[BTCC] Round Three, Brands Hatch Indy 26-27 Jun, Races 7,8&9

[crmalcolm]

The BTCC heads to Brands Hatch next, for the first visit of two this season. Typically used for opening rounds in recent years, the Indy circuit hosts the third meeting of 2021.


Brands has been a popular circuit for BTCC/BSCC meetings hosting no less than eight rounds and twelve championship races in the inaugural season. Given the association with series, it seems fitting that one of the class winners in the very first BSCC race was Jack Sears, with John Sprinzel the other class winner. That same day, Tommy Sopwith was also a class winner, and the two were tied at the end of the very first finals day, again at Brands Hatch before the shootout.
The layout back then would be very familiar to those racing this season, although with different corner names to those currently used. The design utilising the natural amphitheatre to create a layout that offers great viewing opportunities and significant elevation changes to challenge all types of racer.


The grid seems to have settled down after some early season shuffles and following a run for Jess Hawkins last time out, Andy Neate is due to step back into the Ford Focus.

The first time we saw NGTC machines running as constructor entries on the Indy circuit, the race wins were taken by Collard in a BMW, Neal in a Civic and Plato in an MG. The results were shared between RWD and FWD cars, and across a range of manufacturers. There appeared to be no specific advantage to any particular setup.

The most recent visit was in 2020 for finals day, which saw the first two race podiums shared between Cammish’s Honda, Sutton’s Infiniti and Ingram’s Corolla. Ingram also took a second place in the third race, with Butcher and Hill also claiming podium slots. Sutton took the title when all of the results were in, and he comes into this weekend bearing the #1 on his car and carrying the most ballast being in the lead of the championship. The likes of Butcher, Plato and Shedden will be hoping the ballast levels have a real impact and Sutton, Ingram and Turkington are not able to post a good qualifying time. The short circuit should mean that qualifying is tight, and fractions of a second could make a significant difference.


Qualifying is expected to be on the ITV Hub at www.itv.com/btcc, with the Sunday coverage on ITV4. The full timetable will be made available at - https://www.barc.net/event/toca-race...ds-hatch-indy/



Early weather forecast shows that Saturday is forecast to be 25deg with a 0% chance of rain and sunny.


Sunday 23deg with a 0% chance of rain and sunny.


The form table for the last 6 races at this layout shows the top five contenders ranked:

Position	Name	Points
1	Rory BUTCHER	73
2	Ash SUTTON	71
3	Tom INGRAM	69
4	Josh COOK	66
5	Jake HILL	64