The British Touring Car Championship returns to action this weekend at the traditional Brands Hatch venue and the 2015 grid is sure to give the fans plenty of entertainment. With a new set of rules and the grid changed more than it has in the past three years, no one knows what to expect.
2015 BTCC Season Preview
The rule changes include the success ballast being increased and it being moved further back in an attempt to peg back a rear wheeled car’s advantage. Also a change in way the drivers are allowed to use the soft tyres as they get one set for each race meeting and last season they choose which race they used them in before qualifying and they usually picked race 3 as it’s a reverse grid race. This season however they still have to select which race they use them in before qualifying but they have to use them three times in race 1, three in race 2 and three in race 3 to mix up the racing. Lastly probably the most significant rule change that the fans will see is how the grid lines up for race 2. Last season the grid for race two lined up as the result of the first race but this season it will be decided by the order of the fastest laps during race one.
From dominating the field last season Colin Turkington is going for a change of scenery and a big change in team mates. The double champion is joining Team BMR in the front-wheeled drive Volkswagen CC. Turkington has of course not been in a rear wheeled drive car across the last few years so that will be a massive challenge for him. However it may not be as challenging as racing in the same team as Jason Plato. The double champion will also be making the move from the successful MG car to BMR. They did find that they met on track last season as they fought for the title which usually ended with Turkington in the gravel so that will be an extremely interesting battle. To make it more interesting they are joined by the young gun Aron Smith who was at BMR last season and claimed a win at Snetterton, and he will certainly give the champions a run for their money. Finally the fourth car is occupied by team boss Warren Scott who will be joining the fight for points and podiums.
Turkington’s old team will now be occupied by old team mate Rob Collard who bring a massive amount of speed and experience and he will be alongside Plato’s ex-team mate Sam Tordoff. The young driver has made a very good impression the last couple of years racing with Jason and beating him on occasions and picking up a few wins and if the car’s half as good as it was last season he’s sure to be expecting to pick up more than one win. They will be running under the team name Team JCT600 with GardX. They will be joined by Andy Priaulx, the World Touring Car Champion will return the BTCC and be expecting to fight at the front, and he will race under Team IHG Rewards Club. All three cars will be entered under the name Team WSR for the constructor’s championship.
Honda Yuasa Racing will once again return to the series with champions Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden and again with a new car the tourer last season didn’t quite get them the high amount of wins they are used and Shedden only just about managed to keep in the hunt for the drivers title near the end of the season. So this season they will pin their hopes on a new model the Honda Civic Type R and although they had a few teething problems in testing it looks very nice and hopefully fast so they can re-join the battle at the front.
2013 champion Andrew Jordan will be filling the boots of Jason Plato over at MG 888 Racing. The champion has left the family run team over at Eurotech and look for his second title in a car that was very competitive last season. Alongside him will be Jack Goff. Goff raced the second half of last season with Team BMR and managed to pick up a few good results, a whole season in the BTCC should help the young driver build on his career. Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing will joining the BTCC as a new manufacturer, with the aim of course to help promote the support for the charity and ex-soldiers will be helping the team out with their work. The drivers are Richard Hawken who has ten years experience driving the super touring cars and Derek Palmer Jr. The younger of the two drivers won the Dutch Touring Cars Championship and has raced in historical touring cars.
Fan favourite Rob Austin will also return to track in his car effectively known as ‘Sherman’ and be joined by his good friend for his second season in the championship Hunter Abbott in ‘Panza’. The Exocet AlcoSense team will be driving the Audi A4 which looks slightly different from last season with a new explosive livery. Rob will joined on the good by good friend Daniel Welch in the Welch Motorsport team driving the Proton Gen 2 but will again run a different engine to the rest of the field so hopefully he has better luck with that this season. He will be joined by Andy Wilmot in the second Proton for his rookie season and will be hoping to compete for the Jack Sears trophy which is just for rookies this season.
After claiming his first win at the last race meeting last season Adam Morgan will once again contest the championship for WIX racing in the Mercedes Benz A Class and will looking to build on that win after the car showed so much potential last seasons. Young drivers Aiden Moffat and Tom Ingram will also return. Moffat for Laser Tools Racing with an extremely impressive looking Mercedes Benz A Class like Morgan, for his second year. Ingram will also return with Speedworks in the Toyota Avensis and longing for better luck than last year as he probably was the unluckiest driver on the grid. AmD Tuning.com will return with two cars, one including Mike Bushell in a ford focus
and it may take him a while to get up to speed with the car after he missed testing time with health issues but it now fully on the mend and looking forward to the season. Nic Hamilton, brother of Lewis will also make his debut in the BTCC with the team but racing a S3 and will be entered under a guest pass.
Simon Belcher will be racing once more with Handy Motorsport in the Toyota Avensis. Stewart Lines will join the grid for Houseman Racing in a Toyota Avensis and Alex Martin for Dextra Racing in a Ford Focus. Another Toyota Avensis rookie is Kieran Gallagher who will driving for RCIB Insurance Racing. Eurotech will stay on the grid with returning driver Jeff Smith who brought part of the company and he will race alongside Martin Depper and they will driving the Honda Civic so will be expecting some points during the season. Finally Power Maxed Racing will continue with new drivers including the highly experienced Dave Newsham and rookie Josh Cook, who will running a help for heroes livery on the car to help promote the charity. The pair will race in the Chevrolet Cruze.
Of course there has been no mention of Motorbase, unfortunately after Airwaves pulled out Sponsorship is hard to come by and won’t make the start of the season. However they will try to make it to Snetterton half way through the year and continue from then with Mat Jackson and James Cole.
So we start at Brands Hatch Indy the short 1.2 mile circuit has never failed to bring good racing and withstand the anticipation for the first meeting of the year and beauty of the short circuit is you can see the whole circuit wherever you stand, it is sure to be a hectic weekend as the BTCC returns.
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