Tyres the focus as the BTCC heads to Thruxton

The 2012 British Touring Car Championship heads to fastest track on the calendar, Thruxton, for the third event of the season.

As well as having a reputation for being a fast circuit, with cars expected to run at speeds approaching 150mph, Thruxton is known for its high speed corners and abrasive track surface. This makes tyre management crucial and may give the NGTC teams, whose cars are fitted with 18-inch tyres, an advantage over the cars of the S2000 teams, fitted with 17-inch tyres.

After an action packed opening two rounds, which have seen five different winners from six races, the driver’s championship is led by Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Jason Plato. Plato has taken three wins at this 2.36 mile circuit, most recently in 2011 when he recovered from a race one crash to win race three. Plato is looking forward to returning to the circuit in his NGTC MG6: “I just love Thruxton, of all the UK circuits we visit on the calendar, this is the one that gets your heart racing the most. It is a huge challenge for the drivers and engineers and interestingly the last time I had a perfect set-up for this circuit was in 2001, in a Triple Eight engineered car.”

Reigning champion Matt Neal is only four points behind Plato in the driver’s championship going into Thruxton. The Honda Yuasa Racing driver was also a race winner at this circuit in 2011 with his team mate Gordon Shedden the other. Both Shedden and Neal will be chasing their third Thruxton win having also won a race at the circuit in 2006. Neal believes that the new tyres will play an important role: “The 18-inch NGTC tyre is meant to be more bulletproof than the old one, but no-one has run the new tyre at the speed and with the weight we’ll have. On paper it should be better”

Unlike a number of the other cars on the grid, the NGTC Honda Civic’s turbo boost has not been increased for Thruxton. Shedden hopes that the car’s chassis will help negate any disadvantage of this: “You need a good, balanced chassis, but it’s the fastest track in the UK so you need straightline speed as well. The target is to score as many points as possible. I’m reasonably light [on ballast] so hopefully that will help in qualifying, then we’ll see how it pans out.”

Another two time Thruxton race winner on the grid will be Mat Jackson. After a difficult opening round the Motorbase Performance driver boosted his points balance at Donington with a race win and currently sits behind Shedden in the driver’s championship in sixth. Running an S2000 car, Jackson’s focus for the weekend is also on tyres: “At Thruxton it will be interesting to see how the NGTC cars perform with different tyres to us. It’s a track that always throws a few surprises so we’ll see what happens!”

West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard, a fellow S2000 runner, has compared his participation in the London Marathon last weekend to Thruxton: “In many ways the marathon requires the same concentration and focus as a touring car round, and I am aiming to achieve a podium finish for the eBay Motors team at Thruxton. It is a circuit that hasn’t been particularly kind to me in previous years but I am looking to stay in the Championship race with some strong results at my local track.”

Andrew Jordan who currently sits third in the driver’s championship will be one of the many drivers on the grid chasing their first Thruxton win. The Eurotech Racing driver was on the podium at Brands Hatch but has yet to take his first win of 2012 in the NGTC Honda Civic

The grid will be reduced to 22 cars at Thruxton with John Thorne announcing this week that he would not be running at the event.

Thruxton Timetable

Saturday 28th April
09:30 – 10:10 – Free Practice 1
12:15 – 12:55 – Free Practice 2
15:20 – 15:50 – Qualifying

Sunday 29th April
11:37 – Race One
14:22 – Race Two
17:17 – Race Three