The Wet Maestro

"Do I Not Like Ash Sutton?" I asked that question August last year.

He went on to win the BTCC Driver's Championship.

He did it again this year - he was crowned at Brands Hatch last Sunday.

I've decided that I do like him now.  He's got a genuine sense of humour.  And a hell of a lot of talent.

This was his third championship and he wants to go on and win more - more than anyone else.

That means he will need at least five titles.  Currently sharing the top of the board are his arch-rival Colin Turkington and Andy Rouse both on four.

Now, talking of Andy Rouse, this story from Autocar is quite interesting to a person of my vintage.

He has got hold of three original Ford Sierra bodyshells into which he will be installing a freshly built versions of the 575bhp Cosworth YB engine and five-speed Getrag gearboxes.  This will produce, for the princely sum of £185,000 (for a base model!) a continuation run car eligible to compete in historic races.

So what is it with the wet Maestro?

Commentator and pundit Tim Harvey referred to Ash as "The Wet Maestro" complimenting him on the fact that he is extremely accomplished at racing in the rain.

Mind you, since he is also so accomplished at driving when it is not raining, he should also be the Dry Maestro.

Trevor's Back!

  

I asked Google for some famous Trevors.

I hadn't heard of most of the ones it came up with - somewhere along the line, the name Trevor has been taken over by young people - I'm not sure how given that the youngest Trevor I know of is Trevor Noah. The other Trevors that I had actually heard of were older Trevors - Trevor Nelson, Trevor Eve, Sir Trevor McDonald, Trevor Francis and the bloke above.

The name Trevor looks completely wrong after you've typed it in half-a-dozen times.

But that's all besides the point.

Although Trevor Eve & Trevor Nelson do have some motoring connections, the only reason I'm really using the name is that I read this Autocar article today about the rebirth of TVR (famously named after another Trevor)

Apparently, "The reborn TVR brand has already sold out its allocation for 2017, with the new company announcing that it has taken 250 deposits in just six weeks".  It's got both Gordon Murray and Cosworth on board so it is a serious concern, not a wind-up - oh yes I'd forgotten about Trevor Bayliss.

They still haven't decided on a location for their manufacturing but romantics like myself would be looking towards Blackpool - they may even be able to hire some of the old factory employees - which would be nice.  Ooh, Trevor Sinclair.

We won't see any actual cars until 2018 at the earliest but if they look anything like the imagining, then it's got to be good: