British Touring Car News

[MattR]

I know several of us here have gotten seriously hooked on the BTCC in recent years, may only complaint for the '05 season was lack of entries. In many races, there were as few as 12 cars making starts. Well, that is all changing for 2006.

New teams:
In-Front Motorsports- Alfa Romeo 156/ 2 cars
Eurotech Motorsports- Honda Integras/ 2 cars
Motorbase Performance- Honda Integras/ 2 cars
Geoff Steel Racing- AC Shnitzer BMW E46 / 1 car

Here's a small piece of one of the articles cited

Originally Posted by btcc news

In-Front Motorsport has become the latest new team to officially unveil its plans to enter the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in 2006.

The family-run team has confirmed it will enter an Alfa Romeo 156 for successful VW Cup racer Mark Smith, aged 40. His father John Smith runs the small but professional Hednesford-based squad.

It becomes the fourth new team in recent weeks to announce plans to progress into Britain’s most famous and popular motor racing championship: the Eurotech and Motorbase Performance outfits will each enter with Honda Integras, while Geoff Steel Racing has acquired one of the Schnitzer BMW E46s that won last year’s World Touring Car Championship title

There are several past champions returning to the series as well, so it should be a stellar season. The first race is April 9, but we will likely not see them on SPeed Channel until late fall of 06.

[sperry]

Awesome!

I wonder what the single-season cost is to run a BTCC campaign. Similar to Speed TC? Figure $150,000 per car, plus another $100-200,000 for season expenses? For half a million bucks, less winnings, sounds like a pretty great way to get tons of race exposure, and it seems like the rules are conductive to an "anyone can win" atmosphere. Again, just like Speed TC, which is why we're gonna see TC fields with like 60 cars next season!

[MattR]

Yeah, I get the feeling that the BTCC would be a bit cheaper to run than Speed TC. There are still only 2 factory teams (Vauxhall and Seat) the rest are independent. I suppose TC is not that much different in that respect. But, last yera the MG ran the whole season on very low funding and managed to win a couple of races. Also, the travel expense in the UK is very low because the tracks are not that far apart.

[Nick Koan]

I want to bite the on-screen reporter chick on the buttcheek.

Oh, and the racing rules too.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by nKoan

I want to bite the on-screen reporter chick on the buttcheek.

Oh, and the racing rules too.

I'd rather hit the chick from Top Gear.


...oh wait.