There are three series which I’m forced to follow through highlights shows: British Superbikes, WTCC and World Superbikes. Well, not quite forced to: I could get Eurosport and watch them live. But I don’t. The point is: there is definitely a skill in crafting a highlights package, and not all of these manage it.

British Superbikes, on ITV4, represents close to the ideal highlights show. For one thing, there’s a real, actual presenter on screen and on the grid – James Haydon. As I have previously remarked, he now does a very good job indeed.

The downside is that the commentary is not bespoke: it’s an edit of Eurosport’s live coverage. But you’d not want to replace the ever-entertaining Jack Burnicle and James Whitham, and the highlights are extensive enough to still convey the story of the race – the programme is an hour long for standard two-race meetings, with an extra 30 minutes for the triple-headers.

That’s where World Superbikes on Channel 4 falls down. The problem is that two races – plus qualifying – are stuffed into less than half an hour; and while Charlie Webster provides a voiceover, race commentary is an edit of the world feed by Jonathan Green and Steve Martin. In a busy race, you end up with lots of shouting about the overtaking moves, and little idea of who’s where and who’s going where. So, bizarrely, you get better highlights from races with less action, because there are fewer quick, jarring cuts from one overtake to the next.

World Touring Car Championship highlights on ITV4 also squeeze two races plus qualifying into half an hour. The difference is that the commentary is specific to the highlights show – it used to be Martin Haven, but earlier this year Ben Constanduros took over. And it works: because the commentary is continuous, even when there’s a lot of action, there’s still time to cover how the race is progressing as a whole. There’s a bonus of watching WTCC highlights too: it cuts out all the bloody safety cars.

So the conclusion is you either need lengthy highlights, or a bespoke commentary. Easy!

It’s going to be a slow news month, with Formula 1 taking its month-long summer break, and MotoGP taking a few weeks off too. It doesn’t mean there’s no motorsport on TV though. Oh my no.

Fortunately, this weekend marks the end of the BTCC‘s own, even longer summer break, which means an entire afternoon of action from Snetterton on ITV4. Even more fortunately, the forecast is good: potential for a touch of rain on Saturday, then dry and warm – but not hot – on Sunday.

The weather could be important. Tom Onslow-Cole – who I confused at Thruxton on Wednesday – wants cool weather to be kind to the tyres on the Ford Focus. Conversely, the BMWs are kind to their tyres, so they’re after hot weather. Which they’re not likely to get.

You’d have to agree with championship leaders Matt Neal and Jason Plato, then: the two Toms in the LPG-turbo Focus should go bloody well. Especially on Snetterton’s long straights.

My eyes will be on – and at – Brands Hatch though, for British Superbikes. Same story with the weather: bit of rain possible on Saturday; warm and dry on Sunday.

It’s a curious point in the season: there are two more meetings until the points are reset, and the top six riders enter the showdown for the title, with only their podium credits carried forward. The top five – Tommy Hill, Josh Brookes, Ryuchi Kiyonari, Michael Laverty, Michael Rutter – are looking fairly safe.

But the pressure is on for the final place in the showdown. It’s John Laverty as things stands, but Alistair Seeley is just one point back. Stuart Easton has an outside chance too, but has had a shocker for the last four meetings.

With three races at Brands Hatch this weekend, it’s going to be absolutely crucial for that battle. Meanwhile the top five will be doing everything they can to pick up podiums, to give them a headstart in the showdown.

So there’s an interesting make-up to the meeting, and best of all it’s on the Grand Prix layout, which is always a treat. It’s been a long time since I’ve been round the back of the circuit. I can’t wait.

The BTCC summer break is so very long, isn’t it? We need something to keep us going. Something like… a graph. Yes, a graph of cumulative points by round of the championship so far, for the top drivers.

After all, there’s good data available, thanks to the company responsible for timing in the BTCC. Go on, treat yourself:

What fresh insight does this offer us? Well, it pretty clearly illustrates that Matt Neal, cartoon villain and current points leader, has been ludicrously consistent. In fact, the lack of variation in the gradient of his line is positively inspirational.

Equally clear is where Jason Plato lost the top spot: that disastrously horizontal segment of line around the Brands Hatch GP meeting. He scored, on average, a huge 1 point per race between rounds 7 and 10. Not helpful.

Stephen Kane and Gordon Shedden – 3rd and 5th overall – have also been consistent, but it looks like Tom Onslow-Cole – who really should be referred to as The OC – is the man to watch: he started slowly, but that line sure is creeping up fast now. Even Matt Neal agrees, and that’s without the benefit of this mighty graph.

With the BTCC on its traditional extended summer break, it seems like a good time to cast an eye over the season so far. Foremost in my mind is Triple Eight, which has come out from behind the financial shield of the Vauxhall factory team.

The deal only came together in the week before the season opener at Thruxton, but got off to a flier with Fabrizio Giovanardi leading the championship after the first meeting. Then it all fell apart.

The team entered as Uniq Racing with Triple Eight, additional sponsorship coming from WD-40, the personal sponsor of the team’s other driver, Phil Glew. But it was all too much for Uniq: they were overwhelmed by the demand generated by the brand exposure, to the point that they had to withdraw sponsorship.

Hmm. It’s hard to believe that, given that there are a few companies with the name Uniq, and it’s not easy to find the right one via, say, Google. Incidentally, it’s the one at uniqmotorsports.com, not uniq.com or even uniqracing.eu. So where all this interest came from is anyone’s guess.

But that’s what happened. Apparently.

Anyway, Giovanardi and Glew both lost their drives. But it created an opportunity for James Nash, who has been the team’s only regular driver since the second round at Rockingham. Initially his car carried Avatar branding, from the distributor of the DVD and Blu-ray release. That only lasted one meeting though, and since then his car has been rather blank – so it’s not obvious where the money to go racing is coming from.

The other man to get in a Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectra this season is Daniel Lloyd, first at the mid-season Rockingham test, and then racing at Croft – backed by the delightfully orange TNT Post. His website is rather snazzy, and is hopeful that he’ll be back in the car for future rounds.

It’s hard to judge Lloyd’s performance, since it was his first BTCC appearance. But his 7th, 14th and 8th place finishes compare favourably to Nash’s first meeting of the year, which yielded a retirement, 10th and 8th. Not forgetting that Nash contested a number of rounds last season in a Chevrolet. So you’d have to say that Lloyd deserves another outing, but as always it all depends on money.

What’s worrying for the BTCC is that Giovanardi still has eight championship points more than Nash, despite having competed in one round to Nash’s four. It just looks daft. That’s not intended to be a criticism of Nash. But it is sad that due to sponsorship wrangling, the championship is missing a top driver – Giovanardi – in a top car.

He’s now off working with N.Technology on developing the Porsche Panamera S for the Superstars Series, Italy’s main tin-top championship. There are other familiar names to be found over there too: Johnny Herbert and Gianni Morbidelli, amongst others. Clearly there’s more money sloshing around in Italy.

Rockingham hosted a BTCC test yesterday, which amongst other things gave us the first chance to see how the Team Aon Ford Focus is getting on with its newly restricted LPG-turbo engine. I can’t find anything official to say that the team was definitely running the detuned engine, but TouringCarTimes reckons it was, and it seems only logical. Plus: the speed traps tell their own story.

It’s fortunate that Rockingham has already hosted a round of this year’s championship. So let’s compare yesterday’s test to April’s meeting.

This, presumably, is the sort of analysis that Alan Gow described as “self-serving guesswork”. Ah well, let’s carry on.

Since everyone – well, Jason Plato mainly – was concerned about the outright straight line speed of the LPG Focus, we’ll concentrate on the finish line speed trap, since it’s the fastest of the three on the circuit. The picture is remarkably clear.

Back in April, Tom Chilton was fastest thanks to that pesky LPG engine, at 110.4 mph. That was well clear of the fastest non-LPG powered driver, who was Matt Neal in free practice 2, at 106.5 mph.

Yesterday, Paul O’Neill in the morning session was the fastest over the finish line, at 105.7 mph. Tom Onslow-Cole was the fastest Focus, at 105.2 mph in the same session.

What that pretty clearly implies is that the LPG Focus is now at about the same level as the competition. Or some of the competition, at least. Plato still seems to be lacking outright grunt, third slowest over the finish line in both sessions yesterday.

But it’s not just about grunt, as shown by the overall lap time classification for yesterday’s test. Andrew Jordan with the NGTC-engine in his Vectra narrowly beat Plato to the top of the time sheets, while Chilton was the top LPG man in 6th – though he was 2nd in the afternoon session.

The top eight overall were covered by less than half a second, and contained five teams, four manufacturers and three types of engine. It’s close enough, then.

All about the good ship Quote Boat, for some choice quotes from the last few days.

Formula 1 first, and Lewis Hamilton, who at the Monaco Grand Prix responded to being told to look after his brakes in an unusually sarcastic manner:

“We’re only halfway through the race. What the hell? Do you want me to race these guys or look after the car?”

Although that’s not quite how McLaren represented Hamilton’s words on their otherwise admirably comprehensive commentary log:

“Am I not even halfway through the race yet?”

Yeah, that’s nearly what he said.

Further, Hamilton had the cheek to say this to Reuters about Red Bull Racing‘s performance:

“It’s not scary, it just takes the mickey a little bit. They were just not pushing at all really.”

Frustrated at all, Lewis? Well, I’m sure he’ll get over it.

BTCC next, and as predicted, the Team Aon Ford Focus has had its LPG-turbo engine detuned a touch. But series big man Alan Gow was keen to point out that only TOCA can access the data needed to come to such a decision:

“Therefore anyone who may moan or theorise about the relative performances of different cars is generally using little more than self-serving guesswork, often laced with a fair amount of paranoia.”

Either that, Alan, or they have eyes, and can see how fast the only car with an LPG engine is. One of the two.

Finally to MotoGP, and Jorge Lorenzo, who autosport.com have quoted as saying:

“Despite our victory in Jerez and taking the lead in the world standings I continue to think that I am not the favourite.”

Don’t worry Jorge, I don’t think anyone has you down as the favourite for the championship. You certainly have a chance, but Valentino Rossi is obviously the favourite, and will probably remain so until he retires. But thanks anyway.

Something BTCC boss man Alan Gow said to Louise Goodman in ITV4′s build up to yesterday’s meeting at Brands Hatch didn’t sit right with me at all. Jason Plato had, of course, been complaining that the LPG turbo powered Team Aon Ford Focus was too damned fast in a straight line. He’s probably right. Goodman put that to Gow, who dismissed it, with the observation that the equalisation rules are about the package as a whole, not just top speed or any other individual element.

Rewind to last November, when Gow introduced the mandatory longer first gear for the BMWs, specifically to negate their advantage off the line. He dismissed the fact that rear-wheel drive cars, though having an advantage off the line, have disadvantages in the wet, and are virtually unable to recover from even the smallest tap from a competitor. It demonstrably wasn’t about the whole package; it was about addressing one specific element.

But inconsistency is nothing new in rule making. Gow’s other argument against changes to the LPG regulations – that the cars hadn’t won a race – are now very much a thing of the past after their stunning performance at Brands Hatch. Perhaps they will be detuned a touch. But one thing’s for sure: complaints from the likes of Plato are only going to get louder.

It really is all about the weather in the motorsport world this weekend.

Formula 1 is in Malaysia, and word from the paddock in Sepang is that it’s been raining around 4-5pm every day. Both qualifying and the race start at 4pm local time (9am in the UK), so everyone is predicting rain to affect proceedings. Twitter is the place for photos of the rain, from the likes of Claire Williams and Jake Humphrey – though his photo of the looming storm just before it erupted is more dramatic. The question, then, is whether rain will spice up the race, like last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix; or bring it to a premature end, like last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix. Fingers crossed for another fun-packed race.

It’s significantly drier for Rally Jordan. For my money, it’s been a good start to the WRC season. It was all too common last year that drivers would avoid being first on the road on day two, by slowing down at the end of day one to ensure they don’t lead the rally. That didn’t happen in Mexico, which was brilliant: they just properly gave it some, chief amongst them the excellent Petter Solberg. He’s not going to do the same in Jordan, which is a massive shame. It’s a rubbish rule that needs to change.

Back in the UK, the BTCC is happily living up to British stereotypes, going on about the weather on its website. It is a bit of luck though: Sunday’s looking like the best day of the weekend at Thruxton, the venue for the first meeting of the season. Jason Plato is the clear championship favourite, but I’m rather excited about it all.

There’s more of a chance of rain for the first rounds of British Superbikes at Brands Hatch on Monday, but it can’t be worse than the snow that cancelled the same meeting in 2008. I don’t think there’s anything resembling a favourite yet, but if we use World Superbikes as a guide, then the Suzuki could be worth watching. There’s a fascinating range of riders though, with successful riders returning to the series, last season’s runners up, and new guys moving up the ranks. Including the new Evo class, there are eight makes of bike in the championship. It all bodes pretty well.

It’s just as well MotoGP doesn’t get under way for another week, otherwise it really would be a ridiculously busy motorsport weekend. And I’d have to come up with a connection to the weather for that too.

Today’s British Touring Car Championship media day has delivered absolutely everything it could have done to get me geed up for the coming season. It’s hard to know where to start.

How about the fact that the top four in today’s testing at Brands Hatch contained four different makes of car. That’s a pretty good start, isn’t it?

There are some superb car and driver combinations. Jason Plato in a works Chevrolet Cruze is going to be hard to beat, and indeed he topped today’s timings. Matt Neal in the other works entry, Team Honda, is a pretty enticing prospect too; though everyone’s favourite cartoon villain was outperformed today by his team-mate Gordon Shedden, who ended the day second.

I’m particularly pleased to see Mat Jackson back in a BMW – Airwaves BMW, to be specific, and the squad made a good start, though it was Steven Kane third on the time sheets. That beat BMW rivals WSR, for whom Rob Collard finished 5th.

After a storming end to 2009, Tom Chilton in Team Aon’s home-made Ford Focus is going to be excellent value, and Tom Onslow-Cole is a bloody good team-mate. Chilton was 4th fastest.

Also to watch will be Andrew Jordan, and to a lesser extent David Pinkney, who have got the futuristic NGTC engine in their independently run Vauxhall Vectras. And let’s not forget, direct from the WTCC, Tom Boardman in the championship’s sole SEAT Leon, and the pair of brand new Volkswagen Golfs. Not to mention the few remaining BTC-spec cars, chief amongst them Paul O’Neill in a Honda Integra.

That’s not enough? Well, probably the day’s best news was confirmation that, despite the withdrawal of VX Racing, the team behind it, Triple Eight, will be returning with a couple of Vectras. And just to keep a little bit of tension and intrigue in the run up to the start of the season, they have yet to name any drivers. That means we can speculate about the missing big names: reigning champion Colin Turkington – who is looking unlikely – and Fabrizio Giovanardi. Or some lovely surprise!

It’s all set to be a bit of a corker, isn’t it?

With the 2010 season approaching, it’s quite marked how much more we know about British Superbikes than the British Touring Car Championship.

There’s a very significant similarity though: both have lost a top team. Due to a lack of sponsorship to replace Airwaves, GSE Racing won’t be competing in BSB; and Vaxhall pulled VX Racing out of the BTCC last year.

Glance at the 2010 BSB grid and it’s a virtually complete picture. In a relatively last minute change, Hydrex Honda has become Swan Honda, but otherwise it’s familiar teams: HM Plant Honda, Worx Crescent Suzuki, Motorpoint Yamaha, MSS Colchester Kawasaki, Relentless Suziki by TAS, Buildbase Kawasaki. Plus Michael Rutter returning with RidersMotorcycles.com Ducati, and a good smattering of other entries. All with confirmed riders.

It’s a less certain world over in the BTCC. It should all become clear on 23rd March, when the annual media day is held, this year at Brands Hatch. Until then, we have to rely on Wikipedia to keep track of the grid.

Sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed is the only one of last year’s teams to be fully formed, while Team Aon and WSR both have one driver confirmed. David Pinkney and Andrew Jordan have each gone out on their own. There are new teams: Forster Motorsport with a couple of Mat Jackson’s old BMWs; AmD with a pair of VW Golfs. Tom Boardman returns to the BTCC from the WTCC with the SEAT Leon; Bamboo Engineering have gone the other way, and taken Harry Vaulkhard with them.

So it’s by no means an empty grid at this point, but there are lots of missing pieces. Both Team Dynamics and Motorbase have been testing, running Matt Neal and Robert Collard respectively, so they seem like announcements to come. Colin Turkington has been busy for WSR too, so perhaps we’ll see him confirmed before long.

What of the other big name drivers? James Thompson is already looking busy, tackling the DTC (Danish), STCC (Scandanavian), ETCC (European Touring Car Cup), and a bit of WTCC. There could yet be a splash of BTCC on the side too.

Jason Plato is the interesting one though: he’s made a rare appearance on Twitter today, alerting us to announcements to come in the next few days. What announcements? Well, RML running the Chevrolet Cruze seems likely, given that it was announced and unannounced on Twitter earlier this month.

But there’s also Triple Eight, the team behind VX Racing, which is hoping to be back. Fabrizio Giovanardi, perhaps? Who knows. Certainly not me.

I’ve confused myself just writing this. And that’s without getting into sponsorship: Team Dynamics has a Honda tie-in, but WSR has lost RAC, and Motorbase has lost Airwaves. Again, BSB seems to have fared better, for reasons beyond me.

Roll on the first race of the season, when I can stop trying to juggle all this in my head.