I watched this again just to hear Murray Walker commentary and enthusiasm again, One sad year for motor sport 2021 is. I was hoping he would have done one more, just for the sake of it.
I was there! Saw that Cleland/Soper clash on the last lap from a high seat in one of the grandstands. Will never forget it! Somewhere, there must be ALL of the footage from the camera in Steve Soper's car - where is it? From last to 4th, a Masterclass in saloon car racing/overtaking.
Silverstone 1992 is still the best Grande Finale of British Touring Cars, Cleland, Soper and Harvey battling for the championship and it ended with a crash on the penultimate lap
This race had everything. Battle for the lead. 3 way championship fight. A comeback drive. Crashes and collisions. Brilliant quotes and Murray Walker commentating. I was 8 years-old when I watched this and it cemented my love of the BTCC.
Absolutely the best era of BTCC. I was lucky enough to attend a handful of races in the 90s, best cars, best drivers, best tracks, and watching the highlights afterwards with the terrific Murray Walker on commentary. I'm glad I've got most of the 90s seasons on dvd. Great memories.
Tim Harvey's Bmw 318is still survives and now resides in New Zealand where it is still raced. There's a full feature on the car in the latest edition of Bmw Car magazine.
Never gets boring. I just wish the current BTCC would take a look back to see what made 1991 to 1999 so good. Yes it got too expensive, but not initially. Look at the raw racing. Simple, exciting cars from multiple manufacturers, drivers with great personalities. And look what there isnt - gimmicks, ballast, hybrid power, reverse grids. Just pure racing.
I argue that this race was better than any F1 race that has taken place at Silverstone. And the red mist really really did come down towards the end between Cleland and Soper.
I always had and always will have the opinion that: -This was racing at it's best -Clelland wás going fast but hit the curb and "leaned" into Soper's car -Soper wás going too fast and took Clelland's car out with premeditated intention
I reckon the both went for gaps that weren't there, Cleland got away with his iffy move but didn't get away with sopers bad move. They both did the same thing to each other. Only at luffield there was a gravel trap.
I know that most pepole remember the "i go for first", but fuck me .... S.Sopper WAS A BEAST ... with cripeled car from back of grid ... back to contention. That is litteraly saying "NO" to loose
Its incredible how often the best drives are under those circumstances, not from starting at the back but from a first lap incident putting them at the back. The driver sees red and there's no beating them.
Don't think we'll ever see racing like this again, this race literally had the lot. BTCC was at it's best when the cars had no aerodynamics and were a real handful to drive.
Soper went from hero to zero in one move. Nothing could be done about it, other than disqualify the bmw team on the day. That move was deliberate simple as.
Agreed. People arguing Cleland did the same in the first part seem to miss the bit where the front half of Cleland's car is alongside (all 4 wheels on track) before Soper tries to defend, forcing Cleland over the kerb and causing the contact that sends Soper wide. Somehow bringing that on himself is justification for deliberate and tactical dangerous driving? Nah not a chance. Same poor decision Soper made with Leslie at the start that spun him out in the first place, throws it up the inside and leans on Leslie then while Leslie still has half his car on the inside for the next corner he pulls across trying to force him off track. Soper was stupidly fast at times but an utter clown with it.
Best motor race I've ever seen, considering all the sub plots and what was at stake, I don't think this race will ever be matched. Drama from start to finish.
One M. Schumacher should have paid attention to this and learned from it. It's no good trying to take someone out by turning in on them - that's not guaranteed to work. If they get past you, just nail them from behind at the next corner and put them in the barrier. If he'd done that to Villeneuve in '97 he'd have won the title. I don't approve from a moral standpoint, but you have to admire the technique...
Not that important, but the VHS review showed a bit more after Bailey was punted off: You ride with Cleland briefly, then with Odor as he pulls off. There's then an awkward silence as Kieth gets out of the car and the footage rejoins the leaders on Hanger Straight, then joins back up here when Harvey makes his first attempt on Cleland. That bit missing doesn't really affect this at all, I just noticed it😋
Will we ever see the likes of this again? I was an avid fan of BTCC as a child in the early 90s but have no interest in it now. Is it rose tinted specs?
Don't think it is just rose tinted specs. It had more variety (many manufacturers, cars look different), excitement, danger, passion and emotion. The cars look like more of a handful too, presumably due to the lack of aero. Love Murray Walker's commentary, too.
Its a mega iconic race, Soper had a job to do which ultimately he did (help his teammate win the title). The vauxhalls do appear to do a job on Soper early on, i suspect they wanted him out of the equation, leaving Harvey to battle it out on his own. The drive from Soper to get back into contention, is quite frankly epic. As is the initial move on Cleland, when he boxes him in, therby allowing Harvey through, i dont think Harvey would have got by Cleland on his own. Then its just red mist time, i think both Cleland and Soper made hard and questionable moves, ultimately Cleland had more to lose, Soper only neede to get Harvey infront, so his job was done. I suspect BMW werent disappointed!!!
Bring back gloves off racing in BTCC. It’s the controversy that brings the passion out in the sport. Without it sport becomes sterile and 1 dimensional.
last to 4th for Soper is very impressive but him deliberately taking out Cleland and other racers in previous races makes him one of the worst drivers of the series
I loved that Btcc cavalier. That and the Toyota are some of the most dullard cars imaginable. They had no right to be that exciting yet they were. Almost every photo, that cavalier was on 3 wheels. I still get pumped thinking about this era Btcc.
I think this is probably the best race ever, not only for the race itself which is brilliant with maximum equality, bur also for the context (last race of the championship, the clash between Cleland and Soper...). Definitely, it is.
For my money, Cleland has every right to feel the way he did. His rough overtake on Soper was over the limit but at least he was trying to make an overtake...what Soper did at the next corner wasn't an overtake attempt, he was trying to crash Cleland out of the race.
It was absolutely even throughout that exchange. Cleland gave him a shove on the exit of Brooklands right off the circuit, Soper kept the boot in and the clash into Luffeild was pretty inevitable.
There was some “contact” by both of them but the crash was clearly Sopers fault. Cleland was already clear and rounding the corner. Soper just decided to keep him from being champion.
@@nathanchildress5596 I don't think so, did you see the previous corner where Cleland was on 2 wheels because he'd cut the corner so much, (clearly not enough of a gap to get through) the car was trying to tip over, Soper had held him from going over, by keeping his foot in and rightly went for the next corner, Cleland should have yeilded for the previous corner, because it would have been easy for Soper to move over a bit to the right and let Cleland roll it, would definitely been Championship over if he'd done that. But hey, it's all done and many a grey hair ago, so it isn't really a big issue now. It was a fantastic race that I'll never forget. Soper's pace to come back through the feild after the first lap turn around was brilliant and should never be poo poo'd, he was and still is a damn good driver. Cleland didn't deserve it anyway. lol
@@Sennaxm71 cleland merely replicated the move soper pulled when he passed prior. Just soper didnt leave any space. Simply, soper ruined an all time great drive by being schumacher circa 97
The guts and heart from that drive with soper is just magic. Drive it like it's stolen and on fire, no matter the place or damage. Never ever give up your race.
At Silverstone 1992, Soper absolutely lives up to MSC’s famous quote. “I've always believed that you should never, ever give up and you should always keep fighting, even when there's only a slightest chance.”
Fantastic race and call by Murray Walker. The Cleland-Soper crash I have swung from one side to the other on this one. What is clear is that in the "second phase" of the crash Soper was never going to make that right hand apex or even corner on the trajectory he had but...... Cleland in the "first phase", the left hander had very aggressively put his car into Soper. He used Soper as a barrier and his move could not have been accomplished without Sopers car. His contact pushed Soper off-line and was very aggressive. It was not race ending on Soper but still very aggressive contact. Soper upped the ante with a move to take Cleland out and was even more aggressive. So I would now take the view that Cleland started a very aggressive melee and then came off second best. IE deliberate contact from him and then deliberate contact from Soper. What was very clear also was the "pit manoeuvre" of tapping the inside rear quarter was used by a lot of these guys to overtake, including Harvey. Seems Plato or the Fairfax County Sheriffs department didn't invent it after all!
The two of them were pulled up in front of an MSA tribunal soon after this. The pair of them apparently agreed beforehand to declare it a racing incident to avoid either getting banned.
That was greasy by Soper, it doesn't take a steward to state that that was more of a t-bone than racing incident. Both stayed on track for the first part, acceptable contact, but at 15:34 Cleland had the line and hugged the inside while Soper dived off tract to the side of him. And to ruin someones championship, that should result in race bans.
@@hypeenotic Really? 30 Years later, and you're wanting them to give race bans retrospectively? FFS what has the world come to. It's in the past, give up on it, nothing can be changed now, so as adults, we just move on. Fuck me, we'll all be asking for reparations from the Italians soon for all the slavery the Romans did 2000 years ago soon. The only thing you can rightly do from the past, is to learn from it, so as not to make the same mistakes again. Not try to get it deleted or banned, This is the only way we move on as a society.
soper did what he had to do which was get in front of cleland and let harvey through then just hold off cleland till the end. when cleland smashed his way up the inside using soper to turn i bet all his frustration after being spun out at the start just made him go fuck this guy and take him out. anyway it wasnt really any different to leslie taking him out at the start on purpose
@@saulekaravirs6585 no. At turn in, Cleland was almost perfectly alongside Soper on the inside line. Soper came from a long way back and made contact after Cleland was turning in. One is door to door racing, the other is a very unsuccessful dive bomb.
@@yracpontiferous4846 Cleland actually flipped his car onto Soper's car, and ran Soper off the track. The only reason Cleland was in the race to be hit by Soper in the next turn was because Soper's car caught Clelands flip.
@@saulekaravirs6585 that's a very strange interpretation, but you must be hyperbolic with the use of "flipped". I saw a touring car clip a curb. It's likely that Cleland had no choice but to stick so far inside due to Soper turning down on him. The fact that, in spite of two-wheeling and contact at the apex, both cars made the corner means the corner wasn't overcooked, so that was door to door racing. It could have been cleaner, sure, but it was legitimate since Cleland had the inside line. Soper absolutely did NOT have a competitive line when he struck Cleland. That much is indefensible.
@@saulekaravirs6585 rewatch it at .25x speed. It's pretty clear Soper turns down to block and there's contact before Cleland is on 2 wheels. While the car is on 2 wheels, the angle shows that Soper did not leave enough room for the car that was already on the inside. These things are part of racing, the dive bomb was not.
I owned the road going E36 318is and it was dog slow, very underpowered. It would have been destroyed by BMW M3 / Cavalier GSI Makes me wonder what the BTCC teams did to their 318is?
I think all of those cars were Gr.A specs, there were naturally aspirated engines with about 280hp and around 900-1000 kg. There were a kind of "saloon Kit Cars", sadly we will never see something like that again
Not Me Not Me you seriously thought they were zooming around the tracks and down the straights at 130-150mph in a 1.8 litre engined car?😂😂😂 You’d be lucky to reach 80/90mph on the longest straight of this track in a 318!
@@jonnygti Woosh. (That’s the noise of my comment going over your head) The video clearly calls them a 318is. The production E36 318is was a 1.8 litre engined car. My point was the cars in this video are clearly not the production / road going version.
