DRIVING STANDARDS ON UK TRACKS: IS IT GETTING WORSE?
It is August 1, 2021. That it’s a British Touring Championship meeting at Oulton Park, with crowds in after the long period of Covid restrictions, should be a cause for celebration.
But the mood is sombre; tense.
A marshal had been lost in an accident at Brands Hatch the previous day, and the TOCA meeting in Cheshire has been interrupted frequently by accidents.
And this came after an apparent run of incidents across the UK in preceding weeks, including a competitor lost within the previous month.
And during a red-flag delay in a BTCC-supporting Mini Challenge race, ITV pundit and ex-BTCC racer Paul O’Neill had his say. “I’ve been around a while and I’ve seen some unbelievable accidents,” O’Neill commented; “I held my breath [at the latest accident]. I just hope we learn from what we’re seeing this weekend.
“It really is reminding me of not very nice things in the past. Things happen and go and go. We’ve been very lucky today.”
The video clip was shared widely online, and O’Neill received many messages of agreement.
“That was not the best weekend,”
O’Neill tells Motorsport News now, “no weekend is good to have bad driver standards. But after what happened at Brands Hatch it was just a joke wasn’t it?
“I only did one race last year, but I do a lot of general testing, a lot of trackdays, and I have seen a decline in just general driver standards if I’m being honest.
“These drivers, I know most of them, never go to deliberately hurt somebody but it’s sometimes, maybe not even a lack of respect,
