[BTCC] Snetterton 20/21 May 2023, Rds. 7/8/9

[AnnoyedMoose]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Do the MSV / Silverstone rounds offer live TV coverage?

MSVR races are generally live streamed on YouTube and Facebook. Some rounds the coverage is on par with TV and others it's a lot of fixed cameras.

Is the live TV coverage worth £600-£700 to the average competitor though?

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by AnnoyedMoose

MSVR races are generally live streamed on YouTube and Facebook. Some rounds the coverage is on par with TV and others it's a lot of fixed cameras.

Is the live TV coverage worth £600-£700 to the average competitor though?

Nobody forces them to go I suspect when Ginetta bailed TOCA were overwhelmed with series wanting to be part of the show. Why the constant griping about TOCA? Without them British motorsport wound still be in the 80's

[AnnoyedMoose]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Nobody forces them to go I suspect when Ginetta bailed TOCA were overwhelmed with series wanting to be part of the show. Why the constant griping about TOCA? Without them British motorsport wound still be in the 80's

Not griping. Just posing a question as to whether the extra money is worth it purely for TV coverage. It certainly wouldn't be for me but I can see it might be for the increasing number of club competitors who seem to have multiple sponsors these days.

There's also track time to consider. Look at the last round. It's certainly not the BTCC that loses track time even when they are the cause of the delays. Different strokes for different folks.

[S griffin]

It's nice that they have a variety of different support races this year. Gives exposure to other series rather than just the regulars

[Sodemo]

The Vectras of the late 90s were perhaps my fav supports, then the Fiestas and Clios.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Entry list for this weekend

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...d-18.05.23.pdf

22 British F4 - [...] addition to the championship of the Italian Matteo De Palo at Chris Dittmann Racing.

Apologies for an error here from me (it seems there is an error in the entry list pdf that I took as gospel without checking). Matteo De Palo will be racing for Phinsys by Argenti NOT Chris Dittmann Racing.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by S griffin

It's nice that they have a variety of different support races this year. Gives exposure to other series rather than just the regulars

Agreed, it has been nice. I wonder what the format will be next year? British F4 has confirmed that (unlike this year) all 10 of their rounds will support BTCC in 2024 and I think the MINI JCW/MINI Trophy as well as the two Porsche series have contracts running with TOCA until 2025 or 2026.

[redshoes]

https://www.btcc.net/2023/05/18/wide...at-snetterton/

I case anyone had forgotten (I had), it's a double option tyre weekend. Drivers have to use a different compound of tyre (soft/medium/hard) in each race.

Also it's regular qualifying this week, no top ten shootout.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by redshoes

https://www.btcc.net/2023/05/18/wide...at-snetterton/

I case anyone had forgotten (I had), it's a double option tyre weekend. Drivers have to use a different compound of tyre (soft/medium/hard) in each race.

Also it's regular qualifying this week, no top ten shootout.

I enjoy the shootout and the variation in tyre choices, but I feel this season that there is almost too much going on. This season we have had shootout and 1 tyre at DON, shootout and option tyre at BHI, and regular qualifying and double option tyre at SNE.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

The Vectras of the late 90s were perhaps my fav supports, then the Fiestas and Clios.

I vaguely remember the Vectra series.
A quick search doesn't get me more info. Grid size? How much bph?

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by SSmith

I enjoy the shootout and the variation in tyre choices, but I feel this season that there is almost too much going on. This season we have had shootout and 1 tyre at DON, shootout and option tyre at BHI, and regular qualifying and double option tyre at SNE.

Yes agreed. Didn’t even realise that was how they were doing the tyres this year, is it just for Snett or other rounds as well?

Especially with the already confusing hybrid, they just need to keep it the same every round.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by FIRE

I vaguely remember the Vectra series.
A quick search doesn't get me more info. Grid size? How much bph?

http://www.vectrachallenge.com/
Based on the 2.5l V6 SRi. 28 cars were built, typically grids of 15-20 cars

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Yes agreed. Didn’t even realise that was how they were doing the tyres this year, is it just for Snett or other rounds as well?

Double option at Snet and Croft. Thruxton is hard tyres only. Everywhere else is single option.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Double option at Snet and Croft. Thruxton is hard tyres only. Everywhere else is single option.

Thank you

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by AnnoyedMoose

MSVR races are generally live streamed on YouTube and Facebook. Some rounds the coverage is on par with TV and others it's a lot of fixed cameras.

Is the live TV coverage worth £600-£700 to the average competitor though?

the extra includes the friday testing at toca weekends

so an extra £600 including the friday testing and big crowds and live tv is a bit of bargain which is probably why they have so many cars

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by FIRE

I vaguely remember the Vectra series.
A quick search doesn't get me more info. Grid size? How much bph?

I think they were about 220BHP.

[Trebor902]

Kind of feel they're going quite hard for the manufactured variation of results this season. Especially with running 3 tyre compounds. It's touring cars not f1.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Trebor902

Kind of feel they're going quite hard for the manufactured variation of results this season. Especially with running 3 tyre compounds. It's touring cars not f1.

its not new
theyve run three compounds at snetterton before

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by redshoes

http://www.vectrachallenge.com/
Based on the 2.5l V6 SRi. 28 cars were built, typically grids of 15-20 cars

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I think they were about 220BHP.

Thanks

[S griffin]

When I first went to a BTCC meeting in 98 the Vectras were on the bill. And little did I know at the time, but I can say I was there when Button scored his first car race win.

[v8supes]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Entry list for this weekend

https://www.barc.net/wp-content/uplo...d-18.05.23.pdf

22 MINI JCWs - a warm one-off welcome-back to 2022 champion Sam Weller. No Ryan Faulconbridge this weekend.

22 British F4 - return of Noah Lisle to Carlin, addition to the championship of the Italian Matteo De Palo at Chris Dittmann Racing.

18 Porsche Sprint Challenge - the grid looks to be the same as at Donington Rd. 1, minus Dimitris Melas.

27 Radicals - 9 SR3 Pros, 8 SR3 Fangios, 6 SR1 Pros, 4 SR1 Rookies. One interesting name on the grid is former WSBK, BSB and MotoGP rider Sylvain Guintoli

Hope the Radical races are much better than usual, normally they are very spread out affairs. Interesting to see Gunitoli step up to a Radical so quickly, it was only a few weeks ago he was racing MX5s at Silverstone

EDIT: Top 3 in the Radical qualifying were within 0.2 seconds but then P4 was 1.5 seconds back.. 20 seconds covering the field.

Track limits seem like a HUGE issue again this weekend.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by v8supes

Hope the Radical races are much better than usual, normally they are very spread out affairs. Interesting to see Gunitoli step up to a Radical so quickly, it was only a few weeks ago he was racing MX5s at Silverstone

EDIT: Top 3 in the Radical qualifying were within 0.2 seconds but then P4 was 1.5 seconds back.. 20 seconds covering the field.

Track limits seem like a HUGE issue again this weekend.

I think there's only 1 live Radical race on ITV4 so if it's a procession there's only one live race to endure. 20 secs is a lot, they've got a 30mins race so there will be some lapped runners even at Snetterton - at that speed I think the leaders would lap last place twice.

As for track limits - I wonder how many deleted laps we'll get this afternoon?

[SSmith]

Two practice sessions down. Sutton fastest in FP1 (1min 54.952s), Cammish fastest in FP2 (1min 55.814s).

Hard to read too much into the practice times, especially with the fastest FP1 lap being nearly 1sec faster than the fastest FP2 lap. TSL wasn't giving information on tyre compounds being used.

From FP1 - Sutton was fastest by nearly 7 tenths from Cammish. Everyone set laps except Halstead.

From FP2 - NAPA seem very strong - all 4 cars in the top 5 in FP2. Cook only 3 tenths off the top in the Honda. Halstead more than 6 seconds off the pace. No running from Thompson.

Other things I noticed. No Toyota in the top 10 in either session. The best CUPRA in both sessions was Dan Lloyd - 15th in FP1 and 18th in FP2. Maybe Snetterton doesn't suit the CUPRA?

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Two practice sessions down. Sutton fastest in FP1 (1min 54.952s), Cammish fastest in FP2 (1min 55.814s).

Hard to read too much into the practice times, especially with the fastest FP1 lap being nearly 1sec faster than the fastest FP2 lap. TSL wasn't giving information on tyre compounds being used.

From FP1 - Sutton was fastest by nearly 7 tenths from Cammish. Everyone set laps except Halstead.

From FP2 - NAPA seem very strong - all 4 cars in the top 5 in FP2. Cook only 3 tenths off the top in the Honda. Halstead more than 6 seconds off the pace. No running from Thompson.

Other things I noticed. No Toyota in the top 10 in either session. The best CUPRA in both sessions was Dan Lloyd - 15th in FP1 and 18th in FP2. Maybe Snetterton doesn't suit the CUPRA?

Thompson was out with an engine change in that one.

Yeah all 4 Fords in the top 5 is looking ominous. Think they were really the only ones to do substantial pre-season testing here, so could be a walkover tomorrow!

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Thompson was out with an engine change in that one.

Ah ok, thank you.

Originally Posted by Evantra

Yeah all 4 Fords in the top 5 is looking ominous. Think they were really the only ones to do substantial pre-season testing here, so could be a walkover tomorrow!

Whilst the BMW didn't seem too far off in FP2, I think NAPA are definitely the team to beat this weekend. Could one of the NAPA Ford drivers become the first driver since Plato in '09 to win three races in one day?