Category: Touring Cars

The British Touring Car Championship is back with a vengeance this weekend as the teams make the annual pilgrimage to Brands Hatch for the season opener.

With a whopping 32 drivers on the grid, the BTCC promises to be a rip roaring affair as the third oldest racing championship in the world celebrates its 60^th anniversary. Behind only NASCAR and Formula One in age, the BTCC has always promised door to door action, and 2018 won’t be any different.

Season Calendar

2017 – Sutton’s Incredible Transformation

2017 saw Adrian Flux Racing’s Ash Sutton take the championship, driving his Subaru Levorg to glory at the expense of series veteran Colin Turkington. Sutton came almost out of nowhere in only his second season in the championship, and his first with the Subaru team. It was an intense battle all the way to the final round at Brands Hatch, with Sutton and Turkington the only ones in with a shout of the prestigious trophy.

It was heartbreak for the BMW driver though, as a collision in the final race of the season broke his rear suspension, leaving Sutton to take his maiden championship in what was a somewhat fairy-tale story.

With it being the 60^th anniversary of the championship, there are some special events being lined up to mark the occasion. The main one is a special endurance race at Snetterton on 29 July. The third race of the weekend will be contested over 60 miles, with no success ballast and double points on offer.

The Stars and their Cars

The 2018 season sees the return of some old faces, while some big names have departed for pastures new. The main face leaving the grid is triple champion Gordon Shedden, who is now racing in the World Touring Car Cup. Other notable names leaving the series are Mat Jackson, formerly of the Shredded Wheat Ford team. Aron Taylor-Smith, who raced for MG in 2017, and Jeff Smith, who continues to recover from injuries sustained in a horror crash at Croft last season.

Meanwhile 2016 series runner up Sam Tordoff returns to the grid, driving a Gard-X sponsored Ford Focus RS. Replacing Shedden at Team Dynamics is Porsche Supercup double champion Dan Cammish. A range of rookies are also joining the championship, with Sam Smelt (from British F4), Tom Oliphant (from Porsche Middle-East Supercup), and Bobby Thompson (from VW Racing Cup) all making their debuts.

But what will these drivers be racing in? Well some teams have opted to keep the same cars for this season, while a few teams have decided to completely change theirs. Perhaps the most notable addition is the return of a famous name. Alfa Romeo are back on the grid with Rob Austin’s Handy Motorsport team. He’ll be driving a Giulietta. Team Dynamics have brought in the newer Honda Civic model, with the FK8, replacing the old FK2.

2018 Entry List

Teams highlighted green are independent entries. Drivers indicated in bold are eligible for the Jack Sears Trophy.

Who’s The Favourite?

So the question is; who’s the favourite for the title this season? The usual suspects, Colin Turkington, Rob Collard, Matt Neal, Jason Plato, and Ash Sutton are all fancied for the championship. However some dark horses are emerging after some impressive testing. Speedworks’ Tom Ingram, who came third in last season’s title race and took home the Independent’s trophy, is being considered by many to have an outside chance of glory.

Some are even considering teams such as Power Maxed Racing as potential race winners. Josh Cook and Senna Proctor showed their pace in the changing conditions at the second pre-season test at Brands, finishing first and sixth respectively. Motorbase look fast too with the new Ford Focus RS, being driven by Tom Chilton, James Cole, with Sam Tordoff.

Whoever comes out on top, it promises to be a diamond of an anniversary season.

Power Maxed Racing driver Senna Proctor stormed to the Jack Sears Trophy title in his debut season in 2017, but what is in store for him in 2018? Aaron Irwin had a chat with him to see how his Vauxhall Astra has changed, and what his aspirations are for the coming season. 

AI: So we’re back, have you been itching to get back into the car?

SP: “Yeah I’ve been looking forward to it. Excited to get going again and we’re back with Power Maxed Racing this year so we’ll have to see what happens.”

Has there been many changes to the car? Apart from the new livery obviously?

“Yeah we’ve changed the livery, we’ve changed a lot of stuff. Just a few bits and bobs, a bit of weight saving here and there and moving it about to where we want it.

It’s been a good winter, it’s been productive. We’ve found out a bit about what works and what doesn’t work, we have a bit more of a back-up plan this year shall we say if anything does go wrong. But yeah we’re confident going into this year.”

When Rob Huff came in for one meeting last season he changed a lot about the setup. Have you taken his advice on board?

“Yeah he gave us the bulk principle of what will and won’t work. Some of it we’ve put to good practice and some of it didn’t work on our car so I’d say he was a big help.

Obviously with myself not being too experienced in how a touring car should feel it was always hard for me to do that. We’re ready to get going this year and do our best for the team and for Vauxhall and to thank all our sponsors.”

At the back end of last season you were pushing for top ten’s, is that the target again this season?

“At the last meeting at Brands Hatch we had our best result of sixth, and we were getting there towards the end of the year to be honest with you.

We made some big steps forward and some quite chunky set up changes and we found out what did and what didn’t work again.

That’s half the battle, going into a qualifying session and putting on something and you don’t have a clue what’s going on, it’s not ideal. But this year going forward we have a little more experience with the car and also the team have more experience with the car, it’s all gone well so yeah we’re looking forward to it.”

As the reigning Jack Sears Trophy winner your stock continues to rise, some are saying you’re the ‘rising star’, does that cross your mind going into a race?

“I just go out there and do the best job I can. Like I say it’s been a good winter so there’s been a lot of confidence carried over from where we finished off last year. If we hit the ground running this year getting the same sort of finishes then it’s going to be a successful year.”

Our thanks to Senna for the interview and we wish him and Power Maxed Racing the best of luck for 2018.

Photos courtesy of Matt Pigg (Photopigg).

Tom Oliphant is making his debut in the BTCC this season with Ciceley Motorsport and Aaron Irwin managed to catch up with him and ask him a few questions.

AI: So you’re into the British Touring Car Championship! how do you feel?

TO: Really excited, I’ve been a support series driver for five years now and it’s always nice to be in the show. I’ve been following it for a while, it’s a premier UK race series and one of the most well known ones across Europe. To be a part of it with a great team like Ciceley Motorsport I’m over the moon.

You went through the usual route, Ginettas etc? You’re in good company with Tom Ingram being an ex Ginetta champion, it must be a good route into it?

Yeah definitely! I started in GT’s and my ambition was to become a GT factory driver and I quickly reaslised that that was probably a little harder to get to than touring cars.

I won the Ginetta Supercup just like ‘Tingram’ and Adam (Morgan, Olliphant’s Ciceley team mate) and that set me up nicely for the Porsche’s. I had two and a half years in Porsche’s, it was competitive, we weren’t quite at the front but was always there or thereabouts. It’s a new challenge but I think it’ll suit me.

The racing’s closer here and not a bit of a parade. With the weight changes and the tyre changes too, you could be racing badly in one race, and could be great in the next. You’ve got to take the good with the bad, and it’s all about being consistent.

Have you had some running in the car?

I’ve had quite a bit of running in the car, three or four days. Mainly just getting used to how it feels, adapting from rear wheel drive to front wheel drive. But the team know what they’re doing and we’ve been trying quite a few interesting things to develop the car.

I definitely think we’ve found some pace over last year. Me and Adam seem to be relatively close, so does Aiden. (Moffat, Olliphant’s other team mate) I’m there or thereabouts already so when I get a little bit more comfortable I think we can crack on. The setup of the car feels good and I think the car will be able to win races this year definitely.

Is that the target then for this year? Aiden won races in 2017 and Adam finished on the podium a few times?

I think the overall target is to win the Jack Sears trophy, it’s more competitive this year obviously, it’s not just a rookie class anymore.

Obviously Dan Cammish followed me here from Porsche’s, so he’s probably going to be the favourite for that now especially with the works Honda team. But this is a very different beast, my main focus is to get as high up in that as possible, to get as high up in the Independents as possible, and yeah hopefully a podium or two over the course of the season when everything is right and everything aligns. It’d be good if I could get a win but podiums are a terrific start.

Have you done most of the circuits on the calendar before?

I’ve raced all of them, being in the support series, the tracks are nothing new to me, the only thing is from rear wheel to front wheel drive, that’s the only new thing for me.

Thanks to Tom for the interview and best of luck to him and Ciceley Motorsport for the 2018 season.