New Snetterton, more excitement

Author

admin

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

Current page

117

Current page

118

Current page

119

Current page

120

Current page

121

Current page

122

Current page

123

Current page

124

Current page

125

Current page

126

Current page

127

Current page

128

Current page

129

Current page

130

Current page

131

Current page

132

Current page

133

Current page

134

Current page

135

Current page

136

Current page

137

Current page

138

Current page

139

Current page

140

Current page

141

Current page

142

Current page

143

Current page

144

Current page

145

Current page

146

Current page

147

Current page

148

Current page

149

Current page

150

Current page

151

Current page

152

Current page

153

Current page

154

Current page

155

Current page

156

Current page

157

Current page

158

Current page

159

Current page

160

Current page

161

Current page

162

Current page

163

Current page

164

Current page

165

Current page

166

Current page

167

Current page

168

Current page

169

Current page

170

Current page

171

Current page

172

Current page

173

Current page

174

Current page

175

Current page

176

Current page

177

Current page

178

Current page

179

Current page

180

New Snetterton, more excitement

The Norfolk track’s new 300 layout has got the thumos-up from the BTCC’s stars and that’s before they drive it in anger ON AUGUST 6-7 THE BRITISH TOURING Car Championship will race on the new Snetterton 300 layout for the very first time. British Superbikes raced at the Norfolk track on July 1-3, when an astonishing 43,000 people turned up to watch, but this will be the first time the new configuration has been tackled

by a high-profile car championship.

Snetterton has always been famous for its speed. However, this year everyone on the grid will be facing a very different proposition with the new twisty infield section. The drivers have all tested on the new layout and have been extremely complimentary about the changes.

It’s certainly a case of a great track being made better — a rare feat nowadays.

“All of it is a challenge, but it’s the first half of the lap where all the major changes have come,” Matt Neal commented in testing earlier this year. “That infield section is a challenge all on its own. In a race situation it’s the sort of section where errors will creep in and lead to quite a bit of ganging up and lots of overtaking opportunities.”

“Hats off to MotorSport Vision — they’ve done a fantastic job in providing an interesting circuit,” remarked Mat Jackson. “Snetterton used to be a power circuit and fast cars would always come here and dominate. It’s still got fast elements, but now there’s a technical side to it as well so you need to cover both of those areas with a good chassis and a good engine. You’ve got a lot of hard braking areas where you come from high to low speed and that will promote overtaking.” Andrew Jordan added: “When I saw the pictures of the new circuit I thought it looked

alright, but having driven it, it’s certainly challenging and it will make for good racing.” It’s not just the layout of the track that has changed, though. There have been huge amounts of money spent on making sure that spectators can see all the action on the infield section. Not that the BTCC drivers needed any prompting, but as part of the redesign MotorSport Vision boss Jonathan Palmer was keen to make sure there were plenty of overtaking opportunities around the track. “I’ve really tried to build an intelligent design so that it encourages overtaking and makes it exciting to drive around,” he said after the developments were finished

in March this year. If the British Superbike crowds in July were anything to go by, the BTCC races on the new Snetterton 300 layout will be a resounding success. Matt Neal is currently out in front in the championship with Mat Jackson and Gordon Shedden in second and third places respectively. There’s not much to choose between them though as only 40 points cover the top six. Jackson, the 2006 SEAT Cupra Champion, may be nine points away from Neal, but he is adamant that he can take the fight to him. “We can definitely win it,” he said of the championship. “I think we have the credentials, both team and driver, to take the fight to Neal and Team Dynamics who run the Hondas. Yes, we’re an independent team, but we’ve kept them honest up to now and we’ve still got lots more development to do on the cat

“There’s no escaping that they [Neal and Dynamics] have greater resources with factory support from Honda, and they’ve been around a lot longer than us and have won it twice before. But we are the hungry ones and we’re prepared to fight to the death for it.” We suspect that new BTCC driving standards advisor Jeff Allam may be opposed to a driver ‘fighting to the death’ for a race win, but we doubt many fans will have any argument with Jackson’s statement.

Add to this Jason Plato’s recent comments over engine parity between his normally aspirated Chevrolet and his turbodiesel rivals, and come Snetterton the politics should have reached boiling point. The Newcastle-born racer is currently 40 points behind Neal and if he wants to secure back-to-back titles he is going to have to hope that any engine parity problems are sorted. Either that or add Plato to the list of drivers who will be ‘fighting to the death’ for race wins. The BTCC has always produced fantastic racing and the Snetterton weekend will be no different. It will be the sixth out of 10 rounds and will mark the halfway point in the championship — if any of the drivers have title

ambitions, Snetterton will be where they need a strong weekend to set them up for the final four rounds. There may be three races for the British Touring Cars over the weekend, but even without them, Snetterton is in for a great weekend of racing. There’s a long list of high-profile support races in the shape of the Ginetta Junior Championship, Formula Renault UK, Porsche Carrera Cup GB,

Renault Clio Cup and Ginetta G50 Cup.

Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars going into Riches three abreast, Ginetta G50s hammering down Bentley Straight and even Lewis Hamilton‘s brother Nicolas in a Clio Cup car — it will certainly be an action-packed couple of days.

Race day tickets start at £25 and can be bought at www.snetterton.co.uk or by calling 0843 453 9000.