British Touring Cars Championship Snetterton

Images by Ryan Frost of Lincs Media

20-21 May 2023

The British Touring Cars returned to a sunny Snetterton for Round 3 of the season 10 round championship last weekend with PistonClick photographer Ryan Frost there to capture the action. His brief, as it is for most of the articles submitted to the site, is to record the event in a photojournalism style, capturing the events of the day from the spectator’s view point so you can visualise what goes on at a BTCC meeting.

To start us off here are some PistonClick random facts about the track. The BTCC have been using the 2.97 mile Snetterton circuit for over 50 years with the first race in 1959, so they are no strangers to the Norfolk track. In 2011 the track was extended resulting in two of the longest straights in the BTCC racing calendar.

At this meeting Ash Sutton took the lap record posting a fastest lap of 1:54.871, and he went even better in qualifying, with a 1:54.526. There are 12 corners, my favourites as a photographer being Brundle, Nelson and Murrays, with the start finish on the Senna Straight producing some nice pictures. At all of the meetings there is a pit walk with plenty of opportunities to meet the drivers for autographs, selfies and a bit of paparazzi action.

So what can you expect on track if you are visiting Snetterton as a spectator or photographer for a round of the BTCC? The first thing is that Snetterton is a great circuit to spectate from. There is little in the way of catch fencing so you get an unobscured view, and there are some great raised areas so you are not stuck behind a load of people being unable to see.

This is important as BTCC is a popular race series and so attracts large crowds, which was evident last weekend. Our photographer’s guide to Snetterton, showing the best locations to view the action and with maps, can be found here to help you out if you are a first time visitor.

The second thing is the fast, close and exciting racing from the 26 touring cars that will line up on the grid for three races over the two days that the event is held. The cars are evenly matched which ensures close racing, but how is this achieved? It’s all to do with the Hybrid era which arrived in BTCC last year to make it the first Touring Car Championship in the world to integrate Hybrid power into the race cars. 

So how does it work? In the past BTCC has used a basic ballast system for making the racing close and competitive. The better your results are, the more weight you carry in the car, which means that no one team runs off with the championship and ensures close racing all season.

The Hybrid system works in the same manner, as the battery storage box replaces the ballast system so now the cars are not limited by carrying extra weight. If they are successful they are given more power, some more, some less. 

So how does this keep the racing close? The Hybrid system will give a BTCC race car a maximum of 15 seconds of extra boost which equates to a 15 meter advantage over a car not deploying the Hybrid system. Again, how does this stop one team running away with the season?

Well the Hybrid System is controlled by the driver so they can use the full charge or part of it so driver input, tactics and race strategy will come into play. And just like adding extra ballast, the Hybrid system is also managed and is imaginatively called the Hybrid Energy Management System (HEM).

The amount and duration of HEMs deployments will be regulated depending on how successful a driver is, and the number of laps completed. It can’t be used on the first lap or after the safety car has gone in again for one lap. The speed of the car is also regulated for its use and it can only be utilised when a car reaches a predetermined speed. There are a load of other rules, but basically a driver could have 15 seconds of HEMS or zero!

For the spectators information only there are lights in the three quarter side windows that flash when the HEMs is used to help determine who is deploying the system. All of this adds to the action, and it helps when you are track side to give you the heads up when someone is going to make a move.

For example, on race two Ash Sutton had one second of Hybrid to use when he reached 135kph in one lap as he was on pole, whereas Josh Cook on row five in eighth place had 15 seconds to use in 8 laps when he reached 115kph.

Third reason to go and watch the BTCC at Snetterton is that there is a great support race card that runs alongside the BTCC. This includes the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB with 17 cars, the Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE with 22 cars, for single seat open cockpit fans the ROKiT F4 British Championship Certified by FIA with 22 cars on the grid and the Hagerty Radical Cup UK with 27 cars.

That’s a total of 114 cars. However, this being BTCC and there is always a bit of “contact” over the weekend, there won’t be 114 serviceable cars by the last race on Sunday! 

So to conclude, if you have searched the WWW and found this site the BTCC and its support races are a colourful series, with some great liveries for the photographers, plenty of action for spectators, fans and snappers alike and at Snetterton great viewing areas to watch the action unfold.

Get yourself along to next year’s BTCC meeting you won’t be disappointed or head to Thruxton on the 3rd and 4th of June 2023 for the next round.