BTCC Drinking Game updated for 2008

Click here or on the link on the right for the 2008 BTCC drinking game. As ever it will be updated during the season (and most likely before round 1 if CMS and Xero enter!). Enjoy, but just remember the extended coverage hours means you might want to take it a bit easier... ;)

Dumb "Ask Alan Gow" question of the month - March

With his special red font and EMPHASISED captitalised WORDS as WELL to make HIS point, this month's award goes to robinbox for the following:

http://btcc.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5829

I have been trying to find out if BTCC is going to be on TV and so far I AM still waiting to find out.... and if so what channel it might be on,

Surely with a race so close someone should know by now, I have been great fan of BTCC for SO MANY years but I cant get to the meetings live,

IS it going on TV or not and if so what channel PLEASE !

Goon. What mislead you? The big "BTCC ON itv4" graphic on the front page? The trailers on itv4 itself? The news story? The TV timetable? The rather obvious new numberplate designs for BTCC cars this year? Muppet.

ITV presenters confirmed

Good news: Harvey and Edwards stay on as commentators.
Bad news: Ted Kravitz is back. Grr. Although he can't do Brands Hatch next weekend so we enjoy Steve Rider instead! There's a blast from the past. Joining them will be former Gladiator and winner of the 1995 "Miss Wessex" competition Janie Omorogbe. She has been doing the BSB coverage so I guess she knows the score.

New liveries #3

So farewell the familiar btcc.net numberplate; for 2008 it's all about ITV4. So hopefully no more moaners unable to find what channel the BTCC's on. Hopefully.

BTCC on TV 2008

We're hearing rumours it'll be ITV4 and not Setanta Sports who'll be showing all-day BTCC plus support race coverage for 2008. Good news if true...

BTCC 2007 Review DVD problems

The release date has been postponed numerous times, but it seems as though online retailers are starting to ship out copies of the 2007 BTCC DVD today. Some are already in the shops; I managed to pick up a copy from HMV today. But there's a rather large fault in the copy I purchased... despite the discs saying "Disc 1" and "Disc 2" (see photo) they both actually contain the disc 2 content (i.e. the second half of the season). Hopefully this hasn't been replicated in any other copies, but I'll wait and see what Duke have to say about it...

Update: Haven't got round to calling Duke yet (damn real life in the way) but other forum posts are saying the same thing. Hold off until Jan 14th...

DVD update

7 hours! 2 discs! Duke might even be able to fit all of Plato's ego on it this time.

2007 DVD

The 2007 review DVD will be available next month - Duke say the 26th, other retailers reckon it's the 19th. Best price seen so far is £10.99 including delivery from HMV.
Judging by the preliminary cover art Duke obviously betted on Plato winning the championship, but expect to see Gio's green and red VX machine adorning the sleeve by the time it drops through your letterbox.

Free BTCC on Virgin Media this weekend

Those nice people at Virgin Media are offering Setanta Sports 1, 2 and Golf free to all ther customers this weekend. That means you can watch the Manchester Utd game for free, hooray! Plus there's some top British motorsport on in Scotland somewhere which is being televised all day on Setanta Sports 2 apparently..

ITV *hearts* BTCC once more

Fantastic just as at Brands, ITV will have extra coverage for Knockhill BTCC. With ITV4 now apparently starting broadcasting at lunchtimes at weekends (as opposed to 6pm weekdays) hopefully this arrangement can continue into 2008. It was great to enjoy bonus support race coverage on ITV4 from Brands and given the 2 hour slot again for Knockhill that should continue. It'll probably be those not-so-fun slicks'n'wings boys again, but fingers crossed for action from the SEATs and Legends!

Clios!

Those lovely people at RenaultSport have made (most of) the Clio feature races available to view on their website, complete with Ben Edwards and Simon Hill's lovely commentary. Enjoy the action here!.

Free BTCC on Setanta! Kinda...

Got a Freeview box? Missed the Croft coverage? Fear not, set your remote to channel 34 tomorrow (Tuesday 19 June) and you can see Setanta's recap at 2000-2130. They are being nice and de-crpyting themselves between 1900 and 2200 for a while so you can catch obscure New Zealand rugby series and the occasional bit of motorsport in slightly-less-than-crystal-clear picture quality. (If it still claims it's encrypted try a channel re-scan or similar).

TV recap: Croft (part 1)

TV Recap - BTCC Croft
1600, ITV3

And we're back with another nice slice of BTCC action over on ITV's third most popular channel. Hey - at least they've got rid of the ITV3 dog! Kravitz welcomes us faithful viewers to sunny Croft, the only visit to anywhere remotely resembling The North™ this season. Ted's sorted out his shirt this time, collars all tucked in present and correct. He still looks like a wannabe-Top Gear presenter though. Plato and Giovanardi are the guys to beat points-wise but it's Shedden on pole.

Apparently Jason grew up around here, so that means it's time for yet another Life With Plato featurette, hooray! And we even get a bit of ST footage with Coxy commentating. Louise is interviewing Jason on one of the grassy banks at Croft, both of them being extremely rude and ignoring whatever support is race going on behind. Plato waffles about ballast, how tight the championship is this year etc, while I realise it's a Clio race they're ignoring. Sacrilege!

...and speaking of Plato, we're on board with him for a lap around this "tight and twisty" Croft circuit. Tim uses the phrase "hard on" far too much for anyone's liking - at least four times on this lap. Not an image anyone wants in their head.

Louise, standing on the grid, tells is it's now over to Ben with the starting grid. That seemed a bit of an unnecessary link. Turkington's "fast-starting" (chug) BMW lines up second, could be the man to watch out for. Amazingly, Ben doesn't say "we're all set for Round 10" but instead "Round 10 is ready to roll!" Another missed drinking opportunity there.... but no time to ponder as we'reeeeee off! Turkington shoots into the lead as a few cars kick up the dust at turn 1. Some great onboard footage with Tom Chilton as he battles with some 2-year old SEATs. He missed Le Mans for this you know! Meanwhile Matt Neal "wheel to wheel" with Turkington but he can't get around... cool onboard with Neal, you can make out the disco-glitter on the side flashes. Lap 4 - big cloud of dust, apparently Erkut is off. Or maybe it's Pinkney, as we see a rather dented looking 156 grind to a half. Nice new colour scheme though, the pink sunstrip clashing horrendously with the new shade of red. Lovely. A reply reveals Erkut taking a spectacular ride through the gravel, with Pinkney then lining up a move on his inside. "Two into one doesn't go.." cries Tim, as the reply comes to an abrupt end, so I guess we'll never know what happened. Well that sucked.

Lap 5 - what is Turner's beef with Allison? Are SEAT paying Darren to take out the Motorbase cars so they don't embarrass the works guys? Whatever, remember at Thruxton Darren shunted Matt resulting in one re-shelled Toledo rqeuired, and now Turner knocks a couple of tyres onto the track and it's Allison who takes the full whack. Bummer. Narrowly avoids a big accident that man (video). Meanwhile Richard Marsh has whacked some tyres, and Murray''s car is cruising. So, the Alfas are as reliable in the BTCC as they are in real life. The OC and Allison pit, and still no safety cars despite debris and loose tyres everywhere... heck, they put a safety car out when there was a small speck on the track at Rockingham, some consistency people!

Lap 7 - the OC is back out of the pits, just ahead of Turkington. Hmm, I smell some team tactics afoot... he lets Colin through but isn't so kind to Matt. In fact, Matt gets impatient, nerfs Tom and Shedden hops up the 2nd. Neal will be "fuming" says Ben. The OC retires hurt and Louise gets a chat with him. The tyres are out on the circuit for "safety reasons" apparently, oh the irony... Turkington is pulling away nicely now, on course for BMW's first BTCC win since 1996: Ravalgia at the GP support race, remember him? As the race closes, it's actually quite dull, so dull that Tim and Ben discuss the technicalities of the success ballast system. However, Turkington takes the "dominant" win and the guys in (bright) orange are chuffed. Ted tells us to be right back after the break for even more...

Live BTCC online... not just yet...

Further to my previous post, the much anticipated live streaming of the ITV channels on ITV.com has yet to materialise, despite being promised during May. However, latest news suggests this coming wednesday is The Day™, and we'll see what it's like from then...

Live BTCC streaming ahoy?

Blimey - ITV in "do-something-good" shocker?

Turns out ITV.com is relaunching "within weeks" and will give visitors live streaming of ITV channels and a 30-day catchup. According to Media Guardian:

ITV programmes that are viewed as live simulcasts online will run with the same ads that are shown during broadcasts on its TV channels.

Programming that is viewed on demand through ITV.com's 30-day catch-up service will offer a wide range of advertising options and opportunities that will be fine-tuned based on customer preference.

Furthermore:

ITV is using what is known as Geo-IP blocking technology to make sure that international visitors to ITV.com do not access programming that has location-based rights restrictions for viewing.

Soooo... UK users should be able to watch ITV's BTCC coverage live on the interweb and "watch again" within 30 days, albeit with plenty of adverts abounding. No word on whether BTCC coverage falls under the umbrella of needing "location-based rights restrictions"; but a "friend" of this blogger claims such restrictions are not hard to "circumvent". Apparently.

Setanta: Good news, Bad news

Righty, it's been long enough since we got the news that Setanta now cover the BTCC and support races live. Yes, MotorsTV was free and everyone was enraged at Setanta for a bit, but thankfully it's all settled down now. Picture quality on Setanta is much better than the graininess that was Motors, and of course there are no ad breaks. Plus that £15 or so a month spent on Setanta will also get you golf, SPL and Premiership footy from August.

However, bad news is afoot. Coverage from Croft and Oulton Park will only start at midday. Even worse, Brands Hatch and Knockhill won't even be covered live (there will be highlights, but whether it'll be better than the ITV coverage is anyone's guess).

The good news is that race weekends 4-7 (Croft, Oulton Donny, Snett) will be on Setanta Sports 1 instead of Setanta Sports 2. This means that it'll be possible to catch ad-free BTCC and support races on Freeview, hooray!
Things you'll want to know:

• You'll need a Freeview box with card slot, or an IDTV with CAM and card slot
  
• Freeview Setanta subscription is £10.99 a month currently, but AFAIK it's only a 2 month minimum contract
  
• Setanta currently have a special offer - £5 per month for the first 3 months
  
• Setanta Sports 1 on Freeview only starts broadcasting at midday*
  

For more info/FAQs have a looksy: Setanta on Freeview / BTCC on Setanta Sports

TV Recap - BTCC Rockingham (pt 1)

It's BTCC time again, and whilst ITV1 viewers are treated to the "comedy" "film" King Ralph (in which most of the Royal Family die in a car accident resulting in their distant American relative taking to the throne with *hilarious* consequences) the BTCC is once again back on ITV3. Louise and the Kravitz are loitering in the Rock garages and remind us the previous round featured "plenty of contact", "impressive debuts" and "two different race winners". "It's never dull in the BTCC" entices Ted as we get the opening graphics.

And we're back to the Kravitz, who's standing in the middle of the "infamous" Turn 1 at Rockingham. Not quite sure why it's deserved that title, seeing as the BTCC hasn't actually used the full T1 before. Besides, I gather from SCSA and the like that it's Turn 4 that is more deserving of the "infamous" moniker. Anyhoo, I can't help but notice that Ted's shirt collar is tucked in on his left but sticking out on the right, yet another fashion faux pas...

The standings after round 3... the Kravitz mistakenly describes Jones as driving a BMW whilst running down the order. Sigh. Back to Kravitz (and his dodgy shirt) who tells of Plato as the star of the show three weeks previously. As such, we cut to what now appears to be ITV3's version of "Cribs" as Louise invites herself into Plato's home. Lots of trophies around but Jase's favourite is a hilarious ear-clip thingy saying "Bullshit Deflector". Oh Jase, you crack us up. We learn Jase's 3rd most important thing in his life is flying, "a really good way of spending a few quid". Nice to have the money! Anyways, we get some cheesy "Top Gun" stylee music, a close-up of Jase's shades and we're up up and away in his private plane. There's many similarities to flying and racing, Jase tells us. These include having to be "ahead of the game" (yes, but you're not likely to hit anything or punt anyone off IN THE AIR are you?) Louise ponders to Jase on how you take risks whilst racing, but you can't take risks in the plane. Jason replies in the affirmative making it absolutely clear his hands are NOT ON THE JOYSTICK! Talk about not taking risks!! We look down on Rockingham from above and Jason makes up some stuff about overtaking opportunities, even though it's pretty clear he'll just pass wherever. As usual.

Back to the Rock - the Kravitz tells us Plato's having to carry 45kg of success ballast as a result of leading the championship, "almost as much as carrying young Rachael [the grid girl] in the passenger seat". Young Rachael smiles to the camera but in her mind she's all like "Did he just call me fat? Did he just compare me to SLABS OF HEAVY METAL??" Before the Kravitz can get a slap we run down the grid for round 4. Eoin Murray has actually made it to the Sunday this weekend, and starts a very good 5th. In 15th is the new Luton chairman Pinkney. Luton themselves are lower than that in the Championship I fear. Adam Jones has no engine so won't start from the back. "Disaster!" for Turner the poleman whose engine has failed on the grid. The guy just won't get a break. Start attempt #2 - "We're all set" (chug) for the race start as Giovanardi rockets away. Murray gets a shocker, loses a handful of places at the start and then"gets done by Mat Jackson" (Harvey, euw!). All clean through T1 and T2 as Turkington "flies" through from the back of the grid. Lap 2 (although the graphics still say lap 1) - Jackson makes a move on the OC as Murray tries a cheeky move to get by the orange car as well. However, the Alfa just ends up swiping the Beemer resulting in a slightly more dented front end for Murray than before. The guy complains about being tight on budget and having no spares but it would probably help if you didn't DRIVE INTO the other competitors eh? Meanwhile Howell and Allison are having a good dice with the OC and Hughes.

Louise is stepping well into her role of "Bad Luck, XX" as she does in F1, as Turner explains what went wrong. Lap 7 - Jackson nerfs Neal into a slide but he holds it. Ben and Time pontificate how strong the Civic is compared to the old Integra. Some nice onboards with Jackson, but those floating heads still freak me out. Lap 11 - the RAC machines both attempt to biff past Murray as Leggate's MG is depositing oil on the track on the last chicane and onto the start/finish straight, sigh. Slight chaos as Gio and Plato have small excursions on the slippery stuff, but I can clearly see the marshals with the yellow/orange warning flag out so there's no excuse really. Marshals good, Leggate naughty. Still, it gives Chilton a chance to pass Plato, but the TV director instead shows us marshals being engulfed by Leggate's smoky MG. We get a replay though so I'll forgive him. Lap 13 - there's a whopping great hulk of debris just on the outside of turn 3 I think, but no safety car needed. I'll remember that. Lap 14 - the OC whacks Jackson who has trouble saving it as he's in that RWD machine. The RAC cars are still having it out with Murray; Harvey notes Murray wisely stayed away from any contact, but intones it as if that was a bad thing! Final lap - Gio and Chilton take a VXR 1-2. Turk and the OC eventually made it past Murray, although we don't see where or when! Louise invites us to rejoin after the break...

Ads - it's good to see the advertisers are really targeting the BTCC's key audience: adverts for bathrooms, washing machines, washing powder, toilet freshener, dishwasher cleaner and, er, Frosties. Really targeting those 18-35 males eh?

We're back to the Rock, and the Kravitz has sorted out his shirt! Hooray! Less importantly VXR got a 1-2 in the first race. Gio says "was a great race for all ze teams", "we had a problem with da hoil" and he was "like Oh My God". So his grammar and pronunciation are shocking but at least he can blaspheme perfectly well eh? Chilton tells us "oil is the WORST THING IN THE WORLD to hit". Nothing worse, apparently. The drivers give us their opinions of Rockingham (might have been better to have this *before* the first race?). Howell doesn't like the infield but chooses his words carefully. We're now onboard for a lap with Chilton who talks us through the circuit. Again, would have been better to have this before the races eh?
(tbc...)

The Unofficial BTCC Drinking Game™

Don't fret... this will be updated for 2009 in due course! In the meantime, whack on that 2008 Review DVD and make do with the following:

New for 2008! And updated!

Version 2008-1.9 - Silverstone 2008

Rule are simple - simply drink a finger's worth of beer/cider (nothing stronger, especially since the ITV4 coverage is a good 5 hours at least) every time one of the following occurs...

ITV - drink when:

• Anyone says "You're watching BTCC on ITV4"
  
• ITV cut to an ad break during live racing ((i.e. not during a safety car period)
  
• ITV cut back from an ad break and miss the restart of a safety car period
  
• An advert is shown for a BTCC manufacturer or sponsor of a BTCC team
  
• A change of lead is missed by the live cameras
  
• We see a genuine race between the backmarkers when they're not a) being lapped b) crashing into each other or c) crashing into the scenery
  
• ITV cut to an in-car driver interview and the driver can't hear them at all, or is completely muffled by their helmet
  
• The wrong caption is shown for a driver or team member
  
• Tim Harvey is captioned as "1992 BTCC champion". It's been 16 years man!
  
• Janie Omorogbe sounds like she hasn't a clue about touring cars
  
• The race 2 winner blatantly sneaks a peek at the ball he's about to pick for the reverse grid draw
  
• ITV cut to a shot of a driver's wife/fiancée/girlfriend
  
• Ted Kravitz is dressed like a wannabe Top Gear presenter
  
• Upcoming F1 on ITV is plugged (double if accompanied by "Lewis Hamilton" in the same sentence)
  
• Upcoming ITV football is plugged
  
• Upcoming ITV boxing is plugged

Ben Edwards - drink when Ben says:

• "Let's take a look at the grid then..." or "Let's see how they line up..."
  
• "We're all set for..."
  
• "...has really got his work cut out..."
  
• "Away we go...!!!"
  
• "SIDE BY SIDE!!!!"
  
• "...going to be fascinating to see..."

Tim Harvey - drink when Tim:

• Says something that doesn't make sense
  
• Goes "Ooohhhhh!"
  
• Squeaks in a pitch so high it's only audible to dogs
  
• Mentions that he's driving in the Porsche cup
  
• Describes something as a "tank-slapper"
  
• Says something that could easily be interpreted as innuendo e.g. "touching and rubbing up the side" or "coming up from behind"
  
• "Plunges up the inside!"
  
• Says "Here we go...!" when introducing a replay

Drivers - (drink whenever the phrases are used in conjunction with the drivers):

• Giovanardi - "reigning BTCC champion"
  
• Neal - "switched teams"
  
• Turkington - "Ulsterman"
  
• Jackson - "Andy Priaulx's world title winning car from last year"
  
• Chilton - "switched teams"
  
• Plato - "runner up"
  
• Turner - "unlucky"
  
• Bell "front-wheel drive"
  
• Vaulkhard - "Geordie"
  
• Jones - "new SEAT"
  
• Kane - "Porsche racer"
  
• Collard - "returning"
  
• Allison - "GT champion"
  
• Hughes - "MG"
  
• Taylor - any mention aside from grid lineup, crashing out, or wiping off another front bumper
  
• Doyle - "very much a privateer team"
  
• Shedden - "Scottish"
  
• George - "Cornish"
  
• Jordan, M - "father"
  
• Jordan, A - "son"
  
• Kizilirmak - "Turkish", or whenever Ben Edwards pronounces "Erkut" more like "Aiirrrrrrrkut"
  
• Taylor - any mention at all, except crashing or talking through the grid
  

Teams - (Drink whenever the phrases are used in conjunction with the teams):

• Team Halfords - "much improved Civic"
  
• SEAT - "reliability"
  
• VXR - "three car assault"
  
• Team RAC - "WSR"
  
• BMW Dealer Team UK - "new backing from BMW" (even though they don't...)
  
• John Guest Racing - "first father/son team" or similar
  
• Motorbase - "new BMWs"
  
• Robertshaw - "as raced in the World Touring Car Championship" or "Reasonably Priced Car"

Tracks - (Drink whenever the phrases are used in conjunction with the circuits):

• Silverstone - "home of the British Grand Prix"

Misc - drink when:

• The safety car is deployed (drink x2 if it's deployed for no obvious reason; drink yet again if Tim Harvey implies Alan Gow is behind it all and has thrown a "NASCAR yellow")
  
• Two team-mates collide (x3 if it's the Jordans)
  
• Someone stalls at the start
  
• Someone comes into the pits
  
• Dan Eaves is mentioned
  
• James Thompson mentioned
  
• Yvan Muller is mentioned
  
• Team 48 are mentioned
  
• Xero Competition are mentioned
  
• A BTCC driver is directly compared to a current F1 driver
  
• A driver deliberately plugs one of their sponsors
  
• A driver wipes out a sponsor hoarding
  
• A grid-girl winks at the camera
  

Drink responsibly. Alcohol is a bigger killer than motor racing. Honest.