The two meetings of the season have so far seen a deluge of rain and glorious sunshine, so it seemed only right that the longest laps of the season at Snetterton would bring a mixture of both.

For the first time in 2024, all three tyre compounds were due to be used on race day. NAPA Racing’s Ash Sutton headed the championship after Brands Hatch Indy, with Team BMW’s Colin Turkington and Tom Ingram in his Hyundai close behind. The leading trio had a healthy gap Jake Hill in fourth.

Qualifying

Saturday’s Quick Six session was held on a wet and greasy track that started to dry out as qualifying developed. Hill topped the times with Sutton, who only had one second of hybrid use, 2nd. The next row was filled by Adam Morgan and Dan Cammish, while Bobby Thompson, returning to the series in a WSR BMW, was 5th and Josh Cook 6th.

Race One, 3.5/10 – Jake Hill, Bobby Thompson, Ash Sutton

• A dry race start saw Hill and Sutton cleanly away, with Thompson moving up to third off the line. Cook however, on the unfavoured hard tyres, lost a position off the line, before a huge slide sent him further down the pack.
• Ingram, who’d started 13th, made a move on Chris Smiley to take 8th on lap 2, while Aiden Moffat had to pit following a puncture.
• Ingram continued his forward momentum on the next lap with a move on Andrew Watson for 7th and it meant that the top nine were all on the favoured soft tyre. 
• The impressive Thompson took 2nd from Sutton at the start of lap 6, while behind the duo, Morgan and Dan Cammish battled for 4th, with the latter winning out. Morgan lost a few more positions before the end, but this was Hill’s race as he won his first encounter of the season.

Race Two, 5.5/10 (given more for the weather than racing) – Jake Hill, Dan Cammish,  Bobby Thompson*, Josh Cook

• RAIN! Following a huge downpour, the track needed some assistance from the circuit staff to help drain away the puddles and as such, the second race of the day was delayed. On the formation lap, only Rob Huff in 9th and  Smiley in 18th were due to start on slicks, but that soon changed as Sutton, Turkington, Ingram and more pitted before the lights went out to risk the slick. 
• Hill got away well, but Thompson fell behind Watson and Cammish on the opening lap. However, replays showed both BMWs crept before the lights went out and as a result, both received ten second penalties. 
• Cook, who had started 14th, was already 5th after a move on Morgan on lap 2, albeit he was helped by so many pitting in front of him, and that was something Morgan did too at the end of the lap. Huff, the first runner on slicks, was eight seconds slower than those on the wet tyres. 
• For the majority of the race, Thompson tried his best to pass Cammish, but despite a few attempts, the positions did not change. 
• At the end of lap 4, Árón Taylor-Smith, who had pitted before the start, was the fastest man on track, but within moments of him setting the fastest lap, the rain started again. By lap 7, it was heavy rain and Hill was 10 seconds clear at the front. 
• The rain was enough for some drivers like Turkington to come back into the pits for wets, while others like Sutton tried to brave it out, but that didn’t go so well for him with a couple of excursions off the track, before finishing with a bang against the barriers. Watson, despite being on wets also went off and lost his second place, although he did fight back to finish in the top six. 
• At the front, Hill won on the road by an astonishing sixteen seconds, meaning his penalty for a jump start made no difference, although Thompson’s penalty did cost him positions despite crossing the line 3rd.

Race Three, 7/10 – Rob Huff, Aiden Moffat, Josh Cook

• A drying track met the drivers for the final race of the day and it meant that all tyre options were shown on the grid. Reverse grid pole sitter, Sam Osborne, and fellow front row driver Moffat, started on the soft tyre, Thompson on hards with Watson on wets. Double winner Hill started from ninth, also on wet tyres. 
• While Osborne and Moffat initially got away well, Hill zoomed up to 4th off the line with his superior tyres at the time. However, Osborne lasted one corner before spinning across the track and Thompson struggled to get heat in his hard tyres and fell backwards. Despite a heavily damaged Smiley, no safety car was needed and it allowed Hill to take the lead on the wettest part of the track from Moffat. 
• By lap 3, Sutton, who’d started last was up to 9th, but Hill continued to build his lead. At the end of lap 4, he was four seconds ahead of second and eight ahead of third, but Huff on softs, matched his lap time and then he started to eat into his lead, albeit he still had positions to make up. 
• Lap 6 saw Watson, who was running second, start to lose his tyres and from then on, he shuffled backwards as slick tyre cars found him easy prey. 
• The Toyota trio of Moffat, Cook and Huff were chasing down Hill and on lap 8, Hill was caught, but in the meantime a slide by Moffat allowed Huff through to 2nd, but he kept Cook behind him. However, on the next lap, Hill was a sitting duck and Huff took the lead to drive off for his first BTCC win in 20 years after many years in the WTCC.
• Despite a great effort from Hill, he lost several positions in the final couple of laps, but still finished 9th in what was an exceptional effort from the man of the weekend.

Just like the previous two rounds, the driver that secured pole position on Saturday, went on to claim a double victory, despite Alan Gow’s efforts to make that much more difficult this season. In Gow’s defence at Snetterton, he could hardly have imagined the weather would have contributed so much to Hill’s success. However, nothing must be taken away from Hill – what a job he did. Like Turkington last time out in his BMW, Hill looked serene.  To be able to win by 16 seconds before having ten taken off in the second race was magnificent. 

Although Hill had a couple of podiums at Donington Park, he was over 25 points behind Ingram in third coming into this meeting and you wondered whether it was already becoming a three way battle for the title. Not so. Hill’s brilliance means this is going to be a fantastic championship battle. 

In part, this was helped by the top three in the standings having a stinker in the second race by making the wrong call on tyres, with only Turkington claiming a single point out of it. 

Sutton still leads the way after Snetterton and has increased his lead to ten points, despite not winning a race yet this season. However, while last season you had the feeling from the start that it was Sutton’s year and that NAPA Racing were so dominant, that is not the case this year. Other teams have caught up to NAPA’s levels and after nine races, it’s anyone’s guess who will win the title. Although, you’d expect it to be one of the current top four, you can’t discount people like Cook, who has always been strong, or Huff who has returned to the series with a wealth of experience and after his first win of the season, could he now kick on? 

Snetterton should have seen drivers using all three slick tyre compounds, but the weather had other ideas. When drivers have been forced to use the hard tyre, it seems so far that the cars really don’t like it, and as such, you can see why it’s been done to create more entertainment, along with the hybrid allocations. 

Thruxton is up next and given that it’s the fastest circuit on the calendar, the ability to use hybrid, or not use it, may prove to be a really decisive factor. Will we see another pole position and double winner? In normal race conditions, you would expect not, although at Thruxton only the hard tyre will be available due to its high speed and abrasive track. 

2024 BTCC Drivers’ Championship Standings after nine rounds:

1.	Ashley Sutton	121 points
2.	Colin Turkington	111
3.	Tom Ingram	110
4.	Jake Hill	110
5.	Josh Cook	84
6.	Dan Cammish	77