BTCC Crashes 1997
BTCC crashes, accidents, collision, spins from 1997 season
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00Less lucky was Kelvin Burt, whose Volvo found a patch of oil at McLean's corner.
00:07He's well ahead in race two.
00:09Thompson is sandwiched still between the two Williams-Reynolds and he's losing it!
00:13He goes off at McLean's, straight across the front of Plato and off!
00:18What a huge tank slapper he had going into the corner there at McLean's.
00:21I don't think he was helped off, I think he did it all by himself.
00:24Down goes the Honda, we're very boring now.
00:26Oh! That's Tarquini on the right, what's on the left?
00:30Tarquini's body trim off.
00:32Rydell ahead of Kelvin Burt this time.
00:35Jason Plato right behind him and off goes Kelvin Burt!
00:39Burt spins off into the gravel track.
00:42Let's look at it from Kelvin's point of view.
00:44Rydell ahead, they're absolutely flat out.
00:47He turns in, well, out goes the back.
00:50There goes Jason Plato into the gravel track.
00:52Leslie's pushed over to the left-hand side of the track.
00:54Now they're both heading down to the chicane, not room for two of them.
00:57Leslie's launched over the rumble strip.
00:59T-Bone's Bintcliffe on the way past, both off into the side of the Armco.
01:03Now we're in Leslie's car, let's have a look.
01:05Here he is, he's turning in now into Beckett's.
01:07Bang! There's the turn, that's where he's hit.
01:09Now they're both heading down to the neck of the funnel, which is the island chicane.
01:13Bintcliffe on the right, Leslie over the ski jump, that's it.
01:17This is David. Bintcliffe's done it again, and the car's f***ed.
01:23And as the conditions went from bad to worse,
01:25the only drivers smiling were the Audi drivers.
01:27Cars were aquaplaning in all directions, some even on their wet-weather tyres.
01:31And a number of the drivers had serious doubts as to whether the race
01:34should have even been allowed to continue.
01:40It's a very good race.
01:43It's the most dangerous conditions I think I've ever driven in.
01:46We all know the perils of this circuit.
01:48OK, it wasn't too damp to start with, so everyone started on slicks,
01:52but then the heavens opened, and I mean, trying to drive...
01:55Bieler's victory celebrations ended on the opening lap,
01:58back to earth literally with a crash.
02:05The fact that it was his team-mate John Bintcliffe that was responsible
02:09added insult to injury.
02:17No blame apportioned to either driver.
02:19Harvey in the Peugeot was now the fastest car on the track,
02:22and when he caught up with John Cleland,
02:24there were the inevitable fireworks.
02:28In the Nissan is now right up with Alain Meunier,
02:32going for third... Whoa!
02:35And bang! That was too much.
02:37And into the wall, so that's 15 points.
02:40That's Reid's car on screen.
02:42He's trying to get inside of Meunier, who's just in front of us.
02:45Meunier will be turning right, he's locked up his brakes,
02:47didn't want to hit Meunier, it wasn't deliberate.
02:49Meunier's covered, he's hit him.
02:51Now, let's see how hard he goes into the tyre wall.
02:54Yeah, that'll be too hard for him to resume any success.
02:57He will have damaged his suspension, no doubt, doing that.
02:59Quite hard enough, thank you very much.
03:01Alain Meunier rejoins.
03:03Here it is again, you see,
03:05just pirouettes the Williams-Renault out of the race.
03:09In the middle, he's leaning, Mieler is on the right,
03:12and Thompson is off!
03:14James Thompson straight into the Armco,
03:16straight across the grid.
03:18Keep an eye on Thompson on the left-hand side of the grid.
03:21The far left-hand side of your screen touches,
03:23but straight across the middle of the field,
03:25like a dart across there, amazingly hits nobody,
03:28into the Armco, and almost over.
03:32Very, very lucky, could have been much worse.
03:34Here's another replay, we're inside Paul Radisic's car,
03:37Thompson on the right, Bird is on the left.
03:40Just look at Bintliff shooting up on the left-hand side.
03:43Slow start from Tarquini on the left,
03:46and the Volvo hits Thompson, and he shoots off the circuit.
03:51I was alongside Gabriele,
03:53and at the next minute I'm facing backwards.
03:56But look for Frank Mieler, there he is, Frank Mieler third.
04:00Bintliff is in fourth position.
04:02In the blue car, it's Radisic, and Tarquini locked up.
04:05Tarquini's going off.
04:12And he's hit Tarquini,
04:14but Bintliff's up two second from sixth on the grid.
04:17Tarquini spins, spin, they're all going off.
04:20Look at that, Riedel's off.
04:22Turning to the high back, I was there,
04:25and he touched me and I spun.
04:31Now Riedel and Plato were fighting their way back through the field.
04:35Plato from last place.
04:37But the dramas weren't over yet.
04:42As they come up to the complex,
04:44there's contact between the Audis, Murray.
04:46We've got another game of Bintliff Billions here.
04:48It's both the Audis off.
04:49This time it's Mieler scoring the two points for the Can.
04:52He's in car now with John Bintliff
04:54as we have another look at the Audi Billions.
04:56There's the touch from behind from Frank.
04:58Off he goes backwards, Ricard, and look at that Honda.
05:01Well, that's not the only leaning, Charlie.
05:03Look at Thompson leaning on Burt.
05:05In fact, he's leaned him right off the track.
05:07Kelvin Burt bouncing his way across the grass.
05:10Mieler's on the inside.
05:11Bintliff goes past the Audi up into third position
05:15and off goes Tarquini.
05:17Tarquini off onto the grass.
05:19Off in race one, off again, and Riedel has stopped.
05:23The Audi's four-wheel drive would get Mieler out of the mud
05:26at 17th.
05:27In the Nissan Primera,
05:29he hasn't had the best of meetings so far.
05:33He had a big crash.
05:34Oh, a big, big one.
05:36It's Tarquini.
05:38Tarquini, what a meeting.
05:41Stop the race, Charlie.
05:42It's a replay.
05:43Yeah, through the chicane.
05:45Oh, look, he's just clipped the tyres on the inside.
05:48And you can see it's gone to the outside of the circuit.
05:50Clouded the Amco really hard and then spun around again.
05:53Yeah, stuck on the track.
05:54There's no way they're going to let the race go on with the Honda.
05:58Well, Alamenu's got the advantage,
06:00the big advantage of a clear track in front of him.
06:03A crash again.
06:04Another one.
06:05And it's a Honda, so it's James Dunne.
06:07James Dunne's got the advantage.
06:09James Dunne's got the advantage.
06:11James Dunne's got the advantage.
06:13James Dunne's got the advantage.
06:15And it's a Honda, so it's James Thompson,
06:17and it's at exactly the same pace.
06:20Unbelievable, Barry.
06:21That is a carbon copy of Tarquini's accident.
06:2390 miles an hour head-on impact
06:25illustrated the risks of pushing hard on cold tyres
06:28after the pace car session.
06:35Shabila could pile on.
06:37Meanwhile, Jason Plato pushed his pace and appeared quite minor
06:41until Thompson's rear wheel broke, spinning him into the tyres.
06:45Not a good start.
06:47Obviously, I was just accelerating out of the corner,
06:50and his car's here, and he just ran into my rear wheel,
06:54broke the rear wheel, and that's it, finished.
06:57I'm very disappointed, to say the least.
06:59It was probably...
07:01He was in no position to overtake,
07:03and he just positioned the bonnet of his car on the inside of mine,
07:06going into the following corner of Corham
07:08and just simply held station and waited for me to turn in
07:11until I hit him.
07:13Down to Sear. Yes, he's through.
07:16Oh, and Warwick is hit.
07:18And off.
07:19Oh, that was big contact. That was Paul Radisic on the inside,
07:22Derek Warwick on the outside.
07:23Having a look at Derek's team-mate, John Cleland,
07:25in the Vauxhall on the left,
07:27and Will Hoye at play right in front of us there.
07:30Contact between the two. Bags of smoke off the front of Cleland's car.
07:33Very close. Five cars together, turning into the left-hander,
07:37and off they two spin together.
07:39That's Radisic in the blue, Mondeo and Warwick.
07:41Well, that's perfect Vauxhall-Ford symmetry, Murray.
07:43They couldn't have done it better if they tried.
07:45It was mingled up, and the time I got to the scene,
07:48I tried to go down the inside of Paul,
07:50but then he slowed down, turned in and caught me
07:53and broke a track rod end.
07:55With Menud trying to go past Thompson, he does so,
07:58and Plato hits him.
08:00Plato hits Thompson really, really hard,
08:03and that will have done the Honda no good at all.
08:06The Lamborghini goes past, the Peugeot goes past.
08:09Thompson's got a flat tyre, Murray, look. He's spinning.
08:12Yeah, that's his race over.
08:14And that's the second time, so right behind.
08:17Oh, there's a bit of a tank slapper there.
08:19He's been hit, Murray, been hit from behind.
08:21Plato's gone through and off.
08:23Leslie hits Plato straight into the tyre wall.
08:26Plato hit Thompson. Now he's getting a bit of his own back.
08:29We touched a little bit going in, but the corner was mine,
08:32and then he puts me off down the hill,
08:34and puts me in the wall.
08:35Who did?
08:36Leslie.
08:37Absolutely completely different.
08:39Menud got past. Halfway up the hill was inside of him,
08:42and he just turns in on me.
08:44At some point, you have to concede the corner.
08:46On towards Brooklands, another left-hander.
08:48Patrick Watts staying ahead of last year's champion.
08:51Now we're with John Clelland, and bang, bang!
08:54Fabulous. You soften him up, Derek, and I'll pass him.
08:57Warwick hits Beechcliffe. See what happened.
08:59Out of Ireland, that's Matthew Neil.
09:02Lee Brooks goes over the kerb, throws the car up in the air.
09:05And look, as it lands, you can see sparks from under the car.
09:08He maybe actually broke some suspension
09:10when he went over that chicane too hard on the left-hand side.
09:13It's very sharp.
09:14He's going straight off the side of the circuit now,
09:16and there's an Armco wall dead ahead.
09:19Bang!
09:20Oh, that's a big, hard hit.
09:22Fortunately, there's a little bit of give in the Armco,
09:24but it's bounced the car straight back onto the circuit again.
09:27My guess is he's destabilised the car.
09:33Oh, my God!
09:35Yeah, it was quite hard, you know.
09:37It was one of them things
09:38where you've been running over the kerb there for quite a while.