Bloody Oath! It’s AUSSIE V8 vs. BTCC! DriveWrite’s Aussie cousin, Barry, has his say…

Bloody Oath! It’s AUSSIE V8 vs. BTCC! DriveWrite’s Aussie cousin, Barry, has his say…

Topics: BTCC, V8 Supercars Australia

Bloody Oath! It’s AUSSIE V8 vs. BTCC! DriveWrite’s Aussie cousin, Barry, has his say…

Barry
DriveWrite
August 4, 2013

Listen up Poms. I was writing a love-poem about aspects of my native homeland - God’s own country - Australia, when I had a mental block trying to think of a word. You know how it is - just won’t come to you. All I could come up with was ‘Aboriginal throwing stick’. Then, finally, the penny dropped. Boomerang! I knew it would come back to me.

And then I started thinking about the magnificent Phillip Island Circuit near Victoria and the sensational V8 Supercar series. Boy, do us Aussies love our V8 racing; it’s like religion. In Australia you and your mates support either Ford (the Falcon) or Holden (the Commodore). There can be no compromise. Some jokers in Nissan’s and Mercs turn up to make up the numbers. They’re about as popular as a brown-eyed mullet in a swimming pool.

This tin-top racing is possibly the most exciting motor sport you can witness. Watching the roaring grid pouring down into the dips and bends of Lukey Heights is a sight to behold. Watching the fights trackside between rival fans adds a carnival diversion. Streuth, but those boys know how to party - and some of ‘em are Sheilas! When some organising drongo tried to limit the amount of the amber nectar each bloke could bring in, the lads just broke in overnight and buried their tinnies ready for the morning. That’s forward thinking Aussie stylee.

Meanwhile, in the UK, youse Pommy Jessies have to make do with the British Touring Car Championship. For a few years this series, if I’m honest, went a bit flat, with the factory supported Chevrolet and Honda teams dominating the racing. Then changes were made and here in the Land of Thunder we wondered if, with the new rules, the organisers had, perhaps, been a little too responsive to the swivel-eyed killjoys who would like to see the end of motor sport.

The four cylinder, turbo-charged New Generation cars - engines and parts are standardised as a cost saving measure - have in fact helped to encourage competitive racing as it is more down to driver skill and a cunning tuner rather than the might of money thrown at a team. Your BTCC is pretty good now. Who’d have thought a few years back that MG would be duking it out with Honda?

Trouble is, some of these namby-pamby rules have rubbed off here. This season our cars have got to comply with chassis and specification regs to save on costs and level the playing field. One good thing is that last year the fuel tanks were moved in-board from the boot to avoid any horrific fireballs like the one that engulfed Karl Reindler in 2011 (He‘s OK). Fortunately, the V8’s stay as does the rear-wheel drive. None of those poncified front-wheel drivers in our Championship. My Uncle Wally reckons it’s in the Aussie DNA.

You can sometimes watch some of this bonza racing on Motors TV. What’s it going to be Poms? BTCC or Aussie V8’s? Hoo-roo!

Barry's Poem in Full: "Don't worry boy, I know the trick / And to you I'm gonna show it / If you want your boomerang to come back / Well, first you've got to...throw it.