[BTCC] Round Four, Thruxton 03-04 Jun, Races 10,11&12

[crmalcolm]

The fourth meeting of the 2023 KwikFit BTCC season sees visit to Thruxton.
A quick glance of the site and it is easily identified that this track began life as an airfield, with the circuit following what was essentially the airfield perimeter track. The site is also the location of the BARC HQ.

(thruxtonracing.co.uk) Like many race circuits Thruxton was originally a wartime airfield. Commissioned in 1941 the airfield was host to both the RAF and USAF and played a major part in the D-Day landings as a base for troop carrying aircraft and gliders. Declared surplus to requirements in 1946, motorsport started in 1950 with motor bikes on a track comprising both the runways and perimeter roads.
Cars joined the bikes in 1952 for only one year as the deteriorating wartime tarmac was breaking up badly. Amazingly, bikes continued racing until 1965, but by then plans were under way to redevelop the site and motor racing returned on a new track in 1968. The new layout ignored the old runways and followed the lines of the perimeter road with the inclusion of the chicane and further round the track three tight corners in succession: Campbell, Cobb and Segrave, commonly referred to as the Complex.
Even with these tight corners Thruxton is the fastest race circuit in the UK, with Formula Renaults averaging well over 100mph in race conditions. Thruxton soon gained a reputation as a real drivers circuit with its seemingly never ending high speed corners around the back of the track where success required total commitment.
Thruxton's fame grew from the Easter Monday Formula 2 meetings where Formula 1 drivers of the day battled with up and coming talent. Household names like Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and Jochen Rindt all thrilled the crowds in the early races. Since then Thruxton has seen all our recent Formula 1 drivers race regularly at the track at some time in their career.
In 1993 Damon Hill, Formula 1 World Champion, drove a demonstration run in the Williams FW15C, recording an incredible 57.6 second lap of the 2.4 mile circuit, an average speed of 147.25mph.
It is now the high speed rounds of the British Touring car championship and Superbikes that regularly bring in capacity crowds. If you follow these series you may have seen Thruxton on the television or even lapped the circuit on the Playstation Touring Car game, but as always there is nothing like doing it for real.

Thruxton first appeared as a BTCC [BSCC] circuit for the 1968 season, winners that day were Chris Craft (Class A), Graham Janzen (Class B), Frank Gardner (Class C) and Brian Muir (Class D). Since the cars began to run under NGTC regulations, the track has seen a good return for FWD cars, particularly Hondas. From the 2011 season onwards, there have now been 45 winners; of these only 8 wins have been taken by RWD cars, and of these five were in race-3 reverse grids. At the same time, 22 wins have been taken by Hondas, with Cook both picking up ten of those wins and earning himself the title ‘King of Thruxton’.

Coverage is once again provided by ITV. Qualifying is scheduled to be on itv.com/btcc/qualifying-live and ITV Sport’s own Youtube channel with the coverage starting at 15:15. The Sunday coverage start time on ITV4 being 11:15, the first BTCC race is at 11:45.

The full timetable is:

Time	Activity	Championship	Laps
Saturday 3rdth June
09.05 – 09.20	Qualifying	The Dunlop Mini Se7en Challenge supported by Mini Spares
09.30 – 10.05	Free Practice	Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship
10.25 – 10.55	Qualifying	The Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE Trophy
11.05 – 11.25	Qualifying	ROKiT F4 British Championship
11.35 – 11.50	Qualifying	The Dunlop Mini Miglia Challenge supported by Mini Spares
12.00 – 12.35	Free Practice	Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship
12.35 – 13.35	Lunch Break
13.35	Race	The Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE Trophy	20 mins
14.10 – 14.40	Qualifying	Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain
14.50	Race	The Dunlop Mini Se7en Challenge supported by Mini Spares	10
15.25 – 15.55	Qualifying	Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship
16.10	Race	ROKiT F4 British Championship	20 mins
16.45	Race	The Dunlop Mini Miglia Challenge supported by Mini Spares	10
17.20	Race	The Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE Trophy	20 mins
Sunday 4th June
10.00 – 10.30	BTCC Pit Lane Walkabout / Autograph Session
10.50	Race	Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain	22
11.30	BTCC Pit Lane Opens
11.45	Race	Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship	16
12.25	Race	The Dunlop Mini Se7en Challenge supported by Mini Spares	10
13.00	Race	ROKiT F4 British Championship	20 mins
13.30 – 13.45	Marshals’ / Lunch Break
13.45	Race	The Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE Trophy	20 mins
14.20	BTCC Pit Lane Opens
14.35	Race	Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship	16
15.15	Race	Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain	22
15.55	Race	The Dunlop Mini Miglia Challenge supported by Mini Spares	10
16.30	Race	ROKiT F4 British Championship	20 mins
17.05	BTCC Pit Lane Opens
17.20	Race	Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship	16

Early weather forecast shows that Saturday is forecast to be 17deg with a 10% chance of rain.

Sunday 18deg and 4% chance of rain in the afternoon.

[Mike Harte]

Raced there about 4 times in the 60s, and apart from the chicane, it's barely changed. I sort of liked it, but I readily admit that going through Goodwood to Brooklands scared the living daylights out of me lap after lap because you can only lift the loud pedal a mere fraction, otherwise everyone else would just fly past you.

Church in particular, as most will have observed, is the trickiest because the car will just "drift" to the outside and it can become a fight to stop the car getting out on to the grass.

After racing there, it was always a real pleasure to go back to Oulton which for us was always on the full circuit or, my real favourite, Snetterton with it's long, long drive down the Norwich Straight.

[SSmith]

Looking forward to this weekend - especially to the Mini Se7en race and Mini Miglia race. These will probably be the best of the day. Its also good that we've got two live televised F4 races, historically the F4 racing at Thruxton has been great.

[Sodemo]

I did a track day experience there in 1998, Allard into Goodwood were the scariest for me, I think because if you get out of shape out of Allard, Goodwood is right in your face and you dont always have the time to re-settle the car.

[SSmith]

Entry List

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...D-31.05.23.pdf

MINI Challenge Trophy - 31 cars

After two non-TOCA meetings, Tom Ovenden leads Maximus Hall by 12 points (on dropped scores) in the standings. Others to look out for are Byrne, Solley, Nicky Taylor, Frankie Taylor, Black, Hickton, and Edwards.

British F4 - 22 cars

Mika Abrahams (Fortec) is now old enough to race in the series. No Aiden Neate on the entry list. Rest of the grid is the same as Snetterton.

Porsche Carrera Cup GB - 25 cars

Same grid as Donington and Brands Hatch.

Mini Se7en Challenge - 16 "Se7en" and 16 "Se7en S"

Mega grid - looking forward to this one. Mike Jordan is in the Se7en class and was victorious in both races at Snetterton. Joe Thompson and Ross Billison are the other outright winners this season.

Mini Miglia Challenge - 19 "Miglia" and 9 "Libre"

Fantastic looking grid that includes Andrew Jordan and Jeff Smith. As ever with the Mini Miglia, its hard to pick a potential winner. Kane Astin and Jeff Smith won last time out at Snetterton. Andrew Jordan and Aaron Smith have also won races this season.

[Evantra]

Definitely looking forward to the Se7ens and Miglias. Not so much the Trophy - how many red flags are we betting on this time!

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Entry List

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...D-31.05.23.pdf

UPDATED ENTRY LIST

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...SHED-01.06.pdf

MINI Challenge Trophy now has 29 cars (removal of Clark Wells and Daniel Armstrong from the list)

Porsche Carrera Cup GB now has 24 cars. Seb Melrose has been taken off the list. Josh Malin has seemingly replaced Gus Burton at Rosland Gold by Century Motorsport.

[hen henths]

I'm looking forward to this weekend, especially without the distraction of the option tyres. Forgive me for mentioning those again. Of course rain would reintroduce tyre choices to the mix.

Would be nice to see Dan Cam pick up a win here. I wonder if Cookie, the King of Thruxton will have his setup sorted this time.

[Trebor902]

Does anyone know if they still have the support races practice sessions tomorrow afternoon? Asked on various posts by thruxton and barc and not had any response

[Petoli]

Originally Posted by Trebor902

Does anyone know if they still have the support races practice sessions tomorrow afternoon? Asked on various posts by thruxton and barc and not had any response

According to TSL timing there is


TOCA Support Testing Friday 2nd Jun 2023

https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/232241

[Trebor902]

Originally Posted by Petoli

According to TSL timing there is


TOCA Support Testing Friday 2nd Jun 2023

https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/232241

Thanks didn't even think to look there. Was hoping to find a start time but looks like it won't be published

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by hen henths

I'm looking forward to this weekend, especially without the distraction of the option tyres. Forgive me for mentioning those again. Of course rain would reintroduce tyre choices to the mix.

Zero chance of rain, according to the forecast

[Matt K]

Does anyone know if it's possible to watch single races only on the ITV X? Won't be able to catch it live and want to spare myself tiresome search of the three races in an 8-hour 'episode'... Remember there were single races to watch but can't seem to find them for the 2023 season.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Trebor902

Does anyone know if they still have the support races practice sessions tomorrow afternoon? Asked on various posts by thruxton and barc and not had any response

On Friday 2nd June, the following are testing at Thruxton:

Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE Trophy
ROKiT F4 British Championship Certified by FIA
Porsche Carrera Cup GB
Dunlop National Mini Challenge Supported by Mini Spares - Se7en & Miglia

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by Trebor902

Thanks didn't even think to look there. Was hoping to find a start time but looks like it won't be published

Normally testing starts at 9am and runs until about 4pm. Each series gets two 45-minute sessions.

[S griffin]

Looking forward to this one. Let's see if anyone can challenge the Fords. Expect Cookie to go well as he always does here.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Expect Cookie to go well as he always does here.

That's true in recent years. Hopefully he doesn't have 2017 levels of form this time.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Matt K

Does anyone know if it's possible to watch single races only on the ITV X? Won't be able to catch it live and want to spare myself tiresome search of the three races in an 8-hour 'episode'... Remember there were single races to watch but can't seem to find them for the 2023 season.

I've not found single races anywhere on ITV X sadly. I've been watching the whole meeting on catchup but not in one go. Unfortunately that means forwarding through to get back to where I was each time because ITV X doesn't remember where I'd got to (and will often crash). It's a hugely frustrating experience.

Previous seasons had separate BTCC and support highlights programs but I haven't found any this year.

I'll be watching Thruxton on catchup too - at least most of the supports are decent (no Radicals).

[Trebor902]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Normally testing starts at 9am and runs until about 4pm. Each series gets two 45-minute sessions.

No sooner than I'd posted here thruxton put a post up on their Facebook page thanks for the info though

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

I've not found single races anywhere on ITV X sadly. I've been watching the whole meeting on catchup but not in one go. Unfortunately that means forwarding through to get back to where I was each time because ITV X doesn't remember where I'd got to (and will often crash). It's a hugely frustrating experience.

Previous seasons had separate BTCC and support highlights programs but I haven't found any this year.

I'll be watching Thruxton on catchup too - at least most of the supports are decent (no Radicals).

Ahh that's a shame, will need to survive this or not watch at all anyway, thank you!

It's really about time ITV finally did something to make the experience better and more suitable to 2020s..

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

That's true in recent years. Hopefully he doesn't have 2017 levels of form this time.

No, he has come a long way from that. That season he seemed to lose his head in the MG, but now he seems a lot more cool headed and we've seen him give some great performances. He's the only one to get decent results in that Honda this year for example

[SSmith]

FP1 finished. Josh Cook fastest by 0.469 seconds from Ash Sutton. As ever, hard to read anything into the times, but the usual suspects were towards the front.


Top 10:

Cook
Sutton
Ingram
Hill
Butcher
Cammish
Taylor-Smith
Turkington
Lloyd
Jelley

I must also draw attention to Halstead being 7.2 seconds off the pace (for reference, 26th placed Hamilton was 3.3 off). He managed 12 laps and took the chequered flag (comparable to most in the session) so I wonder if the engine issues from Snetterton have returned.

[Evantra]

By a huge margin though, so either they’ve unlocked something with the Civic, or Cook really is just insanely quick round Thruxton!

Originally Posted by SSmith

I must also draw attention to Halstead being 7.2 seconds off the pace (for reference, 26th placed Hamilton was 3.3 off). He managed 12 laps and took the chequered flag (comparable to most in the session) so I wonder if the engine issues from Snetterton have returned.

Sounds on par with his normal pace seems a long time to stay out if there was a problem though.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by Evantra

By a huge margin though, so either they’ve unlocked something with the Civic, or Cook really is just insanely quick round Thruxton!

I think the latter, although they must have found something by now on that car. OneMotorsport seems like a team of talented/knowledgeable people.

Originally Posted by Evantra

Sounds on par with his normal pace seems a long time to stay out if there was a problem though.

Yes... In the speed traps he was 7mph off in I1, roughly on-par in I2, and 5mph off at the Finish Line.

[SSmith]

Speed trap figures.