Welcome to Snetterton, Norfolk, England for the Rebecca Adlington 350.

Snetterton's current layout (picture:wikipedia)

It’s about 80 miles north of London, and about 30 miles north of where I grew up, making it pretty much my local track. While several times a year me and my dad (and occasionally my sister when my mum wanted a peaceful day) would head out to race weekends at a bunch of tracks, aside from Snetterton, mostly Silverstone and Brands Hatch, but for some reason it’s Snetterton I have the fondest memories of. Crowding around Touring Car drivers in the pit lane to fight for their autograph, making the walk across the infield from the Esses to Russell chicane between races, watching what I can only remember as a gravel trap set bout of light fisticuffs after a coming together at Russell,  and a memorable time when the track’s own commentator broadcast the sound of himself eating a lump of cheese over the PA system. Note: this is not a sound that should ever be heard over PA systems.

To me it’s racing as it should be. You’re not tied to one grandstand, you can migrate between sections as you wish, crossing the car-park-come-paddock field in the middle. At least in the old days teams used to set up in the middle of the field, allowing fans to get up close to the very cars they will see going at 100-odd mph minutes later.

I started going in the late 80’s but it’s history goes back a lot further than that. Snetterton started life as RAF Snetterton Heath, where from 1943-1945 it was home to one the dozens of American 8th Air Force groups that were based in the region, the 96th Bomb Group (Heavy).

Snetterton's previous American tenants (picture:wikipedia)

Of course, once the war was over the RAF found itself with more airfield that it could handle, and while some continued to be used by them, or were turned into civilian airports, Snetterton was one of many – Silverstone, Castle Combe, Thruxton, Croft – that found its way into use as a race track. Originally the home of the local Aston Martin club it became more nationally used, with a 2.7mile track using the perimeter track to the airfield. However, the health and safety people got their way and the “Norwich Straight” and hairpin sections of the track were closed, and the track re-routed down a runway, what today is the Revett Straight. The old “Norwich Straight” ran parallel to the main road, separated by only a hedge, reportedly a Ford GT40 from the race track once ended up in a gas station for the main road. That must have hurried the decision along.

Snetterton's old layout, before the GT40/Gas station incident

Today Snetterton is widely used, not only by local clubs, but also by national series, including British Superbikes, Touring Cars and single-seat formulas, owned by a Motorsport Vision, Britain's answer to SMI or ISC. In the Revett straight it has the longest straight in the country, and in the Russell Chicane one of the tightest corners in the country, although this has been re-profiled in recent years, it basically used to be two hairpins that reduced the cars to walking pace. Still despite this Riches corner is one of the best corners in the country, and where modern F1 tracks have those tarmac run off areas, Riches has a corn field, that seems to be able to #### cars at regular intervals. Its layout – 90 degree corners, a fast Esses section and a really slow chicane can be compared to Watkins Glen. Of course, being an old airfield it’s dead flat, with one exception. The Bomb Hole. There is some debate as to where the name comes from. No German bombs ever fell on Snetterton, and while there is a possibility that it comes from an accidental explosion while loading bombs, it is also possible that it’s a polite version of the “Bumhole” a name given to the bend, and the slight dip it’s set in, by bike riders out of pure hatred.

British Touring Cars fight it out round the Right-hander of The Esses

This is an era of change in NASCAR.

The shape of the cars is changing, the marque badges on the cars are changing, the kind of drivers behind the wheel of the cars is changing and for the subject of this blog, the name of the guys who own the cars are changing.

In the past season we've seen.

Roush Racing become Roush-Fenway Racing

Evenham join forces with sporting magpie George Gillett

Yates join up with Newman/Haas/Lanigan of the Champ Car series (in fact these mergers aren't kept to NASCAR)

Michael Waltrip has teamed up with Robert Kauffman a few weeks ago

And now team owner Bill Davis has revealed he is looking for a partner, with Jacques Villeneuve, and his manager Craig Pollock as front runners.

NASCAR is now big money, as has been mentioned upteen times in relation to several different topics, and for the smaller teams (or perhaps any one with less money that Hendrick/Peru) a wealthy partner is a must if they are to remain competitive in the sport right now.

I find it interesting that with all of the backlash against the foriegn influence of drivers coming into the sport (make of that what you will) the appearence of foriegn, or at least not 'Old Racing' ownerships has gone relatively undetected, and largely uncomplained about. After all Gillett and Villeneuve are Canadian and Pollock (I think) is British.

Are all these jonny-come-lately-owners good for the sport? In the short term yes. They fill a need among the regular owners for fast cash injections. This gives more teams a better chance of competing, technology, sponsor and driver wise. However, this also widens the gaps between the haves and the have nots - the Roushs,GEMs, MWRs and the Furniture Rows, the Morgan-McClures. The bigger problem comes if/when these guys pull out. You immediately would have a huge vacuum in accounts which would mean teams on the verge of crumbling which is bad - very, very bad.

In an attempt to put some flesh on this allow me to take through the weird world of British Soccer team ownership. In recent years we have seen an influx of new guys, Malcolm Glazer (Man United), Thaksin Shinawatra (Man City), Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) and a certain George Gillett (Liverpool). These teams have all seen massive spikes in spending, and so competitiveness. However, as any Chelsea fan will tell you the fear is that the money leaves and the big investments in wages, facilities etc suddenly become unworkable, and the collapse begins.

These new investors will spike NASCAR's spending in the short run, but when NASCAR is out of fashion, they will run to the latest fad, and leave the husk of a team behind.

So owners, by all means take your partners and Do-Si-Do, but save the last dance for NASCAR.

And now for the afterthoughts......

Firstly, it seems NASCAR doesn't like the foriegners, mispelling Dario Franchitti's hometown as 'Edinburg' - for cryin' out loud it's Edinburgh (I won't even start on how to pronounce it....)

Secondly, in fear of encroaching on Forensic's and Tex's GGW patch, I think I've found another project keeping Photogr away from the racetrack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo