The 2012 British Touring Car Championship gets back underway after the seven week summer break with Honda leading the way in the drivers’, teams’ and Manufacturers standings.
The same weekend last season saw Jason Plato, Gordon Shedden and Mat Jackson securee the victories, with Jackson leaving Norfolk as the Championship leader, while Matt Neal had a weekend to forget with contact in the first race and a puncture in the second race. Neal had arrived in Norfolk as the Championship leader.
After 15 races of the 2012 campaign, Honda Yuasa Racing Team Duo Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden lead the way with 10 wins in their NGTC Honda Civics and it is the reigning Champion who has a slender one point advantage over his team-mate.
Shedden leads the way with total victories to date – the Scottish driver has taken six victories this season at the wheel of the #52 Civic and he was the first double winner of the season at Donington Park.
Neal, meanwhile has taken four victories but his consistency – one non score to the two of Shedden – means that he heads into the second half of the season ahead.
Chasing down the Honda duo is Jason Plato in the MG KX Momentum Racing MG6. His second win of the season last time out at Croft has kept him in the hunt after three races where he wasn’t classified in the results after issues with the car.
Before the second race at Croft, Plato hadn’t finished outside the top four in the races which he finished in – a top seven finish meant that he secured his second win in the final race before the summer break.
The summer break has seen the MG KX Momentum Racing Team out testing, looking to extract more performance from their car and to help Plato’s team-mate Andy Neate move up the standings. He had his best performance of the season at Croft.
Leading the way in the Independents’ Championship is the Pirtek Racing NGTC Honda Civic of Andrew Jordan, with the eBay Motors BMW 320si of Rob Collard chasing him down, while Collard is the best of the rest in the outright Championship.
Tom Onslow-Cole heads into the second half of the season having won a race in the VW Cup at Snetterton the previous weekend and has started to find an improvement in form as he readapts to the Rear Wheel Drive BMW.
Early season front runner Mat Jackson has slipped off the pace after a couple of testing weekends in the Redstone Racing Ford Focus. Jackson has secured two victories to date in 2012 and was the first double winner before an exclusion at Donington Park for a boost issue.
Redstone Racing are down to two cars this weekend as Liam Griffin has taken a short sabbatical from the series due to family and work commitments. Aron Smith remains in the #5 Focus and is looking for some strong results as the season resumes.
Snetterton last year marked the first strong showing for the NGTC Toyota Avensis of Frank Wrathall and the Dynojet team. He will be looking to repeat the form which took him to a podium at Thruxton, while Rob Austin in the Rob Austin Racing Audi A4 will also look to secure another podium after his Croft podium finish. Austin has also been out on track during the break, having raced a Team HARD. VW Golf in the VW Cup. Will Bratt has had a couple of strong showings in the sister A4 and has the potential to run at the front.
Outside bets for strong results at Snetterton are Dan Welch in the Welch Motorsport Proton Persona and Lea Wood in the Team BINZ Vauxhall Vectra, while Dave Newsham in the Team ES Racing Vauxhall Vectra will look to bounce back after a difficult Croft weekend.
Team HARD. Will see Robb Holland make his debut in the teams’ Honda Civic while Tony Gilham has moved across to the Thorney Motorsport squad to race the NGTC Vauxhall Insignia – Team HARD. Are looking to switch to NGTC machinery for the 2013 campaign.
Local driver Ollie Jackson will be looking for a strong showing in the AmDTuning.com Volkswagen Golf while the grid will be concluded with the second Team ES Racing.com Vauxhall Vectra of Chris James and the two Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis of Adam Morgan and Tony Hughes.
With the seven week break giving the NGTC teams’ more time to develop their cars while the S2000 Hybrids will also have testing time, who will come out on top after rounds 16, 17 and 18 of the season at the Snetterton 300 circuit.
Touring-Cars.Net will have full coverage of the weekend, as well as live coverage on Twitter via the official Touring-Cars.Net twitter feed: @Touringcarsnet.
Free Practice 1 gets underway at 9.35 Saturday morning with the second session getting started at 12.20. Both Practice sessions will run for 40 minutes with the 30 minute qualifying session starting at 15.15. Qualifying will be live on ITV.com/btcc and live timings available on tsl-timing.com.
Round 16 of the season gets started at 12.00 on Sunday, with round 17 at 14.40 and round 18 at 17.07. All three races are due to run over 12 laps and will be live on ITV4, ITV4 HD and ITV.com/btcc.
TCN Snetterton Predictions:
Pole Position: Jason Plato
Round 16: 1. Jason Plato, 2. Matt Neal, 3. Gordon Shedden
Round 17: 1. Gordon Shedden, 2. Matt Neal, 3. Rob Austin
Round 18 Pole Position: Frank Wrathall
Round 18: 1. Frank Wrathall, 2. Gordon Shedden, 3. Andy Neate
Fastest Lap: Jason Plato