Brands Hatch is where it all starts

The 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship kicks off at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit this weekend, with the second phase of the Next Generation Touring Car introduced with the first race cars in competition.

23 cars are expected to be at the first round of the season, with a last minute surprise or two still possible. The official entry list of 27 will be realised by Snetterton, when Daniel Welch joins the series with his NGTC Proton Gen-2, with Bamboo Engineering still looking to join later in the season with a Lacetti for Harry Vaulkhard.

For the first race, all eyes will be on TOCA’s new formula for the future, the three Next Generation Touring Cars (NGTC) which are run by three new teams: Speedworks Motorsport, Dynojet Racing and Rob Austin Racing. All will field different packages; Speedworks will run a Toyota Avensis with the TOCA Engine built by Swindon; Dynojet will field an Avensis with a custom built Toyota engine by X CTech R and Rob Austin Racing will run a rear-wheel drive Audi A4 with an engine developed by Ric Wood based on an Audi TFSI engine.

With limited (or no) time for all of these teams to test, those eyes will likely have to look around the back of the grid at least for this weekend whilst the cars work through their development cycle on the track.

In testing, the tried and tested packages were looking good, with the Swindon Racing engine going into its second year powering the venerable Vauxhall Vectras of Team Eurotech and now Triple Eight Race Engineering. The two Vauxhalls of Andrew Jordan and James Nash were on top of the timesheets at the media day test session last week.

Those in the know say you need to look a little further back in the times for the true contenders however. The car to beat will unquestionably be the 2010 World Touring Car Championship winning Cruze, in the hands of reigning champion Jason Plato and top rookie Alex MacDowall. Although the RML team that run them have stuck to the Super 2000 2.0 litre normally aspirated engine rather than developing an NGTC engine (as they already have their hands full developing the new Global Racing Engine for the WTCC), the promise of performance parity this year will help ensure the Cruze will be at the front fighting against the top NGTC-powered cars.

Team Dynamics return with full Honda backing for a second season, and just as the Silverline Chevrolet team, also with an unchanged line-up in Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden. The two drivers helped the team to the manufacturers’ title last year, and the team have joined the ranks of those with Super 2000 cars who have fitted new engines built to the NGTC regulations. Honda’s results in testing have been mixed, suffering in their first shakedown run but fairing much better at the new Snetterton 300 circuit, before again getting limited track time at last week’s test at Silverstone.

Arena Motorsport are the only team to have a brand new S2000 car, with the brand new Ford Focus available for the team to race almost before it’s available in every show room. The team have had the biggest head start in terms of engine development, with a lot of components from their dominant 2010 LPG engine able to be carried over. On the other hand, the team have only had a few weeks to test the car, with a lot of miles being run with last year’s Focus ST in order to compensate. Arena regular Tom Chilton stays on, with Andy Neate replacing Tom Onslow-Cole as No.2 with the team expecting to add a third driver shortly into the season.

The old Focus STs of Arena have a new home with Motorbase Performance. The independent team was hot on the tails of Arena last year and many expect them to be so again, if not ahead. Mat Jackson stays on-board and has shown before he’s perfectly capable of jumping between front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive machinery, winning the 2006 SEAT Cupra championship before being promoted into the BTCC with a BMW 320si, and just two years ago taking four wins in an RML-run Chevrolet Lacetti. Joining Mat will be BTCC newcomer Liam Griffin, who will be learning the ropes moving up from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, replacing Steven Kane who leaves the championship.

Other outsiders are Tech-Speed, now running last year’s BTCC drivers championship winning Chevrolet Cruze for Paul O’Neill and John George, whilst Triple Eight and Team Eurotech run Vauxhall Vectras with the TOCA engine package for drivers Andrew Jordan, Jeff Smith, James Nash & Tony Gilham.

Special Tuning Racing have four SEATs at their disposal, but just Tom Boardman slated to start the year racing in any of them. The team have their own VAG-based NGTC engine developed by Lehmann, which they will share with AmD Milltek Racing. The latter pulling off the shock move of the off season in signing last year’s title contender Tom Onslow-Cole to drive their Volkswagen Golf in place of Team Principal Shaun Hollamby.

West Surrey Racing are back with Rob Collard, with BMW CSL Cup graduate Nick Foster taking over from Andy Neate, who fancied a shot in a more familiar front-wheel drive car. The EBay Motors sponsorship which graced their brief fling in the World Touring Car Championship is emblazoned across the car, with the team hoping to be able to run Colin Turkington in events that don’t clash with the 2009 champion’s Scandinavian Touring Car Championship commitments – his name still adorning the team’s trucks.

Geoff Steel Racing returns after a three year absence, fielding an ex-Motorbase BMW 320si for Clio champion Dave Newsham, whilst Mini Challenge driver Chris James has purchased Chevrolet Sweden’s old Lacetti which completes a record entry for 2011.

Although the technical regulations continue to change as the series phases in the NGTC format to replace Super 2000, there’s no changes in the sporting rules for this season. Qualifying is still a ‘fastest starts first’ affair, the only change there is that it will be streamed live on the ITV Player in the UK all season. The race format remains three races on the Sunday with a random draw in the third event which will reverse either the top six, seven, eight, nine or ten cars. With a full support package of Porsches, Clios, Formula Renault and Ginetta series to boot which makes for one packed schedule.

Last year’s recurring theme of balance with the turbo-powered LPG fuelled Ford Focus of Arena is now redundant with the team switching to petrol engines, so the story of 2011 should be one of a top class fight for the championship, with the occasional question of balance between the ‘hybrid’ S2000/NGTC cars and fully S2000 ones occasionally popping up for good measure.