RACE DAY: 19 Feb 2012
The second meeting of the season began with the introduction of a new driver, Jason. And what an entrance!! After a clean sweep of the OBTCC and a good representing in the Driver's Championship, Jason jumped straight into 6th Place on the OBTCC Table!
Great results again for the top 3 placings with Matt, Smokey and Grimmy scooping up the rest of the big points. Sadly Alan dropped dramatically in the OBTCC Table but Maple Valley may have just been a bad session for the Astra.
The Drivers Championship saw Corey and Danny gain a few places and Blair jumped 2 places with a good first race performance. Sadly, Ross had engine troubles and could not participate in the Driver's races.
No change in the Team Table and the top 3 for the Manufacturers title still remains the same.
RACE DAY: 05 Feb 2012
The first meeting of the season is now over. There were emotions galore and plenty of action on the track!
The first race in the OBTCC saw Matt qualify in pole position and he used this to his advantage, taking fastest lap and lap leader. This bagged maximum points for the reigning champion.
The second race began in similar fashion with Matt up front and Ross chasing behind. The unexpected happened as Smokey crept past Ross to take second position. A few more laps in and a small mistake by Matt was capitalised byt Smokey who went on to take first place.
The final race in the OBTCC was reverse grid so there was much battling for position in the early laps. Grimmy managed to avoid the initial incidents in his RWD Lexus and placed first most of the race. Matt enjoyed another podium finish along with Nor.
Lets not forget the newer drivers who performed exceptionally well with Paul managing a 7th and 9th place finish. Danny also stood out as the new face, finishing the OBTCC with 22 points. Not to be out done, Danny's father, Alan managed to take away 27 points from the meeting proving that experience definately helps!
The Drivers Championship was littered with accidents in both races but Matt's calm driving style led him to two victories with Grimmy Ross and Nor all taking good points.
Glancing at the Manufacturers Table shows that Honda having an extra car has given them an early lead but surprise results for Kia and Alfa Romeo who place 3rd and 4th with only one car on the grid. Lexus also had a good performance. VW still have a lot to prove in the Scirocco's!
Finally the Team Table. It seems the teams are very easily matched with a nice spread of points but there was a margin between all teams and the points reflect that.
Here's looking forward to the next meeting, details will be confirmed in good time.
31 Jan 2012
Everything has been finalised! Racing will commence at Silverstone on their National Circuit on Sunday 5th February 2012. All drivers have signed up as attending and the Drivers Championship begins with the Holden VE.
This is it. The fifth season is here and it is looking to be the biggest and best season so far....."
30 Jan 2012
And so the final car confirmation has arrived. Phil has pulled up in his Ford Focus to complete the OBTCC lineup. Hopefully all the teams will be working hard on their tuning setups and finalizing their sponsors to complete the liveries!
The first race day is confirmed as Sunday 5th February at 8PM. It's looking likely to be Silverstone for the first meeting but this is still unconfirmed.
The season is almost upon us. The excitement is brewing....!
29 Jan 2012
Contact has been made with Phil (pheelay) who has yet to decide which car he will be driving in the new season. Confirmation is due soon as the Championship first round looms!
26 Jan 2012
News from the SneekyParrot camp revealed that it's driver, Paul, will be joining the Honda manufacturers with his Honda Integra. With very little time left for developement, Paul is hoping the Integra can battle with the rest of the Honda team.
24 Jan 2012
Confirmation has been received that Danny will be running a Ford Focus for his first season in the OBTCC. A car that finished 1st and 3rd in last years Championship.
24 Jan 2012
Confirmation is creeping through...
After an initial trial in the Chevy Cobalt and Kia Forte Koup, the Smokeysworld team were quick to confirm the Kia as the car of choice.
During testing, several other teams showed an interest in the car but swiftly moved on to others.
In a season where we have more drivers than ever before, car choice will prove more important than ever, requiring to be fast, poised and adaptable. This season sees the most rear wheel drive cars on the track, which could prove a handful in the close battles!
Grimmy's choice is the Lexus IS300. With it's RWD system, it can provide entertaining drifts, but in only a short time, Grimmy has tuned the car well and has recorded many fast lap times in testing.
A battle commenced over the other Lexus IS300 but after a tug of war between Corey and Mattie, a final testing session had Mattie switch to the Alfa Romeo Brera. Has the reigning Champion found the best car for the season? Corey remains faithful to the Lexus and has also provided some quick times on track.
Two of the new drivers to the Championship, Dan and Marcus (Buckydevil) have chosen the VW Scirocco. It could be interesting to see their developement of the cars and hopefully they will give a bit of competition for some of the more established drivers.
Another new addition to the Championship is Andy, bringing a Honda Civic in to the mix. He has already shown he is capable of fighting it out at the front and with the Honda a true BTCC winner, will this translate to the OBTCC? Ross (Supercharged_Z) seems to think so as this 3 season Champion is running the same car!
Another veteran, Nor joins Ian (welshone) in a Renault Megane. The car ran last season and seemed to fair well but with the new season approaching and testing over, the Renault is definately going to be a contender this year.
The Vauxhall Astra from last season will also be running this year with drivers Alan and Glen behind the wheel. These guys have shown massive improvement leading up to the new season so with the new grid lineup, we could be seeing a lot more of them with podium finishes.
Three more new drivers, Phil (pheelay), Paul (sneekyparrot) and Dan (dannyzr) have still to confirm the cars they will be running.
The new season also sees the introduction of a new scoring system and a qualifying race. This may help the first corner antics be less catastrophic with the quick lappers leading the way. But this is not a guarantee so I am sure there will be plenty of racing incidents reported. The drivers are fully aware that failure to make legitimate attempts to brake early to avoid collisions will result in points deductions so a lot is at stake.
22 Jan 2012
So the OBTCC season is soon to be underway. A record 15 drivers have signed up and information on the cars and the liveries are starting to filter through. As always, we will keep you updated with all the news!
