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BTCC confirms an S2000 award for 2013 season

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The British Touring Car Championship has confirmed there will be recognition for those that compete in Super 2000 cars from the 2013 season, although not a separate classification in the championship.

Super 2000 cars were first introduced in the British Touring Car Championship in 2004, which saw SEAT able to enter with the cars it had built for the FIA European Touring Car Championship for Rob Huff and Jason Plato. By 2007 it had become the dominant class of car in the Championship, but is now being phased out by removing the performance parity with the new cars which conform fully to Next Generation Touring Car regulations.

There are still no active plans to phase out Super 2000 however. NGTC cars are heavier but benefit from larger 18″ tyres and will next year have less restrictions on the amount of power they’re able to put down, which will make the S2000 cars (which are all fitted with NGTC-specification turbocharged engines) uncompetitive for overall race wins. This year so far, S2000 cars have won seven out of the 27 races.

“There has been sufficient interest from competitors who wish to compete with current S2000 cars to warrant an award for their efforts,” said Series Director Alan Gow. “We made a commitment over two years ago for those cars to continue in the championship, albeit not with performance parity against NGTC cars.”

“Therefore we will award silverware to the top S2000 finisher in each race which will accumulate to an overall trophy at the end of the season. It means those teams, drivers and sponsors who are looking to eventually move up to NGTC machinery can still actively participate in the BTCC and benefit from its profile.”

Gow also confirmed that this will not be a points-based classification like the current independents’ trophy. The details of which will be worked out later, but at present all that’s known is that the winning S2000 competitor in a race will be represented on the podium, and that an overall winner will be determined by the end of the season.