[crmalcolm]

Slightly earlier than I thought it might be, intro is as follows:

The BTCC grid moves to Snetterton next. Another circuit built on the site of a former airfield, Snetterton was one of the circuits that featured in the first BTCC calendar in 1958 as a non-championship round. Class winners that day were:
A-John Sprinzel, B-Les Leston, C-Edgar Wadsworth, D-Tommy Sopwith.

Snetterton underwent extensive redesign ahead of the 2011 season, and the ‘300’ layout came into use by the BTCC from that point onwards. The first time that constructor NGTC cars raced there, Tom Onslow-Cole took the sole RWD podium of the day, with a Civic, Vectra and MG taking the wins that day.

2019 saw Ingram set pole in his Corolla, which was converted to a win in the first race on Sunday. This was the first pole for the new model, as well as second win. The top three from qualifying held position to see the R1 podium reflect the qualifying result. The second race of the day saw BMWs take a 1-3 finish, however the last race of the day went back to a FWD (and in fact Civic) dominance with a Type-R taking all three podium places.
If the first race was seen as processional, the third race was far from it though. Smiley held the initial lead, before Plato took over. Sutton and Plato than battled for a succession of laps and exchanged the lead. Meanwhile Butcher and Cook were moving through the pack from 12th and 15th, and when Butcher joined the leading pair it was 3-wide going into Brundle’s. Contact between the three saw Sutton and Plato lose out and Butcher took the win in what many feel was the race of the season.
Over the course of the day, the Civic Type-R model took six of the nine podiums. This put a dent in the BMW lead of the championship, but Turkington and Jordan remained in the top two places as the teams packed up.

When the series visits for the next meeting, a familiar site from the past will be missing. Snetterton’s ‘Scary Tree’ suffered damage at the start of 2020 and is now just ‘Tree’.


The current table reads:

Position	Name	Points
1	Ash SUTTON	261
2	Dan CAMMISH	254
3	Colin TURKINGTON	249
4	Tom INGRAM	232
5	Rory BUTCHER	209
6	Tom OLIPHANT	207
7	Tom CHILTON	174
8	Matt NEAL	160
9	Adam MORGAN	147
10	Josh COOK	146

With 67 points available over the course of the weekend, it looks like Butcher may be too far back to sustain a title challenge. Ingram will be hoping to make up ground at Snetterton and keep it a realistic 4-way fight going into the last event.
Ingram should be confident though, taking pole and race win in 2019. Hondas locked out the podium in R3 last year too, so will hope for more of the same, although the nature of the circuit meant that a BMW also took a race win – so everyone at the top of the title race can feel they have chance.

The form table in this year’s championship shows that, over the last 9 races the top five drivers are:

Position	Name	Points
1	Dan CAMMISH	129
2	Josh COOK	114
3	Tom INGRAM	109
4	Matt NEAL	105
5	Ash SUTTON	89

The form table for the last 6 races at this venue shows top five drivers as (excluding the double points):

Position	Name	Points
1	Dan CAMMISH	66
2	Tom INGRAM	62
3	Josh COOK	57
4	Colin TURKINGTON	52
4=	Ash SUTTON	52

Paul Rivett will be making his debut in TPC, replacing Gornall, while the team are working hard to get Thompson’s car repaired in time. Jess Hawkins will also be making her debut, piloting the PMR Astra. Onslow-Cole and Bushell have both stated they are not planned to be in the VW CC, so it is anticipated that Brown will be fit to return.

Qualifying is scheduled to be on the ITV Hub at www.itv.com/btcc , with the Sunday coverage starting at 10:05 on ITV4. The full timetable can be found at - https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...Snetterton.pdf



Early weather forecast shows that Saturday is forecast to be 14deg with a 55% chance of rain, cloudy with a little rain in the afternoon.


Sunday 13deg and Cloudy; a little rain in the morning followed by a thunderstorm in the afternoon.