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BTCC: The Action Returns
The 2009 British Touring Car Championship premiers this Saturday at 1 pm ET on SPEED, in the first of a series of one-hour programs during the winter months.
Andy Blackmore  | http://andyblackmoredesign.com/  |  Posted December 02, 2009   Vancouver, BC
Typical action from Thruxton. Jason Plato leads the pack. (LAT)
The 2009 British Touring Car Championship premiers this Saturday at 1 pm ET on SPEED, in the first of a series of one-hour programs during the winter months.


It has been a couple of years since we last had the privilege of watching one of the top Touring Car Series on SPEED, so here is a quick refresher, and a taste of what to expect over the coming weeks.

The BTCC is the premier racing series in the UK and consists of ten race weekends with three rounds at each event. The Grid for Race one is set by qualifying. The race two grid is taken from the results of the first race, while the third grid becomes a bit of a lottery. A number is randomly chosen between 6-10 and the leading places are reversed. This adds for some exciting racing at the close of the day.

BTCC run two classes, based on production cars. At the front of the grid, the FIA S2000 class, which allows 4-5 door cars running with engines no larger than 2000cc. The engine can come from another car in the manufacturer’s range, which allows teams to choose the best engine and car for racing. Bodywork and Suspension modifications are limited with the regulations in an attempt to keep costs low. This is the same class used in the World Touring Car Championship and many other domestic series, allowing a greater variety of cars to enter the various series.

The second class is often called ‘BTC-Touring’. These are older cars from the start of the millennium, which were once front-runners in the BTCC. A couple of the cars, given a good driver and team can, and do, manage an overall podium finish.

Many of the cars will be unfamiliar to the North American audience, so lets have a quick run down of the leading runners and riders.
GM’s UK division, Vauxhall have competed in the BTCC for 20 years, winning seven titles. (LAT)

In recent years, Honda and Vauxhall, a UK division of General Motors, have shared the titles with Italian Fabrizio Giovanardi, Matt Neal, James Thompson and Yvan Muller winning two titles each over the last six years.

Vauxhall have been a part of the British Touring Car Championships for the last 20 years, winning Eight drivers’ titles and seven manufacturers’ titles with the Vauxhall Astra, Cavalier and Vectra models.

Although the Vectra is not sold in North America, there are a number of similarities to the Saturn Aura, which uses the European car chassis. Obviously the racecar is very far removed from its road-going counterpart. Vauxhall have three top drivers in their team.

Multiple champions Matt Neal and Fabrizio Giovanardi are joined by new kid on the block, Andrew Jordan, who is a star of the future.

Vauxhall have been very dominant in the past, but the current Vectra is very large, and always appears on be on its limit, compared to its smaller rivals. Despite this, Giovanardi took back-to-back championships in 2007-2008. I’m not going to spoil it; you’ll have to watch the series to see if he can make it three times in a row!

With the recession in full swing and bankruptcy for GM earlier this year, Vauxhall announced they would pull out of the series at the end of the year.

With Vauxhall the only full works team in the series, it is left to privateer teams to take the battle to them…and they do regularly.


The BMW 320Si is the privateer’s car of choice in S2000 Touring Car Championship. Two front running teams run the BMW’s in the BTCC.

Team RAC, run by ‘WSR’, known as West Surrey Racing, has a long history of success in single seaters with Ayrton Senna, Allan McNish, Mika Hakkinen, Rubens Barrichello, Christiano da Matta and even Brian Cunningham.
2008 Independent Champion, Colin Turkington is the main threat to Vauxhall. (LAT)

The team has found it much harder in ‘tin tops’ but have won the Independents Championship three times. Colin Turkington from Northern Ireland is the lead driver and has competed in the BTCC since 2002.

The second team is the two car ‘Team Airwaves’ outfit run by Motorbase Performance. Rob Collard is a seasoned veteran and tough-guy in the BTCC. Jonathan Adam, another star of the future, joins him.

Adam also won the Scottish Young Driver of the Year twice in 2004-2005, a title previously won by the likes of Allan McNish and Dario Franchitti. Not bad company!

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Andy Blackmore

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