 include:-
Jim Edwards Jnr (Champion in 2000, went into Total Control Racing in the Production Class and won at Croft)
Mat Jackson (Finished high in 2000 and moved to GR Motorsport in 2001 taking one win at Donington)
Paul Wallace (Went to GA Racing in 2003)
Danny Buxton (2001 champion now drives for VLR in the BTCC)

Infact that only makes four

You've got to remember as well that the SEAT competitors are actually battling for a Touring Car drive themselves, whether it'll be secured or not is unknown because let's face it, money talks in motorsport

[Les]

I wouldn't say 4 out of two years is that bad - how many F1 drivers are there from FRenault?

And remember one third of Clio drivers are doing it for fun, a third know they will never make it and a third are really going for it as a step up to something else.

[Alan]

Originally posted by Invincible
You've got to remember as well that the SEAT competitors are actually battling for a Touring Car drive themselves, whether it'll be secured or not is unknown because let's face it, money talks in motorsport

Maybe I misunderstand you, but the winner of the SEAT championship WILL get a drive with SEAT in the ETCC in 2004 - of that there is no doubt. Yes money talks but in this case it is SEAT's money.

What may be more interesting is what happens to the guys who are second and thid etc.

[Racefan_uk]

You realise what might happen next year though? Maybe because the SEAT series is on the TOCA package it will be deemed such a great 'weekend out' that the gate prices wil either stay the same or go up for a TOCA meeting!

When SEAT are pushing so hard to help bring down the price of racing to the average punter and get UK motorsport back on its feet with the F3-GT series they will then get lower billing on the TOCA package. Why spend all that money and be second billing?

If they'd stuck with F3 & GT's they could have been along similar lines to the PowerTour concept that had GT/F3 and NSC. SEAT could have become the saloon car part of the package and still had joint headline status.

We'll see come April next year!:confused:

[Les]

they wouldn't get lower billing - you have F3, GTs then Seats or BTCC then Seats.

but with the promotions and big village it might be seen that they are putting the main championship in the shade. Don't think touring cars would like that - but it might just make them buck their ideas up with accessibility to cars, drivers and all those silly things like getting race sheets.

[Invincible]

Originally posted by Les
I wouldn't say 4 out of two years is that bad - how many F1 drivers are there from FRenault?

And remember one third of Clio drivers are doing it for fun, a third know they will never make it and a third are really going for it as a step up to something else.

You're right - considering in the first two years of the Clio series they faced rivalry from the Fiesta cup and a number of their competitors went onto the BTCC.

Colin Turkington, Alan Blencowe and John B&Q (nee Top-Gear) to name a few.