NEWS // BRITISH TOURING CARS HEAD TO 'THE ROCK'

This weekend sees the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship visit the Rockingham circuit in Corby, UK for the second event of this years series. After producing its usual scintillating mix of action and excitement at the opening meeting of 2010 earlier this month, the championship visits a completely different type of circuit from the ultra fast sweeps of Thruxton... [read more]

The weekends action takes place on Rockingham’s International Sportscar Circuit which is a mixture of very slow and tight turns coupled together with a blast around turn one of the banked oval circuit.

With Italian Fabrizio Giovanardi having failed to secure the funding for a second outing in the Triple Eight Engineering Vectra, championship favourite Jason Plato heads into rounds 4-6 of the series looking to move to the top of the standings after a consistent if unspectacular start 3 weeks ago. 2001 BTCC champion Plato will be looking for a strong performance from his RML Chevrolet Cruze at the Northamptonshire venue which in WTCC trim is renowned for its agility on the tighter circuits. Indeed after 2 podiums at Thruxton the 42 yr old commented " Rockingham is where the my championship challenge will begin"

Having put in a fantastic performance in Qualifying at Thruxton with both cars finishing the tricky wet/dry session in the top three Team Honda will want to forget Thruxton after suffering tyre issues and incidents in two of the three races. Both Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal are expected to be pace setters around the Rockingham circuit where Shedden scored a race one victory with the Civic back in 2008.

After a stunning start to their season at Thruxton Airwaves BMW lead the teams championship ahead of this weekends action. Stephen Kane who took his first ever BTCC race victory three weeks ago along with teamate Mat Jackson will surely be the main threat to the leading front wheel drive cars with Jackson having tasted victory at the Northamptonshire circuit aboard a similar BMW two years ago.

For the NGTC Turbo engined Vauxhall Vectra of Andrew Jordan Rockingham cannot come soon enough after a weekend to forget at Thruxton. After securing a strong qualifying performance with 4th place the Vectra was crippled during all three races with damage, a puncture and a misfire respectively. Jordan himself thinks that given the cars potential a strong performance is on the cards "The package has shown it is very quick and we’re confident that we are a front running team, we will aim to secure three solid points results at Rockingham to really kick off our championship campaign from there.” said the youngster from Lichfield.

Yet another team that will be looking to put their problems at Thruxton behind them will be Team Aon. The LPG powered Fords showed great straight-line speed at the opening round with both Tom Chilton and Tom Onslow-Cole qualifying in the top 8. Come raceday it was a huge disappointment however after a strong start to race one both cars much like Team Honda fell foul to tyre issues sustaining sizeable damage as the deflations occurred. A race three drive through the field for Chilton at least rescued something from an otherwise miserable day for the team from West Sussex. Last seasons meeting at Rockingham marked a sizeable milestone for the Focus in the fact that Tom Chilton was able to score his first podium finish for the team before going on to another fine performance two weeks later at the Brands Hatch Season Finale.

The Action gets underway at Rockingham on raceday (Sunday) at 10am and reduced rate tickets can still be pre-ordered from up until midday this Friday (April 23rd). Children aged 15 and under are admitted free of charge.

Rockingham BTCC Statistics:

2009: Race Winners: Stephen Jelley BMW 320si, Jason Plato Chevrolet Lacetti, Stephen Jelley BMW 320si
2008 Race Winners. Gordon Shedden Honda Civic, Mat Jackson BMW 320si, Matt Neal Vauxhall Vectra
Circuit Length: 1.94 miles
Lap Record: Jason Plato 1m 24.668 (82.48mph) 20th Sept 2009

Photo: Neil Tozer
Editorial: Justin W. Coffey