Rounds 19, 20 and 21 of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton 300 Circuit await Motorbase Performance this coming Sunday, 14th August, where the Wrotham team is determined to continue its momentum after a memorable first victory of the season last time out.
Just over a week ago at Knockhill in Scotland, reigning and three-time BTCC Champion Ash Sutton brilliantly hustled his No.1 Ford Focus ST to a stunning win in round 17 – the first ever success in touring cars for entrant NAPA Racing UK.
Notably too, he will arrive in Norfolk a few days from now only six points shy of championship leader Colin Turkington and a single point behind second place. With four events still to run, including the visit to Snetterton, his bid for a remarkable fourth BTCC crown is very much a reality for Sutton in his maiden season with the Motorbase-run, Mountune powered Ford.
In the sister NAPA Racing UK car, class act Dan Cammish is still awaiting the turnaround in fortunes he so richly deserves after a character building season to end all character building seasons! As he proved at the mid-season Goodyear tyre test at Snetterton last month, where he was second fastest overall to Sutton but the quickest driver using the regular BTCC race tyre, Cammish has the speed.
While yet to truly unlock his potential in the No.9 Ford Focus, the reigning and three-time Porsche Carrera Cup GB Champion and multiple BTCC race winner is long overdue some good fortune and a competitive weekend, with a return to the podium, would be popular up and down the pitlane.
Sam Osborne produced some impressive drives at Knockhill, only just missing out on his second top 15 of the season, and the Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan entered driver was happy with his own performance. Striving for a bit more pace from his set-up, Osborne is hoping to put into practice all he learned at the Snetterton tyre test where he was coached by Le Mans winner Nick Tandy.
Much-like Cammish, Ollie Jackson has endured more than his share of bad luck and Knockhill was no exception when a power steering issue spoiled qualifying and an incident in race two led to a pit visit. He hit back well, though, and a strong recovery gave a clear indication of his true potential. With positives to take too from the tyre test, Jackson is looking forward to Snetterton’s races and aiming for points.
Oly Collins – Motorbase Performance Team Manager:
“On the back of the win at Knockhill, we’ve had the taste and now we’re hungry for more. We know the 2022 Focus is good around Snetterton from the recent test there, now we have to back that up when it matters. The forecast is that temperatures should be similar to when we were there last month, so what we all learned will be valid. Hopefully, Snetterton will also fair better for FWD cars than Knockhill did – we’ll see. I think Hybrid will be quite effective at Snetterton too, with plenty of opportunities to deploy on a long lap, so that will be interesting to manage over the weekend.”
Ash Sutton – NAPA Racing UK, No.1:
“It was nice to kick-start the second half of the season in a nice way at Knockhill, it’s a track I like and we managed to get the car in a good place. We learnt things good and bad at the Snetterton tyre test so we’ll just make sure we avoid the bad and, ultimately, we need to look at it more with an eye to what Dan [Cammish] was doing on the race tyre as he was quickest. When we did our ‘standard’ tyre run, if you like, we weren’t a million miles away so hopefully it can be a good weekend.”
Dan Cammish – NAPA Racing UK, No.9:
“The tyre test at Snetterton a couple of weeks ago went well for us, two very good and positive days, so that should give us a strong base to build from at the weekend. I’m looking forward to getting back to Snetterton, it’s a circuit I enjoy driving and I’ve gone well there in the past so we’ll be aiming for everything to come together and deliver a strong weekend. We’ve had some knocks this season so far but we’re all staying positive, keeping our focus – no pun intended – and looking forward.”
Ollie Jackson – Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan, No.48:
“During the recent tyre test at Snetterton we gained a lot of understanding of the set-up and so I’m hopeful we can put that into practice at the weekend. Knockhill was a disappointing weekend for us, but we had some terrible luck and it is such a unique track that it is always challenging to turn up with a fresh set-up and expect to hit the ground running. Snetterton is my old local circuit and has been one of my strongest tracks in the past with a win and a couple of podiums, so I’m optimistic we should get back up to where we deserve to be; in the points and challenging for the reverse grid.”
Sam Osborne – Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan, No.77:
“We had some good positives to take away from Knockhill, I was happy with how I was driving and the car was working well in the first two races. We did struggle for pace overall, though, so that’s something we need to try and change for Snetterton so we can get that much higher up the grid and have a fighting chance. We did make some good steps forward at the tyre test a few weeks back, so I’m hoping to put into practice what we learnt with Nick Tandy and push on from there.”
Free practice at Snetterton 300 will get underway at 09.30 on Saturday, 13th August, with session two following at 12.10 and qualifying commencing at 15.20 – the latter with live streaming online at www.itv.com/btcc
On Sunday, 14th August, round 19 is scheduled to start at 12.08, round 20 will follow at 14.15 and round 21 closes out the day’s track action at 17.10. The first two races will be screened live on the main ITV channel, with race three covered live on ITV4, and all will be streamed online as well.
2022 BTCC Drivers Championship
3rd Ash Sutton, 221pts; 11th Dan Cammish, 100pts; 22nd Ollie Jackson, 9pts; 25th Sam Osborne, 1pt
2022 BTCC Manufacturers/Constructors Championship
3rd Motorbase Performance/Ford, 414pts
2022 BTCC Teams Championship
3rd NAPA Racing UK, 321pts; 13th Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan, 14pts
2022 Jack Sears Trophy
4th Sam Osborne, 205pts
