BTCC 2016

[calster17]

The season has't even started yet it's looking to be interesting already!

 

The big news so far?

 

- Team BMR have teamed with Subaru to not just use the Levorg as this years car, but also having manufacture backing! Thats right, we now have (at time of writing) 3 manufacture teams in the sport! Powered by a 4flat-4 engine powering the rear wheels...with Jason Plato & Colin Turkington driving.

 

- Andy Jordan is going to be racing for Motorbase Performance, bringing over the Pirtek sponsorship.

 

- Tom Ingram has resigned for Speedworks.

 

- MG have committed to another 3 years in the sport.

 

- Welch Motorsports are replacing the Protons

 

So let's see what else happens! The season launch is on the 22nd March!

[TIMELESS]

So what other cars are in this season? The last time I followed BTCC it was Civics and Toyota Avensis'. :lol:

[Eudemon]

I wonder if those VW CCs will see new owners as they certainly proved they were capable of the good fight.

[calster17]

So what other cars are in this season? The last time I followed BTCC it was Civics and Toyota Avensis'. :lol:

 

Quite alot actually....

 

MG, Ford, BMW, VW's, Chevrolet's, Audi's, Mercedes,Vauxhall, Protons and even Infinity! :cool:

 

-

 

@Diablo: I'd be surprised if them CC's never found homes in the championship again. Likewise I'm hoping Welch's Proton finds a home, or somone wil give me £100,000 to re-home her!

 

--

 

 

I'm sadly not going to be able to attend Knockhill this year, that weekend I'll be jet setting off to for the West Coast of United States of Americaland for two weeks as my mate decided to have his wedding the following week. I'm making sure to bring this point up in the Best man's speech though. :lol:

 

Anyone here going to manage to attend a race this year? Well wroth it if you can manage!

[calster17]

- Rob Austin is to be racing for Handy Motorsports this season. Running in a Toyota Avensis...sadly no Sherman this year. :( Knew he lost his big sponsor at the end of last season but never though we'd see RAR leave the sport.

 

- Jack Goff has moved to West Surrey Racing.

This means at the moment, 888/MG have no confirmed drivers.

[Eudemon]

Just been taking a glance at the new liveries and man they have put some more thought into them for this season. Looks like the TV deals and maybe the increasing popularity of the series is making more companies take notice. Just thinking back to those jet black VW CCs for example, those things were on screen so often it was nuts to see them without any sponsors on them.

 

Check them out.

 

AmD Tuning Audi S3 - Classic Audi Livery

 

 

more pics and info

 

Handy Motorsport's Toyota Avensis - Rob Austin's new drive!

 

 

more pics and info

 

WIX Racing Mercedes-Benz A-Class - Adam Morgan

 

 

more pics and info

 

Tom Ingram's Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis

 

 

Really like the splash of colour the Avensis' have on their wheels, makes them pop a bit more. And it's so good to see more larger 4-doors on the grid. Makes me hark back to the good old days of the 90s!

[TIMELESS]

That Audi is beautiful!

[calster17]

A bit of light on Dan Welch's 2016 plan's.

 

He's a fantastic guy, and loved how he'd throw the little Proton about the place with good results (not in the past 2 seasons) so wish him best of luck! Hopefuly see him putting up a good fight again this season! :D

[CarMadMike]

I only follow BTCC from a bit of a distance as I tend to watch F1 when that's on, and forget to watch BTCC the weekends F1 isn't on, but I'm really happy that Subaru have joined up, it should make things much more interesting :D

[calster17]

Honda Yuasa Racing is now officially Honbda Halfords-Yuasa Racing, thanks to co-signing Halfords as the new title sponsor!

 

The car so far for testing...

[ATTACH]25578[/ATTACH]

Yes, looks like they forgot to add the stickers.

 

why is this a big thing? Well Team Dynamics (Who run Honda's BTCC Op's) and Halfords have some history together...

 

With the DC5 Integra...

Which caused a stur thank's on part to the fact the car was't offically sold in the UK (But it was in a round about way)

 

And the FN Generation Civic's

 

 

Funny how thing's go full circle at times...

[Eudemon]

You mean it's weird how a sponsor drops out when things aren't going entirely peachy but then when they are and the races are shown all over TV and spectator numbers continue to rocket that they come crawling back? Yeah that is funny. :lol:

 

Perhaps too, the Halfords logo made some people actually go to their shops as brand/team loyalty and support can be a really powerful thing.

[calster17]

In the crazy world of motorsports, this is called "Heritage" :lol:

[Eudemon]

The BTCC racing starts from around 11:30 tomorrow and it's Tom Ingram on Pole with the two Honda's of Shedden and Neal right behind. Qualifying was a case of who managed to put down a quick lap before the drizzle impaired the track, stopping many from improving and challenging for the top few grid positions.

 

Even though it was only qualifying, because of the light rain a ton of the grid were out on the track at times and it gave a small glimpse at what the chasing pack will look like and it is looking damn good. It was really great to see many different models each with their own eye-grabbing liveries.

[Camel]

Actually got chance to watch a few hours of racing today! Usually miss the BTCC. :(

 

Got to admit, Brands isn't one of my favourite tracks though but there should be plenty of action to keep me happy.

[Eudemon]

Time for the final BTCC race of the day! Some of the support races have been full-on too, that last Ginetta GT4 was pure crazy! It was like a Clio Crash Cup race in many respects. :nuts:

 

Yeah the Indy circuit is never a layout I really rate much as it just feels too short, though in saying that it's quite fun to watch when it's wet due to the nature of the corners.

[Eudemon]

That was quite an amazing save by Andy Jordan there.

[Eudemon]

Quali for Thruxton is about to kick off and the Free Practice sessions have shown Turkington to be quite quick in the Scooby-doo, so that's good to see that car coming on well.

[Eudemon]

Good job Ingram and brilliant job wee Moffat and outstanding lap by Neal even with all that success ballast. Scooby's didn't do that well after all though which was a shame.

[Camel]

Looking forward to actually being able to catch bits and bobs of the touring cars today for a change.

 

Shame that the Silverline Subaru team have had to withdraw on safety grounds due to their new fuel rail not being strong enough. :( The Scooby sounds amazing and by far the best sounding car this season.

 

Never the less, it should still be a fantastic day of racing!

[Camel]

Jesus...

 

Have they swapped Dunlops for Pirellis? 4 front left punctures in the space of 2 laps. Neal tried to get back into the pits and hit/got hit by an MG causing a rather large crash on the start finish straight! Red flagged.

 

Unbelievable Geoff.

[Eudemon]

/late

 

Well that was a bit of an eventful race day wasn't it?

 

Like you say Mells, that first race was quite full of the old tyre going *pop* on a number of cars it seemed. Kind of hard not to see that happen with the temp of the day and the jagged kerbs that Thruxton has though. Just those two enough would probably put in the possibility of a puncture but then you factor in the sheer speed these cars doing and the load on the rubber and something has to give. Could have been lessened with the drivers taking it easier but then we wouldn't get the all-out battling we saw in most of the races.

 

Bit of a shame too that the races were shortened -- though I understand why -- as the Hondas and BMWs do look after their tyres well with the latter coming on strong in the latter end of the races. Neal was a right halfwit trying to turn into the pits when he would have known that train was behind him, however you can understand why he would do it as the entrance was right there. Following on from this I was shocked and glad to see nobody collected Shedden as it would have been so easy for a car to go down that side, and because of the smoke not realise a car was there and collide with it hard.

 

The support races were also fantastic, the Clios as always were good to watch and seeing them heading three-wide at the fastest parts of the circuit with barely any room between them and the slightest contact resulting in disaster was just as thrilling as any BTCC race. In fact for me personally the insane Ginetta Juniors were the most exciting race of the day, those kids have some real grit between their teeth and despite their ages have some incredible race craft and respect while fighting for positions. I think you can already see some future BTCC and maybe F1 names in amongst that lot.

 

Was good to see Aiden Moffat in the other A-Class doing well until his race was unfortunately cut short and the Jordan/Jackson in-battle continues strong and so does the Focus. Was impressed and finally happy to see the other teams such as Eurotech and Power Max getting into the mix of things too. If these teams could get some better more accomplished drivers I think we would see racing on par of that of the 90s and that's a really tantalising prospect!

 

Shame it's a whole month before the next round at Oulton Park but if it it's anything like Thruxton was then the wait will be worth it. :nuts:

[Camel]

It was indeed a great day of racing as always. But as usual I didn't get to see all of the races due to them being spread over 6 hours. Nothing can keep my attention for that long!

 

More often than not the younger racers show up the older, "more mature" BTCC racers imo. Not necessarily more skill but they are usually more tactful how they go about things both in the car and out of the car. Maybe it's because they're trying to impress to get sponsorship or another seat or maybe they're just not as hot headed yet. :hmmm:

 

Hoping to make it over to Cheshire for Oulton park and Silverstone later in the year. :nods:

[Eudemon]

Well done Colin and Subaru on your first ever win in the #BTCC. So glad it was Turks and not Plato who took it but fair play to Plato on his 3rd place even though his pass on Lloyd was a bit more of a push out of the way than a racing manoeuvre. Great entertainment and brilliant driving from both Austin and Moffat as they were both sprinting round the track together at high speed with Austin eventually managing to put in the pass.

 

Knowing the Scoobys are in this sort of contention after having to withdraw from the previous meeting at Thruxton is making me excited for the next set of races and meetings. :cool:

[Eudemon]

Really scrappy final race and a shame for Shedden to get that puncture. Wanted to see what his high-speed inside lunge on Cook was like, but never got a replay to see if he was a bit too aggressive with the move. It's clear that Neal was creeping at the start and if Ingram's was a penalty then surely Neal should be the same. Again though never got to see much of the footage to compare but, he did definitely roll a tiny bit.

 

The Subaru's are again looking mighty strong and Tordoff was a man on a mission and was rightly called the 'Driver of the Day'. Big well done to Collard too, he was a racer possessed and was fun to watch making his way through the pack.

 

It wasn't the follow me train of last year but, there was still some of that and I would like to see more passing places on Oulton Park as it is such a fast and tough track, and if there was more opportunity to pass, I think it would make for one of the best races on the calendar.

 

Croft is up next in two weeks. With the Scoobys not needing to have any weight due to their Championship position chances are they will front the grid and could take the first race, probably as a one-two. I'm certainly going to enjoy watching the RWD battle between BMW and Subaru in the remaining rounds.

[Camel]

The Scoobys sounded epic again and some saw good overtaking at the chicane. Also a dodgy crash in the F4 race where one of the drivers nearly ended up with a tire wall going over his head!

 

Will have to catch up on ITV player or something to see what happened in the rest of the races.