RE: BTCC from Knockhill round two

["Ian J Haseltine" <Jim_Haseltine@msn.com>]

I hope I remember this correctly -

Biela and Bintcliffe stormed away from the start, aided by the Knockhill 
track, the front row of the grid being on the brow of the hill, everybody else 
was starting uphill. Bintcliffe gave Biela a slight tap from behind at the 
first corner, while Menu and Thompson exchanged panel dents, Thompson came off 
worst with a rear puncture that put him into the tyre wall, Menu then drove 
into the rear of Rydel's Volvo damaging his Renault enough to force retirement 
later in the race. The safety car came out for 5 laps while the Thompson's 
Honda was removed. 
Biela and Bintcliffe then drove away from the rest of the race, a short while 
later Tarquini just touched the rear of Anthony Reid's Nissan, which suddenly 
slowed and although it was showing no damage, pulled into the pits to retire. 
It seems that the Nissans exhaust had been folded in two by the bump, causing 
the engine to cut out and refuse to restart.  
Rydel spent the rest of the race shedding trim from the Volvo, rear bumper 
etc. at one point was black flagged because the passenger door was flying open 
whenever he braked or took a right hand corner. He dived into the pits, and 
was out again with the door taped up so quickly that his pit crew must have 
run along side the car in the pits.
Meanwhile, Tarquini had taken 3rd place in the Honda and never looked like 
loosing it while there were a number of close fought battles for the lower 
places in the last few laps, especially one between Cleland and a fast moving 
Rydel in which Rydel tried everything he knew but could not pass Cleland who 
was making his Vectra about 8 feet wide at every passing place on the circuit.

I dont remember the exact time gaps at the finish but they were something like 

1st Biela
2nd Bintcliffe at 1.5 sec
3rd Tarquini at 15 sec

A fine days work for the Audi team. Not so great for Menu who could have won 
the championship if he had won both races and he has provided Williams TCE 
with a BIG panel job for Monday. Thompson was unhurt in his 'off' but spent 
some time with the race doctor.
In the post race interview, Biela implied (not in so many words) that he had 
no chance of winning the championship this year due to the early season weight 
penalty, but would go for second place.


Jim Haseltine
88 Ur quattro