DUNLOP MSA BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2006 season was a classic. Matt Neal, ‘The People’s Champion’, won the title for the first time and he and his father Steve Neal’s Team Dynamics squad became the first independents since 1991 to beat the manufacturer teams.
Their selfdeveloped Team Halfords Honda Integras took 12 wins from 30 races – six of them going Neal’s way – en route to four out of a possible five titles. Vauxhall, the dominant force since 2001, was Dynamics’ biggest rival. In its new Astra Sport Hatch – the replacement for its hugely successful Coupe – Yvan Muller equalled Neal’s total of six wins, but at Brands Hatch’s final round was forced to accept the runner-up spot.
Vauxhall, though, did achieve a fifth consecutive manufacturers crown. In total, therewere nine different winners in 2005 and the racing was second to none – this, allied to high-speed street events in Newcastle and Milton Keynes city centres that drew enormous crowds and mass media coverage, plus an unprecedented crossing of Scotland’s Forth Road Bridge and live ITV1 coverage from seven of the ten rounds – made sure the BTCC remains a massive hit with the public.
Series Director Alan Gow comments: “Our TV audience is up by some 38 per cent and the gate numbers by around 22 per cent. I doubt any other sport in Britain has enjoyed that sort of increase, with the exception ofcricket. This has been a great year for the BTCC and better than we’ve had for many years.”
CHAMPIONSHIP:1. Matt Neal 316pts2. Yvan Muller 273pts3. Dan Eaves 269pts4. Jason Plato 208pts5. Tom Chilton 175pts6. Colin Turkington 174pts7. Rob Collard 173pts8. James Pickford 116pts
2005 British Touring Car Champion Matt Neal:“It’s an emotional moment. It’s fabulous. Everybodywho’s involved in backing this team has won. If you’dtold me before the season started that I’d be crownedchampion, when you think of who we’ve been upagainst – Vauxhall, SEAT and some other very goodteams and drivers – I’d have struggled to believe it.”Championship Co-ordinator Alan Gow:“This has been a great year for the BTCC and betterthan we’ve had for many years.”Neal in his Honda Integra at Oulton Park
BRITISH RALLY KWIK-FIT PIRELLI MSA BRITISH RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
The overall Kwik-Fit Pirelli MSA British Rally Championship title was sewn up at the penultimate round when Mark Higgins and co-driver Bryan Thomas clinched the crown in their Eddie Stobart Ford Focus WRC. The eight-round season started in Wales where Austin McHale and Brian Murphy (2004 runners-up) duelled with Sebastian Ling and Ian Allsop to win the first rally of the season and take an early lead in the standings – their advantage was temporary though.
The next four rounds were hard work for Higgins and Thomas’ opponents: the pair won the Pirelli, Scottish, Jim Clark and Manx International Rallies to establish a decent lead in the championship. The statistics talk for themselves: four consecutive rally victories, more than 60 stages won out of 71 and, most of all, fastest time on all 23 stages on the spectacular Manx Rally – a clean sweep that left their rivals more than five minutes adrift. This was Higgins’ third victory on his former home ground.
Round six saw the end of the duo’s domination, as they only finished third on the Ulster Rally; victory going to Eugene Donnelly and Paul Kiely in their Toyota Corolla WRC. Round seven – the Trackrod Rally in Yorkshire – was just a formality for driver Higgins and Thomas. Second place was enough for them to secure the British Rally Championship title for the second time. Higgins’ team-mate, the MSA British Rally Elite driver Matthew Wilson made history as the youngest-ever winner of a BRC round aged just 18. The Tempest Rally was the season finale and even without the presence of the newly crowned champions, the competition was intense right until the end, when Will Nichols and Nick Broom clinched their maiden victory of the season.
CHAMPIONSHIP:1. Mark Higgins 114pts2. Austin McHale 90pts3. Rory Galligan 83pts4. Richard Gower 57pts5. David Higgins 57pts6. Sebastian Ling 48pts7. Matthew Wilson 38pts8. Jon Ingram 34pts
Championship Co-ordinator Mark Taylor:“The new Group N format has already attracted a greatdeal of interest from teams and privateers and moreinformation will be made available in due course. But fornow, the 2005 Championship has ended on a high noteand the new champions will be celebrated at the prizegiving in January 2006 at the Autosport InternationalShow.”
