BTCC Hot Takes 2!

[@ripperevo2011rrchamp]

The current era is hardly anything to sneeze at. We've got Hill and Ingram tied for points with 1 meeting to go! Even the Supertouring era never managed that! Let's not forget, 2004 was settled by a bonus point for fastest lap, otherwise it would have been a deadheat!

[@scottbarnes3116]

Hi Elliot interesting video this isn’t really a hot take but a personal pefence but I would love to see even if it’s one season/meeting/race but would love to see Ben Edwards back on BTCC commentary in the past that was a massive pleasure I had browning in the 2000s and 2010 and 2011 I remember Louise Goodman interviewed him at Snett and that was phenomenal 👍

[@ElliotWebberYT]

@@scottbarnes3116 100% agree with you there. Ben Edwards was the ITV commentator when I started watching BTCC, imo he’s the GOAT after Murray Walker

[@ripperevo2011rrchamp]

Was something wrong with the camera?

[@ripperevo2011rrchamp]

Wouldn't say John Cleland was dominant in 1995. He had a run of 4 straight wins mid-season but that was about it. He was more consistent than dominant (he only non-scored 3 times in a 25 race season) and his rivals just had more than their fair share of bad luck (especially Rickard Rydell in the Volvo, 13 poles and only 4 wins, 3 of which came in the first 9 races) and the Williams-run Renaults took too long to find their feet. Case in point, Renault won 10 races to Vauxhall's 7 in 1995 and won the manufacturer's title and Alain Menu won 7 races to Cleland's 6, yet was 43 points behind Cleland in the final standings and was realistically out of the title fight with 2 meetings to go (though he still had a very slim chance) and Renault only beat Vauxhall by 5 points and probably would have fallen short if James Thompson hadn't had his season-ending Knockhill crash.

[@NurburgringMascotThirstA-is6gl]

The Supertouring era was brilliant and I love those cars as much as anyone else, but I think the excessive nostalgia for that era is kind of damaging the series' reputation at this point. It feels like many racing fans act like the BTCC died in 2000, and don't give the current era a chance. 90% of BTCC content online is about the Supertouring era. It's a more extreme version of the WRC/Group B situation. I'm sure if you edited the current races after the fact and brought back Murray Walker with semi-scripted commentary like they used to do back in the day, you could make the current racing seem just as exciting as that era.

[@ElliotWebberYT]

@@NurburgringMascotThirstA-is6gl Very true, there’s a ton of people who simply refuse to watch modern day BTCC because it’s not supertouring. One thing they can’t seem to accept is that had Supertouring remained beyond 2000, the series likely wouldn’t have survived.

[@NurburgringMascotThirstA-is6gl]

@@ElliotWebberYT Yeah, I also see that all the time with WEC fans who want LMP1 back. The thing about super-expensive, technologically innovative, manufacturer driven regulations is they never really last that long outside of F1