British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) Test day at Croft - 10 Apr 2024

Report and Photography by Scott Grant

Pre-season testing for the BTCC is now complete, and the stage is set for this weekend’s opening round at Donington Park on the National circuit. The 20 drivers in 9 teams will compete for the championship over 30 races at ten events, visiting Brands Hatch and Donington Park twice to take on the very different Indy/National and GP circuits.

The strong line up of drivers this year sees all of the fan favourites returning for the challenging BTCC season. Tom Ingram (Team Bristol Street Motors), Colin Turkington (Team BMW) and Jake Hill (Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport) are all determined to take the BTTC crown away from last year’s champion Ash Sutton (NAPA Racing UK). 

New rules and regulations have been introduced this year, with the doubling of hybrid boost and a new qualifying format titled the ‘Quick Six’. This will see the cars set up in two groups of 10 for the initial qualifying session. The quickest six from each group will then make up the next 12-car qualifying grid. The top six will then fight it out in a final qualifying session over 10 minutes for the final top grid positions, the “Quick Six”.

Scott Grant went along to the recent Croft Test to check out the action for us where #14 Ronan Pearson in the EXCELR8 Motorsport Hyundai i30N Team Bristol Street Motors topped the time sheets. Jake Hill in the BMW 330e M Sport Laser Tools racing with ROKiT MB Motorsport was second fastest, with Colin Turkington in another BMW 330e M Sport, this time for the Team BMW.

From then on I went round to Hawthorn. There are still a couple of small holes in the fence here that I was able use to get my lens through. As this is just about a head-on shot I used a shutter speed of 1/800 to freeze the car.

Shortly after that I tried out the short straight just before Clervaux corner. You will have to shoot through the fencing here but if you get close to the fence and use a slow shutter speed the fence all but disappears. I used 1/160 here.

I finished my morning at Clervaux where I used a fast shutter speed of 1/800 to 1/1000 to freeze the cars. I also concentrated on composition, trying to get another car in the background which will fill the frame and make the photos more dynamic and interesting.

One of the final images I took is of Mikey Doble in the pits, where I used a shutter speed of 1/1000 to guarantee a clean crisp shot while he prepares himself for the next excursion on to track.

Over all I was pleased with my day out a Croft for the BTCC Test Day. Croft is a great track for the motorsports photographer with some good locations. To cap it off I came away with a few good pictures to add to my motorsports portfolio.

More information can be found about where to take photos at Croft Circuit at the PistonClick Croft Photographic guide.

Credit tsi.timing.com