BTCC Preview - Rounds 15 & 16 : Snetterton.

For one weekend per year, the BTCC circus descends to Norfolk for a motor-racing carnival, the highlight of which being two spectacular, lights blazing, sparks flying night races for the BTCC boys to get their teeth into.

The inaugural event last year saw a bumper crowd turn the previously sleepy Snetterton circuit into a mini-festival site with fairground attractions and countless displays topping off a superb, high octane series of races that continue into the early hours.

Nissan's David Leslie and Honda's Peter Kox took the honours last year meaning that two new winners are guaranteed this Saturday night. Honda will be hoping that the form the Accord showed last year can be replicated whilst Vauxhall wil simply be praying that they come out of the meeting with the same number of cars that they started with. Ford meanwhile will be trying to maintain their current monopoly in both the drivers and manufacturers championships.

After blitzing the rest of the field at Croft Rickard Rydell is right back into the thick of the championship battle although he may find his pace somewhat hampered around the fast airfield track with the maximum weight penalty of 40kg sitting in the back of his Mondeo. The Swede was second last year in the sprint race and needs to score in both races to avoid giving himself another mountain to climb.

Eleven points ahead of Rydell in the championship, Alain Menu has lost his points lead twice in the last two rounds, only to regain the lead hours later during the feature race. The Swiss star is still only one point ahead of his team-mate Anthony Reid, who maintained his incredible run of results with a double podium at Croft.

Ford are the only factory team to be carrying success ballast this weekend, legacy of their dominant showing at Croft. The only other driver to have ballast is Independent Nissan pilot Matt Neal. The lanky Englishman scored his first podium of the year in the Croft sprint and will carry 10 kilos. Despite this, Neal believes that he has a good chance of upsetting the works boys again this weekend after his team solved a nagging problem with the Primera's new engine.

Tom Kristensen is also another driver to watch this weekend, he was the only other factory car to trouble the Fords at Croft and has recent night experience courtesy of his victorious run at Le Mans. The Honda adapted well to the cool conditions last year, allowing Kox to take his only BTCC victory. The Redstone team could move ahead of Vauxhall in the manufacturers cup with a strong set of results.

Not that Vauxhall will be taking it lightly either. Team boss Derek Warwick described the outfits Croft experience as their 'worst ever' touring car meeting and with two written off chassis there was some doubt as to whether they could field thre cars. It is now almost certain that Vincent Radermecker, the teams third driver, will be able to compete, good news for the Belgian driver who scored his best results of 1999, a third and a fifth, in this event last year.

Yvan Muller and Jason Plato will both be looking to forget about Croft for different reasons. Jason had the most frightening moment of his career when his throttle stuck open at full chat. He was forced to run into Honda's Gabriele Tarquini or face an impact with the bank at well over 100mph. Shaken but not stirred, the gritty Englishman is back at full strength for Saturday and is counting on two strong performances to keep him in touch with the championship leaders.

Muller needs to put his strangely slow Croft weekend behind him or face being overhauled by Plato, Tarquini and Kristensen who are all within striking distance of the Frenchman.

Colin Blair makes a welcome return to the fray this weekend in his PRO Motorsport Nissan Primera after missing Croft with accident damage. Blair will have his work cut out on Saturday though for he has never even been to Snetterton before, never mind race there in the night.

If Blair is not on the pace quickly then he, alongside the Class B runners could pose a major problem to the leaders when the time comes to lap the slower runners. It is far more difficult to judge the pace of a slower car at night just as it is far more difficult to identify a faster car just by its headlights. Luminous coloured strips on the windscreens of the Super Touring machines will help the problem, but still look for some fireworks in the latter stages of the races.