BTCC braced for Brands Hatch

The 2012 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship kicks off at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit this weekend, for what promises to be an exciting season.

There are 24 cars expected to be on the grid at the event. The official entry list of 25 will be realised at Oulton Park, when it’s planned that the second Thorney Motorsport Insignia will be driven by Rob Hedley.

The 14 teams on the grid in 2012 will be running nine different makes of car, Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, MG, Proton, Toyota, Vauxhall and VW. Every single car on the grid will be running a turbocharged 2.0 litre engine under TOCA’s Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) regulations. In addition to this more than half of the cars have been built to the full NGTC regulations, with the remaining cars running an S2000-spec chassis.

For the first round, all eyes will be on the battle between these NGTC and S2000 cars. With limited (or no) time for all of these teams to test, and teething problems for a number of the teams that have had the time, many are tipping that it will be the S2000 cars that are at the front of the grid for at least this weekend. It was Dave Newsham who topped the timesheet after the media day test session last week driving the S2000 ex-Triple Eight Race Engineering Vectra.

The cars everyone on the grid will be looking to beat are the Honda Yuasa Racing Civics of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, 2011 BTCC Champion and runner up respectively. These two drivers helped the Team to take a clean sweep of the Championships last year, securing the teams’ and manufacturers’ titles. Honda Yuasa Racing have undertaken an extensive testing program of their new NGTC Civics in the lead up to the opening round of the season. While the results of this testing have been mixed, Shedden and Neal did finish second and third on the timesheet at the media day test.

Honda Yuasa Racing will in turn have both support and competition from Eurotech Racing who will be running two customer NGTC Civics built by them. Eurotech also boasts an unchanged driver line up with Andrew Jordan and Jeff Smith behind the wheels of these cars in 2012. Jordan, who was a contender for the 2011 independent driver’s title, has made no secret of the fact that he is expecting big results in 2012.

Another team that the rest of the grid will be keeping a close eye on is Triple Eight Race Engineering and their drivers Jason Plato and Andy Neate. Triple Eight’s works deal with MG was only announced earlier this year and the team have been working around the clock to get two NGTC-spec MG6s ready for Brands Hatch. As a result testing prior to the first round will be minimal, but many expect any issues to be overcome quickly by one of the most successful teams in the BTCC.

Without the teething issues of a new NGTC car to deal with many expect the S2000 cars to be strong in the early half of the season. Two S2000 teams that will be the focus of attention in 2012 are Motorbase Performance and West Surrey Racing. Mat Jackson will again be driving one of the Motorbase Focus’, after leading the team’s assault on both independent Championships in 2011. Joining Matt will again be Liam Griffin as well as 2011 Clio Championship contender Aron Smith. Many expect the BMWs of West Surrey Racing to be strong in 2012 given they are now fitted with turbocharged BMW engines built by Neil Brown. WSR will have three cars on the grid in 2012 with Rob Collard and Nick Foster joined by Tom Onslow-Cole.

After a trying start to their 2011 seasons, eyes will also be on those teams that ran NGTC-spec cars last year. These issues were converted to podiums by Frank Wrathall and Rob Austin in the latter half of last year, results they will be looking to emulate in the opening rounds. Fellow Toyota runners Speedworks have expanded to a two car team in 2012, with Tony Hughes joined by reigning Ginetta GT Supercup Champion Adam Morgan at what is now a two car team.

Although the technical regulations will continue to change as the series phases in NGTC, the sporting rules remain the same. Qualifying is still a ‘fastest starts first’ affair, streamed live on the ITV Player in the UK all season again in 2012. 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. Alongside this is a support package of Porsches, Clios and the two Ginetta series’ which makes for a packed race weekend schedule.

Last year’s recurring argument in regards to parity between the NGTC and S2000 engine should be redundant this season with every team now running the NGTC engines. The story of 2012 will be the fight for the Championship, with both NGTC cars and S2000 cars expected to feature.