2011 British Touring Car Championship

Chris Rees · Nov 22, 2010

Some of you may already be aware of this (as its quite old news) but thought i would post this anyway for anyone that was unaware.

Snetterton is undergoing track modifications over the winter and a couple of new conguration of circuits is being built. The 300, 200 and 100.

BTCC has already announced that they will be using the 300 (extended) circuit when they visit in August 2011.

Im loving the new plans, take a look -

http://snetterton.motorsportvision.co.uk/circuits/snetterton/snetterton-extension.aspx

James Chant · Nov 22, 2010

I quite like the look of that - the original track was a bit boring to watch really

Yann Laprevotte · Nov 22, 2010

I dislike this. The infield is like a flat karting style section. Will be dull with touring cars IMO.

Chris Rees · Nov 23, 2010

A couple of the corners looks pretty 'sweeping' and its not taking anything away from the old circuit as it rejoins at the top of Revett straight. Im getting excited as its quite close to me and if i have enough cash in the new year im gonna do a trackday there again.

Philip Antonia · Dec 15, 2010

Just saw this on Touring Car Times

.

http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=5639

Will be good to see some fresh wheels on the BTCC grid along with the Toyota:good:.

Chris Rees · Dec 16, 2010

Yeh saw that the other day in touring car times, great news! Got a feeling theres going to be quite a few new names on the grid in 2011.

You seen that is it Arena are going to be using a new shape focus as well. Tom Chilton has been helping building it

Rhys Gardiner · Jan 5, 2011

It would seem that racing simulations are becoming an increasingly popular way of testing new layouts for race tracks around the world, as MotorSportVision, the owners of the Snetterton circuit in England, have proved.

The company, run by former F1 driver Johnathan Palmer, owns such circuits in the UK as Oulton Park, Brands Hatch and the Bedford Autodrome, and recently revealed plans to upgrade Snetterton to an FIA Grade 2 circuit. This involves changes to the layout, making the track longer with a few more slow corners, and upgrading the track's facilities to a higher standard.

An interesting aspect of this to us sim racers is that MSV appear to have been testing the new layout in simulators. Autosport quoted Palmer in this article as saying:

"A key part of this [upgrading Snetterton] has been to use driver simulations of the track during its development to see exactly what it will feel like to race on, and I have made detailed layout evolutions as a result of this process."

MSV has also released a video of what appears to be a Formula Two car doing test laps around a virtual representation of the new circuit. The track is not very detailed, obviously - it is clear to the knowledgeable viewer that this was created to a very basic level in Bob's Track Builder - but all the same, it makes for interesting viewing and gives a good impression of what it will be like to see cars going around the new sections of track when they are eventually built.

To help you along, here are the plans for the upcoming modificatons:

Tom Moloney · Jan 5, 2011

New track looks more interesting than the old one, and gets rid of the silly final chicane that ruins the flow of the lap.

Jonathan Johansson · Jan 5, 2011

Wow very cool

Lee Knight · Jan 5, 2011

Cool, but I hope they keep the old parts operational at the same time.....it's nice to have a choice of layouts available.
Maybe this article should be passed onto the guys trying to get Bathurst modified so as to bring motorcycles back to the mountain?
Maybe MA (Motorcycling Australia) could run a competition for sim-track builders to come up with a new layout for the bike track....

Bram Hengeveld · Jan 5, 2011

Great idea Lee!

Dave Stephenson · Jan 5, 2011

you can see from the track map and the video that there are 3 layouts in that plan as it stands.

a tiny Layout with just the new section, the almost original one with the chicane out and the new hairpin leading into a left to the original back straight and of course the full one.

If you look as the car comes out of the hairpin that the road peels away onto the old layout.

All 3 look great to me.

Dan Long · Jan 5, 2011

Love Snetts, go there yearly for BTCC, amazing circuit IMO, it has a lovely techy part at the end of the lap with the pit straight up there, watching in BTCC was brilliant, sounds incredible the new part though

Lee Palmer · Jan 5, 2011

Is it me or does Video look hugely like a BTB created track?

Rhys Gardiner · Jan 6, 2011

Lee Palmer;708177 said:
Is it me or does Video look hugely like a BTB created track?

I mentioned that in the article, Lee...

Lee Palmer · Jan 6, 2011

Rhys Gardiner;708290 said:
I mentioned that in the article, Lee...

Wow sorry missed that

Craig Stevenson · Feb 5, 2011

Does anyone know the deal with ticket pricing at Donington, there are two tickets available for the Sunday race, ADULT SUNDAY £25.00 and SUNDAY GRANDSTAND £10.00, if you have an ADULT SUNDAY £25.00 ticket does that mean you DON'T have access to the Stands and if you have the SUNDAY GRANDSTAND £10.00 ticket does that mean you ONLY have access to the Stands, to get FULL access do you need both tickets?

As WTCC is also at Donington this year We're also looking at going to watch that, do WTCC tickets compare with BTCC or are they silly money prices like F1?

Regards

Ryan Callan · Feb 5, 2011

WTCC is at Brands as per usual this year.

Nick Deeley · Feb 5, 2011

A general entry ticket will get you in. If you have a stand ticket, that'll get you into the stands. You will need an entry ticket regardless if you a stand ticket or not.

As far as I know, WTCC is at Donington according to a contact who deals with Media for Donington Events.