Thetownend.com

It's that time again, yay!

Starts again this weekend, I missed Media Day last Tuesday as I was driving to Disneyland Paris :badmood: but I've got a VIP ticket with the AmD team for this Sunday, which is laaaaaaavely! First time I've made it to the opening races of the season, should be good fun. I should be headed to Thruxton on the 8th of May as well, not sure about any other dates yet.

Interested to see how the Subaru Levorg tourer goes, a new manufacturer-backed entry with the BMR team who nearly took the title last season. Shame Plato is driving one of them...   :cunty:

Do you not like Plato?  I missed that :D

My Boss is driving for Honda this year, so should be getting VIP for the silverstone meeting in Sept.

You work for Ceravision?

Yeah

Ah cool. Hell of an accident your boss had in '08...  :eek: He's knocked about with a couple of teams in the past 4 or 5 years, hopefully he can make it work with Honda!

Apparently his son is one to watch out for in the future, I think he knows he is third drive, he hasnt got the talent to take on the other 2 Honda drivers, but for 600,000 grand and a racing licence you can get a drive for a BTCC team (allegedly)

Less than that for a team further down the grid, but that third Honda drive is a premium one. Hope it comes off for him!

In short, Sunday was brilliant. Loved the circuit, the hospitality was brilliant, the grid walk before Race 2 was cool, the racing was really good to watch, and I got onto the top 12 leaderboard of lap times for a lap around Brands at a sim race centre called Racehub which is based at the circuit, the rigs they have there cost over £10k each, the cockpits are on (small) hydraulic jacks so when you go off track you get jiggled about. The sensation was brilliant! Trying to convince my brother-in-law we need a place like that in Swindon... :P

We have two places like that in milton Keynes, one recently did a 24 hr endurance race, teams of 4, a good spread of food, breakfast, pizza etc, licenced bar, my mate took part and said it was pretty good.

Neate didnt do very well did he

no indeed he didn't... finished behind a rookie who was in last year's title winning Honda Civic, with older-spec suspension, engine, steering box etc which is by rule slower than the latest spec Civic, in which Neate was. Not good, he needs to kick on...

A couple of friends were driving in that 24hr race with the Downforce Radio boys, bloody hard work! There's two crap-looking sim places, one in oxford, one in reading, run by the same company. Single screens, a normal seat and the same wheel and pedals I have, not at all that emersive. I think a proepr sim race centre in Swindon would do well... haven't found any in Bristol yet either.

There is a simulator centre in Stevenage, its all just F1 Simulators, would love to give that a crack. It is hard work tho, you dont appreciate how much reflexes you need to get one round a track, its like your brain cant work fast enough to co-ordinate your body, full on concentration.

I've never had an interest in this before but we're sponsoring Tom Ingram at Speedworks, who I believe won the first race on Sunday...so might well take a peek at some point...

http://www.itv.com/btcc/races/watch-brands-hatch-indy-2016 (http://www.itv.com/btcc/races/watch-brands-hatch-indy-2016)

Who do you work for Christy, if you don't mind me asking? Cracking drive from Tom in race 1, well earned win.

Great drive from Tingram in the first race. Sorry Derby STFC but your boss is pretty awful in BTCC but i guess that money talks. Going to Thruxton( only 10 mins from home) Oulton Park and Brands GP this year.Probably do VIP with Speedworks again.   

Its a running joke at work (away from his ears) about how awful he is, so no need to be sorry , yep, Money talks

Well at least he's successful in his business life, cos that Honda seat isn't cheap! He really needs to kick on, a lot of BTCC fans just outright take the piss out of him now. Being the 6th slowest Honda in the joint-fastest car won't help matters...

Well even that's a question of opinion, he left his post last week under a bit of cloud!!

All is not well in the world of Neate then?

Who do you work for Christy, if you don't mind me asking? Cracking drive from Tom in race 1, well earned win.
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Unipart - and the exposure (and success) last week has been really well received.  I might have to take a look at some point...

I dont know the full story as I dont concern myself with boardroom politics, but something has happened and hes not at Ceravision at the mo

So no more Neate, from a reliable source the sponsorship money didn't appear due to a bedroom incident...
  :hmmm:

Yeah we shall go with that, It works soapy tit wank

He was shit anyway

if you know any more, I'd love to hear it, haha!

He is an odd looking bloke, He looks like the villian in Casino Royal who bleeds black stuff from his eye. I have seen his Mrs, wow the guy is punching way above his weight.
            Anyway, less about him. What are your predictions for this weekend? Are the Scoobys going to be on the pace?   

Once the dust settles maybe, although he isn't at the company now, he is still a shareholder so its all quite sensitive at the mo.

Subarus will still be off the pace I think, they're still bloody loud though! They'll be competitive by mid-season at the latest, they're not that far off now. The fact they didn't get any running during the Media day launch at Donington means the other cars will have the jump on them at first. It'll be interesting to see how the come on over the weekend...

Anyone going to Thruxton this weekend?

yup, taking my 6 year old as well, it's gonna be a scorcher it seems!

Yep, going both days. I normally have a bimble around the paddock in the morning and then sit at the complex for Qualifying and then get there early on Sunday.   

Yes will be there for the racing but not qualifying. My favourite circuit is Thruxton and quite handy as its just down the road. Think the Honda's will be very strong here.

Depends how they carry the success ballast, they're 1st and 2nd in the championship so muchos extra weight for quali and race 1. At least there's no soft tyre to contend with for Thruxton!

Daniel Lloyd is the recipient of Neate's TBL, driving with the Eurotech team. They nearly had a third car sorted before the start of the season but it fell through, so they had a part-built car already. He's gone well before, probably take him a while to get up to speed with the NGTC machinery though.

Well I know what's gone on with the Neate story, hes wasn't any good, thats obvious, but he was released from his drive because hes sponser money didn't come through,  a company who he was going to bring on board as a title sponser, a company he has brought lots of tooling from, using money thats not his,  hence why he isn't at my work anymore too.

In a recent meeting, the new CEO mentioned that hes out of his depth, as a technical director,  and as a racing driver. 

He also told the Honda team that he has sold his shares at Ceravision for 4 million,  he hasnt

I figured it'd be something along those lines... Alan Gow had a bit of a rant on a live Touring car podcast, Tin Top Tuesday (well worth checking out by the way, 8pm the Tuesday after a race weekend, also on an Autoglym app you can get the back catalogue too apparently) which was editted out from the download version, its since been confirmed that Neate is now banned from any involvement in BTCC. Neate's own statement of stopping racing to focus on his son is purely an attempt to save face.

Subaru BMR withdraw from Thruxton. Amatures.

understandable, but funny as fuck to listen to all Plato's disciples disappointment.

Plato has promised the Subaru will be closer to the pace at Oulton Park in a couple of weeks... and Andy Neate has seemingly proposed to a leggy blonde in Paris, with lots of jokes on Touring Car Facebook pages that he'll have to send the ring back in a couple of weeks...

Ha ha yeah that's quite funny, and prob true considering Honda are pursuing for an large amount of cash! (That's what we are hearing here)