RML wins contract to supply TOCA chassis from 2016

RML will be the next supplier of the stock standard chassis components to the British Touring Car Championship, replacing GPRM over the next two seasons.

The multiple touring car title-winning outfit will start supplying the stock chassis components from the 2016 season, with the current five-year cycle with GPRM finishing at the end of this year.

“We welcome RML back into the BTCC family,” said BTCC series director Alan Gow. “In fact we actually go back a long way together, as the 1993 BTCC was their first touring car project.

“Our NGTC regulations have been incredibly successful for the BTCC – no doubt they are one of the most important milestones in its proud 58 year history – but success is never achieved by merely standing still, which is why this ‘mid-term’ review was always scheduled into our ten year NGTC programme.

“Actually, it’s great testament to the concept of the regulations that they remain largely the same after 5 years, without requiring any more than some fine-tuning to take them through the next five. Very, very few top-level championships have technical regulations that are as fundamentally sound and enduring as ours have proven to be.

“So as we enter the next phase of the NGTC regulations and indeed the BTCC itself, I would like to thank current supplier GPRM for their tireless work and commitment – but at the same time look forward to this new partnership with RML as the BTCC continues to go from strength to strength.”

TouringCarTimes understands the teams will be under no obligation to upgrade their existing components, and will be able to keep GPRM chassis parts if they wish. They will only need to deal with RML if these parts need repairing or replacing.

“We are delighted to have been selected by TOCA to provide NGTC chassis design, engineering and supply services for the next six years,” said RML Group commercial director Simon Holloway. “The MSA British Touring Car Championship is quite simply the biggest and best series in the UK so it’s an honour for the RML Group to play a leading role in its engineering and design operations.

“As well as its undoubted levels of skill and professionalism both on and off-track, the BTCC also enjoys unrivalled commercial opportunities and welcomes huge audiences both trackside and on television. Being involved is advantageous on so many levels. We’re looking forward to working with TOCA and the BTCC teams greatly, and forging a successful, strong and lengthy partnership together.”

RML’s history in the BTCC includes running the factory Vauxhall and then Nissan teams during the 1990s BTCC. After departing as champions at the end of 1999 with Laurent Aiello, the team returned for one year in 2004, running the factory SEAT programme for Jason Plato and Rob Huff, before switching to the World Touring Car Championship in 2005 and running the factory Chevrolet programme, winning the drivers’ title three times with Chevrolet up to 2012, and again as a privateer entry in 2013.

RML also ran a three-season programme using the Chevrolet Lacetti and Cruze S2000 cars they’d developed for the WTCC in the BTCC between 2009 and 2011, winning the drivers’ title with Jason Plato in 2010.

RML had started developing a Cruze under the then-new NGTC rule set for 2012, but this was shelved when Jason Plato and sponsor Silverline left the team, and they were unable to put together a competitive driver line-up and commercial package for the following year. The cars were later completed and used as independent entries for BTC Racing and IP Tech Race Engineering, with two RML-developed Cruzes competing this season with Power Maxed Racing.

They also continue to support four teams in the World Touring Car Championship with its TC1 class Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1, meaning the Wellingborough-based operation has a key function in two of Europe’s main motorsport categories for the foreseeable future.