SPEAKER_13 0:00

All the time, all the team, Tim Top Tuesday.

SPEAKER_07 0:05

It's Tuesday, it's eight o'clock, it must be time, but Tim Top Tuesday, powered by Power Max.

SPEAKER_06 0:13

Just before we start the show tonight, a quick introductory note. As everyone that follows the BTCC is aware, in the past couple of weeks one of the teams entered administration. The subject was covered on ITV's coverage at the weekend with statements from both parties involved. And until that period of legal administration is complete, we will not be adding to what has already been said. We can't discuss the subject tonight, and we can't discuss the subject until that process of legal administration is complete. Other than to say we wish everyone well. But if you haven't listened to Tim Top Tuesday Powered by PowerMax before, let me explain. We welcome your pictures from the weekend. Even if you weren't there, even if you were watching on TV what you were doing while you were watching or listening or following the BTCT somehow at the weekend, send in your pictures. You never know. It might be the winner of our PowerMaxed image of the week, and the winner gets a spectacular bucket of goodies from PowerMax. In fact, uh we got this email from Kay, who was our winner two weeks ago. Um, hi Alan, I've received my PowerMax prize and feel very happy with it. I'll have to wait until next week to use it as I'm marshalling at Brands Hatch this weekend for the mini festival. I've attached a photo of my prize. Hope you have a great weekend at Doington and always look forward to Tin Top Tuesday on Tuesday. That's now. Kay, and uh you've got a beautiful garden. I mean, it's some flowers in the background, and the multicoloured alloy wheel cleaner, glass cleaner. I can't see what that one is. Uh shampoo and ultra wax. I like that because it's fluorescent pink, and traffic film remover, and uh some microfibres and a mit as well, and uh and and then the and then the bucket as well with a PowerMax racing cap and all sorts of goodies, uh, car air fresheners. That is a bucket worth winning. And all you have to do is to send in an image that makes us go, wow, or hello, or just react greater than we act to it. We react to any other picture. And that could be the image of the week. So we talked about Kay, who got her gift uh last week. Um, we need to tell you who won uh the previous episode. Um I hope you're sitting down, Neil, from Catford on C, uh, because your image of the week of the Tin Top Tuesday sticker on your truck looking up at the post office tower was fantastic. It's not the post office tower anymore, is it? The BT Tower. I know. My dad used to work there years and years ago. Uh, but your picture is spectacular, Neil. Uh so Neil, if you would like to write back to me with your postal address, uh, we will whiz you off uh a fantastic PowerMax bucket of balloting goodies. Got a lot to discuss, you know. Uh the march of Ash Sutton continues in 2026. He has a points advantage now of hang on, let me make that bigger so I can just make sure. Yes, no, it is. It's 98 points. It's a quite incredible season for an apple rating UK and for Ash Sutton as well. Absolutely spectacular. Tingram still with his fair share of bad luck. Even shaving off the Tash didn't bring in the luck he was looking for at the weekend. Dan Camish, third in the championship, and Adam Morgan, fourth in the championship. So much to discuss. If you are sending in your emails with pictures or just your thoughts and comments on the racing, all you have to do is to email us studio at tintoptuesday.com. Uh we are on all of the uh social media uh channels. All you need to do is to search for Tintop Tuesday, and we've even got a Tintop TikTok. I just like saying it to be honest. But I'm not monitoring all of those while we're doing the show tonight. So uh so just on email, I reckon, tonight. Studio at tintoptuesday.com is the best way of getting in touch with us here on the show this evening, and I have to tell you that uh uh I've got I've overbooked. I mean I I do do this on occasions, and I apologize, um, but I have ever so slightly overbooked. So uh so sorry about that. Might go slightly after 10 o'clock tonight. Um now this uh email came in over the course of the weekend, but I didn't see it because it came in uh while we were doing Toker Live. But I wanted to say hello to Ollie. Hi Olli. He says, Alan Chap, I've made it to Donnington just currently on the BTCC scooter at Redgate, uh getting more than an egg-shaped sunburn. It's if you wear a cat the wrong way around and on your forehead you get egg-shaped burn. Uh, but I'll be at Silverstone and I'll hopefully have uh uh see I member RTF1. I I I guess that's how we say it. BTCC painting in tow with the hope of raffling the original for the MS Society. You are all doing a top job, thank you very much indeed. Ollie, I wanted to mention it because you've been on quite a journey and uh and uh you uh you've been poorly and you're now uh I th I think in uh in uh on a scooter for most of your time, um, and you were nervy about coming along to dining the weekend, and I saw her on social media. Um uh Ollie is somebody that uh painted me the most beautiful painting of the uh uh the Renault uh from the 1990s with Ala Menu driving it at uh at Brands Hatch, and it's uh a cherished possession of mine. And Ollie does the most amazing artwork and he's been up against it, really wanted to come to Donington, uh but decided that it was all going to be a little bit too much in the scooter and all that kind of thing. Uh but eventually uh did come along at the weekend, and we were delighted. And I was just really upset when we got to the end of the weekend, and I realised that I hadn't said hi to you, Ollie. So um, Oliver Taylor, that's your little shout out here on uh Tintop Tuesday, powered by PowerMax, with apologies um that we didn't get to your message at the weekend, but really, really happy that you got along to Donington Park. That's really good news. Um just before we came on air tonight, uh, it being uh uh Tuesday for those that are listening to the uh podcast, some really sad news uh broke. Um so we kind of have to start the show with this.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition and yawn and stretch and try to come to life. Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumping. Out on the streets, the traffic starts chopping. Folks like me on the job for nine to five. Working nine to five, what a way to make live and credit, get to five. It's all taken and no give it just you should buy, then ever give it credit. Just to step on the boats, man, let it dream to take away. And it's all gonna roll you away. What can I do? You so bad, you know, what you're gonna do.

SPEAKER_06 10:17

We sort of have a rule on Tin Top Tuesday powered by PowerMax. Actually, we probably have a couple of rules. Uh, one of the rules is that we try to get through every driver on the BTCC grid by the end of the year, and now we're sort of reaching the the pointy end of the championship year. We have almost ticked off every every driver. Um, the other rule that we have is that once we have a driver on, we we we we generally don't get them on back-to-back shows unless something exceptional has happened. And Adam Morgan, something exceptional has happened. Well done!

SPEAKER_08 10:52

Thank you very much. Yeah, no, it was uh Yeah, I'm still coming back to work to be honest with you. Um two wins in a day is is extraordinary and just Yeah, it's just been an incredible ride, these last two rounds that we've had, and uh yeah, hopefully it may continue.

SPEAKER_06 11:10

Uh well you are very much on a roll, and it wasn't just two wins in a day, was it? It was uh the race to poll as well. Yeah, is it something like you've doubled your pole position um uh stats in the space of seven uh no fourteen days?

SPEAKER_08 11:27

Yeah, it's not my favourite stat of all time, if I'm being honest. Yeah, I think I've had uh up until knock-ill, I had one pole position which was at Rockingham, which was I believe eight years ago. And then uh in two rounds I've gone from one pole to three, um, which is uh a bit I mean it's it's great, but yeah, it's taken me 15 years to get three pole positions. Well so uh I'll take it.

SPEAKER_06 11:54

We are delighted that that time has has has come. And it it does change everything, doesn't it? For you as a driver, the confidence, the confidence in the car, the enjoyment of driving the car, all of those things seem to, for you, over the last couple of meetings, seem to have come together.

SPEAKER_08 12:11

Absolutely, yeah. The the car, you know, it's it's it's clear to see that we've been struggling for the first half of the season. Um just understanding the car, the balance, you know, what the car needs to make it work. And we've we've slowly worked away at it and we've got it into into now a really good window. Um and you know, dare I say that the chassis is probably now as good as the Ford and the High and Eye, um, you know, it it's it feels remarkable. It's doing everything I want. And you know, because because we've been you know, we've we've we've only just got to this point, we've we're lower down in the championship. So it's almost like, and I'm not putting myself in this category at all, um, but it's almost like giving Ash and Tom 20 seconds of boost and saying, right, off you go, lads. Um you you've got qualifying, quality race, and race one with full deployment.

SPEAKER_11 13:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 13:09

So you know, you'd you'd expect them to absolutely maximize it and and race off into distance, and which is which is what we've done. Um and another way I keep looking at it is and this is gonna show how long I've been doing it. Remember, this is going back to the ballast days when Motorbase came in halfway through the season, yeah. And uh I think it was Matt Jackson, so he could qualify and do race one with zero ballast.

SPEAKER_06 13:36

Yes, that's right, yes.

SPEAKER_08 13:37

And he qualified on pole and won race one by half a lap. Yes, yeah, and it's it's it's just like that, you know. So um our biggest test now will be going to craft with with with limited TTB. Um that that's our next step or our next progression um to see how we can manage that.

SPEAKER_06 13:58

But that that was always the thing, wasn't it? When we when we had ballast, uh it it was the teams that have worked the car around uh maximum ballast. So all the free practice that they did maximum ballast. That's the that's the that is the next logical step in developing a car, isn't it?

SPEAKER_08 14:15

Yeah, absolutely. So for for us now, we'll you know we'll we've got free practice at Croft and uh I I will just be using the the booths that I have available um for for P4, I'm not sure what it is, is it maybe four, five, six seconds, something like that? So there's no point going around with using all 20 seconds if I can't use it for qualifying. So it's it's gonna be another um not a step into the unknown, but it's gonna be like a limiting factor. Um but it will it will it will show up how good the chassis is if we can still put the car towards the front end with limited boost.

SPEAKER_06 14:53

You've come a long way since the first time that we went to Donnington this year, because I remember chatting to you, not on the microphone, just as everything was getting underway for uh for the qualifying session before the first race to poll. And I said to you, um something about do you know what's going on now, Adam? Not really, I'll just do I'm just do what I'm told.

SPEAKER_08 15:18

That sounds that sounds about right.

SPEAKER_06 15:20

It was, it was, it was all a bit new, wasn't it, at the start of the year, and now it feels like the most normal thing we do.

SPEAKER_08 15:26

Yeah, yeah. It's I don't think anybody really understood what was going on. Um and it it's taken us all about three rounds to realise, right, okay, you've got to qualify with a race set up on. Um but anyway, we've all got there now, and it's it's it's been tricky because it it's put us on the back foot um only having one free practice session. Yes, yeah, and then you go straight then you go straight into qualifying. But to be honest, I I there's bits I enjoy because I enjoy racing more than I do qualifying.

SPEAKER_11 15:55

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 15:56

Um but I I don't enjoy the fact it's taken away the the outright qualifying performance.

SPEAKER_06 16:03

Right.

SPEAKER_08 16:03

So you you have to adjust the car on the on the canvas because the tires have got to last a race, and you've also got to have enough fuel in it to last a race, uh a race distance. So you're not the the car is not at its per peak performance.

SPEAKER_06 16:19

No, you haven't been able to absolutely fine-tune it over two uh testing sessions essentially.

SPEAKER_08 16:25

No, no, but um I I do think it it's it's it's added an element to the championship and it's another it's ten points for a win and it's really good for the for the for the crowd and the spectators because they want to see racing, you know. That's that's what they're here to see. So I think it has worked in that respect.

SPEAKER_06 16:42

It's it's it's it's worked brilliantly well for us as spectators, that's for sure. I know it I know it makes things tricky for for teams working through, and if you've got a problem in that free practice session, then you really are on the back foot when you go into uh into qualifying in the afternoon. But uh that's uh that's the way it works. Um and uh and you're doing a remarkable job. Fourth in the championship. Look at that, Adam Morgan. Fourth in the championship.

SPEAKER_08 17:05

Yeah, I I I don't know how that's happened. Um I was doing some um I was doing some maths yesterday. I used a calculator because I'm bitter.

SPEAKER_06 17:17

I was gonna say don't do that too, mate.

SPEAKER_08 17:19

But in rounds, I think, I think it was in rounds one to five, we scored I think it was 89 points.

SPEAKER_06 17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 17:26

And in the last two rounds, we scored 120. That's incredible, which is just it's just mad. So um, yeah, I've got to say, you know, huge credit to to the team because you know there's been a lot, a lot going on.

SPEAKER_10 17:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 17:42

Um, and you know, they've just still plugged away and done done all the reprep as per usual. We've made sure everything's done to the highest level, and you know, that that's you know that that's shown. Nobody's switched off, nobody's got distracted. We've just done uh what we needed to do, and the car's performed.

SPEAKER_06 18:02

I was uh uh reading one of your uh quotes from after race three that you were very, very pleased to see the checkered flag because it it it it mightn't have been the uh the the result that you got in the end.

SPEAKER_08 18:16

No, so do you know I think with everything going on and winning two races in a day, I completely forgot to mention this to Louise on camera. But um uh the last two laps uh I picked up a pretty bad misfire. Yeah and and I I think had there been another lap, maybe two, I don't think we'd have made it to the end of the race. So it you know, at one point we had a nice a nice buffer, a nice four-second gap, which was meant I could manage the dis manage the the lap times. And yeah, um and then when I crossed the line, I think there's only about a second left. That wasn't me showing off or trying to be clever. I can assure you that was that was a significant problem we were having. And um, yeah, I think another lap or so I think we were gonna be probably pulling off with a DNF.

SPEAKER_06 19:05

Yeah, wow. That that that really is um that really is uh edge of your seat kind of stuff, isn't it? Biting your fingernails down.

SPEAKER_08 19:14

It was pretty horrible inside that car. Yeah, pretty horrible. So uh anyway, it it worked out, it worked out just right. So it's it's one of those things though when when things are going your way, it it it all it you know, finishing P9 in race two on the hard tires, and then they pull out P10, so you start on the front row. You know, everything is just yeah it's just gone our way for the last two rounds, and um but what's been really nice is from a from from my point of view, is yeah, the teams work uh fantastically and and faultlessly, but you know, I I've not been at the this this front end for a for a long while, and you know, I've not made a single mistake, all the all my starts have been good, all my safety car restarts have been good, I've not had any limit penalties. So from my side, that's I'm I'm really happy about that, and um and and hopefully it's we can continue.

SPEAKER_06 20:10

Is it fair to say, Adam, um, because we spoke to you two weeks ago on this show, uh, and you were uh in a in a beautiful home uh enjoying a holiday by the lakes. Um is it fair to say that a holiday does you good? Does it recharge the old batteries?

SPEAKER_08 20:27

I think it was just nice to s yeah, just to switch off and and in and in and we also you know get to enjoy you know the weekend we had at Nock Hill.

SPEAKER_06 20:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 20:36

Um it was already in the diary, it was just a coincidence that we had a mega weekend at Nock Hill and um we we were there, but yeah, I think it does help, you know, um especially because that was the week um where everything sort of has happened, so I I managed to sort of stay clear of it all, um, which was which was quite nice.

SPEAKER_06 20:59

And we have to ask the question uh off the back of the conversation we had a couple of weeks ago. Um who was the lucky little Morgan that got to come along to Donington Park at the weekend?

SPEAKER_08 21:09

This weekend it was uh it was Harry. Okay, so yeah, so he he he got to come this weekend. Um it was touch and go. It was touch and go. I I I believe. I think he was he he was misbehaving just before, so Caroline was uh yeah, he she was he was very nearly left at home.

SPEAKER_06 21:28

Oh so so that so there is one little Morgan that has not yet seen Daddy on the top step of the podium. Which which little Morgan is that?

SPEAKER_08 21:37

Uh that's the ginger one, that's Heidi.

SPEAKER_06 21:39

Okay. So is Heidi uh is i if we're doing this in a rotation, is is Heidi due to come along to to craft or does he?

SPEAKER_08 21:47

I think it's I think it's her turn to come to Croft. Okay. Um and if I don't get on the top step, then she's not coming again.

SPEAKER_06 21:53

She's putting my boy Brutal, Adam, brutal. Uh but absolutely Fantastic. I am delighted that uh we've we've got Adam Adam Morgan enjoying a really great run in the BTCC and uh and and back where we know you can be. So uh so brilliant. And thank you ever so much for coming on two consecutive shows as well. I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_08 22:17

No problem. Cheers, Adam.

SPEAKER_06 22:18

You're a good man. Uh Adam Morgan here, uh, on the top step of the podium three times in one race weekend uh at the Grand Prix Circuit at Donington Park at the weekend, and great to have him back on Tintop Tuesday, powered by PowerMaxed. The news of Dolly Parton tonight passing away at the age of eighty years old. I think Frank Beard was 77 when he passed away, the uh the drummer uh with ZZ Top. And ironically, uh the only one of the three in ZZ Top that didn't have a beard, although his name was Beard. I played up to that, to be honest. He could very easily have grown a beard. Hello to Mark and Sue. Good evening, Alan. It was great to be back at Track Side, and yes, it was very hot out there. Uh didn't help that we checked the weather for the weekend and it said maximum temperature 18 degrees. So wore black jeans, uh no, so wore jeans, thick socks. I don't know why I put you in black jeans. I don't know. The word black isn't there for jeans. Uh I wore jeans, thick socks, and tops and hoodies. Uh, but we did have an umbrella that was useful to cast a shadow. Uh, just wanted to say so chuff for Adam Morgan, well deserved. Uh it was fabulous uh racing and so glad to see Dan Lloyd back again. Uh unfortunate about the fire, but glad he was safe and not heard. Also hope hope uh Louis Gilbert is okay uh to such a bad crash. Loving the show as usual from Mark and Sue. Mark and Sue, great to have you listening. Thank you very much indeed. And uh Vicky and Mum. Uh Vicky who always listens and uh during the summer is uh lucky to spend the time in a beautiful, sunny uh French garden. Um and uh Vicky says uh evening Al. This was our f this was a friend of ours in the garden while we were listening to Donington Paul's side in the beautiful sunshine in France. Love listening to the show. I'm really glad that we can listen live tonight. That comes with love from Vicky and Mama. And it's a lovely picture, it's absolutely gorgeous. A little squirrel eating something in his little paws, uh, nestled away in the uh lovely green leaves in the tree. Um and I think I mean he look he looks a bit he looks a bit Adam Morgan slash Josh Cook slash Alan Hyde coloured. Is he a little red squirrel? I think he might be. It's a great picture, Vicky. Um and uh hi to Aaron Scott as well. Uh he says, uh thank you, um as ever, thank you so much for a great show each race weekend. I'd like to thank the Marshalls uh for such a great response to Lewis Gilbert's horrendous crash and uh huge feeling of relief for Lewis himself for getting out. Okay, we're gonna be talking about that tonight. Uh I'm absolutely thrilled for Aidan Moffitt on his first podium in a good long while. Uh it was uh more than overdue. Uh lastly, uh before my image of the week submission, I'd like to share an update on my Project BMW Z3 Roadster uh I'm restoring with my dad. Uh all of the welding has now been finished with the entire inner sills, both sides being remade as well as the uh floor sections. Prototypes for its retro BTCC livery are being made. One will be uh one will be attached below. I'd like to ask if you have any TT stick TTT stickers for the car, if at all possible. Thank you so much as ever. That comes from Aaron just having a that looks really cool. Now I'm not a huge fan of gold wheels on a car, but but the gold wheels look very, very nice on that. Really smart. In fact, I I was having this conversation with Alan Gao at the weekend because he's uh Portugayen has got very, very pale gold satin finished wheels, and I think they look spectacular. Absolutely uh amazing. Um so thank you very much indeed, Aaron, and yes, I have uh got some TTT stickers. In fact, uh I'd passed a couple on at the end of Sunday to uh to young Ash, who is a baker and also works with one of the teams as well, and uh wanted a couple of stickers. So I shall um put them in my rucksack for uh Croft and for Silverstone and for Brands Hatch. And hopefully, Aaron, we will bump into each other and I can give you uh uh one or two stickers for the uh for the project. But absolutely brilliant. Thank you very much indeed to Aaron. Now I did say that we've got a lot of interviews to get through tonight, and uh Aaron was uh talking about um uh was it Aaron? Yeah, uh talking about Lewis Gilbert's uh crash at the weekend. We're gonna be talking about that next.

SPEAKER_07 30:20

Are you ready? Tin Top Tuesday, powered by PowerMax.

SPEAKER_06 30:26

There was an awful lot of action on the Grand Prix circuit at Donington Park, and some of it not the kind of action that we want to see, but uh for some reason, once we know that the driver is absolutely okay, we look back at these things again and again. And Lewis Gilbert, I am absolutely amazed that I got in touch with you on uh yesterday on the the the Monday following a a roll, the like of which you had in the WSR BMW, and you told me that you've got absolutely no aches or pains or bruises or anything. And you must have looked back at the TV footage, you must think that's a miracle as well.

SPEAKER_05 31:05

Yeah, I know. It's yeah, it's when it all happened, it it just I just couldn't believe it, and then when you get out, you go through the procedures that the the toker team do to make sure the obviously that the driver's okay, and then you watch the footage back and I I and I I was just like, did that really happen?

SPEAKER_06 31:25

Yeah, wow, was that me in that? Yes, yes it was, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:28

Yeah, it it it it certainly didn't feel like uh uh how it looked watching it. You know, it it it almost like all happened so fast, uh that that you've you've not got time to process or or or think about much. You're you're just waiting for it to stop, but certainly obviously not not uh a good thing to happen, but yeah, very, very glad to walk away.

SPEAKER_06 31:52

So and I I know what things are like at WSR and you pour over data and and and look at reasons as to why something happened, but all I could see on the television picture was that there was a tiny, tiny, tiny little bit of contact to the to the rear of the car, and then the obviously we've all we've all seen just how dramatic the consequences were. Uh uh have you been able to sort of identify any particular reason why it was quite as violent as it was?

SPEAKER_05 32:22

Yeah, I think obviously it's it's for slap a race one, so so it's uh obviously the tires are still a bit cold, uh and obviously maybe the tracks not quite fully swept yet, uh maybe a little bit of dust or whatnot from the the previous day or or or ra racing, so I think it's yeah, not I I I don't like to point blame, but I feel that there could have been more action took uh from cars behind to uh avoid this. Obviously you can't the the incident itself you can't take like the aftermath, like how much you could blame someone, it's just the actual contact itself and on obviously said it wasn't major contact, but these re-wheel drives they're so insensitive at the back of the car that's the back of the car, isn't it? It is, it's it's every every time that that we seem to be touched, not not just just myself, any ringle drive car, including my team teammates, we we always come off worse than what the front wheel drive to. Yes. So it's it's certainly a thing that uh if I was in a front wheel drive I'd be I'd be looking out for is okay these these these guys are uh quite sensitive the back, let's give them a bit of hassle. So I I it's it's something that would I would like to try and avoid obviously again but it's it's it's really hard when not maybe it is or or it's not. I suppose it's your own view, but then maybe there's not uh much uh there's not enough diversity in the field of running Rewold Drive. It's uh obviously it's only WSR that running the real drive at the minute, so I feel like I feel like I feel like there needs to be more rebuild to almost I don't know, i it might stop so much of this going on, you know. But it's it's it's it's it's yeah. I understand I understand what's it's a hard one really because it's it it it all happens so fast.

SPEAKER_06 34:34

Yeah, yeah. And it w it was all over in a split second, and boy oh boy, the the the state of the poor car. Uh I spoke to to Dick Bennett soon after just to just to make sure that you're okay. And uh that and that was really good news. And he said to me, the car really is not that that needs a lot of work back in Surrey, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_05 34:55

Yes, def, def, definitely. I was once I got out of the car and I was back to the medical centre, obviously the toker the toker staff were um unbelievable make making sure I was okay and going through that sort of best in the world, the toker safety team are. Oh yeah, definitely. They are. But I was I was willing to go for race, race too. I was I was re ready to grab the tools and start getting the car ready to go, but uh I think it was beyond the beyond the the limit of of what we could fix at the tracks. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:28

Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of work, but it does give us the opportunity, uh Lewis, to um to catch up with you because we we spoke to you when you first came into the championship halfway through the year. Um how are you finding how how are you how are you settling in now?

SPEAKER_05 35:45

Yeah, well I mean even though what what happened at the weekend, I'm I'm still absolutely loving it. It's uh it's certainly it's certainly the best championship that I've been involved in. And yeah, just just the whole the whole atmosphere of going from event to event. It's just like it I feel like it n it never ends. Like by by by the time that you're uh you're finished at one race and you're getting yourself kinda on the kind of adrenaline cool cooldown by the time you know it, it's it's it's it's race week again. Yeah. Yeah, so it's uh it's it's certainly yeah, I've I've enjoyed it, obviously. Not kill with we'd we would show some good pace in race two and race three, we were kinda top three, top four quickest on the track, which I was very, very, very pleased to see that af after not not a lot of time in the car. So yeah, I think it's just again the the championships are mids and the the racing's great. How how close it is is is probably the the the best thing. All different cars, different teams, mechanics, drivers, and we're we're we're talking about hundreds of a second to to move up three or four places, so yeah. Definitely the most competitive and best field that that you can race in.

SPEAKER_06 37:04

Oh well that that that is brilliant to hear, Lewis, and of course you've got three more meetings to go to. You've got Croft, as you mentioned, we've got Silverstone on the national circuit, and then the the finals meeting. It's amazing how quickly this season sort of whizzes by, isn't it, once it gets once it gets underway.

SPEAKER_05 37:22

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:23

Uh but the uh have you got of uh of those three circuits, have you got one of the one or two of them that you're particularly looking forward to, or is it just uh probably it has to be brand sat GP.

SPEAKER_05 37:37

We we done uh uh a test there or so uh in the GBC round there, and certainly from from from my experience in that car, that that was the best track that I drove. Yeah, honestly, just like the obviously the first part is really good, but then when when you go through to the Grand Prix loop round round the back, it's just incredi incredible. Yeah just the the undulation going up and down and the speed through through that tight sec section is incredible.

SPEAKER_06 38:05

So when you get it right, it is so rewarding for a driver. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:10

Massively uh there for a circuit that requires uh a lot of commitment and precision at the same time to get the car in the right place, for sure.

SPEAKER_06 38:20

Well, I I I I love the fact that uh you're looking forward to that because it is a very special weekend, not just because championships are are decided there, but there is uh there is also an atmosphere about it. Every driver, when you speak to them after that they've uh been around the Grand Prix circuit, knows that they're on something particularly special, and it's uh it's great that um uh your stage in your career, you uh you are looking forward to that uh as the the season finale. And then do do you know at this stage, Lewis, what the what the plan is for next year going forward, or or uh is it way too early to be talking about that?

SPEAKER_05 38:59

Probably it's a bit too early to talk about it. Still still uh still uh a lot to to do before we finish this this year, so we've we've got enough food in the plate at the minute to to deal with before we uh before we get our second. Uh so I think but obviously if the the plan we would be just to go on as we are, but uh we obviously we just need to evaluate the end of the year, but let's uh let's just take it step step by step, race, race by race, and uh yeah, not not try and think too far ahead, just keep keep the the vision pretty close and keep our head down and get on with it.

SPEAKER_06 39:39

Uh with with uh with uh uh uh a view just back to the uh accident that you had at the weekend. Um you said something to me yesterday when we were talking about it, uh and uh it it it sort of chimed with me. So I thought what I'd do is to get uh uh Sam Riches, who is the Toka Technical Director, uh on on the show tonight, to talk about the the safety of of modern cars. Uh because that was the thing that you mentioned to me. It just shows how strong these cars are now, that you can have a uh a a mighty accident, the like of which you had at Donington, and and to come out without you know any detriment to your body at all is is really quite incredible, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 40:23

Definitely. I mean I I don't know, I don't exactly know what speed I hit the barrier at, but when I stopped, I was I was still in fifth fifth gear, so I was probably doing at least 115 plus wow or or something like that. So I've probably hit the barrier maybe 105, 110, somet something like this. And yeah, like like like you said, we the car is is incredible. Like from from what I know, the the craft structure, the roll road cage totally intact, obviously just a few bits being pulled out and straightened up. But totally on the inside side side of the car, undamaged, nothing touched, all fine. And yet like like like we we spoke about yes yesterday, the how how much work goes into making cars safe isn't isn't uh isn't taken by half half chances. They certainly put a lot of work in and you you can see not ex not exactly the way that you want to test test it, but when w w when it does happen and things do do go wrong, then then drivers can walk out uh without my hopefully many inches like like myself. It's it is on honestly quite astonishing because if you think about it, if you went off the road in your road car uh a hundred plus uh I've got to be honest, I I don't think there's many people gonna be walking away from that.

SPEAKER_06 41:52

No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 41:54

If at all. So it's uh you've we've we've got to count ourselves lucky how much effort that uh not only that WSR put in, make making these cars raceworthy and and safe at the same time, Toky is is as well, putting in all the procedures, making sure that the the the road cages are up to standards, the cars are up to standards, the safety gears are up to standards, that's suit, hands device, helmet, you know, see like everything and coming together.

SPEAKER_10 42:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:24

It has to, and and you always think, oh, they're they're being really kind of anal about these these things, but this is the reads and why. If something goes wrong, which does happen as is you've seen at the weekend, then we can uh we can get to the next race and and go racing.

SPEAKER_06 42:39

That's the I mean that's that's the proof of it, isn't it? When you when you have a uh an accident the like of which you had, I I was fully expecting um uh you know Dick when I asked him uh if you were okay, I fully expected him to say, well, he's a bit sore, you know, but he he's absolutely fine. Um so I I'm I'm gonna ask Sam about uh technically what goes into these cars, but we're very grateful and very grateful that that you are absolutely okay. Put it behind you and look forward to Croft, because that's a a pretty mega circuit as well. And we go there in a week and a half. You talk about going from one to another, it really is at the moment. It's uh it's pretty intense, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 43:18

Oh I know, it's uh definitely like I've I've had a lot of people message me saying, Oh, hope, hope you feel ready for Croft, but honestly, I I was ready for Croft yesterday, even Sunday. I'm like nothing I I I said to mum and dad, if if if I get worried about something like like that, then I'm in the wrong sport. I was I was ready to go. Absolutely. Ready to go. So I feel like I feel like there's there's almost more uh energy in me af after what happened on Sunday to go back to Croft and say, right, let's l let's have this, you know. I'm I'm I'm really, really look looking forward to getting back out and uh putting in some decent times, hopefully.

SPEAKER_06 43:59

Top man. Lewis, thank you ever so much for coming back on uh Tin Top Tuesday, Powered by PowerMacs. Really glad that you're uh okay, and we look forward to seeing you in a showroom conditioned WSR BMW in a week and a half's time because I I know what that team's like. You would not know that the car had had anything happen to it at Donington Park. It will be exceptional. Uh Lewis, um uh enjoy, do lots of miles on the uh on the old Croft simulator, and uh we'll see you in a week and a half.

SPEAKER_05 44:29

Thank you very much, Alan Susan.

SPEAKER_06 44:31

There we go. Lewis Gilbert here uh uh after a remarkable uh crash on uh uh just of uh a really nasty crash to watch on TV and to hear him say that he's absolutely okay following that is uh really is testament to the to the cars that we run in 2026. Super stuff.

SPEAKER_12 44:50

Lewis Gilbert here on Tint Top Tuesday, powered by Parmaxt in pocket gun fuddle, I'm gonna use it intention I'm feeling myself gonna make you, make you, make you mess the motion, it's too emotion I've been driving, digital leaning, no reason so pretty Gon make you, make you, make you meltas Gon use my arm Gon use my legs gonna use my style Gon use my side Go use my fingers Go use my ma legend Gon my seat Nobody else need special special I got I got some of the tap top get up I gotta I gotta lose a beat I gotta lose cake so big got something We can go make you make you make you go use my heart Go use my lips Go use my style Go use my stash Go use my finger Go use my ma Looking Gone Special So special I got some of the sea special special Special I gotta help some of you Give it to me I know I'm slipping I'm not saying what the pieces of music are brass in Pocket by the pretenders from 1980 before that it was uh smart dress man uh no sharp dress man by Z Z Top.

SPEAKER_06 47:44

See, I go off script and I can't do it. Sharp Dress Man by ZZ Top and uh of course we started with nine to five by Dolly Parton. Thank you so much, loads of emails coming in tonight. Uh from Dave Zeus, regular emailer to the show. Good evening, Mr. Hyde. Well, that was full of lots of ups and downs, wasn't it? We'll start with Lewis Gilbert, very lucky to be okay after that. Uh, hope he'll be out for the other rounds. Uh he certainly will, as we've just heard. Um, so that's really good news, isn't it, Dave? Uh and then all the car drivers and safety cars. Um, it was uh quite a weekend. The man of the moment was on form again. Well done, Adam Morgan. Uh it uh seems like uh even shaving the tash hasn't helped turn uh Tinger's luck around. Um couple of photos attached. We'll see you at Brand Shirio from Dave. And as ever, Dave, super, super pictures as ever. Uh always very impressive when you send your uh pictures of the weekend in. And Harry Adams, hello Harry. Uh thank you very much indeed for the uh ginger cookies, which I shared uh and were very popular uh with the uh Toka Technical team. So we put them all in a dish and uh shared them out and uh we we rather enjoyed them, Harry. So thank you very much indeed. Uh Harry says, Good evening, Al. It was brilliant seeing you again on Saturday, and a bit odd, uh, where I hadn't even clocked you until you came to me. The power of baked goods is strong. Uh hope you enjoy the cookies. I think I've just answered. Yes, uh me and the technical team uh very much did. Uh big shout out to Paul O'Neill for giving me a lot of time to chat on Sunday morning uh before everything started. Maybe we could get Paul on the show at some point. I don't know. I can afford Paul O'Neill these days. Can I? Do you think I can? Maybe I should ask. Uh thanks for reading out my message uh first on Tok Alive. Clearly, the moustache was not the key. There's a theme here, isn't there? To Tom Ingram getting uh uh last year's form back. Uh I must say I like the facial hair. I think he needs to fully commit over winter to a full beard. Maybe that's the key. What a proper Z Z top job. Down to be sort of naval. I'd pay to see that. I've included a picture of our Lord and Saviour, Mr. Gao, looking for his next victim. And he's got the arms folded down in pit lane. That's uh that is the that is the stance, isn't it? Uh I've actually uh oh hang on. I actually got a nod back from Lord Gao whilst in the queue to go on the grid for race three. And I must say, it was a real blessing indeed. That's uh unfortunately me done for this season in person. Keep up the good work and best wishes. Harry, that's a that's a shame. But super picture. Pictures, thank you very much indeed. Thank you for sending those in. Studio at tinttoptusday.com is our email address. If you've got pictures, I've got a squirrel update from Vicky and Mum. Yes, he is a red squirrel. We call him Cyril. They are native here, and he lives in our hazelnut tree. From Vicky and Mum. So that's presumably what he's nibbling away at. Having a rather nice hazelnut. You've got a hazelnut tree. Wow. Do you bring a bag back for Christmas of hazelnuts? Uh this one's uh is from Greg. Hi, Greg. Um uh this one says we came to Donington this past weekend, and wow, what a weekend, with an addition to the Markham clan. Grandad, Greg, Nana, Deb, Dad, Ben, Mum, Hannah, Erin 3, and the latest recruit, wait for it, Willow, who's nine weeks. Wow. Had a great time in our mothom, Granddad, Nana, and Erin. Uh, we've done all rounds except Nock Hill, and we'll be doing Silverstone and Brands, but expect Ash's record breaking breaking fifth title to be wrapped up well before then. What a great weekend for Adam Morgan and looks promising for next season. Tingram still can't get a break, but hopefully he's saving up the good luck for 2027. Uh, Erin was really pleased to see Dexter Patterson do so well, win the uh Jack Sears uh for the weekend. Big shout out to Josh Salvadore uh in the Lightning McCreen liveried uh mini challenge car, as it probably made her um made her outside of the BTCC. Made her up. I think that yeah. Thanks again for the coverage over the weekend and the extra effort every following Tuesday. You are more than welcome, Greg. Thank you very much indeed. Really appreciate your emails. We appreciate all of your emails. Studio at tintoptuesday.com, studio at tintoptuesday.com if you want to get in touch, and I I will do my absolute very best to get to all of the emails before uh the end of the show this evening. Now, following on uh that conversation with uh Lewis Gilbert, I did promise you, didn't I? I did promise you the technical director.

SPEAKER_07 52:42

All the teas, Tintop Tuesday, powered by Power Max.

SPEAKER_06 52:48

I'll be honest, I've been looking for any excuse since uh the first shows of the year on Tin Top Tuesday powered by PowerMax. Any excuse at all uh to get Sam Riches, the technical director of the BTCC onto the show. Uh for the very simple reason I wanted to play his uh his theme tune. Uh very happy about this. I've found an excuse. Here we go. I just love it. I'm such a child. Uh Sam Riches, uh, a very good evening to you. Do you do you quite like your intro music as well?

SPEAKER_04 53:28

It makes me smile every time you play it.

SPEAKER_06 53:31

Good lad. Uh there is a very serious reason for getting you on the show tonight. Uh, we've just been chatting to to Lewis Gilbert, who, uh, as everybody knows that watched the races at the weekend, had a a horrific looking accident in his uh WSR PMW. The car rolled, it it came to a a stop on all four wheels, but boy, did he did he go through a bit of an egg beater. Um, and I was talking to him yesterday, Sam, and he said, uh, I said, Are you okay? Uh would you be able to come on the show? He said, I'm absolutely fine. I'm absolutely, I haven't got an ache, I haven't got a pain, I haven't got a bruise, I'm I was ready to go in the race after it. And he said, and that really is testimony to to how strong the cars are these days. And I said, Do you know what? That that that's a a resounding endorsement that I shall put to to Sam Riches, who might be able to explain what safety features are on modern BTCC cars that make them so safe and make a driver like Lewis able to walk away without uh so much as a bruise.

SPEAKER_04 54:40

Um to answer that, I think you have to take into consideration what you said. You said that what elements, and it's all the elements, it's everything from following the FIA's lead on um role cage design that is constantly under review, um and we always err on the side of um safety's the the the wrong word, but it but safety in terms of not allowing uh um designers' freedom to come up with clever, overly clever design that pushed the boundaries of trying to meet the bare minimum standards.

SPEAKER_06 55:22

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:23

We we set us we we we calculated and set a very robust uh roll case layout at the start of MGTC, so so some 15 years ago, and all the cars comply with that. They're tweaked a little bit to fit that specific model and shape, um, but the the core structure is the same. Yes, yeah, and then and then you get on to modern road cars. Obviously, all our cars are uh are NCAP cars, so that's NCAP European tested. They they're all um manufacturers put in more and more technologies. But the BMW is was built in 2019 by West Surrey and their fabrication partner, Willie Paul, uh, who did a fantastic job of retaining the structural elements of the road car and enhancing them with the race car.

SPEAKER_06 56:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 56:18

So so the shell that you know we cut the front the front legs off and we cut the back off to put the subframes in, but the bit between them is a mixture of road car and and racing elements that create this um environment where we try and achieve uh the highest level of safety for the drivers. So one of the things that NGTC did over previous touring cars is it moves the driver as most as central as possible.

SPEAKER_06 56:46

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:47

Um, impact zones. Yeah, 100%. The the the BMW is uh has the additional challenge of being rear-wheel drive.

SPEAKER_06 56:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:58

So it's not as far over as the likes of the high and eye on the Ford.

SPEAKER_06 57:02

Oh yeah, good point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:04

But it's still it's still as far over as they can do it, given the fact they've got to get a prop shaft down here.

SPEAKER_06 57:09

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:09

But that but then you have everything in Lewis's case, you've got um uh the seat. We went to the FIA's uh latest standard of seat, um, what they call the advanced racing seat that uh into that they released in 2009 and we adopted it uh um ten years ago. And and that is and that uh added in some lateral tests to the seat. So previously the seats were just uh just uh mounted and tested in uh forward and back, but uh these were these were twist and and lateral loads added. So that added a bit uh a big element of safety. It's rigidly bolted, so the driver is um feels uh secure and enclosed and with with a mixture of that, the advanced racing net, so you'll see that we've got uh nets down either side, and that's to stop the head um coming out of the seat. Um and then you go into the personal equipment that they have to run. So the latest generation of helmets and FHRs, commonly hands device for most people. Um and it it's not a single element, it's that combination of the belts, the harnesses, um the net, the the helmet, the the hands device, the seat, the side impact protection, the roll cage, and um all coming together, as you say, to ensure that they can walk away from um these accidents and incidents. It helps that Lewis is a fit and healthy young man because as we know uh when they're at that age, they do um they do recover and they do um they do absorb far better than you do as you get older. Yes, yes. Um but that element is is is that homogenous effect, and that's why every element is really important, and part of our job uh on a on a race weekend is to do that safety inspection check to ensure the teams are keeping up those standards because race teams are great, they want to go fast. Yeah, uh that's their primary focus.

SPEAKER_06 59:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 59:32

Um so sometimes these things do slip, but West Surrey are top of their game and always on it and prepare a uh wonderful car, as demonstrated by um the fact that Lewis managed to step out and um step out the car unaided by himself. And uh, as he said, um he could uh he could have jumped back in it if uh if our colleagues in the medical department and um his uh his colleagues at West Surrey could have got his car back out.

SPEAKER_06 59:59

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You've seen the car. Um you know just how much work WSR have got on their plates for the next uh week and a half to to get that ready for for croft. Um a lot of work, I guess, Sam.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:14

Yeah, I think they're they're in a fortunate position that they have a what we call a dress, so it's a it's got a number of elements already in its spare chassis.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:24

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:25

Um given the time frame is the uh I believe is their chosen direction to jump Lewis over to the spare car rather than trying to repair in a hurry some of the structural elements um of the three series. Uh and it's interesting having looked at the car or having my had uh my colleagues look at the car on on Sunday after race one, um it was it was the impact with the ground. Uh I know that sounds obvious.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:56

The rock solid ground, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:58

That the the bottom after it rolled and didn't touch, the roof never touched the floor. Right. Um when it did the clear pirouette and just landed back flat, because it had already lost its wheels, so it already lost the front suspension, yes, where the front um sills, so the underside of the car just just sort of around where Lewis's feet are and um just behind the wheels, where that's hit the ground, that's taken a lot of impact.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:28

Yeah, that's taken the brunt of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:31

Yeah, um so weirdly a roll cage is worked in reverse because the load has only come from from up down into the chassis. This has come up through the chassis and into the cage. So um they've got that's gonna take some rebuilding. They'll get there. There's some very talented people in that organization, and they've got some great suppliers that will help them get that car up and running, but time frames dictate the is that particular a winter job, Sam? I think that's definitely on the winter list.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Big job.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:03

Whether they start it between the three-week gap between Croft and Silverstone, um, we'll see. But I I would suggest it's definitely uh put it put it back on the surface plate and start again in the winter and and see see what repair it actually needs once you've got all the bits around you.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:21

Uh uh brilliantly explained, uh uh Sam, uh as ever. Thank you very much indeed for for doing that. It it made sense to get you on, and uh as I say, uh um any opportunity to explain something technical uh will be on the phone, uh not least because I get to to use my my piece of music, my Darth Vader Imperial March music, which I think is uh absolut absolutely absolutely right. Can you believe, Sam? Final question. Uh we're at the pointy end of the season already. We're up to the uh to the trio of rounds with Croft, Silverstone and Brantatch already, gone in a flash.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:56

Yeah, 2026 has disappeared on us again. Yeah, and um it was very odd having the the mid-season gap not in the mid-season, but this trio um of races that have just been back to back to back with only a weekend off has put um has made it fly by and's put a lot of a lot of effort for the for all the teams and and all the staff who have got to prepare them. I know they've all been flat out very busy in this gap, so I think they're all looking forward to the Monday after Croft to having a slight breather between it between between now and Silverstone. Um but yeah, it's gonna be fascinating. I think we saw at um Donnington how powerful the uh the TTB is. Um I think it's less likely to be a factor at Croft because there's more slow speed corners and uh and there's a better combination of slower speed and high speed for the likes of Ingram and Ash uh to um maximise and minimise their deficit uh on on that deployment side of things. Yes, yeah. But then Silverstone's gonna be the complete opposite. Yes. You know, I was I was talking to uh some engineers at the weekend and they were all uh fear-mongering that that that if you haven't got the right uh if you haven't got any TTB, you're gonna be at the very back at Silverstone because it's um nine nine tenths of a second, they reckon they're gonna be down. And as well as meaning you know it's it's it can be that tight at Silverstone from front to back. So um it's it's gonna make it a fascinating end uh to the year. Uh Ash has driven fantastically well all season, um and him and Tony have have maximized every opportunity they have have just been laid in front of them, where others have uh let's uh let that go or had their own problems. And even when Ash has had his two problems in the qualifying races at the start of the year, um he's others have not been able to capitalise off or have had their own problems, as I said. So um that they've they deserve to be where they are, um, and the others the others will now be out for for outright wins for the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:25

Can't wait to see how it all pans out. Sam Riches, technical director for uh TOCA for the BTCC. Thank you very much indeed. Uh, it wouldn't be uh an interview with uh Sam Riches without playing your your outro music, of course. Uh so we'll say um thank you very much indeed for explaining the safety features of an NGTC BTCC car. And Sam Riches, thank you very much indeed. Fanhalan and why can't this be loved here on Tim Top Tuesday Powered by Palmer? I love this email. Sharon, well done. It ticks so many of my quirky boxes here on uh Tintop Tuesday. Um uh Sharon says, uh good evening Alan. Just waiting for tea to cook before sitting down to listen to Tin Top Tuesday. I thought I'd I you see immediately I like that level of detail. Thank you, Sharon. I thought I'd send in our festive photo for image of the week. A clip of our Christmas karaoke track walk. Um they sent in an email about this uh last weekend on uh on Tokalive, but um I'm sure this email explains it. We've met lots of friends through racing, uh meeting up at each race weekend and often camping. Donington is the last weekend we all camped together, uh, so it became uh unofficial Christmas Day. Dr. Trafford would love this. And we had Secret Santa, Christmas dinner, Bucks fizz, and mince pies. Lots of folk on camping embraced our slightly eccentric festive uh get-together. Um, and a shout out to Laurie, who uh fortunately stroke unfortunately camped behind us, so was welcomed into our Christmas celebrations. Did you have crackers? Uh cracking weekend cracking weekend of racing. Uh shame a few cars had cutouts looking for to croft. Uh that's from Sharon, Mike, Ellie, Amelia, Andy, Sam, Zoe, and Laurie. And the picture to prove it as well. All on their camping chairs. Is that you, Sharon? In the full Santa Claus regalia. Is it? But it is. Um super picture. Uh, we love the fact that you did that. Um we do it uh for the final meeting of the year at Brands Hatch, for those of you that don't know. Uh we'll be getting Dr. Trafford on um probably quite soon to see how the plans are going. People think we're odd having our Christmas dinner in in October, at the end of October, but it's for exactly the same reason. We won't see a lot of the people we won't see again until next year, so we miss Christmas. So we have Christmas dinner on the Saturday night, and it's spectacular. And uh and Traff, who is a big fan of Christmas, um decorates everything, and uh we'll be hearing all about that here on uh Tin Top Tuesday powered by PowerMax, I have absolutely no doubt. Um I think he's got a brass band for this year. Uh Simon, a evening, uh Sid, um, says uh good evening, Mr. Hyde. Well, another great weekend uh that has been, and what a difference a hairpin can make. It's true. It is only that rundown towards the uh the Grand Prix loop, isn't it? Hopefully, both Lewis Gilbert after his role and Dan Lloyd after his car fire are both all okay, and we'll be back out of croft. They will be. Uh well done to Napa Rating UK on both the results on track and the car liveries as well. Uh, of course, well done to CPRL for their continued success after Knock Hill. Uh, to prove that the car now seems to have found its sweet spot. Notable drives again uh once again from Ricky Collard and Dexter Patterson. One last thing. Sadly, um I think I'm two weeks too late. As I saw this circuit on Sunday uh whilst on my holiday. Pictures attached. Take care, Mr. Hyde, and I look forward to catching up with you and other TT TTT listeners at Croft. Best regards from Sid at 3MOGs Autosport and then a PS NB. Picts are too big to send as on holiday, so deleted them to make sure you got my email. Sorry. We can wait, Sid. We can wait. And we will wait. Thank you very much indeed for uh even on your holiday for writing in and hi to Lisa as well. Um, right now I did warn you that we've got a lot of uh of interviews, a lot of guests here tonight on Tintop Tuesday powered by PowerMax. So I need to press on. I need to press on.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:39

Streamed live every Tuesday after BCCC race weekend, this is Tintop Tuesday, powered by PowerMax.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:48

Now I've mentioned it before this evening. I do pride myself on the fact that by the end of the uh the championship year, um, I hope to have had on every driver on the grid over the course of the year. And as the the season gets underway, driver lineups change, and so I have new drivers to speak to, which includes the driver I'm about to speak to for the first time on Tin Top Tuesday, powered by PowerMax. A very good evening to Ryan Bensley. Hi, Ryan.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:17

Hello.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:18

I want to find out all about you. I want to find out everything there is to know. Um, because once you come on this show once, you know, um you're you're kind of in a in you're in a secret club. I bother you all the time. Um uh Ryan, first of all, brilliant to have you in the championship. How is it going so far?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:38

Uh I mean it goes without saying that it's a it's a tough series to come into, especially walking into it sort of halfway through a season when you know the the other guys are obviously up and running, dialed in. Um I think I keep saying this, um it'll probably sound a bit like a broken record, but the the format changing this year as well isn't ever so new driver-friendly, with obviously the only one practice session, but yeah, I knew coming into it it was gonna be very difficult. So um yeah, we're just we're just plugging away, trying to obviously get me more comfortable with the car. Um every time we go to a different track, even though I've driven it in other things. It's obviously totally different driving it in the touring car. So, you know, we're just plugging away, getting the moles under our belt, learning the tracks in this car, then potentially obviously for next year, um, you know, to obviously hit the ground running.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:30

I mean, you've had an outing in the BTCC before this year's, um uh, but I also understand that you've been a follower of the championship for many, many years.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:41

Yeah, I've I I've I've done I've done cart. I started in karting when I was a very young lad, and I remember very early on that a lot of people would aspire, you know, when they're when they're sort of eight, nine, ten, to do F1 and you know, have that dream, but I I never that was never my goal. It was always British touring cars. So um I followed the series from a very young age. Um we we were obviously in the night races were at Sneton because that's my local, you know, and obviously I'd I'd be there and see all the cars and you were at the night races at Sneton.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:15

That's quite a memory. That's quite a memory.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:18

I'm showing my age, yeah. So um yeah, I followed it from a for a lot of years, uh and it's always it's always been on my radar. It's obviously a very tough series to get into. Um, you know, so just being on the grid is is uh what would you say a a a great achievement in itself. Um but obviously once you're there, you know you want to you want to do a good job and um you know see what you can do and work your way up the grid.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:41

Now you know Josh pretty well, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:44

Yes, I do for all my sins.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:45

So how how long have you known Josh?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:48

I've known Josh since probably again, I'm gonna show my age, since 2009.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:55

Oh right, proper long time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:57

Yeah, so he he used to do a a class or a championship when he first came into car racing called Sax Max, um, which were obviously the Saxos and stuff, and then I was doing a series called Stockhatch, run 750 Motor Club. Um so I'd done that in 07 and 08, and then he came into it, I think in 09, and um he ran with uh a guy that used to sort of help out called Morris Hayden, he he ran with him, and you know, so we we were sort of acquainted very early on. Um and yeah, we we kind of run together in some series through one form of another. He then went off and done Cleos and things like that, so we our pass kind of separated uh a bit. You know, we still stayed in contact, and then I think I when I first came back in, I don't see one race with him 24 hour Rockingham. I think Alan Gow actually done that as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:50

I remember that race, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:51

Yeah, with Andy Prio.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:53

I think they were they were in a team, and Sebastian Prio as well, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:56

That's it, yeah. And it was that was like my first race back, and I've done that with Josh, and then you know, again we sort of stayed connected on and off, and then it weren't until 2023 we started then working together again. Um he started driver coaching me in Civic Cup, and then he carried on driver coaching me when I went through TCR. Um, and obviously now, well, he doesn't driver coach me so much now, but but obviously I get to look at his date and stuff.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:23

So I'll say he's a useful coach is a useful bloke to have in the garage, though, isn't he?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:28

He's very useful, yeah. He's um he's obviously supremely fast. Um so yeah, you know, looking at his data, and he obviously knows how I drive, you know, and I know a bit about how he drives, so it is quite handy to have, you know, he'll um I always I always say this about Josh and and you having known him for for many years will probably agree with me.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:54

He he's a champion in the waiting in the BTCC. If if only all the stars could align, then Josh is uh easily quick enough to be a champion.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:05

Yeah, definitely, 110%. I think there's years that he probably should have won the championship, but for whatever reason, outside of his control, it's just not happened. Um it's probably a bit criminal that he hasn't got at least one title or maybe two already. Um so yeah, having someone of that caliber as your teammate is it was an opportunity that I could I just couldn't pass it up. It was, you know, it it kind of seemed like the stars have aligned for that to happen, you know, and obviously as well, us being friends is um you know it's kind of uh uh a dream scenario, if you like, of of that coming up, and us, you know, we we could pals off the track.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:41

Yeah, which which which which goes a long way, doesn't it? It goes a uh an awful long way. Um so what got you into the motorsport in the first place then? When when back when you were a lad?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:51

Yeah, I mean going back really far, I was probably three or four years old, and I used to my dad used to take me to go and watch um stock cars at Wisby near near Kings Inn, yeah. Yeah. So they had a track there, and apparently I was really fanatical around uh, you know, about it. And he built me like a a mini F2, if you like, it had a moped engine in. I used to just love driving that round till I was, you know, exhausted, and then um eventually um it was suggested to get me into a go-kart, um, which you could probably argue was maybe a uh a good thing or a bad thing, it's probably bad for him financially.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:28

But it set you down a road, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:31

Yeah, it set him a road of uh probably always just any penny he had, just you know, going to racing and nothing else. So yeah, we started counting it like the age of eight.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:40

Um we done a lot of club stuff with uh like Right House and uh Kim Bolton and you know went through the formulas and I I finished counting probably at the age of I don't know how old I would have been, 19, 20. Um the funny thing is when I was first started in cadets, um it was around the same time that Hamilton Lewis was driving. So I I raced against him for uh I think it was a couple of years, yeah. So I'm I'm probably I did say I was I was on a podcast the other week and I said I'm probably the only driver to race against both bro both brothers, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:13

That's very true, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:15

Yeah, be a pub question somewhere that someone can ask ask they will not get the answer for.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:20

That's that's a pretty good uh that's a pretty good flex to have, that's for sure. I I did see a a a clip of the podcast, and uh that that's a really cool thing, and and something that comes along with being a BTCT driver because there's so many things apart from just being a driver on track, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:38

Yeah, there is. There's there's quite there is quite a lot of things like that. You know, you get invited to you know do do these things, which is mega. Um it's it blindsides me a little bit because I've come from a club racing background where you know if it's a lot lower key. Yes, yeah, you know, and even even some of the drivers that go through the the the support packages, you know, that are on the the toker package, yes, they'll they'll get a bit of media with that, but with obviously the club stuff, you don't really get much of that, so it's it's gone from like nothing to everything, yeah. Um which is which is nice, but it's like you know, I'm I'm just a normal guy, like I don't, you know, I don't ever see myself as uh you know everyone says, Oh, well you're a British steering car driver, you know, that that's that's really cool, and it is cool, but you you still think of yourself, I'm still you know, Ryan the mortgage broker or Ryan, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:26

Yeah, I was I was gonna ask about the uh about the day job because we all need a day job to allow us to go and do the things that we enjoy at the at the weekend. So that so that's a world apart, isn't it, being a mortgage broker?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:40

Yeah, so I've done that I'm in my 11th year now, so we've got a we've got a um I've got my own business in Kenslin. Um, you know, and it's I've got five or six staff, so you know it's a relatively it's not massive business, but it's relatively small.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:55

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:55

So it's a it's very difficult. Obviously a lot of the other drivers on the grid have normal jobs, um or you know, they run businesses, and it's uh it's something that's uh probably underestimated, is how full on the BTCC is in terms of how much time it takes up with prep, you know, even the race weekends, and it's really hard to try and balance running a business or doing another job while you're trying to obviously establish yourself, you know, in your racing conversation.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:22

So what so what does that involve? Does that involve being in the office first thing on Monday morning?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:27

Uh yeah, I mean I was a bit dead to the world yesterday to take it out of you. I think that does, yeah. I managed to drag myself in at about 2 pm, but you know, I was I was still sort of sort of there. I think I do sort of envy some of the drivers a little bit who where that's just their full-time job, whether that's raising sponsorship, you know, but they just do that.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:44

That's that would be the dream, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:46

Yeah, well they can take the time off on a Monday and you know recover property. Even today, I'm feeling it a little bit today. It's a bit like but you've got to get into it, you know, because you you just can't they're full on weekends. Yeah, and you can't, you know, I can't let the business just kind of dwindle down, or you know, you've got to come back in and you know make sure everything's running alright. I meant to be fair, the guys I've got working for me are really good, so they kind of keep it ticking over when I'm not here. They're very supportive of the racing, you know, and they think that that's mega as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:12

So is that what so is that what's behind the rather unique photograph that we see in the uh race weekend programs of you in the race suit with the shirt and tie that you are a mortgage broker, so that was that feels like some kind of dare that happened in a pub at some stage.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:28

No, well, I I the the suit the story behind the suit is I So I I was I was at another firm and then I started my own firm and my previous race suit had the previous firm embroidered all over it, so I needed a new suit, and um I'd seen a NASCAR driver somewhere or in another series, he they'd had one that was like a shirt and tie, and I was like, Well, that's really cool. So I spoke to the guys at um I think it was Hypex or one of them, like Brad Ellis, and I was like, Look, I've got this idea. I said, just have a look and see what you think. And um yeah, they they were just so on board with it, they were like, Oh, that's brilliant. And I'm like, Yeah, I had it, I had it in TCR, and when I was wearing it, you know, I got such a good reception from it. Um and obviously when I'd done the one-off round, you know, the the team weren't gonna order a suit just for one-off last year. So I wore that, and again it got a good reception. And actually, I've I've got a Toyota suit coming, but it's because um Italy have a shutdown, so it's been delayed. Um, but I'll probably have the Toyota suit for Croft, I think. So we might we might have to we're not retiring the suit, but I'll sit to put on the hanger. But yeah, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:31

Yeah, yeah, don't do a Dan Lloyd and auction the the suit off at the end of the year, then go to drive halfway through the season and ask the bloke if you can borrow it back for the meeting.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:42

I think if I if I if I if I run out of money, I might have to wear that during the day. Get rid of Ms. Dayquades.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:49

Well, don't Don't run out of money. That's a that's a really important thing. No, no, no. Good good lad. Um final question, uh Ryan, and and and thanks for coming on the show and sort of introducing yourself. Um, what sort of goals have you set yourself for the for the final three meetings of the year? Uh because we're we're into the sharp end of the season now already, aren't we?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:09

Yeah. Yeah, I think we had a good round. It turned out the race two and three turned out really well at Donington. I think I was driving the car a lot better. Um, the pace was really coming along. Yes. Um I d I don't want to get too far ahead of myself because I think I need to treat it for what it is. You know, I I just need to gain experience, build my speed up, learn learn the car at the tracks that we're going to. Um I think cross's gonna be quite difficult because I've I've been there in in civics, and this is pretty much all I've done there is in civics. You know, I've only done one one meeting in civics. So and brands GP is similar. You know, I've done brands indie loads, but the GP track I've only done once. Um might be quite a good one because I've done TCR around there, so you know it'll be it'll be that should be on paper, fairly fairly competitive around there. But I just want to put, you know, I'm finished in the points for the first time, so if I can get another point score, maybe even like a top ten would be an absolute dream, and then you know, just build on that maybe for next year and see see what we can really do, you know, when I've had uh obviously the preseason testing and and all that that goes into it.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:15

Yeah, to to to give yourself the full chance, the full experience, if you like.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:19

Just have the seat time. I mean, I think I think it's people probably underestimate how good these guys are, and then compounding that is the fact that a lot of them have been in the series for a lot of years, you know. Uh we've spoken about Josh and Ash and and even Tom.

SPEAKER_10 1:26:36

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:37

They've been in it ten plus years, a lot of them. So they're so dialed in and they're so dialed into the cars that you you can't even and the style of racing, Ryan. And the style of racing, yeah, that that's that's another thing to learn. And I think even if you had like a superstar driver from you know GTs or or something where you know the caliber of driver is a lot higher, I think they would still struggle to come into this and adapt to it to be quick straight away.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:01

No, I think I think you're right. Uh it's uh it's quite something to get on the grid and then you you you kind of have to learn a whole new style of racing and the cars and the tech uh in inside the cars, they are hugely technologic technologically advanced. And uh now there's a lot to remember. Just starting the races is uh kind of a PhD, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:25

There's there's a lot of there's a lot of admin. Um and the the thing is the cars drive on the limit, on the absolute limit, the cars are different to anything else that I've driven. Um and I think a lot of people echo that when they come into it, you know, they're they're a lot different to you know uh even a T CR car or a GT car. So they've got their own little unique quirks that you need time in the seat to learn. And obviously, you go to different tracks, and the tracks all obviously drive differently, you know, you've got different variation of corners. So, yeah, it's just about dialing into that. Um and it's just Take seat time, you know. I can't come into it and expect to float in the top ten straight away. It it would probably be arrogant of me to think that, and it'd also be detrimental to the other drivers to think that because they're that good, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:11

Um so even Tom even Tom Ingram took a bit of time to to yeah, he had won every championship that he was uh competing in leading up to the BTCC, but it was yeah, a learning process.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:24

Yes, correct. Yeah, so it's the the thing is I just the team the team seem happy with you know the progress I'm making. Um I'm as long as they're happy with my steps forward and that I'm making progress, then that's that's all that's all that I want to do. The the pace is coming. I think back to Snapton in um 2025 when I've done the one-off rounder, I was running the deep end, but it was you know, time-wise it was probably the delta was maybe you know a second and a half. I think at Donnington it was race three, you know, with the with the race pace. I got it down to Josh of uh I think it was four tenths or something like that. So you know, it's closing that delta up as long as I can close that delta up and just keep working on that, then I'll be happy with that.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:12

Yeah, Top Man Ryan, thank you very much indeed for coming on to uh Tin Top Tuesday, Power by Power Max for the first time. I'm delighted to speak to someone that was uh uh there on the banks of Snetterton to uh experience the the uh the the night race at Snet. That was uh something you know when you look back on the all the years that you've been doing, the job that you've been doing. That was one of my highlights. That was uh a unique uh a unique experience having uh touring cars racing at night time. And uh and you were there. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:44

Yeah, that's funny. And you haven't ace today.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:47

Ah, you smoothie you. Uh flattery will get you everywhere. Uh Ryan Benzie, thank you very much indeed. Great to have you on the show. Here on Tin Top Tuesday, powered by PAMAX. I'll try and get through as many as I possibly can. We've got to that point in the season where we get an awful lot of emails and uh people looking forward to the final three meetings of the year, and uh, of course, looking back at the uh the one we've just enjoyed at uh Donington Park on the Grand Prix Circuit. Uh from Divan, evening, Devan, and your mum as well, and your brother as well. Uh good evening, Mr. Hyde. What glorious weather we had at Donington over the weekend. Race to pole on Saturday was a good race, apart from all the safety cars caused by cars stopping on the circuit and then uh getting going again. It was another fantastic weekend for Adam Morgan with uh poll race to pole win, and two race wins uh has earned him fourth overall in the standings. Ash had another incredible weekend to extend his championship lead to 98 points. Just on the subject of that, when I came in the studio, uh I opened my browser uh earlier on and the uh the page was still open for the uh uh for the Napa Racing UK live auctions that I had open when uh Ollie Collins was on from Napa uh a couple of weeks ago. And I was just having a look at where the uh where the bids are. Uh because Ash Sutton's Knock Hill helmet, that unique um one one-off helmet, uh current bid, £1,000, seven bids so far. And uh it it ends in on the uh 12th of October at midday. So we've got sort of slightly over a month left on that. Sam Osborne's not knocking on the helmet, has got a thousand pound bid as well. They're raising great money for race again against uh dementia. Joe Tanner did all the uh artwork on the uh mini challenge driver and uh an helmet art expert, uh Joe Tanner. His racer £550, uh that's already been a bid on. Um it it's it's really cool. If you go to Naparacing-rad.co.uk slash auctions, those auctions are still alive. And I and I m I must confess I am tempted to put a bid in on uh on one of those things. I'm I'm wondering about it. I probably can't afford it and I probably shouldn't. But I'm tempted. So tempted. Um hang on, where was I? I was reading out Devanne's uh email, wasn't I? Sorry I got uh uh I got sidetracked there. Uh Tingram's luck has changed, but the Hyundai uh doesn't quite have the pace to finish ahead of the Ford at the moment. It was also nice to see Aidan Moffitt have better fortune and navdy's best result of the season with second in race three. It's good to see Dan Lloyd back on the grid for the remainder of the season, if any wa even if it wasn't the weekend he wanted. Uh but the most uh welcoming news uh that came out of Sunday was that Lewis Gilbert was unhurt after his nasty crash down at the Melbourne Loop on uh the first lap of race one, and it's testament to how good the cars are built these days. Devan, you read my mind. I think uh we've covered that with uh Sam Riches, the technical director, and uh Lewis himself tonight. I'm not sure uh if we're doing Croft uh for race day, as it's on the same weekend as the European Rally Championship round in Wales. And uh most of the stages uh are close by to where I live. Well uh I think you might be ending up uh going to the European Rally Championship divan. I think you might. Uh not doing Silverstone, but hopefully brands hatch season finale, uh, but nothing for certain yet. And if we don't manage to see what brands if we do go, that is, uh then we'll see you next year. Oh, don't say that. You can't be talking about next year already. The shops have got Christmas things in and also No! No, no, no, no, no. You'll be a brand for sure. And thanks to mum for baking just the most exceptional collection of goodies that will probably keep me going into next year, I would imagine. You are uh a very, very kind family indeed. Thank you very much. Hi, Fiona and Flossy the Dog. Uh Fiona and Flossy the Dog. So well, I think Fiona wrote it. Uh hi Alan. Well, here we are. Only three racing weekends left to go in the BTCC, and what a season it's been so far. Old faces and news. So sad for Tingrima's Lady Luck has just not been with him this season. I blame the Tash. I think everyone's blaming the Tash. Huge congratulations to Adam Morgan. What a season he's having and very well deserved. Charles Rainford needs uh another mention from me. He's a cracking driver, and I feel he'll just keep on improving, uh, giving the front of the pack a good run for their money. It was good to see Dan Lloyd back this weekend, despite it not going too well for him. So relieved to see him get out of his burning car safely. Uh, hoping he can stick around a tad longer. We all do. Music wise, uh, is it too late to request a song? Red light spells danger, please, if possible. It might be too late if you're it might be. Anyway, I'm off to walk the other weekend, but rest assured, I'll be back in time to be settled on the sofa for the next rounds from Crofts. I personally personally think Ash Sutton is going to run away with this title. He's been absolutely on fire this season. But as we all know, this is the BTCC, and anything can happen. Take care. All the best. Love from Fiona and Flossy the Dog as well. Uh Fiona, as ever, thank you very much indeed for your email, studio at tintoptuesday.com. And I have been saying we've got a lot of very special guests coming up here on Tintop Tuesday powered by PowerMaxed.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:59

It's about cars with a roof. It's Tintop Tuesday powered by PowerMaxed.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:06

Now I d I know we don't need an excuse to get a driver onto uh Tin Top Tuesday powered by PowerMaxed. Um, but I've got the perfect excuse to get Dan Lloyd on the show tonight. Um what is that reason? Because we like him. And Dan, it's great to have you back on the back on the show. I bet you thought you could have escaped this year, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 1:38:27

Yeah, no, thank you for having me, Alan. Um always always great to chat. And yeah, um I never expected to be racing, certainly not in British towing cars this season. So I think it's come as a shock to me as as more than anyone else, to be honest.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:43

But were you were you sort of race ready? Uh I mean, d do you keep yourself race ready? When did you find out?

SPEAKER_01 1:38:50

Yeah, I mean, I found out the Thursday before Donington. So I pretty much had a week uh to get ready.

SPEAKER_10 1:38:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:58

And yeah, I was race ready. You know, I've I've I've been coaching this year and been jumping in in and out of cars. I've not been in the British touring car since uh Brand's GP last year. Um, so I definitely, you know, naturally, you know, you're gonna need a bit of catch-up time in the car. Yeah, of course. Um, you know, everyone in that championship is is very talented and really dialed in, and you know, you can't you can't compensate for um time in the car and testing and things like that. So definitely on my back foot, but obviously I was I was up for the challenge and you know, ready to go. But I I tell you what, with the with the new with the new um layout of the weekend, that certainly didn't help things with one practice session. Um and on top of that, I unfortunately the gear lever snapped in my hand in practice, so I spent about 20-25 minutes in the pit.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:52

I didn't know that fact, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:39:54

Okay, yeah, that wasn't ideal.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:56

No, um no, far from ideal, particularly as you say, with a new way that Saturday works, only one free practice, that is quite an intense free practice session to be sat in the pit lane is just time lost.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:11

Yeah, exactly. You know, it it's it's very valuable time to everyone, but I think for me that weekend I I needed those laps. Yeah, um, so you know, I think I did three laps before that broke, and then more, you know, it's just it's trying to get the car dialed into me as much as possible. I've been working with the team this year, you know, I have an idea of where they were at, but you just never know how it feels on the day for for me. So, you know, having if when you have two sessions, you know, you've got that opportunity to do the big setup changes to verify it and see what it's like. But obviously, you lose that. It's the same for everyone, of course. So I'm certainly not complaining, but that was one of the biggest challenges.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:52

Yeah, I bet. It's nice that you've still been around the team at every meeting this year. So so you haven't been disconnected, have you?

SPEAKER_01 1:41:00

Yeah, I think that's the big reason why I didn't feel like I was rusty in my head, the fact that I've been being there every weekend and it, you know, sort of walking through the process with with the drivers. So, yeah, from that side of things, it it sort of felt at home quite quick.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:16

Um it it didn't end particularly well though, did it? What happened?

SPEAKER_01 1:41:21

Yeah, so in race two on the final lap, I was um coming out of McClain's up to Coppice and I just lost drive. Um had an alarm come on very quickly. Um I I mean I just remember looking down, it said fuel, um, so that's never a good thing. No, and um next thing I know I had started smoke coming into the cockpit and um yeah, quickly realised that this this isn't good. Um I was trying to find the closest marshall point with a fire extinguisher, so that's what you've got to do. But unfortunately, into coppice, where the marshall post is, there's a huge gravel trap trap there. So I knew if I if I went for that, I'd get stuck in the gravel. Um so then I decided to continue uh driving to find the next post, but then on that strait, there's no marshall post which is manned by a marshall. Um so I got as far as I can before my feet start start to start burning. Yeah, that's nice. Um, and then at that point I was like, right, okay. I I had to open the door to to see out the windscreen because of the smoke, and then eventually stopped. Uh never had a fire before. Um that was my first one in my whole career.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:37

And hopefully hopefully you last.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:39

Yeah, hopefully my last. I don't recommend it to anyone. Um and then fortunately I remembered to press the fire extinguisher, which sounds very obvious, but obviously in a panic, a lot of people jump out to get to do it. Um so pressed that, and then um yeah, Marshalls came fairly quickly and yeah, just did the best to put it out, but by then by then it had done enough damage to the car, the wiring loom, the brake line. Yeah, uh it was too risky to try and rush it to get it out for race three.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:10

Yeah, um, so lots of work before Croft and Croft a circuit that I guess you're really looking forward to.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:18

Yeah, obviously I love Croft, it's my home circuit and my most successful circuit there. So I'm really hoping, you know, it's a stronger weekend. I'd you know, for whatever reason, I'd I just the rear end of the car was sliding into the corners this weekend, just just as I was coming off the brake, just as I was putting the steering lock on, the rear just wasn't supported and we're scratching our heads a little bit as to why that is because it's we had a very similar setup on the car to what we had last year, not too far off what Chris is Chris was running, and he wasn't struggling with that issue. So for us, the big challenge now for Croft is just trying to get that sorted. Um, because that yeah, that really dampened my ability to to have some good pace, to be honest. Um, but we're on it, everyone's working on it, and I'm I'm sure we'll find a solution. But fingers crossed we can do it quick, um, because we want to want to get some good results.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:15

Yeah, we all want you to uh get some good results, Dan, and uh and uh Croft is uh a very good prospect, so we keep our fingers crossed for you. I wanted you to to uh come on the show. I I I'd like you to tell people, because not everyone might have heard this story, about it's amazing. You've been on this show so many times, and you talk about all the things you do with your sponsors. I think it's fantastic, including your end of season auction. Um but it almost backfired on you this year, didn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:44:45

Um yeah, so at the end of every season I I host a big dinner ball for all my sponsors, and at the end of last year, um I always I always auction off a race suit, so I get it framed really nicely framed, and there's one particular guy, he's called Darren, uh owns a company called First Locate, and he's always bought I think my last four race suits. Um but he's got them all framed up in his office, and last year that sometimes I've been fortunate to have two race suits, so I get to keep one, auction one off.

SPEAKER_06 1:45:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:18

Last year I only had one, uh, which is first world problems, but anyway, so auctioned that off and yeah, got the call with you know less than a week's notice. So I had to ring Darren and ask nicely, can I borrow my race suit? Um he he said yes, of course. Um so I went and picked it up, I took it back to the person who framed it, he took it out properly, saved the frame, used the race suit for the rest of the year, and then I've got to go get it reframed again and go back in at the at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_06 1:45:51

Actually, I I started that question by saying um the auction backfired on you. Actually, far from it. If it if it hadn't been auctioned to people that you know, it might have been more difficult to get hold of the race suit, mightn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:46:05

Yeah, exactly. And thankfully, he's not gonna receive it with any uh burnt holes in it either. Because the suit was fine. But that would have been a cool story. I don't think he would have cared to be fair.

SPEAKER_06 1:46:16

No, I think that would only add to its um to its its story and its value, to be uh perfectly honest, Dan. Oh well, this is really good, and and we've got we've got you in the championship until uh Brand Satch right the way through until the end of the year now, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 1:46:31

Yeah, that's right. So, you know, I'd have amazing venues and you know, cross, silver stone and brands are all circuits where I've won at before, which is which is mega. Um so yeah, really, really gonna look forward to the next three as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:46:45

You're a top man, Dan. Thank you ever so much for joining us here on Tin Top Tuesday, powered by PowerMaxton uh and uh fingers crossed for you at uh at your home circuit, your your local circuit down there at uh at Croft. And uh we'll see you there.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:00

Yeah, thanks, Alan. And just uh just to mention, if anyone's interested, I am putting out a vlog uh yes, so it's gonna be out this evening, Tuesday evening at 6.30 on DLR TV on YouTube.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:16

You're a top man, absolutely brilliant, Dan. Thank you very much indeed. Um, and uh it really is a good watch what uh what what Dan does on DLR TV is uh quite superb on YouTube. Uh that's uh Dan Lloyd, a returnee to the BTCC here on Tin Top Tuesday, powered by PowerMaxed I keep forget we're not in love anymore.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:59

I keep forget things will never be the same okay. I keep forget how you made that so clear.

SPEAKER_11 1:48:09

I keep forget it time I see a smile if they say much too much too bad how you make it to me.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:13

What a great song, uh I keep forgetting by Michael McDonald. Do Brothers, that kind of thing. Great song. Here on Tintop Tuesday, powered by PowerMax with your emails as well. It's studio at Tintoptuesday.com. Uh John, hello John. Uh great to see the Mercedes performing. Nice to see some different cards at the uh pointy end. Also, made up to see Dan Lloyd back on the grid. I think we all were. Uh John, thank you very much indeed for writing in. Just dropped in just now that one. Uh James, uh excuse me. Excuse me. James says, Good evening, Mr. Hyde. What a weekend. The cars at the end of race three, every single one looked ready for the scrapyard. It was insane. Uh the Valvelline liveries looked amazing. Uh, Nick Howstead's Ass GBT Audi was stunning. And we had the Mini Challenge trophy as well, uh, which always looked brilliant on track. Uh so three years ago, I started printing my photos out because I wanted to make a Christmas present for my granddad with signed photos from 2023 uh grid. Um up until 2019, he'd always attended with me but became unwell around that time. Every driver was lovely and helped me out, uh, but there was one uh that went above and beyond. Dan Kamish put a lovely message, bracket C attached, uh, which became the focal point of the present, which he showed off to visitors all the time. Uh the week before last, we lost my granddad. So I asked Dan on Sunday if he could get a podium or a win for him. Let's just say I was quite tearful at the end of race two. So thank you, Dan. That was perfect. What a lovely paragraph, goodness me. Uh no surprise from last week's email. I was delighted for Aidan. Uh finally, all that hard work paid off. Uh meanwhile, it has been proven yet again that Ash's team painted the uh medium sidewalls red before race two. No, they didn't. Don't say that, James. And finally, you know it it it was exceptional, wasn't it? Absolutely exceptional. On the hard time in race two. Wow. Finally, you never know what's round the corner of a BTCC event, and I had a wonderful conversation about motor racing uh with a Caterum 2 uh 270R driver, Jasmine Shaw, a very talented racer and a lovely person too. Can't wait for Croft and uh Keith Well, Mr. Hyde. Thank you very much indeed for writing in. And uh and uh i'm I'm really sorry about your granddad, uh James. Really sorry about that. Um but a lovely story, and uh it'll always be remembered, won't he? Uh well done to Dan Camish. Um Ian. Hello, Ian. Uh hi Alan. Well, Donington Park Grand Prix was the first weekend I've missed this year, uh, but there was good reason, and that was to sport our local classic car show on Sunday. I also went to the US Auto Show at Alton Park on Saturday, which was great. Adam Morgan's success in the car is so well deserved. The team have just reached that point where they're showing their true potential. Another sad departure uh was James Dorling leaving uh Restart Racing after doing so well this season. Let's see if Dan Lloyd can do any better. Drama seems to follow Dan around as his car caught fire at Donington. Uh glad he was okay. And also to see uh Lewis Gilbert seem uh none the worse after his dramatic accident in race one. Hats off to the medical team who do a great job looking after all the drivers. Finally, congratulations to Aidan Moffitt. Brilliant to see him on the podium once more. He always does so well at Donnington, doesn't he? Absolutely brilliant. He said to me in Park Fermay that he thought it was because he came on this show that brought him luck. Well, if he if he believes that, then uh absolutely great. He can come on the show more often. And uh and so to Croft, where I'll be track side once more. All the best from Ian Marshall. Ian, thank you so much for your uh email. And uh uh I am having to um abridge some of the emails tonight if they're really, really long ones, because uh we have limited time left. And we've still got another guest on the show tonight. Uh Ollie Jennings. Hi, Ollie. Hi, Al. I can't believe I've not emailed in for a couple of rounds. Normally I never miss a week, but uh my life's been crazy recently. I watched Donington from Home this week, and it was nice to see familiar faces in Nick House too, and Dan Lloyd making comeback uh and in DLR's case, nice to see him uh returning hot, although um maybe less on fire next time. Yes, I think we all rather hope that. Um other great performances uh include Ash Sutton. Uh goodness me, he's good, isn't he? And uh punchy Dow DeLeon. Yeah, Darrell DeLeon as well, back on the podium. I felt sorry for Ting, one of the happiest and bubblest characters on the grid. Sounded so dejected, he drives with credit despite not being uh where he wants the car to be. Ollie, thank you very much indeed for your email. And Joseph says, uh hi Alan, great weekend and some wonderful weather. Unlike Knock Hill two weeks ago. Well it got it got good at the end, it's just it was a bit wet early on. Well done to Adam Morgan on a great weekend. I hope Lewis Gilbert is okay after a mega accident in race one, and hope Tom Chilton has all the technical issues uh sorted out that the car was having at the weekend. As for Ash Sutton, if my quite bad math it cannot be as bad as mine. I need an abacus to do my math. Uh as for Ash Sutton, uh my quite bad math is is correct. Uh Ash can win the title at Croft if he wins every race with at least one faster slap and his main rivals don't score. Anyway, hoping you all uh well and I can't wait for Croft. Uh Joseph, thank you very much indeed for writing in and thank you to all of you. But uh so w one of you in uh those emails mentioned uh the medics, the toker safety team. It's funny you should mention that. Funny you should say that.

SPEAKER_07 1:56:17

Streamed live every Tuesday after BTCC race weekend. This is Tin Top Tuesday, powered by PowerMax.

SPEAKER_06 1:56:26

Now here's an extra little chat uh that you might not have predicted here on Tin Top Tuesday, powered by PowerMax, because it's a chat with uh one of our doctors uh on the Toker safety team who has been uh with the toker safety team for many, many years. I remember him taking a bit of a a lead pencil out of my finger, and that's got to be, I don't know, fifteen years ago. Uh Mark Tyler, how long have you been on the Toker safety team, eh?

SPEAKER_09 1:56:52

Um I uh 2003.

SPEAKER_06 1:56:55

Wow. 2003. Wow. It's a long time, isn't it, when you had it all up?

SPEAKER_09 1:57:00

Uh certainly is, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:01

And you're a motor racing fan. You're uh you generally patrol the pit lane, don't you?

SPEAKER_09 1:57:07

Uh yes, that's my uh default area.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:10

Yeah, default area in you. You do it. Do you remember taking the lead pencil out of my finger? I bet you don't.

SPEAKER_10 1:57:16

Yeah, I certainly do.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:17

Oh, you do? Oh, very good. It's a very odd thing. I had a propelling pencil in my back pocket, put my hand in my back pocket, and the lead went straight into the finger. So uh quite quite painful, but Mark was to the rescue. So the reason that we've got Mark on the show tonight, other than to say, as we do for all of our TOCA safety team members, thank you very much indeed for everything that you do uh for um uh week in, week out, making sure that we are all safe, not just the drivers and the teams, but uh all of us in the in the paddock, all the spectators that are there. Thank you for that. But you came up to me at the weekend and um and uh normally I would approach you, um, but you approached me and said, Yeah, gave me a piece of information about something that I would have no idea that you've been involved with, but um but uh yeah, you're you're a you're a secretive little character, you're also an author.

SPEAKER_09 1:58:08

Um yes, I am. I have just had my first novel published.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:12

Oh w wow wow. Um have you always wanted to do this? I wouldn't say always. Right.

SPEAKER_09 1:58:19

But um my mum had her first novel published when she was seventy-five. Wow. And um I thought that uh if she can write a a story and get it published, I'm pretty certain I've got a a vivid enough imagination to do something similar.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:38

Very good. Um well you're nowhere near 75. Um so so you've got an advantage on your mum. You can get a a few more uh uh written b before then. Um but give us an idea, would you, uh about the uh about what the book is about?

SPEAKER_09 1:58:54

So the book is a crime thriller. So yeah, very much in the sort of uh David Baldacky type of style. Yes, yeah. Um and uh the principal character is uh chapter by the name of Leighton Bronswold.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 1:59:15

Um bizarrely, the inspiration for his name uh was a road sign.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:24

I like this already.

SPEAKER_09 1:59:27

Um and he is a um a member of the intelligence services who has been retired because he he has been ill. Okay. Um but now he has got back to his uh his uh full health. Um he doesn't want to go back to his previous occupation and uh um he basically uses his spare time to go and sort of right wrongs and injustices.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:57

Oh, so not all not all heroes wear capes?

SPEAKER_09 2:00:01

Absolutely. Some of them do some some dark and mysterious things. Uh not necessarily all perfectly legal.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:08

Oh right, okay. Well this this is absolutely fascinating. We won't give away any more about the plot about the book. Um but um uh how do how do people get hold of it? What can you buy it um uh sort of w widely, largely?

SPEAKER_09 2:00:21

Um yes, it's available in uh three formats. It's available as an ebook um on Kindle or Amazon. It's available in paperback and hardback again on Amazon, Waterstones, um high street uh booksellers can order it in for you.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:41

This is proper, isn't it?

SPEAKER_09 2:00:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:44

I like it.

SPEAKER_09 2:00:45

You know what you know what the one thing we haven't done, Alan? Go on. Is I haven't told you what it's called.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:51

I thought we were gonna wait until the end for that one.

SPEAKER_09 2:00:53

Oh, we could do that, that's it.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:55

Yeah, let's get let's get let's keep people wondering because I'm let's ramp it up. I'd I'd like to know how long it took to to think about it and to write it.

SPEAKER_09 2:01:04

Um to write it took three months. Um I I I s set myself a challenge. It was my uh New Year's resolution um this year. So I didn't start writing it until January the first. Um and I was about two-thirds of the way through it when we were at Croft for the pre-season testing uh at Tokyo Rincot. Um so I was bashing a few couple of chapters out there. Um but actually but the plot a lot of the plot I had thought about beforehand and just made sort of mental notes. Yeah, yeah. Um but uh yeah, so um filling it out so it it actually made a book rather than a short story um took uh took quite a long time. Although people tell me that three months isn't a ro a long time.

SPEAKER_06 2:01:56

I I I would I would have thought that was incredibly quick. Uh but uh yeah, I how did you find the time to do it? What w w w uh when? Evenings, lunch times, all day? I don't know.

SPEAKER_09 2:02:10

Yes, oh well um as you know I I have the uh the advantage of um being partially retired from the NHS, so I have a few days at home.

SPEAKER_06 2:02:21

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 2:02:22

Um but it was one of those situations where if I felt like writing I would sit down and I would bash out six to eight hours of writing in a day.

SPEAKER_06 2:02:33

But you wouldn't forget yourself to do it if you didn't feel inspired.

SPEAKER_09 2:02:37

But yeah, then I I might not do anything for another week after that.

SPEAKER_06 2:02:41

Yeah, I totally get you. When I when I used to write music for for a a living, I found it very difficult if I was told, okay, we need you to come up with this piece of music for a for a film, uh video, whatever, uh by Friday. And that that kind of wasn't the the way I worked. I needed to be inspired and just go, okay, I'm not gonna come out tonight, I'm gonna go and do something in the studio. And that was a lot easier. But when I had a deadline, when I had to force myself to do something by a certain time, and I wasn't necessarily inspired, I found that really hard.

SPEAKER_09 2:03:15

Yeah, yeah, I understand that.

SPEAKER_06 2:03:18

Um and you would, because you are an author. How do you then get published? How uh what was the process of of getting the thing on the on the bookshelves?

SPEAKER_09 2:03:27

Um there's principally two ways of doing it these days. Uh one of them is the the good old fashioned way where you uh find yourself a um a a uh a a publishing in um go-between. An agent um an a yeah, an agent to go to actually uh do all the the the touting round of the story for you. Um and um I'm that still happens. Um but you're then paying um somebody's basically to act as you you go between and you've got no guarantees that your uh your your magnificent um sort of uh uh construction is actually gonna get anywhere. Yeah, of course. So uh what unfortunately one of the blessings with uh the internet is there are more and more self-publishing houses.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:25

Right.

SPEAKER_09 2:04:26

Um so um uh I actually use the same publishing house as my mum um because I thought that was the easiest. So obviously trust she trusted them, so I thought I would. Yeah. You know, learn from your parents occasionally.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:41

Yes, quite a bit.

SPEAKER_09 2:04:42

Um and um so yeah, then it was a case of uh discussing my ideas with the uh publishing house and talking about how um I I saw the in my mind the finished product looking. Um and I was um I was very fortunate uh in in a way that I I'd already got um an idea of the cover image. Um because the uh the cover image is actually one of the photographs that I've taken.

SPEAKER_06 2:05:18

Oh wow. So uh so multiple talents all within one book.

SPEAKER_09 2:05:24

Yes, absolutely. Um so I've been I've been doing photography for about seven or eight years. Wow. Um and um it was just one of those images sorry, occasional images that I take that was, you know, actually really um meant a lot to me. So it's actually being able to get that on the cover of my book was um uh it was even better.

SPEAKER_06 2:05:47

Double bubble, yeah. But obviously but obviously Mark, we must never judge a book by the c by by its cover. Um so so we need to read it. Absolutely. People need to read it. So so uh give us the title of the book.

SPEAKER_09 2:06:01

So the book is called The Demon Within.

SPEAKER_06 2:06:05

Okay. That sounds quite sinister. Right, okay.

SPEAKER_09 2:06:10

Yeah, it's uh I th I think it's the sort of thing that you know you you perhaps shouldn't read just before.

SPEAKER_06 2:06:16

Okay, yeah, understood, understood, very good. Um and I understand also um that you might be prepared to to to give us a signed copy to give away on the show.

SPEAKER_09 2:06:28

Absolutely, Ellen. I can sign your copy and bring it to Croft. You are a star for you to give to one of your one of the listeners.

SPEAKER_06 2:06:36

Absolutely fantastic, Mark. Thank you very much indeed, and thank you for coming on the show as well. Um uh I wish you all the best. Is it out now?

SPEAKER_09 2:06:43

It is out now. It's been out for four days.

SPEAKER_06 2:06:47

That's absolutely fantastic, Mark. Thank you for coming up and telling me. I wouldn't know. Um you know, it's not not a sort of thing that you go up to a doctor in the pit lane and ask. Have you been writing any books lately? Um but you came up and told me about it. I think it's brilliant, absolutely fascinating. Um, and good luck with it. Keep us updated as to uh as to how the book is doing.

SPEAKER_09 2:07:08

I certainly will.

SPEAKER_06 2:07:09

You're a top man, thank you very much indeed. One of our valued members of the Toker safety team, that's Mark Tyler, uh, also now author and photographer as well. The length and breadth of talent in the uh in the BTCC paddock, you wouldn't believe it, would you, eh? Any excuse to play this piece of music as well? By the way, it is called Sirius, and it's by the Alan Parsons Project and is our um every other green flag lap music. Now we've got four races over a race weekend. We break it up a little bit Tears for Fears and then uh Sirius as well. Just for those of you that were wondering, uh thank you very much indeed uh tonight for all of your emails. Uh we've had an absolute um plethora of guests on the show tonight. Absolutely brilliant, and uh huge thank you to all of them, to Adam Morgan, to Lewis Gilbert, to Sam Riches, to Brian Bensley, to Dan Lloyd, and to Dr. Mark Tyler. I didn't call him Doctor, did I? During the interview, during the little chat that we had. I just called him Mark. I feel bad about that now. Dr. Mark Tyler. There you go, I've said it twice now. Makes up for it. If you're listening on the podcast, it's on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, it's at btcc.net slash live dash audio, and all your favourite podcast channels as well should be up there probably from tonight, but certainly by tomorrow morning. Um and uh if you are listening, you can still send in your potential images of the week ahead of our next show, which will be post-croft. Uh they're coming thick and fast, aren't they? Two weeks' time. Let's get you the date. It will be on the 8th of September. September already. Goodness me. So get your images of the week in studio at tintoptuesday.com, and we'll judge it and we'll have a winner for a PowerMax goodie bucket. Full of valeting goodies for your car. So thanks to all of our guests, thank you to all of you for your emails and uh your comments over the course of this evening. And the only thing that remains for me to say, other than I'll see you in two weeks' time, same time, same place, or if you're going along to Croft, you can listen on Toker Live, of course. The only thing that remains for me to say is none.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:51

I could start dreaming, but it never ends. As long as you're gone with me as well, pretend I've been dreaming.