BTCC 2001: Rounds 17 & 18 – Croft

Croft in Yorkshire was the venue for rounds 17 and 18 of the 2001 British Touring Car Championship, and Jason Plato was now level with Yvan Muller at the top of the driver’s championship, despite being leading when the chequered flag waved last time out at Snetterton.

He was hit with a 30 second time penalty for the Snetterton feature race as a result of his coming together with Phil Bennett, taking away his championship lead. And it looked like a fair cop, after reviewing the video.

Round 17: Sprint Race

Thankfully for Bennett things were looking up for him, as he qualified on pole for the Sprint Race – his first of the season. Plato was in second, Muller third.

In the Production Class it was Roger Moen on pole, followed by Graves and Harrison.

As the lights went out, Tommy Erdos got an excellent start in the Lexus and snuck ahead of Thompson and Muller into third. Bennett got away well and stayed ahead of Plato.

But it looked like Erdos’s excellent start wouldn’t last long, as the two Vauxhalls or Muller and Thompson were back past him before the end of the first lap, and he was under pressure from the two Peugeots behind him.

Steve Soper looked like he’d made a pass on Erdos, but he went in too deep and ended up locking up, onto the grass and back out in last position.

As the Production Race started, there was a peculiar scene as Simon Harrison opened his door as the lights were about to go out. He was stranded with a mechanical issue, and that was his way of telling the rest of the pack.

Into the first corner and Moen lost a place to Graves. Pyper was up to third thanks to Harrison’s early retirement.

All of a sudden the safety car was out as Tom Boardman in the Production Peugeot 306 was stranded on the track, along with Harrison’s 306. 

Bennett somehow missed the safety car and overtook it! Thankfully he realised his mistake quickly and dropped back behind.

As the safety car pulled in there was yet more confusion, as the Touring cars had been released to catch the back of the Production cars, but hadn’t yet made it round. Either way the green flags were waving, and the race was back underway.

Plato was keen to make the pass on Bennett, and as they headed into Tower Bend he got his opportunity. Bennett stayed wide and opened the door for Plato, who snuck through to take the lead.

Yvan Muller was now right alongside Bennett as well, but he managed to keep the place.

But not for long, as into the hairpin, Bennett again left the door wide open for the red Astra of Muller, and he was through.

No sooner was he past, Bennett had retaken the position. Although on second viewing it looked like he may have done so under yellow flags. He spotted his mistake, and allowed Muller back past.

At the front of the Production battle, Moen made a lunge down the inside of Graves in an attempt to retake the lead, and retake the lead he did. An excellent move.

As Moen pushed to stay ahead of Graves he clipped the tyre wall going through the chicane, sending tyres onto the track. As Bennett followed through he saw them late and swerved to avoid them, leading to him spinning out and lightly into the armco. Race ruined for Bennett, and he was into the pits with a flat tyre.

The marshals cleared the tyres, but the following lap Graves managed to do exactly the same. Maybe there was still some debris left over, but it looked like a strange incident.

As the chequered flag waved it was Moen with the overall win and maximum points in the Production race. Pyper took second in Production, followed by Kaye in third.

Plato won the Touring class, followed by Muller in second and Thompson in third. Erdos scored good points in fourth.

Sprint Race Results

Position	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Lap	Time	Best
1	P	Roger MOEN	HTML	Peugeot 306 GTi	19	31:13.568	1:30.700
2		Jason PLATO	Vauxhall Motorsport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	19	2.055	1:27.033
3		Yvan MULLER	Vauxhall Motorsport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	19	2.988	1:26.894
4	P	Gavin PYPER	GA-Janspeed Racing	Alfa Romeo 156	19	4.268	1:31.152
5		James THOMPSON	Egg Sport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	19	7.045	1:26.931
6	P	James KAYE	Team Kaliber Sport with Barwell	Honda Accord	19	9.501	1:31.577
7	P	Gareth HOWELL	GR Motorsport	Ford Focus	19	14.823	1:31.994
8		Thomas ERDOS	ABG Motorsport	Lexus IS200	19	15.615	1:27.683
9	P	Simon GRAVES	Team Kaliber Sport with Barwell	Honda Accord	19	17.664	1:31.124
10	P	Paul O’NEILL	Tech-Speed Motorsport	Peugeot 306 GTi	19	22.678	1:31.637
11	P	Mark LEMMER	Synchro Motorsport	Honda Accord	19	23.775	1:32.201
12		Steve SOPER	Peugeot Sport UK	Peugeot 406 Coupé	19	24.359	1:28.064
13		Dan EAVES	Peugeot Sport UK	Peugeot 406 Coupé	19	25.541	1:28.126
14	P	Jim EDWARDS Jnr	TCR/Interactive Network Solutions	Honda Accord	19	26.542	1:32.520
15	P	Rick KRAEMER	GR Motorsport	Ford Focus	19	1:01.466	1:33.235
16	P	Mat JACKSON	GR Motorsport	Ford Focus	19	1:03.233	1:33.399
17	P	Colin BLAIR	GA-Janspeed Racing	Alfa Romeo 156	19	1:38.891	1:35.241
18	P	Simon HARRISON	HTML	Peugeot 306 GTi	18	+ 1 LAP	1:30.808
19		Phil BENNETT	Egg Sport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	18	+ 1 LAP	1:27.236
20		Tom FERRIER	JS Motorsport	Alfa Romeo 147	18	+ 1 LAP	1:28.589
R	P	Annie TEMPLETON	Tech-Speed Motorsport	Peugeot 306 GTi	6	DNF	1:38.362
R	P	Richard MEINS	GR Motorsport	Ford Focus	6	DNF	1:40.201
R		Tim HARVEY	JS Motorsport	Alfa Romeo 147	6	DNF	1:29.415
R	P	Joanna CLARKE	Team B&Q/Talksport Radio	Honda Integra Type-R	1	DNF	N/A
R	P	Nick BEAUMONT	Team B&Q/Talksport Radio	Honda Integra Type-R	0	DNF	N/A
NS	P	Tom BOARDMAN	Tom Boardman Racing	Peugeot 306 GTi	–	DNS	N/A

Round 18: Feature Race

With Plato taking the win in the Sprint Race, you may have expected him to be on the front row for the start of the Feature Race. But you’d be wrong, as he only managed to qualify in fourth, behind the other three Astras.

Thompson took pole, followed by Muller and Bennett. Erdos was again starting in fifth.

Moen was again in pole in the Production class, with Graves and Harrison in second and third.

As the grid lined up, the clouds closed in and the rain started, sending everyone scurrying for their wet tyres.

As they got underway, the rain was starting to get heavier, but everyone was through the first corner cleanly.

Into the chicane and Soper, who had already made it past Erdos, pushed his way past Plato into fourth. Plato was immediately onto the team radio complaining about severe understeer.

But Plato wasn’t the only one having trouble with grip, as Soper careered off onto the grass, letting him (and several others) past. No damage to the car and he was able to continue.

With conditions getting worse, Phil Bennett was the next casualty, as he too failed to shed enough speed and went through the gravel, gifting a handful of competitors his place. Thankfully for him, he was able to rejoin.

In the Production class it was all change thanks to the torrential conditions, as Mark Lemmer had made it to the front of the pack in his Honda Accord. Jim Edwards Jr followed in second.

After his off, Bennett decided to take an early pit stop, followed by Jason Plato. Bennett with an 8.5 second stop, Plato with a very fast 6.8 second stop.

Thompson also decided to make his stop, pitting from the lead, but disaster for him as his team could only manage to get him going again in 11.8 seconds. Muller was ready to pounce if his team could pull off a quick stop.

And a quick stop they managed; 7.6 seconds, and it was enough to get Muller out ahead of Thompson and into the lead with a sizable gap.

But that wouldn’t last long, as the safety car was out thanks to a beached Gavin Pyper in a dangerous position, and the pack bunched back up.

As the race restarted, the four Vauxhalls were back at the front, with Muller in the lead followed by Thompson. Everyone was through cleanly until Bennett put two wheels into the mud and Soper made it past into fourth.

Bennett and Soper were fighting hammer and tongs through the treacherous conditions, and they both ended up off the track, with Bennett seemingly pushing Soper through the chicane.

They both rejoined and Bennett was ahead, but Soper was clearly angry with that move, and absolutely smashed Bennett into the next corner. He had no intention of avoiding him there!

Soper was back ahead, although with some pretty serious looking damage. Meanwhile, Erdos had made it past the pair of them.

Bennett was onto the back of Soper again but overcooked it and was suddenly going sideways. Somehow he made an amazing save and kept it facing the right way, but had lost places to the two Alfas 147s.

And in his desperation to retake them, he overdid it again and was off onto the grass at a rate of knots, eventually finding himself in a farmer’s field next to the track. No chance he was getting out of that, and he had to retire. Some hugely entertaining action!

Back at the front, Plato made it past Thompson into second with a great move. But the safety car was out again thanks to Bennett’s stranded Astra.

Soper was also into the pits to retire thanks to the damage his Peugeot sustained in his battle with Bennett.

As the safety car pulled in, it was now three Vauxhalls at the front, followed by Erdos in the Lexus.

Meanwhile in the Production battle, Lemmer was in second but ran wide, letting Howell and several others slip through. And just a couple of laps later, Lemmer was off again and into the farmer’s field. Jim Edwards Jr was out in front leading, hoping for his first win.

Into the final lap and Jackson was putting huge pressure on Edwards Jr to take the lead. Both cars went too deep into the chicane and ended up in the gravel, with Edwards Jr clobbering the tyre wall at speed in the process.

Somehow he managed to keep his Accord going after taking huge damage, and amazingly retook the position from Jackson immediately.

As the chequered flag waved it was Muller with the victory in the Touring Class, followed by Plato and Thompson.

Edwards Jr was overjoyed to take the win in Production, with Jackson in second and Howell in third.

Enormously entertaining racing at Croft, with Muller taking the championship lead back from Plato.

But that wasn’t the end of the action, as the stewards deemed Phil Bennett’s battle with Steve Soper to have been too dangerous, and handed out a hefty punishment: he was to be banned from the next race.

Next up: rounds 19 & 20 at Oulton Park.

Feature Race Results

Position	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Laps	Time	Best
1		Yvan MULLER	Vauxhall Motorsport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	35	1:04:53	1:38.346
2		Jason PLATO	Vauxhall Motorsport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	35	2.093	1:38.652
3		James THOMPSON	Egg Sport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	35	3.178	1:38.581
4		Thomas ERDOS	ABG Motorsport	Lexus IS200	35	8.594	1:39.518
5		Dan EAVES	Peugeot Sport UK	Peugeot 406 Coupé	35	17.499	1:40.320
6	P	Jim EDWARDS Jnr	TCR/Interactive Network Solutions	Honda Accord	35	37.088	1:43.367
7	P	Mat JACKSON	GR Motorsport	Ford Focus	35	39.239	1:42.344
8	P	Gareth HOWELL	GR Motorsport	Ford Focus	35	41.341	1:43.925
9	P	Richard MEINS	GR Motorsport	Ford Focus	35	47.325	1:44.226
10	P	James KAYE	Team Kaliber Sport with Barwell	Honda Accord	34	+ 1 LAP	1:42.760
11	P	Simon GRAVES	Team Kaliber Sport with Barwell	Honda Accord	34	+ 1 LAP	1:42.765
12	P	Simon HARRISON	HTML	Peugeot 306 GTi	34	+ 1 LAP	1:43.973
13	P	Rick KRAEMER	GR Motorsport	Ford Focus	34	+ 1 LAP	1:43.710
14	P	Annie TEMPLETON	Tech-Speed Motorsport	Peugeot 306 GTi	34	+ 1 LAP	1:47.996
R		Tom FERRIER	JS Motorsport	Alfa Romeo 147	31	DNF	1:40.159
R	P	Mark LEMMER	Synchro Motorsport	Honda Accord	30	DNF	1:43.382
R	P	Colin BLAIR	GA-Janspeed Racing	Alfa Romeo 156	29	DNF	1:44.736
R	P	Paul O’NEILL	Tech-Speed Motorsport	Peugeot 306 GTi	26	DNF	1:44.124
R		Steve SOPER	Peugeot Sport UK	Peugeot 406 Coupé	22	DNF	1:40.516
R		Tim HARVEY	JS Motorsport	Alfa Romeo 147	20	DNF	1:41.947
R		Phil BENNETT	Egg Sport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	19	DNF	1:39.125
R	P	Gavin PYPER	GA-Janspeed Racing	Alfa Romeo 156	11	DNF	1:48.090
R	P	Roger MOEN	HTML	Peugeot 306 GTi	9	DNF	1:48.466
NS	P	Tom BOARDMAN	Tom Boardman Racing	Peugeot 306 GTi	–	DNS	N/A
NS	P	Nick BEAUMONT	Team B&Q/Talksport Radio	Honda Integra Type-R	–	DNS	N/A
NS	P	Joanna CLARKE	Team B&Q/Talksport Radio	Honda Integra Type-R	–	DNS	N/A

Touring Car Driver’s Championship Standings After Round 17 & 18 – Leaders

Driver	Points
Muller	235
Plato	232
Thompson	211
Bennett	116

Touring Car Team Championship Standings After Round 17 & 18 – Leaders

Team	Points
Vauxhall Motorsport UK	195
Team Egg Sport	157
Peugeot Sport UK	56
ABG Motorsport	32

Production Car Driver’s Championship Standings After Round 17 & 18 – Leaders

Driver	Points
Kaye	155
Harrison	151
Moen	133
Jackson	117
Howell	102

Production Car Team Championship Standings After Round 17 & 18 – Leaders

Team	Points
GR Motorsport	160
Team Kaliber Sport with Barwell	125
HTML	102
Total Control Racing	46