BTCC: Season Preview; Let the Madness Continue

Brilliant bumper to bumper racing, an endless amount of excitement, a great mix of different cars and teams and a little bit of carnage – expect all of that and more as the British Touring Car Championship begins its 62nd season this weekend.

Reigning champion, Colin Turkington is back to defend his title and it will not be easy to add to his three titles as he will face competition from various teams and drivers including Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton, Dan Cammish and Sam Tordoff.

Last year there was a record breaking 17 different winners with drama in abundance; we can expect more of the same this year.

The Driver Line-Up

WSR BMW: Colin Turkington, Tom Oliphant, Andrew Jordan

Team Dynamics Honda: Matt Neal, Dan Cammish

Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall: Jason Plato, Rob Collard

Motorbase Perfromance Ford: Tom Chilton, Ollie Jackson, Nic Hamilton

Speedworks Motorsport Toyota: Tom Ingram

Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes: Adam Morgan, Daniel Rowbottom

BTC Racing Honda: Josh Cook, Chris Smiley

Team BMR Subaru: Ash Sutton, Senna Proctor

AmD Tuning Honda: Sam Tordoff, Rory Butcher

Laser Tools Racing Mercedes: Aiden Moffat

Simpson Racing Honda: Matt Simpson

Team Hard VW: Jack Goff, Carl Boardley, Bobby Thompson, Michael Crees

Team Parker Racing BMW: Stephen Jelley

Excelr8 Motorsport MG: Rob Smith, Sam Osborne

Trade Price Cars Audi: Jake Hill, Mark Blundell

Not too many major switches were made over the off-season with Turkington, Sutton, Ingram, Andrew Jordan and Tom Chilton all staying with the teams they were with last year.

There was some talk of Sutton and even Ingram moving away from the series which would have been a disaster for BTCC as those two drivers have been stellar in recent years, playing a big part in terms of adding to the quality of the series. They are both very aggressive, very quick and are much younger than the likes of Turkington, Matt Neal and Jason Plato. So hopefully they will stay in the series for the long haul, because that’s what the BTCC needs when the older drivers inevitably retire.

Jason Plato announced he would be switching from Subaru to Power Maxed Racing, driving a factory backed Vauxhall Astra. Plato struggled, to say the least, in the Subaru as he was winless throughout the whole of 2018 – the first time the 51-year-old went winless for a whole season in his whole BTCC career, which started 22 years ago.

He never seemed to be able to get on top of the rear-wheel drive Subaru, having spent his whole life racing front-wheel drive touring cars. Teammate, Ash Sutton, made Plato look like pretty awful at times in the last 2-3 seasons by outqualifying him by over half a second consistently and winning races and taking podiums whilst Plato was struggling to even score points.

Now at Vauxhall for 2019, Plato can reset and will hopefully get comfortable with the return to a front-wheele drive car. His teammate is another of the establishment; Rob Collard, who missed the final four events of 2018, as a result of concussion sustained in an incident at Snetterton. The move sees a return to front-wheel drive for the first time in over a decade and it will be a fan favourite partnership as both Plato and Collard look to see if they still have what it takes to match the young guns.

Another big move was Sam Tordoff from the Motorbase Ford to the AmD Tuning Honda. Tordoff was extremely unlucky last year with reliability issues at numerous race meetings when he was running strongly. His finishing position of 11th does not do any justice as to how good he actually was. The 2016 runner-up was fastest in pre-season testing last week at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit – the track which kickstarts the season this weekend. I think Tordoff will be a championship contender this year.

Josh Cook moves from Power Maxed to the BTC Racing Honda team and will be looking to improve yet again after somewhat of a breakthrough year last season. The same can be said about Jack Goff who looked like he would miss out on a drive this year but at the very last minute after Mike Bushell opted to race in the Renault Clio Cup which freed up a seat at Team HARD. Goff got the seat and it is fantastic news that he remains in the championship although he may find it hard to build on his excellent 2018.

Former F1 driver Mark Blundell will drive a Trade Price Audi, alongside Jake Hill. This was probably the biggest surprise from the off-season at Blundell has not raced full-time since 2013 in the British GT Championship. I don’t really get why he has got the drive but it will be fascinating to see how well, or not so well, Blundell goes.

Nic Hamilton secured a full-time drive with the Motorbase Ford team but is probably in the same boat as Blundell and others and will just be fighting in the midpack which is even crazier than the front of the field.

Unfortunately, there is some negative news – HMS Racing, which ran Rob Austin in a new Alfa Romeo Giulietta last year – are taking a year out from the series after failing to secure a budget. They have stated their desire to return for 2020 but unfortunately for Austin he could not find another drive for this season.

New Cars

It is good to see Toyota back properly as a constructor in the BTCC. Its about time really although a one car entry is slightly underwhelming. Nevertheless, the new Toyota Corolla should become a fan favourite at the hands if Ingram.

BMW have brought back the 3-series model which has had a long and successful history in the BTCC over the years. They look stunning. 4-door saloons look much better than 3-door hatchbacks in my opinion.

Along with BMW and Honda that’s now three big works efforts in the BTCC with Subaru and Vauxhall acting as constructors at the very least.

The Calendar

06/07 April – Brands Hatch (Indy)

27/28 April – Donington Park

18/19 May – Thruxton

15/16 June – Croft

29/30 June – Oulton Park

03/04 August – Snetterton

17/18 August – Thruxton

14/15 September – Knockhill

28/29 September – Silverstone

12/13 October – Brands Hatch (GP)

Following its closure as a racing venue, Rockingham has been replaced on the calendar. The series continues to have 10 rounds, with a second visit to the fastest circuit in the country, Thruxton, being penciled in as the replacement. As always, the season ends at Brands Hatch in October.

A change in the success ballast

Following several ultra-close years, success ballast has been reduced slightly. The maximum ballast a car can carry is down from 75kgs to 54kgs, with the rest being as follows: 2nd: 48KG, 3rd: 42KG, 4th: 36KG, 5th: 30KG, 6th: 24KG, 7th: 18KG, 8th: 12KG, 9th: 6KG, 10th: 6KG.

Reducing the ballast can be good for the racing, as it reduces the ‘artificialness’ so there will be randomness in the results and not as much of a swing in performance. If you are new to the BTCC the ballast works out like this.

Apart from the first qualifying and race, the ballast acts as championship ballast – the championship order after an event means that the championship leader carries the most ballast into the qualifying and first race of the next event, 2nd place, the second most etc.

For races two and three, the ballast is given as per the top 10 result from each race. First place in race one carries the most ballast to race two and first place in race two carries the most ballast for race three. It is pretty simple to work out after a few events.

It is all set for another classic

The BTCC is ALWAYS super close. What is so great is that small budget teams get their moment in the sun; young drivers can prove what they can do when the circumstances align proper and the quality of the racing is as good as it gets.

The current rules and regulations in the BTCC ensure a good product and a healthy sport today and for the years to come as well. The grid will inevitably grow and shrink every now and then but because you can’t spend millions on your car to go faster it means there’s no risk of having a “post boom bust” which is exactly what happened at the end of Super Touring era around 20 years ago.

On track behaviour has certainly improved and the racecraft of most of the drivers is exactly what we want to see: clean, aggressive, hard but fair both in terms of contact and track limits. Even in the final race of the season last year when it was all gloves off, there was fantastic racing without the tactics that Plato, Neal and before them the likes of, Steve Soper, John Cleland, Frank Sytner and Andy Rouse habitually employed. The reputation of it being “bumper cars” or similar, has slowly but surely been ironed out and now the racing is simply outstanding.

As already mentioned, the big three to watch out for this year will likely be Turkington, Sutton and Ingram. But, Cammish and Tordoff should be dark horses at the very least so expect them to be in and amongst it. Then, you have drivers like Chilton, Jordon, Cook, Morgan, Moffat and Goff who will almost certainly win races and should they be consistent, will challenge for the title.

It is all about consistency in the BTCC, that is how Turkington won the championship last year. Remember, he only won one race out of the 30 last year. Finishing inside the top 10 or getting at least one podium at most race meetings will give you a chance of taking the title in October.

It is going to be another exciting season in the BTCC, you will not be disappointed.