British Touring Car Championship 2021 

A session through my lens

Report & Photos by Chris Pearson of CPe FOTO.

I make it no secret that I have the dream to be a full-time photographer. To be able to support my family and pay the bills with photography is a goal that I strive for every day. At the front of that dream would be to be a full time motorsport photographer covering the BTCC!

I have had a love of motorsport since childhood, watching BTCC and F1 on the TV and even on a shoe-string budget, competed in karting for 2 years in the RAF, and had a little taste of Rallycross in a Mk3 Escort in the late 90’s. 

Photography came into my life, with any kind of seriousness, in 2015 after purchasing an Olympus OM-D E-M10ii twin lens kit. 

I set about my journey learning as much as I could as often as I could, and ended up back at the track in 2018 supporting a local disabled racing driver with photography. 

After an awesome opportunity in May 2019 of being a guest at Thruxton with Olympus UK and Power Maxed Racing, my childhood love for BTCC was very much rekindled. I vowed to myself that I would do my best to attend as many BTCC events as I could!

Time, budget and other commitments thwarted those attempts for the rest of the 2019 season, but I was ready to rock for 2020! Well, we all know what happened there don’t we?! 

So, on to 2021. I was all set to cover as much BTCC as I could and, as so often with my endevours, my shoe-string budget had to be the priority boundary for what I could do.

Ticket, fuel and a lunch box full of sustenance was all I took with me, other than my camera gear of course! Even so, I feel that I am very lucky to have attended 5 of the 10 rounds, although 3 of them were only for the qualifying day! 

The season started out at Thruxton, with Snetterton and Brands Hatch Indy to follow but for these first three events I was a sofa fan! The first event for me to attend was at Oulton Park, which can only be described as a spectator photographer’s dream!

Almost full circuit access both inside and outside the track gives so many great opportunities for making great images. As soon as the cars hit the track, the adrenaline and heart rate rose! Being in attendance for Dan Rowbottom’s maiden victory was a great memory that I will hold onto.

The next event for me, following the touring cars trip north of the border to Knockhill, was a return to Thruxton. Whilst there are some good spots for making images from the spectator areas, I have to say that it isn’t a patch on Oulton Park.

All in all, it was a good day with some memories made, such as Tim Harvey’s guest drive in the Porsche Carrera GB Cup and Paul Rivett making a return to the BTCC grid in place of Andy Neate who was recovering from Covid. 

After a little break, missing Croft, I rejoined the action at Silverstone, which was quite a historic weekend. Andrew Jordan was back on the grid but not to race! He was piloting the Hybrid Toyota Gazoo Racing Corolla in the ‘Race Weekend’ trial. 2022 will see major changes to the BTCC with all teams running cars with an electric boost to aid with both attacking and defending. 

This weekend was to put the new car through its paces and to see how all the necessary agencies managed a high intensity race weekend where time is of the essence.

The Silverstone weekend also marked the 50thAnniversary of the BTCC’s relationship with KwikFit and commemorative boards were all around for people to see. 

Photographically, Silverstone is a bit of a pain for the spectator photographer. Fences, fences, fences! Almost everywhere you thought might be a good shooting location, fences were blocking the way. 

Another Qualifying day visit (as per Thruxton and Silverstone), I headed to Donington to capture some images of the Touring Cars and the TOCA Support classes from there. I found that Donny was quite good for spectator togs with quite a lot of opportunity, especially after Silverstone. 

I’m not going to lie, after 3 years of shooting as an accredited photographer at Castle Combe Race Circuit, I was getting frustrated about missing out on some of the trackside shooting positions at all of the circuits I visited for BTCC. 

Finally, we are on to the Brands Hatch GP Circuit finals! For this event, I had a weekend ticket to experience both the qualifying and race day action, and a cheap room for the Saturday night which turned out to be a back room of an Indian Restaurant! 

It was well kitted out with a nice bed, shower and good décor but was still what it was! I’ll go into more detail about this weekend as there was several moments that will stay with me for a long time.

First and foremost was the fact that Ash Sutton was crowned the BTCC 2021 Champion after Race 2 results meant that no-one could catch him on the points. Following his crowning after Race 2, he went on to lead most of Race 3 and win the final race of the season. 

Another amazing moment was during the BTCC Race 1 Podium celebrations. As the National Anthem was playing for Josh Cook’s victory, the Porsche Challenge GB grid all started revving their engines for the start of their race. It was goosebumps inducing and almost made me feel patriotic for a minute! 

After the long four and a half hour drive home, I was happy with the images captured and (as normal) spent the next week of evenings editing all the keepers. 

I’m hoping to find work for next year’s season (with a media pass) so I can make a good selection of images to document the first year of the Hybrid Era in BTCC. If you know of anyone needing photographic services through the next season, please get in touch to discuss. 

Feel free to get in touch with Chris via the links to discuss your ideas for a project no matter how big or small.