SEAT could clinch the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship Manufacturers’ title for the first time at Brands Hatch this weekend – but with up to 26 cars racing in the biggest BTCC field for a decade, merely avoiding other people’s accidents and reaching the chequered flag unscathed will be deemed a success around the tight and undulating 1.3 mile Indy Circuit.
The last time SEAT Sport UK raced at Brands Hatch was back in April, when it won all three BTCC races at the Kent track and scored a memorable clean-sweep of victories. The SEAT Leon’s superior chassis clearly works well there, and anything approaching the results achieved earlier in the season would give SEAT the BTCC title in only its third year of competing.
With the top cars lapping the shortest circuit in the BTCC calendar in less than 50 seconds, finding an unobstructed lap on Saturday to qualify well will be extremely important – especially as three incident filled races on Sunday are virtually guaranteed. SEAT has qualified first and second in the two previous BTCC races (at Snetterton and Knockhill) and on a Brands Hatch circuit that’s difficult to overtake on, it will be aiming to monopolise the front row once again and exploit the Leon’s superior handling characteristics with a clean track ahead – until lapping back-markers comes into play! SEAT showed great race pace during its last visit to Brands Hatch, with James Thompson’s best racing lap of 49:235 just 0.009 seconds slower than Yvan Muller’s lap record, which the Frenchman set back in 2001.
Newlywed Jason Plato won at Brands Hatch in April and will be spearheading the team’s assault again – watched for the first time by his new wife, Mrs. Sophie Plato! Jason’s SEAT Leon has been completed rebuilt following his Knockhill shunt, which bent every panel on the car, apart from the rear-left corner.
As James will be racing for the Spanish SEAT Sport team in the FIA World Touring Car Championship in Istanbul this weekend, Darren Turner will come straight from a great performance at Knockhill for his first ever back-to-back BTCC race meetings. Having had two second place results taken away from him in Scotland, Darren is aiming to win, and this time keep, some more podium silverware.
SEAT arrives at Brands Hatch 92 points ahead of Vauxhall in the Manufacturers’ standings. With just three races at Silverstone remaining after this weekend, and a maximum of 81 points available at each race meeting, SEAT can actually lose ground to its nearest rival and still win the title on Sunday.
Jason said: “I’ve never been happier in my life than I am right now, so I’m really looking forward to going to Brands Hatch and starting my first race as a married man! We’re on the verge of winning the Manufacturers’ title for SEAT and we can still win the Teams’ cup, but the job’s not over yet and we have to remain very focused. The Leon works well around the Indy Circuit and earlier in the year we completely dominated the race meeting. But the racing’s extremely close at Brands Hatch and it’s easy to get caught up in somebody else’s accident – and it’s all too easy to get punted into a wall and score no points, as happened to us there in April 2004.
“Qualifying on Saturday will be very important and one of our main aims heading into the weekend will be to get on pole. I think Darren and I have a very good chance of repeating what we’ve done at Snetterton and Knockhill recently and qualify first and second. When we’ve had a good qualifying session this year we’ve had a good race day, and when we haven’t race day has been very difficult. So Saturday’s qualifying session is just as important to us as race day is, and in many ways I’d say it’s even more important. We’ve had an awful lot of bad luck this year and we’re still leading the Manufacturers’ Championship, so I’m pretty confident that we can achieve something very special this weekend.”
Darren said: “I haven’t been back to America to race in the ALMS since my last BTCC outing, so it’s not like I’ll have to dial my way back into the SEAT Leon like I have had to do, so coming straight from racing it at Knockhill will be a big help. It’s my first back-to-back British Touring Car race, so I’m really looking forward to Brands Hatch. We know the Leon works well around the Indy Circuit, so maybe we can have the same qualifying performance that we had at Knockhill and a little bit more luck in the races.
“Brands Hatch always makes for close racing and close lap times, so I don’t expect an easy ride down there at all. Knockhill was the first time I’d driven a touring car in the wet and I really enjoyed it, so even though I’d not one hundred percent in tune with the car yet, I’m learning all the time and there is less and less I’m unfamiliar with. I haven’t raced at Brands Hatch since 1998, but the circuit hasn’t changed and it won’t be a problem. The main thing at Brands Hatch is to score Manufacturer points, but if an opportunity comes up for me to win a race I’ll grab it.”
The BTCC race weekend at Brands Hatch begins with two 40 minute free practice sessions on Saturday 23rd September, starting at 09.30 and 11.50, followed by a 30 minute qualifying session starting at 15.20. Rounds 25, 26 and 27 of the BTCC take place on Sunday 24th September, with the three 24 lap races starting at 11.20, 13.20 and 15.50.
Motors TV (Sky 413, ntl 173) will be broadcasting live throughout race day, while ITV1 will show recorded highlights of the first two races and the third race live on Sunday afternoon.
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