Photo: BTCC.net

BTCC start their 50th celebrations.

By

The British Touring Car Championship is celebrating its golden anniversary season during 2008 and to recognise the milestone, there is a new BTCC 50 Years logo.
In 1958, the British Saloon Car Championship was born, to be one of the world’s longest running motor racing championships, second only to the FIA Formula 1 Championship. Even then crowds in their thousands attended the races to see cars that they could recognise being put through their paces.

Jack Sears won the very first Championship title from Tommy Sopwith in the very last race at a damp Brands Hatch in early October. The two drivers finished the championship on equal points in their respective classes. Sears racing a 3.4-litre Jaguar and Sopwith in a Austin Westminster. So a two-race shoot-out with both drivers using identical 1.5-litre Rileys was organised to decide the overall champion.

In an interview with BTCC.net, Sears explained: “The organisers hadn’t taken into account there might be a tie as it was the first year. Nothing was written into the rules. And when they realised this was suddenly a possibility Tommy and I were asked if we’d sort it out on a flip of a coin. No way, not after racing our guts out, we said…

“So they borrowed a couple of Riley 1.5s in rally trim from BMC (British Motor Corporation) at Abingdon. There was a run-off, with two five-lap races. One car was quicker than the other so we swapped and then added times together.
“Tommy picked the fastest car for race one and I had to tail him as best I could. We reversed it in race two and I got in front, but I was having to work out in my rear view mirror if I was further ahead of him than he was of me in race one. I won the championship by about 1.6 seconds, as I recall.
“The day really captured people’s imaginations. There was a lot of excitement. People still come up to me and say ‘I was at Brands when you and Tommy Sopwith had that shoot out’.”

And it is no coincidence that the first round of the 2008 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship should start at the Brands Hatch short circuit in March.