BTCC: Everything you need to know ahead of Snetterton

The BTCC makes its way to Snetterton for the third race weekend of the season, here is what you need to know.

The BTCC will contest it’s seventh, eighth and ninth rounds of the season at Snetterton with opportunity for many competitors to try and find their footing after a difficult Brands Hatch weekend while others look to continue their excellent run of form.

Sutton races into Snetterton with Championship lead as Ingram tries to claw back the gap

The four-time BTCC Champion has truly got the championship under control in the first two weekends of the season, with a forty-seven point lead over rival Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton has not put a foot wrong so far. Finishing no lower than second place in any of the first six races of the season, despite a disastrous first ‘Race to Pole’ session saw him in the gravel and starting last for the opening round of the season, he would come back to second in that race before going on to take three race wins in a row.

He would follow that up with another two second places in one of the strongest starts to the season you could have in the BTCC. He enters Snetterton with minimum TOCA Turbo Boost once again but as we saw in Brands, it had very little effect on his qualifying speed.

On the other hand, Ingram has been on the backfoot since the start of the season, a penalty in the opening qualifying of the season saw him drop to second place after opening up a significant gap in the latter part of the race, but a disqualification from the opening race of the season followed by an early retirement from race two left him with a lot of work to do. A second place in the final race of the weekend would be what he could salvage after a horrid weekend.

Brands Hatch would see better fortunes for the Hyundai, as he managed to secure a podium in the first race followed by a fourth in race two despite difficult conditions in both and a lot of hard racing, he would manage to claim victory in the final race of the weekend after climbing up the order quickly in the opening few laps. However, he sits further back than he did at Donington Park after an immense weekend from Sutton and with less boost than the previous weekend at Brands.

PMR look to continue strong form with new Audi while rivals look to challenge them

Power Maxed Racing started the season in the best way possible with their all-new Audi A3 Saloon, claiming victory in the opening race of the season with Mikey Doble after Ingram’s disqualification, it certainly cemented the Audi as one of the fastest cars early in the season. This win plus consistently strong performances from all three of their drivers across the opening two weekends of the season including another podium from Doble at Brands Hatch, three top five finishes from Aiden Moffat and five points finishes from each of their drivers see them second in the Overall Teams standings as well as leading the Independents Drivers’ and Teams’ Championship over rivals WSR and Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport. Dexter Patterson also sits second in the Jack Sears Trophy to James Dorlin after claiming the three wins and a second in the Trophy. He remains just five points behind the Restart Racing Hyundai.

Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport have had mixed results in the first two weekends of the season, with the highest of highs and some lower end points finishes mixed together. Árón Taylor-Smith claimed his first win in a decade at Brands Hatch after the car began to show strength in the latter part of a rain effected race two. Combining this with him being the highest placed driver other than Ash Sutton to score points in every race this season leaves him seventh in the standings.

A few strong results from Gordon Shedden in the opening weekend of the season with a third and fifth place at Donington Park has pushed him into the top ten in the standings after the first six races. The team enters Snetterton third in the overall standings and second in the Independent standings, trailing PMR in both championships by just a handful of points

WSR had a strong start to the season with Charles Rainford claiming third place in the opening race of the season, followed up by a sixth and fifth place later in the weekend to put himself in second in the standings, while Daryl De Leon claimed some solid points early in the weekend as well to push WSR into a strong position in both championships.

However, a difficult weekend for the BMW’s left them floundering in the middle of the pack in race one at Brands Hatch, while a retirement for Charles Rainford after contact late on in the race put an end to the BMW’s chances of some more solid points last time out. A fourth place for De Leon in his best finish of the season so far would recover some of the damages from race two, but a solid weekend from PMR left them trailing by nineteen points in the Independents Teams Championship and eighteen points behind them in the Overall Teams Championship, on the same points as the Laser Tools Racing Toyota’s.

Plato Racing aiming for better results after finding pace late in the Brands Hatch weekend

Plato Racing started the year with a bang, claiming the ‘Race to Pole’ win at Donington Park showing that the Mercedes very early on is no slouch. However, incidents and teething problems within the team and with the car being a newly entered team soon emerged, as they dropped down to the middle of the pack throughout the opening race weekend of the season. The drivers showed the car certainly had pace, but the team knew that it would be an uphill battle early on as they learned the car and found issues in racing conditions.

These issues would transfer to Brands Hatch the following race weekend as they were unable to find the optimum setup window in what was mixed conditions in the opening two races. However, the car did shine when it got to drier conditions with Adam Morgan qualifying well with a sixth place on Saturday and an excellent drive in race three putting himself sixth place as well.

The team heads into Snetterton looking to claim better results as they have certainly got a car that can be competitive when in the right conditions, but they are still learning what the car is doing in different scenarios across the weekend and the season.

The timetable for the BTCC this weekend at Snetterton

Saturday:

Qualifying: 14:00

Qualifying Race: 15:05

Sunday:

Round Seven: 11:30

Round Eight: 14:30

Round Nine: 17:20