btcc:action Report: SEAT rule supreme at Snetterton

by Andrew Abbott

There was no surprise with SEAT’s form at Snetterton as Jason Plato romped to two wins, whilst Mat Jackson was there to pick up the pieces in race three when it eventually all came crashing down for the SEAT Sport team.

After a highly impressive two days testing at the Norfolk track on the 24th and 25th of June in which both SEAT Leon TDi’s absolutely dominated, there was a familir feel to both practice sessions on Saturday. Jason Plato and Darren Turner put their diesels at the very front of the grid, thanks to the well-suited nature of the Snetterton circuit to the Leon TDi’s strong points. They continued the form in qualifying to make it an all-SEAT front row for the first time this year.

Team Halfords also had a strong qualifying session, with their cars lining up third and fifth respectively for Gordon Shedden and Tom Chilton. The two Civics were prevented from starting alongside each other by the ever-present championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi, who set fourth fastest time despite some earlier troubles and carrying the maximum 45kg of success ballast.

Round 16

Before the race even began there was a casualty with Robertshaw Racing driver Alan Taylor being forced to pull off after losing a wheel, something that had already happened in the qualifying session on Saturday.

As the lights went out it couldn’t have been ay better for Jason Plato - with his and team-mate Turner’s SEATs getting away cleanly and championship rival Giovanardi suffering an awful start as his Vectra wheel-spinned off the line and into ninth place by the first turn.

At the end of the first lap the SEATs had begun to open up a small gap from the rest of the field, which was being headed by the Team Halfords Hondas of Tom Chilton and Gordon Shedden. Further back Colin Turkington and Tom Onslow-Cole were disputing fifth place, with the Team RAC driver holding the position.

The lead which the SEATs had been trying to build up was wiped out at the end of the second lap as the safety car was called on to slow the field. At Sear corner the car of Andrew Jordan was in the corn field after he suffered brake problems and was sent flying off the circuit. “The brake pedal went to the floor”, he explained. “It goes so far that it puts a lot of rear brake bias into the car, so that threw me into the field at Sear. I’m pretty glad it happened there and not going into the Esses.” John George and Martyn Bell also had incidents at the same corner, and further around the lap Michael Doyle pulled off with steering damage.

The restart saw racing resume where it was left, with the lead cars of Plato and Turner using their top speed advantage to edge clear of Chilton. “The turbo diesels were just too hot down the straights”, admitted Chilton later on.

The top six positions would remain the same until the end of the race, handing SEAT their first 1-2 result of the season as the SEAT Turbo Diesels proved why they were the favourites going into the weekend at a circuit that was always expected to be the strongest for SEAT. “[It] was how you’d write it down on a piece of paper – perfect”, summarised second-placed man Turner. “We were surprised how quick the Hondas were, but Jason and I were able to keep ahead of them and score a strong one-two finish, scoring the sort of big points in the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championships that we were looking for.”

Giovanardi had a tough time making up the places he had lost at the start, and was running in eigth for much of the race. He moved up to seventh on lap 10 with a superb pass on Motorbase Performance driver Steven Kane, sweeping around the outside at the high-speed Riches corner at the start of the lap. However the Italian couldn’t make any further inroads towards the top of the pack and had to settle for seventh at the flag.

Motorbase Performance were having a strong run with Kane and Rob Collard managing to finish inside the top 10 together for the second time this year in 8th and 9th.

Mat Jackson, who went into the race meeting in third overall in both the drivers standings and independent drivers standings, had a troubled run to 15th position. A couple of offs on successive laps at the esses as a result of contact with Matt Neal and Adam Jones effectively ended his chances of challenging for any points in a race that had a relatively low attrition rate.

Round 17

The grid for race two of the day would take the form of the results of race one, meaning that the SEATs once again locked out the front row of the grid, although this time Plato had 27kg more ballast at 45kg, with Turner carrying ballast for the first time with 36kg.

And the effect of the ballast was evident at the start as neither SEAT got away as quickly as they did in race one. With Turner looking to the outside of Plato through Riches and Sear this left him vulnerable to Chilton, who muscled alongside. However once again for the Honda driver the top speed of the diesel car allowed Turner to edge back in front along the Revett straight, the extra 3-4mph proving crucial. Chilton wasn’t going to give up, and when Turner made a slight mistake he edged past at Coram to take second.

It would be a shortlived pass for Chilton, for as soon as the cars began the drag along the Revett straight, the UK’s longest, he was helpless against the top speed of the SEAT Leon TDi. Chilton lost out again only a few corners later, this time to team mate Gordon Shedden, as he appeared to struggle with the cars handling.

Giovanardi, who had moved up from seventh on the grid now that he wasn’t carrying any success ballast, immediately piled the pressure on Chilton through Riches, lightly touching the back of the Civic and lifting the car onto two wheels over the kerbs. This unsettling of the car put him into the clutches of Colin Turkington and the two Motorbase cars, and the group headed off down the Revett straight all battling for fourth place. Entering the esses, Turkington and Collard got in front, whilst Chilton tapped Giovanardi into a huge slide pitching him onto the grass. Meanwhile Matt Neal, who had been waiting at the back of the group, benefitted three positions in the process.

Tom Chilton would lose out the most on lap three, suffering a front left puncture dropping him back to 22nd and last. Giovanardi hadn’t fared much better from the action and found himself in fourteenth at the end of the lap.

The close action continued aplenty on lap four and unfortunately for Andrew Jordan it would spell the end of his race when he made contact with Harry Vaulkhard at the bomb hole. The incident began at the esses as Vaulkhard got into a slide and lost speed, allowing Jordan and Doyle to pull up alongside. However three into one at the bomb hole didn’t go, with Andrew ultimately losing out.

The other Jordan, Mike, was also under pressure and lost out to Adam Jones and Giovanardi, who was flying and up to eighth from fourteenth. His team mate Tom Onslow-Cole was edging to-and-fro around tenth position during the early stages of the race before losing the car under braking at the esses and dropping to the tail of the field. Another spin later on meant that he would finish the race down in fourteenth place.

The third Vauxhall, driven by Neal, was having a consistent race and was in sixth position and under pressure from Steven Kane when the BMW driver tapped the Vectra into a high speed slide through Riches. Neal held the car, which was at one point 90 degrees to the track, but lost position to both Kane and Giovanardi. He dropped to eighth but would later recover to finish fifth.

The race was briefly neutralised on lap 16 to allow marshals to move the tyres on the inside of the Russell chicane back into position. Just a few minutes later SEATs dream of a second 1-2 finish would be dashed with Turner immediately suffering a left front puncture at the restart. With the problem occurring so late in the race after a safety car period, he could do no better than to come home in 19th and last.

Gordon Shedden had been running in third for most of the race and had a comfortable 2 second lead over Turkington before the safety car came out. But after the safety car period he was under intense pressure from the Team RAC driver and succumbed on lap 16, dropping to seventh. “That was so frustrating,” he said after the race. “We had the pace in the car and I was pushing as hard as I could when I ran wide and had to quickly gather it back up off the grass!”

But it was another dominant win for Plato by over 3 seconds at the chequered flag. Turkington took second and Giovanardi completed the podium after having passed Collard towards the end with a late-breaking move into the chicane. “Considering everything, I have to be happy with third,” commented the Italian after his eventful race.

Also of note at the end was the continued strong performance of the Motorbase team, Collard and Kane finishing fourth and sixth in what was by far the best meeting of their season to date.

Jason Plato selected number 8 for the reverse grid for race 3, placing him eighth and Gordon Shedden on pole position.

Round 18

It was the rear-wheel drive BMWs that got off to their customary good starts, with Mat Jackson taking the lead and Steven Kane following him through into second. At the end of the second lap the two BMWs led, followed by the Honda of Gordon Shedden which was continuing to show competitive pace.

It was around lap three that SEATs troubles began, with Darren Turner reporting troubles with his car’s engine. He managed to limp around to the finish in 16th and last, picking up points for SEAT in the manufacturers championship, but was otherwise out of the race. “I picked up a few places on the opening lap and was looking good before an electrical problem kicked in,” he explained. “The car was misfiring badly, but I just had to try and get to the end of the race to score some points for SEAT in the Manufacturers’ Championship.”

In stark contrast to the earlier events of the day, Plato also had a problem similar to Turner and was forced to retire. It had become a disappointing end to the day for Plato and SEAT. Plato explained: “I almost stalled leaving the grid for the green flag lap and I struggled to get away from the line in the race proper. Something wasn’t right from the start, and the misfire just got worse as the race progressed.” He was eventually black flagged for excessive diesel smoke pouring from the back of his car.

Gordon Shedden had been hoping for a strong performance in the final race, but running wide on lap 5 and slight contact with Kane’s car spelt the end of his race with minor steering damage and he was forced to retire. Chilton, who lists Snetterton as his favourite circuit, drove a solid race from 15th on the grid to finish 7th at the end. “That was awesome,” he said. “The car felt great and I was able to push on and drive through the field. A few more laps and I could have been at the sharp end!”

Shedden’s retirement promoted Giovanardi to third and he would remain there to the end of the race. With the news that Plato was out, the championship leader had no need to push too hard and settled for his second podium finish of the day. “Having two third place finishes is successful for the team in terms of points, and we leave Snetterton having fought well to defend our titles,” said Giovanardi.

The third race would prove to be Vauxhall’s best of the day, as Neal and Onslow-Cole followed Giovanardi home in fourth and fifth to reduce the damage inflicted by SEAT in the manufacturer’s points standings.

So in many respects the race result was decided at the start, as the two BMW drivers used their grid position, superior traction off the line and their ballast-free cars to control the race. Mat Jackson took his second win of the season in style, holding off a superb drive from Steven Kane and winning by 7 tenths of a second. Kane, and his Motorbase Performance team, were ecstatic at having scored their best ever finish in the BTCC after the team’s most successful weekend in the championship. “”It’s what we’ve been working for all year and I was glad to bring it home second for the team,” said Kane. “The car was excellent; I was catching Mat, but Giovanardi was behind me and I didn’t want to risk losing second place by challenging for the lead.”

At the end of the day, despite taking two wins, Jason Plato only managed to reduce the points gap to Fabrizio Giovanardi by 7 points. With Matt Neal still second overall in the championship, perhaps it is time to consider the second Vauxhall as the biggest threat to the Italian’s championship defence. Despite only the one win this year, Neal’s consistent finishing has kept him up there in the championship and as long as the small issues continue to hang around the SEAT garage it is hard to see how the team can challenge for the title.