Well, this is it. After seven long weeks, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship makes it's welcome return this weekend, with rounds sixteen, seventeen and eighteen taking place at Snetterton on the new 300 circuit layout.
With the weather looking dry for the moment, this weekend will see the second half of the season get under way - with the battle for this year's notorious title heating up. The big question leading up to this weekend is; can the Honda duo continue their dominance in the second half? Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden respectively, have been the big stars of the BTCC over the last five weekends, with the pair taking an astounding ten race wins so far this year.
The summer break has brought a number of changes and developments to the field. MG Momentum hope to continue their good run with Jason Plato - who currently holds third place in the championship standings - and Andy Neate, who had his best outing of the year last time out at Croft.
Redstone Racing will be looking to continue their points haul in the second half of the season, after strong start to the year was overshadowed by a string of bad luck in the last few rounds. After a test at Brands at the beginning of the summer break, the team made improvements in the S2000 Ford Focus' tyre management - something that they seem to have struggled with since the start of the season. It was announced this week that the team would only be running two Fords at Snetterton, with Liam Griffin sitting out due to work and family commitments.
Dave Newsham, who started the 2012 season a high, will too be looking to return to his early form after the break. The Team ES Racer has been the victim of a few mechanical niggles over the past few rounds, so will be hoping for a clean set of results at Snetterton.
Tony Hughes, who stepped aside at Croft to allow Paul O'Neill to drive the Toyota Avensis, will re-join the team at Snetterton, alongside team mate Adam Morgan, who will be looking to challenge for some good results after an encouraging couple of days testing at Pembrey Circuit at the beginning of the month.
Team HARD have also altered their drive line up over the summer break. It was announced early on in the gap, that American racer Robb Holland would be joining the HARD squad for Snetterton and Knockhill. Holland's appearance in the championship makes him the first American to race in the series since the 1970s. With Robb taking the reigns of the S2000 Honda Civic, questions were asked to whether Tony Gilham would be racing at Snetterton. With rumours pondering a NGTC move, the announcement was made today (Tuesday) that Gilham would be joining forces with Thorney Motorsport, to drive the NGTC Vauxhall Insignia. With Gilham on board, the Thorney Motorsport team will be hoping to improve the running of the Insignia with Gilham's knowledge and experience over the weekend. Gilham won't see or drive the car until the first free practice session on Saturday morning, but will be looking to achieve some positive results.
So, with five rounds of the championship left before things wrap up for the year at Brands Hatch in October, it's all to play for Championship wise. The Honda pair of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden head up the championship standings - with just one point separating them. Jason Plato is close behind in his MG Momentum MG, with Pirtek's Andrew Jordan and eBay Motors' Rob Collard battling it out for the Independents title.
Catch the coverage of this weekend's racing actions from Snetterton live on ITV4 from 11:30 through until 18:00, with qualifying being shown online on Saturday afternoon. Trust me, you won't want to miss it.
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