This is part two in our series looking back at the Super Touring era of the BTCC, be sure to check out part one.
The Super Touring era of the British Touring Car Championship had an inauspicious start to life. It was finding its feet and emerging from the shadow of the era of roaring Ford Sierra RS500’s. The new cars may have been more conventional looking, but that didn’t diminish the quality of the racing on show.
1991 saw a exciting title fight between Will Hoy and John Cleland, but 1992 was the year the series really kicked into life.
It would be the season of many a memorable moment, as well as a season finale which is still talked about nearly 35 years on.
The early proceedings were dominated by Vauxhall and Toyota. John Cleland and Jeff Allam in the Cavalier battled with Andy Rouse and Will Hoy, with the reigning champion now in a Toyota Carina. Cleland won the first two rounds at Silverstone and Thruxton before Rouse and Hoy won a race apiece at Oulton Park and Snetterton respectively.
Round five at Brands Hatch would see the first real flashpoint of the season. Cleland had made it past the Toyotas, and was sailing into the distance to strengthen his title bid. Rouse and Hoy were chasing hard, perhaps a little too hard as going into Westfield the pair collided and were in the barrier – breaking the first cardinal sin of motorsport, don’t hit your teammate!
At the halfway point of the season, Cleland was leading the championship, but an unlikely contender was about to enter the fray. While BMW won the title in 1991 with an M3, they were struggling with their new model, the Listerine liveried 318IS. Tim Harvey and Steve Soper led the team, with Soper splitting his time between the BTCC and the German touring car championship.
Leaving Donington Park, Harvey was fifth, 60 points behind Cleland. But he would go on an incredible five win streak, meaning he was a point behind Cleland going into the season finale at Silverstone. The minty marauder was in with a shout.
A race for the ages, the three title protagonists, Cleland, Harvey and Hoy all qualified in the middle of the pack, and had to fight their way through. Soper, who’d surged up from last following a collision earlier in the race, managed to pass Cleland and act as a rear gunner for Harvey. The onboard camera famously caught Cleland giving the finger to Soper, prompting the unforgettable quip from commentator Murray Walker – “I’m going for first says Cleland.”
Heading into Brooklands, Cleland got past Soper, going onto two wheels to do so, Soper, undeterred decided to lunge down the inside and took the pair into the gravel and out. This handed Harvey the title. Cleland was apoplectic, uttering his own famous line, “the man’s an animal” while claiming they “race clean” in the BTCC. The irony being as he says it you can hear tyre smoke and a probable collision in the background.
The pair have since buried the hatchet and are good friends, but the moment really put the BTCC on the map. It was front page of the newspapers and a much watch on Grandstand.
1993 saw the first of the big budget international drivers arrive on the scene, in the name of Jo Winkelhock at BMW. Renault also entered the series, tempting reigning champion Harvey to join Alain Menu (remember that name too). The Renault 19 struggled unless it rained, with Harvey managing just one win at Donington Park in the wet, Menu finishing second, a false dawn as the pair failed to make the top five in the standings.
Winkelhock and teammate Soper dominated, with Ford’s Paul Radisich putting on a late show to finish third despite missing the first seven rounds of the season. While not as controversial as the season before, there was definitely one moment which everyone remembers.
Reigning Formula One and IndyCar champion Nigel Mansell joined the Ford team for the ToCA shootout at Donington Park. The biggest of big names at the time, imagine Lewis Hamilton rocking up in a Ford Focus, that’s the magnitude we’re talking about.
Mansell wouldn’t finish the race however as going into the Old Hairpin, he lost the back end and and slid across the circuit. He was collected by Tiff Needell, who was a guest driver doing a feature for Top Gear – yes, that Top Gear.
Mansell was sent into the barrier and his first flirtation with the BTCC ended painfully. He’d be back later in the era…
The BTCC was really starting to hit the headlines, it was prime time viewing on BBC Grandstand, and the controversy and racing were only getting better and better. The big names were coming, and the budgets were ballooning. It wouldn’t be long before the big boys got involved.
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