It has been a long time since the last round of the British Touring Car Championship, which took place at Croft back during the penultimate weekend of June, where Matt Neal, Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato took one victory each. The championship is nicely poised as the cars roar back into action at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk, with Neal leading team-mate Shedden by just one point. The Independent Championship is also looking close, although Andrew Jordan has a slightly more comfortable lead than Neal does over Shedden. Robb Holland will make his debut for Team HARD while Tony Gilham will be driving Thorney Motorsport’s car. This will be the second year that the championship will race on the new 300 configuration.
Track Stats
Track Name: Snetterton Circuit
Circuit Length: 2.99 miles
Number of Laps: 12
Race Distance: 35.88 miles
Lap Record: 1:59.113 J Plato (2011)
Current drivers who have won: Jason Plato (nine wins), Gordon Shedden (three wins), Matt Neal (two wins), Tom Onslow-Cole (one win), Mat Jackson (one win)
If you need a reminder about the action at Croft you can read the round-up here as well as keeping up to date with season statistics.
The Championship Standings
1. Matt Neal 221 (↑)
2. Gordon Shedden 220 (↓)
3. Jason Plato 192 (-)
4. Rob Collard 171 (-)
5. Andrew Jordan 171 (-)
6. Mat Jackson 139 (-)
7. Tom Onslow-Cole 125 (-)
8. Dave Newsham 84 (-)
9. Frank Wrathall 80 (-)
10. Jeff Smith 71 (79)
Independent Standings
1. Andrew Jordan 215 (-)
2. Rob Collard 208 (-)
3. Mat Jackson 172 (-)
4. Tom Onslow-Cole 160 (-)
5. Frank Wrathall 116 (-)
6. Jeff Smith 116 (-)
7. Dave Newsham 110 (↑)
8. Nick Foster 107 (↑)
9. Lea Wood 106 (↓)
10. Tony Gilham 102 (-)
The Snetterton timetable can be found here.
At Croft Jason Plato was once again forced to miss the first race of the day due to problems with his car, putting him on the backfoot for the rest of the day. He did however secure the race three win to keep him third in the championship, behind the two Honda drivers. The eBay Motors Team took two podiums from the weekend and they certainly looked to be on the up, as they push to move their cars forward for the latter half of the season. Fan favourite Paul O’Neill returned for the weekend, replacing Tony Hughes, and he picked up points from race three. Rob Austin took a great podium position in race two, with Andrew Jordan on the podium for race two. After the long seven week gap everyone will be raring to go once again and it will be interesting to see who can come out on top, and who can put an end to the Honda dominance which we are currently seeing.
While waiting for the weekend to begin, you can get involved with this week’s Scrutineering which takes a look at former champion Jason Plato. You can share your views on him, his career and his season so far!
