BTCC "Most Open Season In Years"

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March 29, 2005 in Motorsport

Britain’s top motor racing series, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, can look forward to its most open and exciting title fight in years when it bursts into life at Donington Park, Leicestershire on 10 April. Massive input from new title sponsor Dunlop, plus a significant increase in terrestrial coverage from ITV1 will also ensure the BTCC strengthens its position as one of Britain’s most exciting sporting spectacles.

Donington today (Tuesday) sees the dawn of the BTCC’s 48th season, with the circuit besieged by journalists, photographers and camera crews on the championship’s annual Media Day. Afternoon testing for teams, which between them have entered a truly high-quality field of 18 cars, will give the BTCC’s hundreds of thousands of fans and millions of TV viewers an indication of what might be in store when the season gets under way in just over ten days’ time.

Many are talking about the anticipated battle for supremacy between reigning champion manufacturer Vauxhall and arch rival SEAT and their two superstar drivers Yvan Muller and Jason Plato – both former champions and also bitter enemies on and off the track. With Vauxhall introducing a new car, the as-yet unproven Astra Sport Hatch, Plato and SEAT, continuing with the Toledo Cupra that won nine times in its debut BTCC season last year, know they have a golden opportunity to end the Luton marque’s remarkable run of four consecutive titles.

In addition to Muller and Plato, there is an exciting new entry from Team Halfords, in the shape of its Honda Integra Type R, the car in which series stalwart Matt Neal hopes not only to win a fifth Independents Trophy crown but also to lift his first BTCC title outright.

Reigning Independent champion team WSR will continue with its mighty MG ZS – the car to beat during part of 2004. Rob Collard, the 2003 Independent champion driver, has joined the squad and will be seeking his first BTCC race win.

Arena Motorsports is a last-minute entry with its Honda Civic Type Rs that, having won races for the past three seasons, have undergone further development during the winter. Synchro Motorsport and driver James Kaye will continue with their Civic – Kaye will be out to end his unenviable record as the driver with most BTCC race starts, 223, without winning one.

There are promising new entries too. SpeedEquipe and drivers Richard Williams and Ian Curley graduate from the BTCC’s supporting Renault Clio Cup with a pair of voluptuous and distinctive day-glo green Lexus IS200s under the banner of HPI Racing with Friends Reunited. The team has taken advantage of a new technical regulation that permits it to build cars to the World Touring Car Championship’s ‘Super 2000’ rules and have them homologated ‘locally’ by BTCC technical officials.

GA Motorsports and Team Firstserve have entered a Super 2000-spec Alfa Romeo 156 and Honda Civic Type R respectively, while Mark Proctor and his Fast-Tec Motorsport team, a front-runner in the UK-based SCSA oval racing series in recent years, will make his BTCC debut in the ex-Rob Collard Astra Coupe.

Adding to the unpredictability are revised sporting regulations that are bound to make teams and their drivers re-think their tactics: the reversed grid moves from the second to the third race, the top five in the points standings will go into each race meeting carrying ballast – not, as before, the top five finishers from the previous race – and drivers found guilty of on-track indiscretions will be relegated six places on the next starting grid. There will also be a return to Silverstone’s shorter National circuit – not used by the BTCC since 1995 – and, after three years away, Brand Hatch’s legendary, full-length Grand Prix loop.

And the BTCC’s growing fan base can watch all the drama unfold as it happens thanks to an unprecedented seven live broadcasts from ITV1. Britain’s most popular terrestrial commercial television channel will more than double the hours of air time it dedicates to the championship, with not just live broadcasts but also a series of dedicated highlights and repeats programmes.

Additional coverage will also be shown across in Britain and across Europe by satellite motor sport channel Motors TV, which will screen over 70 hours of live BTCC race day action in 2005, plus re-runs.

Dunlop, part of the world’s largest tyre producer, has committed to the biggest title sponsorship agreement in the BTCC’s history for the next three years. Importantly, the agreement is far more than a simple extension of its role as the BTCC’s official tyre supplier – instead, it has identified the marketing opportunities that the championship offers blue chip companies and will take full advantage to drive its image and maximise brand awareness both on and off the track.

BTCC Series Director Alan Gow said: “The scene is set for an amazing season of BTCC action – in fact, this could be a watershed year in the championship’s history. Just as in Formula One, the dominant team for the past several years is up against it and ITV1’s increased coverage means that more people will watch and become hooked. I think we will see an absorbing title battle due to so many new and unknown factors.

“Some fine-tuning of our sporting regulations also means the teams and drivers will have to think again about how to beat one another and that can only be good news for the people who matter most to the BTCC – its fans. It’s a good quality entry list which will produce some great racing all through the field and, no doubt as always happens, some changes and new entrants will also appear as the season progresses. I’m really looking forward to the action.”

From Donington on 10 April, the BTCC will wow crowds and TV audiences at nine more race meetings across the UK and Ireland, culminating in the season finale at Brands Hatch on 2 October.

Provisional Entry List: 2005 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship

No. Driver (NAT) Team Car

2. Yvan Muller (FRA) VX Racing Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch

5. Matt Neal (GBR) Team Halfords Honda Integra

6. Colin Turkington (GBR) VX Racing Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch

8. Dan Eaves (GBR) Team Halfords Honda Integra

9. TBA Arena Motorsports Honda Civic Type R

10. James Kaye (GBR) Synchro Motorsport Honda Civic Type R

11. Jason Plato (GBR) SEAT Sport UK EAT Toledo Cupra

12. James Pickford (GBR) SEAT Sport UK SEAT Toledo Cupra

15. TBA GA Motorsport Alfa Romeo 156

21. Rob Collard (GBR) WSR MG ZS