Following the summer break, the 2014 BTCC season was back with a bang at Snetterton this weekend. Our PHer trackside was Alexey Underwood, whose race report you can read here. With Knockhill at the end of August there will be plenty of touring car action over the coming weeks! See below for all our previous race reports and the races so far.
Donington Park - Andy Swift
Thruxton - Jon Spriggs
Oulton Park - Alan Taylor
Croft - Mark Benson
As the BTCC circus pitched its tents at the longest circuit of the season, racing fans had a lot to look forward to. The BTCC's front wheel-drive vs. rear wheel-drive debate was in full swing as MG, Honda and BMW had all been at the top end of the grid so far. As the season entered its second half, time is quickly running out if any one driver was to stake a claim on the championship. With Colin Turkington leading the standings into the Norfolk race, would Snetterton's winding infield section goad any racers into attempting risky overtakes in order to climb the championship table?
MGs were very fast (again!) at Snetterton
Saturday's big stories were frontrunner Andrew Jordan's early retirement from the day's sessions after a heavy shunt in greasy conditions and Jason Plato's subsequent pace. He reaffirmed the MG 6's dominance of the Norfolk track - after Sam Tordoff's pole position in 2013, it was easily the fastest car again in 2014 with Plato claiming pole and a lap record in the process.
Despite Snetterton not typically suiting the rear-wheel drive competitors, Colin Turkington secured second place on the grid to line his BMW 125i up alongside Plato's FWD MG6. As a result, the drag race into the first corner would be a fascinating front wheel-drive vs. rear wheel-drive grudge match so typical of BTCC, with the rest of the pack hot on their heels.
Fast forward to Sunday and race fans were greeted by a crisp and sunny morning as they arrived at the circuit. Gone were Saturday's slippery conditions - today would be all about pushing the limits of Snetterton's grippy surface. As racegoers wandered to their seats, they weaved through cars being worked on in the paddock area - a sight so rare and refreshing in modern top-tier racing.
As preparations for the weekend's first BTCC race were now in full swing, I spoke with Airwaves Racing ace Mat Jackson about his hopes for the day. "Starting in P9, we're on the back of the front guys - our times have been very, very close", he smiled. With less than 1.3 seconds covering the first ten qualifiers, the racing would be decidedly close - and potentially messy. This didn't faze him, though: "As long as we get a good start and stay out of trouble, I certainly think that top five or top six is on the cards!"
Unfortunately for Mat, this wasn't to be. He finished round 16 of the BTCC in eighth position, while polesitter Jason Plato scampered away for a lights-to-flag victory ahead of Colin Turkington and Honda Yuasa Racing's Matt Neal. Although the top two finishers were comfortably clear of the chasing pack, third place was wide open - Alain Menu, Matt Neal, Aron Smith, Adam Morgan all fought hard for the honour of climbing onto the podium's third step. Neal passed Menu's VW CC early in the race to finish in third place ahead of the Mercedes A-Class of Adam Morgan, who tirelessly pressured him for a maiden podium finish after cannily making his way past Menu and Smith.
A strong showing from Adam Morgan's A-Class
Despite Menu's scintillating start, which initially catapulted him into third place, he finished back where he started in fifth place. The sister VW of Aron Smith finished sixth, followed by Honda's Gordon Shedden who recovered from 11th. Rob Collard fought ruthlessly through the field to finish ninth ahead of Jack Goff after starting 19th. Fabrizio Giovanardi was similarly brilliant, dispatching his rivals to finish 11th despite starting at the back following a penalty.
Although defending champion Andrew Jordan was given the all-clear to race following his heavy crash in Saturday's first practice session, he failed to make any impression on the frontrunners and finished in 16th place.
Before the second BTCC race of the day I sat down with Airwaves Racing's Fabrizio Giovanardi, fresh from a thrilling 11th place finish, to discuss his hopes for the second race. Could he repeat his electrifying performance? "It's a long circuit with many corners to overtake on. If your car has the pace to be at the front, then it's easy of course you can overtake!" he laughed. "But if not, everyone will be defending hard. I'll have to take a lot of risks - but anything can happen!"
As the 31 NGTC cars blasted into the first corner like a pack of frenzied, firecracker-armed bumblebees, a fascinating race began to unfold. Turkington immediately passed Plato into the first corner, who was denied an opportunity to recapture first position after contact between Menu and Morgan triggered a safety car period. Plato promptly re-passed his BMW rival in the second half of the race and managed to pull out a 1.6-second gap by the end of the race.
Hondas unsurprisingly in the thick of it
Gordon Shedden and a ballasted Matt Neal drove their delightfully boxy Honda Civic Tourers to a three-four finish to secure a strong result for Honda Yuasa Racing, ahead of Adam Morgan who again achieved a strong finish in his Mercedes A-Class.
The Airwaves Racing duo of Mat Jackson and Fabrizio Giovanardi gave their team a six-seven finish as both drivers improved on their results from the first race.
I caught up with Laser Tools Racing's Aiden Moffat, the BTCC's youngest ever competitor, after the second race. What did he think to his day's racing so far? "Mixed emotions to be honest", he lamented. "In the first race we were a bit unfortunate to pick up damage very early on, so the car wasn't turning in well and was a bit twitchy in some corners. It didn't go too well", the 17 year-old sighed.
Perhaps his memories of race two were a little more positive? "The second race was a lot better - we changed our setup and the car felt brilliant. We got a good start again - but in the second corner, unfortunately, the car leading the pack I was involved in put the anchors on and stopped itself, so there was a train of crashes! So that resulted in us losing a few positions, but we managed to fight back to 17th."
Collard went from 19th to ninth in race one
"We've got a good starting position for race three though, so I'm happy with that", Aiden smiled.
Naturally, the conversation turned to cars and we discussed whether there was any car that should race as a touring car that currently doesn't. "I'd say the Renault Megane - purely because there was a lot of talk about a touring car being built and the concept looked great."
Dunlop had kindly invited me to poke around their on-site facilities between the races, and I took the opportunity to chat with Rob Catton, Andrew Jordan's chief tyre engineer, about how the tyres had been behaving over the course of the weekend.
"Snetterton has a lot of sweeping bends that mainly stress the left side of the car", he explained. However, despite this stress, the cars all coped fine throughout the weekend with tyre wear - why was that? "This weather has been perfect so far for the soft and medium compounds we brought with us", said Rob.
Giovanardi takes to the Norfolk fields!
"When you're running the tyres at a track that's colder than 20 degrees, cold tear is indeed a danger that teams are concerned about - but the weather this weekend has been perfect, so some teams are exploiting that well." The soft tyre was performing unusually well over the course of the weekend, giving some teams confidence to run them earlier on than they had done in the past - most notably on Giovanardi's car in race 1, who's strategic use of the softer option compound allowed him to claw his way up the field from last place.
A reverse grid had placed feisty drivers Aron Smith and Fabrizio Giovanardi at the business end of the starting order for race three, so fireworks were sure to ensue. Smith led the Airwaves Racing duo of Jackson and Giovanardi into the first corner, and they held their positions for much of the race.
Adam Morgan was headed for another strong finish before getting pushed wide by Matt Neal, with Colin Turkington diving through the gap as well. A dogfight between the two champions ended once Turkington made contact with Neal's Civic Tourer during a passing attempt into Agostini corner, ruining the Honda man's race and giving Turkington fourth place.
Aron Smith battling with an Airwaves Focus...
As the drivers approached the final few laps of the race, only 2.5 seconds covered the top eight runners - a dramatic finish was on the cards. Giovanardi heartbreakingly slipped off the track on the final lap, destroying a day's hard work by the Italian. He was collected by Rob Collard's BMW 125i as he tried to rejoin the track, and only managed to salvage a 13th place.
As a result of Giovanardi's error, Turkington inherited third place to extend his championship lead over Shedden and Plato. Aron Smith kept a cool head to hold on to a first place finish, with Jackson's effort sandwiching him between Smith and Turkington on the podium after a nail biting Snetterton finale.
So after another fantastic day of racing, I wondered what it was that made the BTCC such a successful series that never fails to draw in thousands of spectators.
I put this question to the paying public who faithfully flock to the races, week after week. "The racing is close, the drivers are great - and you can do the pit walk, which you could never do in Formula 1!" PHer Adam explained. "You can meet all the guys and it's such a relaxed atmosphere - I even brought my dad and 11 year-old sister!"
... it was a running theme in fact!
A recurring theme was how family friendly the weekends were, as Hiren, father of two, gladly explained. "It's great to see the cars close up and to be able to get the kids involved in the buzz and adrenaline of motorsport! The access to the action is unbelievable".
"I like coming because the racing cars are fast and the noise they make at the start is so loud!" his seven year-old niece Nidhi helpfully chimed in. "The style and paintjobs of the cars look really cool", seven year-old Nevan added, still grinning from having his race programme signed by the Formula Ford drivers at a public autographing session.
The guys I interviewed really hit the nail on the head - the BTCC weekend offers intense racing in a variety of machinery, unparalleled access to the drivers and cars and a great family-friendly atmosphere - all at a price accessible to anyone. It's been a superb day of racing, and I'd like to thank PistonHeads for sending me out to Snetterton to cover it!
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