The
British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year
in the United
Kingdom
. The Championship was established in 1958 as
the
British Saloon Car Championship and has run to
various rules over the years – "production cars", then
FIA
Group 1 or 2 in the late 1960s and 1970s, and then
Group A in the 1980s, when in 1987, the series took
on its current name. (A lower-key
Group N
series for production cars ran for most of the 1990s).
The championship was initially run with a mix of classes, divided
according to engine capacity, racing simultaneously. This often
meant that a driver who chose the right class could win the overall
championship without any chance of overall race wins, thereby
devaluing the title for the spectators – for example, in the 1980s
Chris Hodgetts won two overall titles
in a small Toyota Corolla prepared by Hughes Of Beaconsfield, at
that time a Mercedes-Benz/Toyota main dealer when most of the race
wins were going to much larger cars; and while the
Ford Sierra Cosworth
RS500s were playing at the front of the field,
Frank Sytner took a title in a Class B
BMW M3 and
John Cleland's first title was
won in a small Class C
Vauxhall
Astra.
After the domination (and expense) of the Ford Sierra Cosworth in
the late 1980s, the BTCC was the first to introduce a 2.0 L
formula, in 1990, which later became the template for the
Supertouring class that exploded throughout
Europe. The BTCC continued to race with Supertouring until
2000 and for
2001 adopted its own
BTC Touring rules.
However the
Super 2000 rules have now
been observed for the overall championship since the
2007 season.
The 2000s have seen cheaper cars than the later Supertouring era,
with fewer factory teams and fewer international drivers.
Type of cars
RIGHT
Currently, the cars used are 2.0 L saloons, based on models
from a variety of manufacturers, using
Super
2000 regulations matching those of the
World Touring Car
Championship. The series launched its own
BTC Touring specification for 2001, a year
before the WTCC began in its current form, however car counts were
low. Super 2000 cars were allowed to enter from 2004 to encourage
cars to be built for both championships, and became the only cars
eligible to win the main title - although several independent teams
still run BTC Touring-spec cars.
BTCC teams are a mixture of "works" teams from manufacturers
(currently only
Vauxhall) and independent teams
such as
Team RAC,
Team Dynamics, and Motorbase. However in 2010
there will no longer be any works teams following Vauxhalls
decision to pull out of the series. In
2005,
Team Dynamics became the first independent
outfit to win the BTCC drivers and team championships;
Matt Neal won the overall and independent drivers
contests in his Team Dynamics Honda Integra. This included
finishing all 30 championship races that year, something no other
driver has achieved before or since. This ended Vauxhall's run of 4
victories in the championships for drivers, teams and manufacturers
between 2001 and 2004. Neal and Dynamics were also victorious in
2006, before Vauxhall won the 2007 title with Italian
Fabrizio Giovanardi.
Team Dynamics also achieved the first overall
independents race win in the 'Supertouring' era when Neal won a
round of the 1999 BTCC at Donington park, earning the team
prize-money of £250,000.As a result of
Matt
Neal's championship victories, and the fact that
Team Dynamic's were designing and building
their own S2000
Honda Civic Type
R, they were no longer entered into the Independents category
and were classed as a "works" team.
There are strict limits to the modifications which can be made to
the cars, which are intended to reduce the cost of running a
competitive team, which had become prohibitive in the final years
of the
Super Touring rules. These cost
reductions have seen a rise in independent entries – teams or
individuals entering cars purchased from the manufacturer teams
when they update their chassis. These so called "ex-works" cars
have enjoyed some success. To further keep costs in check, the BTCC
uses a "control tyre", with
Dunlop the
current supplier of rubber to all the teams.
The rules allow for a variety of different fuels in a bid to
encourage more efficient cars: in 2004 Mardi Gras Motorsport
independently entered a
Liquified petroleum
gas powered
Super 2000 Honda Civic
Type-R (which was subsequently replaced by a more competitive
BTC-Touring Peugeot 406 Coupé, still LPG
powered), and in 2005 Tech-Speed Motorsport converted an ex-works
Vauxhall Astra Coupé to run on
bio-ethanol fuel. In the middle of 2006,
Kartworld's owner-driver
Jason Hughes
converted his 4 cylinder MG ZS to run on Bio-Ethanol, soon followed
by the
West Surrey Racing cars of
championship contender
Colin
Turkington and
Rob Collard, and for
the final event at Silverstone,
Richard Marsh converted his
Peugeot 307 to run on bio-ethanol fuel. Only Hughes continued on
this fuel in 2007 and 2008.
The regulations also permit cars to run on diesel; attempted first
in the 2007 season by Rick Kerry in a BMW 120d E87 run by Team AFM
Racing . In 2008 SEAT Sport UK entered two Turbo Diesel Power SEAT
Leons - the first diesel powered manufacturer entered cars.
Latest season
In 2009 the races take place on weekends during the British spring
and summer. Previously there have been three-day
Bank Holiday meetings, but for 2009 all of the
events take place on a Saturday and Sunday.
There will be ten
racing weekends at nine different circuits, including Brands Hatch
(for two different weekends), Silverstone
, Rockingham Motor Speedway
, Oulton
Park
in England, and Knockhill
in Scotland. Brands Hatch will host more
than one weekend's racing. Each round comprises three races, making
a thirty round competition in total.
Race format
Championship contenders Jason Plato
(SEAT) and Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall) collide at turn one of a
BTCC race at Snetterton in July 2007.
The BTCC is known for being a high-contact series.
On the Saturday of a race weekend there are two practice sessions
followed by a 30-minute qualifying session which determines the
starting order for the first race on the Sunday, the fastest driver
lining up in
pole position.
Each race typically consists of between 16 and 25 laps, depending
on the length of the circuit. The result of race one determines the
grid order for race two (ie the winner starts on pole).
For race three, a wheel is spun to decide at which place the grid
is 'reversed'. This means drivers finishing 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th or
10th in race two could take pole position for race 3 depending on
the outcome of the draw. For example, if the spinning wheel stops
at position 7, the driver finishing in 7th position in race two
starts on pole, 6th place starts in second place, 5th place starts
in third etc. Drivers finishing in 8th place and beyond would start
race three in their finishing order for race two. The draw is
normally conducted by the winner of race two, unless this driver is
competing for the championship at the final meeting.
Previous to 2006, the driver finishing in 10th place in race two
took pole position for race three. This initiated deliberate race
'fixing', whereby some drivers attempted to finished in 10th place
during race two to gain pole position in race three. This "reverse
grid" rule polarised opinion: some fans enjoy the spectacle
afforded by having unlikely drivers on pole position while faster
ones have to battle through the field; others feel it detracts from
the purity of the racing. For example, some drivers might decide to
slow down and let others pass them, thereby improving their own
starting position for the "reverse grid" race, which is contrary to
the spirit of motor racing – which is to try to come first in every
race. It also led to some safety concerns as drivers would slow
dramatically on the approach to the finish line, with cars behind
forced to take evasive action to avoid collecting slower cars
ahead. These factors contributed the rule change for the
2006
season.
Points system
Points are awarded to the top ten drivers in each race as follows :
- 1st = 15 pts
- 2nd = 12 pts
- 3rd = 10 pts
- 4th = 8 pts
- 5th = 6 pts
- 6th = 5 pts
- 7th = 4 pts
- 8th = 3 pts
- 9th = 2 pts
- 10th = 1 pt
An extra point is awarded to the driver who sets the fastest lap of
each race.
A bonus point is awarded to each driver who is classified as
leading a lap, though no driver may collect more than one point per
race no matter how many laps they lead.
A bonus point is also given to the driver who lines up on pole
position after the qualifying session.
Television coverage
In the UK,
ITV has covered the series since
2002, with commentary from
Ben Edwards
and former champion
Tim Harvey. In 2006
this included highlights from the first and second race of the day
and live coverage of the third and final race. This returned in the
second half of 2007, after the first five meetings had been on ITV3
(a digital channel with fewer viewers), with a half-hour late-night
highlights show. ITV1 also has a Sunday night show called
Motorsport UK, featuring many of the
supporting races. In 2008, the races are being screened live on
ITV4, along with the support races. ITV1 has a one-hour highlights
programme on the Monday night following the race.
Prior to that, the
BBC used to screen
highlights of every race, from 1988 to 2001. The
F1 commentator at the time,
Murray Walker used to do the commentary. From
1997, some races were screened live with
Charlie Cox joining Murray Walker in
the commentary box. After 1997 the commentary team was Charlie Cox
and John Watson with Murray Walker dedicating his time to Formula
1.
The series is also screened in other countries. In
Australia,
Fox
Sports Australia have been covering the
BTCC championship since
2000. From 2009 the ITV coverage has screened on
ONE HD[113190].
Speedvision also
used to screen highlights in the USA.
Motors TV, used to show all the races,
including some support races, live both in the UK and across
Europe.
[113191] In 2007 Setanta Sports showed all the races
live including the support races, although this did not continue in
2008.
Previous champions
Currently, 5 championships are awarded per season. The overall
driver's championship is the driver gaining the most points overall
throughout the season. Since 1992, the Independents driver
championship has also been awarded to the leading
non-manufacturer-backed driver. There are also awards for the best
overall team, leading manufacturer and, since 2004, the top
independent team. Previous championship titles were awarded to the
leading "Production" (or "Class B") driver and team between 2000
and 2003. Since 2001 (the beginning of a new era for the series)
five drivers from two makes have won the BTCC driver's
championship:
References
See also
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