What rumours are these? Could they possibly be ones started by people that have never seen the circuit or how the feature is run?

I can assure anyone that thinks that, that it is complete rubbish. I have personally set out the cones for every single Beat The ST feature, bar one. And unless someone is cunningly sneaking in to Bruntingthorpe and moving the paint marks in the middle of the night, they are in exactly the same place for each and every driver.

As for the differences in times and corner speeds, yes corner speeds do count for a lot, but so do the straight bits in between. Yes Steve was a touch slower through some of the corners due to his R888 tyres and Monsoon like conditions, but the Cosworth powered Fiesta was faster down the straights than the Focus ST which is where it got the time back, along with the speed through the chicane which also helped a lot and had a lot to do with the driver. Look at previous features, the only other person to get near the same speed through the cones was a race driver in a race car – Kind of tells you something!

Marco's times were very impressive considering the power output and build cost of the car, but I can assure you (and him), that on his fastest full lap, ie the one that was counted, he didn't touch the cones, I know because I was sat in the car right next to them to make sure. He did clip it on previous laps, and smashed one to bits on another, but the rules are, if you hit the cone the lap doesnt count.

As for who the Dorf is, yes we did have a race driver based in our office at one point, and incidentally he sat opposite me.
But, if we wanted to have a mysterious, unknown driver that would keep everyone guessing his identity, it wouldnt be very bright to use a friend of ours that used to be the Editor of the mag would it?!
Come on people, give us some credit, we're a little bit more imaginative than that!

Right, I've got work to do, have a good day people