So, Brands Hatch is over and now for Mondello Park. Vauxhall will arrive in Ireland still seeking its 100th BTCC race win and there’s a strong chance it could happen at the Kildare track – in 2005, remember, the Luton marque’s Astra Sport Hatches won all three races at the twisting venue.

For a real fairytale, how about driver Tom Chilton carrying Vauxhall to its century in what will be his 100th BTCC race? Or Fabrizio Giovanardi or Gavin Smith achieving the feat with their  first ever wins in the BTCC, the latter in front of his home crowd at that?

COLLARD EXCLUSION APPEALED

Robert Collard’s exclusion from the BTCC’s third round at Brands Hatch remains subject to an appeal to the MSC National Court. Team RAC driver Collard was excluded from second position for careless driving following an incident with Team Halfords driver Matt Neal who crashed out of the race. Collardalso had four penalty points added to his competition licence and will be relegated six places on the next available starting grid where the penalty can be applied. Team RAC appealed the exclusion to the MSA stewards at Brands Hatch who upheld the decision. The team has appealed the stewards’ decision and the appeal will be held at a future date by the National Court.

Provisionally, Collard’s team-mate Colin Turkington and VX Racing’s Tom Chilton have been promoted to second and third places.

OVER 1.2 MILLION TUNE IN FOR BTCCBrands Hatch’s opening BTCC rounds were watched by a peak audience of 1.243 million on ITV1.

This is strong figure, particularly as, at the same time, the BTCC came up against the Manchester United vs Arsenal football match (on satellite) and US Masters golf and is also very comparable to other top-rating terrestrial shows that afternoon: Eastenders, BBC1, 1.404m; BBC2, US Masters golf,1.398m; C4, The OC, 0.688m; C5, Field of Dreams (film), 1.197m.

DREAM DEBUT FOR LEON

SEAT’s new Leon enjoyed a dream UK debut at Brands Hatch as drivers James Thompson and Jason Plato took the car to a clean sweep of victories. The Leon joins Vauxhall’s Astra Coupé and Team Halfords’ Honda Integra to have won on its BTCC debut since new technical regulations came into force in 2001. SEAT also left Brands leading Vauxhall in the Manufacturers’ standings and the SEATSport UK squad also heads the Teams’ championship.

THOMMO’S “FOOLISH” REMARK

James Thompson admitted on radio show Tin Top Tuesday to “looking like a fool” after failing to realise his SEAT Leon would start this coming weekend’s Mondello BTCC meeting carrying maximum success ballast. Thompson thought the weight handicap would be removed after his sixth-place finishin Brands’ third race. But the rules dictate that, following race three, the top five in the championship carry ballast over into the next meeting. By dint of leading the championship, Thompson’s Leon, for the third race in a row, will carry 45kgs of ballast. Thompson told TTT: “I told the media that sixth wasn’t too bad because at least the weight would be off for Mondello. I got back to my garage and the team told me’ you do realise…’ how much of a fool did I look!”

MG LOADEDHowever, Thompson’s car will not be the heaviest arriving at Mondello. That honour falls to Colin Turkington’s BTC-T-spec MG ZS which, with second-placed ballast, will weigh in at 1211kgs, compared to Thompson’s Leon at 1155kgs. But said Turkington: “The 36kgs shouldn’t be too much of a problem now that we’ve got that bit of extra performance from the engine.”

HEAVYWEIGHT PROCTORAt the annual pre-season weigh-in, Mark Proctor emerged as the heaviest driver on the BTCC grid at 117kgs. Odd considering he’s been on a fitness regime, but not so odd considering his home town of Bridlington is full of fish and chip shops. Next up were Martyn Bell (113kgs) and Matt Neal (104kgs).The lightest of all, unsurprisingly, was Fiona Leggate (59kgs) – that’s half the weight of Proctor. Gordon Shedden (73kgs) was the lightest male.

FIRST EQUALS FIFTH

Mike Jordan (he was fourth heaviest on 99kgs) gave Team Eurotech with John Guest Racing a dream BTCC debut when he drove his ex-Team Halfords/Matt Neal Honda Integra to fifth place in Brands Hatch’s opening round. Despite then retiring from rounds two and three, Jordan still declared: “It’sbeen a truly fantastic day and our sponsors have loved it. I’ve really, really massively enjoyed it and I can’t remember going home so upbeat from a race day.” But Jordan was upset with sponsor John Guest: “They handed out a load of Easter eggs. I didn’t get one,” he said.

CHAMP’S RUN ENDS

Reigning Champion Matt Neal’s retirement from round three of this year’s BTCC at Brands Hatch was the first time he’d failed to finish a race in the championship since the 2004 season finale at DoningtonPark. In between, he not only finished 32 consecutive races but did so, incredibly, in the points.