1. Brands Hatch Indy – April 3
Thirty-two cars on the grid for a 48-second lap? It can all get a bit feisty at the first meeting of the year, as if everyone’s forgotten how to do it! The trick is to get a clear lap in qualifying – and not try too hard. You need to be disciplined and neat and tidy, particularly as you’ll be lapping slower cars in the races, too. It’s very satisfying to get right, as a tiny mistake anywhere on such a short lap can be costly. Last year the top 18 cars were separated by less than a second in qualifying!
My favourite bit? It’s got to be the unsighted, uphill approach and plunge down into Paddock Hill – an absolute classic.
2. Donington Park – April 17
Donington’s my home track and I love its old-school gradient and undulations, especially the charge down through the Craner Curves. The place has a great atmosphere and is looking great after the aborted British Grand Prix fiasco of a few years ago. For a really good lap, you need to nail the Old Hairpin to carry the speed uphill through Schwantz and into McLean’s and Coppice.
My favourite bit? Oh, the Craners, every time. They’re a great section of an altogether superb track.
3. Thruxton – May 8
My favourite track! It’s super-fast and you feel really hooked up when it’s going well. I’ve had pole there for three of the past four years, including in 2014, when I broke a seven-year-old lap record. You have to be brave but, strangely, smooth as well, as if on slo-mo. The car needs to be a bit loose – have a bit of free will, if you like – so you can get it rotated; it’s no good having the car understeering everywhere and wrecking your left-front tyre.
My favourite bit? Church: a proper, balls-out quick right-hander round the back. It’s got a compression as you go in, so the car grips up, and then it goes light on the way out.
4. Oulton Park – June 5
Another old-school classic, where it seems the health & safety police haven’t visited. It’s narrow and fast, has some big undulations and minimal run-off. We race on the Island layout, which has a big hairpin half way down the straight that leads to the full Shell configuration. It can all get a bit messy there. That said, the racing’s always good there and it’s very satisfying to nail a good result.
My favourite bit? The Druids double-apex right hander is great. You approach over the brow under the bridge, through a left kink and have to get the car into the two-part sweep. You need to get it right to carry good speed down to the last corner at Lodge.
5. Croft – June 19
Croft’s an interesting challenge as it has a high-speed section, the Jim Clark Esses, Barcroft and Sunny In/Sunny Out, which is followed by a very slow, technical section. You’ve got to have the car set-up to cope with both, i.e. good rear rotation to get it turned into the slow stuff but not too much in the quick bits, and be disciplined, especially in the slow hairpin at the end of the lap as it dictates your speed all the way down the start/finish straight. The track’s quite green there, too, as it doesn’t get used that much, so you have to be prepared for the car to change as the weekend goes on.
My favourite bit? The high-speed section comprising the Jim Clark Esses, Barcroft and Sunny In/Sunny Out is pretty cool. I like the place as it’s where I took my first BTCC win – back in 2010.
6. Snetterton – July 31
Snett’s a bit of a wake-up after the summer break. For some reason I struggle there sometimes. It was the same with the old layout, too. The racing’s always good as there are lots of second-gear hairpins at the end of long straights. I think the racing’s better on the new layout, but I preferred driving on the old one. The secret to going well there is having a car with a strong front end and that’s good on the brakes for all the hairpins.
My favourite bit? It’s got to be the Bombhole, which is unchanged from the old layout. It’s got that compression as you go in and it’s not quite flat, which means it’s fun!
7. Knockhill – August 14
Like a kart track on steroids! It’s a great little circuit and you really know when you’ve done a full weekend there. It’s like trying to catch a bee in the car, with your arms everywhere. You have to be careful with the kerbs – you need them for a quick lap, but not too much. I think my Rallycross background helps with the short, intense nature of the lap.
My favourite bit? The first corner, Duffus Dip, is great. You come over the brow across the start/finish line and fire the car down the hill into the corner, which has a change of direction in the compression at the bottom, just as the car grips.
8. Rockingham – August 28
Not everyone’s cup of tea, but there are bits of it that make for great racing. I had two wins there in my championship year in 2013, so I’m OK with it! It’s very hard on tyres as the surface is very abrasive, so the trick is to make the rubber last or you’ll ‘fall off a cliff’. You’ve got to look after the tyres; you need to be quick at the end of the race, not the beginning! The banked Turn 1 feels quite quick as the car runs all the way out to the wall, but the rest is a mixture of medium- and slow-speed stuff. And you need good traction off the last corner for the run down the start/finish straight.
My favourite bit? The section known as Pif Paf – a right, double left, over a brow into another left – is good. In fact, the infield section is pretty rewarding if you get it right.
9. Silverstone – September 18
If Oulton is a circuit that the health & safety police have bypassed, then the Silverstone National circuit is the opposite! That’s not to say that the racing’s not good, though, because it is. With so few corners to make and/or lose time, it can be incredibly close. The trick is to get into the slipstream of another car in qualifying as a few tenths here and there can drop you a load of places. The first 22 cars qualified within a second of each other last year! As the penultimate weekend of the year, it can be crucial to the title fight, too, so you have to make the most of it.
My favourite bit? There are only four corners, but Copse is fun. It’s approached at high speed, with a dab on the brakes, a downchange and get it in! Track-limit rules have put paid to carrying too much speed and getting away with it by running miles wide so you have to be really neat.
10. Brands Hatch Grand Prix – October 2
Wow! A proper, old-school, rollercoaster of a place. You do so many laps of the Indy circuit but in October you arrive at Surtees and turn left, up the hill, to begin some sort of crazy, theme-park-style adventure! It’s narrow, fast and undulating – and with not much run-off in places. I love it! You have to be brave into the fast, uphill Hawthorn Bend, tricking yourself to brake late. It’s a big-risk-big-rewards kind of place and I hope it stays on the calendar forever…
My favourite bit? The section comprising Hawthorn, Westfield, Sheene and Stirlings is mega – I can’t imagine what that was like 30 years ago in a 1100bhp turbo F1 car!
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