Vauxhall says goodbye to the BTCC

After 21 years in the sport, Vauxhall have said goodbye to the British Touring Car Championship, becoming the last manufacturer to do so.
The team have won eight drivers titles in that time, with John Cleland in the Astra GTE in 1989, then the Cavalier in 1995. Jason Plato taking the first with Triple Eight on board in 2001, James Thompson in 2002 & 2004, and reigning World champion Yvan Muller in 2003 in the Astra Coupe – and more recently Fabrizio Giovanardi in the Vectra in 2007 & 2008.

John Cleland reminisced on not really thinking back on 1989 as much of a championship victory for Vauxhall due to the class structure at the time – Cleland’s overall best result was 10th, and never actually won a race, whereas the more powerful Sierra’s were actually winning the races but could not take the title.

In 1995, after a near miss in 1992 in which John still feels should have been his championship, Cleland took Vauxhall’s first championship ‘proper’, with a unified class structure – in the RML prepared Cavalier beating Alain Menu’s Williams prepared Renault Laguna.

Derek Warwick, who set up the team with Ian Harrison recalled jumping on the opportunity to take over the contract to run for Vauxhall in 1997 after RML decided to switch to running the Nissan.

John Cleland’s 1989 Astra GTE

Triple Eight had failed to finalise a deal to run Honda’s, so Vauxhall’s availability was a golden opportunity – though the first years were tough. It was many years before the Vectra became a truly competitive car, but it still couldn’t compete for championship glory against Prodrive’s Ford campaign in 2000 – the final year for super touring.

In 2001, with a major regulation change, the cars became cheaper to run, but with many of the manufacturers scared away – they found themselves only competing against Peugeot – when a 25 win season (of 26) for Vauxhall ensued, Peugeot themselves were also scared away as the new Astra Coupe proved to be a highly competitive car – and fought off other manufacturer attacks from MG, Proton & Honda over the next few years.

All the fighting appeared to be within team initially, with a rather unharmonious relationship forming between drivers Jason Plato & Yvan Muller. Though Plato won the championship, Vauxhall saw fit to part with their champion and retain Muller, who Mike Nicholson affectionally referred to as Vauxhall thought of as one of their sons.

In 2005, the switch to the new Sport Hatch didn’t work out too well for the team. Drivers Yvan Muller, Colin Turkington & Gavin Smith struggled for results as Matt Neal & Dan Eaves in the new Team Dynamics Honda Integra took the first championship for an independant team – whilst Muller at least held on to second place in the championship, then subsequently left to drive for SEAT in the World Touring Car Championship’s sophomore season.

The first BTCC Vauxhall Vectra

Fabrizio Giovanardi came the other way after Alfa Romeo shortened it’s support, and after one more troublesome year with the Astra, Vauxhall switched to the larger Vectra – a similar sized car to the successful Integra’s – and straight away won it’s first two championship’s at the hands of the Italian.

Early in 2009, Vauxhall announced it was leaving the championship – at the time with Matt Neal looking in strong contention for the title. In the end, it nearly went to Giovanardi, but it wasn’t to be, as Colin Turkington’s consistency, himself a former Vauxhall driver – helped him to become only the second independant driver to win the championship, as we now head into a season where an independant winner is almost a certainty.

Andy Gilson, Marketing Director of Vauxhall, indicated that the lack of competition, in addition to the economic downturn had played a factor in Vauxhall’s decision. He also ruled out heightening support in other forms of motorsport – indicating Vauxhall was going to concentrate directly on the car market, in particular retail sales & the VXR high-performance car brand – as the marque launched it’s new Astra hatchback at the circuit. The new Astra could be adapted to the new BTCC regulations, Stuart Harris, the Group Product Manager indicated – but should Vauxhall returned to the circuit, and indeed many at Vauxhall do hope it will, Stuart believes they’d return with the new Insignia.

Vauxhall’s marketing drive for the new Astra is being headed up with their blog based site, Torque Astra – where you can evaluate for yourself whether this will make a good touring car…someday.

Touring Car Times wishes to thank Vauxhall for 21 great years in the British Touring Car Championship – and hopes to see them back soon.