BTCC back with a bang!

With more drivers than you could shake a stick at, freezing conditions and a new soft compound tyre to add into the mix, the start of the 2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship was sure to get off to a chaotic start at Brands Hatch.

The action started on Saturday during the first qualifying session of the year, in which Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan took pole position. Two minutes into the session and a slight mistake coming out of Druids from returning driver Colin Turkington saw his eBay Motors BMW half spin on the racing line, which caused Jack Goff - Team HARD's debut driver - to hit the car, leaving both of them out of the session.

Snowy conditions put pay to drivers making any last minute lap improvements, but for Frank Wrathall, a failed ride height check minutes before the end saw him dash out on track to attempt another lap, but aborted due to track conditions. Andrew Jordan took pole ahead of 2012 champion Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato in the newly liveried KX Momentum MG.

Goff had an unfortunate start to his BTCC career.
Picture Credit: Marc Waller Motorsport Media

Despite no knowing how the new soft option tyres were going to perform, Rob Austin made a brilliant start in his rear-wheel drive Audi in the first race from seventh on the grid to take second place, before making a move on leading man Andrew Jordan. 

The Honda Yuasa duo Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden had an opening race to forget. Shedden saved a slide going through Paddock Hill bend, which left him fighting back, whilst team mate Neal had acquired some damage to the rear of his car, which resulted in him holding up the field, albeit maintaining fourth. An incident between the two which saw Shedden pushed onto the grass going across the start/finish straight, saw Shedden's radiator filled with grass, forcing him to pit to clear, with Neal also coming in for a new tyre - resulting in the pair rejoining the pack a lap down.

Jason Plato won his seventy-fifth career victory, despite a last lap frenzy as Andrew Jordan attempted a move to lead which put both of them in the gravel for a short time before getting themselves out to hold their respective positions. Rob Austin, who had fallen behind due to the soft tyres not making the distance, also managed to maintain a podium position.

Having not completed a full season in the series since 2006, James Kaye took the first Jack Sears Trophy win of the year on his return with AmDTuning.com, beating the likes of Lea Wood and Liam Griffin.

What a start; Honda Racing didn't have the start
they wanted to their 2013 season.

In the second race of the day, Jason Plato and Andrew Jordan held on to their first race finishing positions, whilst Gordon Shedden came back through the field to take third. However, a failed ride height check after the race excluded him from the results, promoting Pirtek's Jeff Smith to the third podium step. Liam Griffin became the second S2000 winner of the day in his Addison Lee Motorbase Ford Focus.

Rob Austin, despite make another rocket start, didn't have the same amount of luck as in race one, when an incident with Frank Wrathall saw him retire the Audi with damage. Wrathall too retired from the race after ending up in the Druids gravel trap. 

Shedden's exclusion resulted in Airwaves Racing's Mat Jackson - who hadn't had the best start to  his weekend after a mechanical issue in the first race saw him slow on track - promoted to pole position for the third and final race of the day.

Andrew Jordan led a Pirtek Racing 2-3 finish in the second race of the day.
Picture Credit: Marc Waller Motorsport Media

In true Jackson style, he made a storming start to the race, however his lead was shortened when a safety car period was needed after a heavy shunt involving Dave Newsham and Rob Austin, which left considerable damage to to Wix Racing Audi, however both drivers were unharmed.

Having lost the lead at the re-start, Jackson was fighting for fifth with KX Momentum Racing's  newest recruit Sam Tordoff, who had had a fantastic start to his first full season in the championship. Following his race two exclusion, Gordon Shedden was making his way through the field and pressuring team mate Matt Neal in the latter stages of the race for the lead.

The pair ultimately went on to take a 1-2 finish for Honda Racing, on what looked to be a bad start to their season. Tordoff took his first podium in the series for KX Momentum, whilst Lea Wood took the S2000 win on track, but was later excluded through a failed ride height check. Liam Griffin capitalised, making Motorbase's home race a little better after some mechanical issues throughout the day.

eBay Motors had a disappointing weekend, with Rob Collard retiring from the three races bringing home no points. Colin Turkington also had a tough weekend back with a couple of race excursions, however did bring home some points for West Surrey Racing, with Nick Foster following suite.

Sam Tordoff impressed onlookers by achieving his first BTCC podium.
Picture Credit: Marc Waller Motorsport Media

With Jason Plato now leading the championship standings going into the second meeting at Donington Park in just under three weeks' time, the battle is well and truly on for the 2013 championship.

It's that time again...

Yes, it's time for the BTCC circus to return to motor racing circuits up and down the UK. Apologies again for not updating the blog as often as I would like, but here is my preview of this weekend's tin top action at Brands Hatch, as seen on girlracer.co.uk...

So this is it. The cars are polished. The drivers are ready. It’s what we’ve all been waiting for.

After a winter break of five months and ten days, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship roars back into life tomorrow for the start of the 2013 season – set to be one of the best yet.

Despite the somewhat chilly conditions, fans will be flocking to Brands Hatch to see what their favourite teams and drivers can do around the Indy Circuit on the opening race weekend of the year.

An interesting aspect to keep an eye on over the weekend will be how Dunlop’s new soft tyre will perform during race conditions. The tyre, which will be allocated to each driver at every meeting, bar Thruxton, was introduced by the series in November. Strategy will be key, as drivers will have to choose which race out of the three they wish to use the tyre in before Saturday’s qualifying session – with rivals’ unaware of their opponents choices until that race.

One of the biggest talking points ahead of the start of the 2013 season is the fact there will be four champions taking to the grid; 2012 champ Gordon Shedden, Matt Neal, Jason Plato and BTCC returnee Colin Turkington. Challenges will be tough, and each driver will be aiming to add another title to their tally.

But they’ll have to keep on their toes, as the new field of drivers come through the pack aiming for the big one. 2012 Independent’s Champion Andrew Jordan will be hoping to capitalise on his Media Day testing performance over the ten race meetings to clinch the title, whilst Redstone Racing’s Mat Jackson is also setting his sights on the crown.

Having not unveiled their cars at Media Day, Team HARD. will be revealing their 2013 machines to the world this weekend. With returning drivers to the series Tom Onslow-Cole and Howard Fuller alongside BTCC newbies James Cole and Clio Champion Jack Goff under the watchful eyes of team boss Tony Gilham, all eyes will be on their performances over the weekend.

It’s also the inaugural year for the Jack Sears’ Trophy; awarding the top performing driver in a S2000 car with a trophy named after the first ever tin top champion. Six drivers; David Nye (Welch Motorsport with Sopp & Sopp), James Kaye (AmDTuning.com), Warren Scott (Team BMR Restart), Lea Wood (Wheel Heaven/Houseman Racing), Liam Griffin (Addison Lee Motorbase) and Joe Girling (M247 Racing) will all be aiming to get their S2000 car to be the best above the rest and lift the trophy come the end of the season.

It’s clear to see that this is going to be an exciting and unpredictable year for the championship, fraught with the usual twists, turns and unexpected surprises along the way.

The wait is nearly over. Let’s go racing.

Happy New Year!

I apologise for the lack of posts on here recently - what with starting university which, by the way, I am loving every single second, and reporting for GirlRacer, I just don't have the time to update Tales of the Tin Tops as frequently any more.

No matter, I will as often as I can post my latest reports and articles from Girl Racer to here, so that you can see what's going on in the world of British Touring Cars.

So let's get cracking - and kick off with the Autosport International Show, which featured an array of BTCC stars and cars. Here's the report...

So there we have it. The annual Autosport International has come and gone as quick as a flash. 2013 saw a variety of all forms of motorsport on display, ranging from top level motorsport such as Formula One and Rallying, to drag racing and oval racing in the form of stock cars.

The British Touring Car Championship featured heavily throughout the four action-packed days, with an iconic stand – complete with the infamous Dunlop Bridge displaying some of the starring cars from the 2012 season, including the Championship winning Honda Civic of Gordon Shedden and Cancer Research charity liveried MG6 of Jason Plato.

Also located on the BTCC stand were some of the newly uncovered cars that will be seen on the grid in 2013. These included Dan Welch’s Proton Persona, Rob Austin’s www.wixracing.co.uk Audi A4 and Dave Newsham’s Speedworks Toyota Avensis. Away from the Dunlop Stand, Andrew Jordan’s 2012 Independent Championship winning Pirtek Honda Civic was being displayed on the Autoglym stand - from which visitors could purchase some of the company’s well-known vehicle cleaning products.

Two of the big news stories surrounding the weekend came from two Independent outlets – AmD Tuning and Rob Austin Racing. Shaun Hollamby confirmed before the show that his team would be running an NGTC-spec Vauxhall during the second half of 2013, whilst Rob Austin confirmed a title-sponsor in Wix Filters – and the return of 2012-debutant Will Bratt for a full-season. Both of these stories can be found by clicking on the following links; http://www.girlracer.co.uk/motorsport/14191-btcc-amd-reveal-ngtc-astra-for-2013-season.html  / http://www.girlracer.co.uk/motorsport/14201-btcc-rob-austin-racing-confirm-2013-plans.html

It wasn’t just the modern day era of the BTCC making headlines during the show; stars and cars from the past also made their presence known. Thursday saw the announcement from the Historic Sports Car Club that 2013 would see a new series featuring four rounds for both historic and super-touring cars. The races will take places during historic events over the year at the following circuits;

·         Thruxton – 30^th/31^st March

·         Brands Hatch – 13^th/14^th July

·         Silverstone – 26^th/27^th/28^th July

·         Outlon Park – 24^th/25^th/26^th August

Following the announcement, Friday saw the coming together of an assembly of legendary tin top stars including the first ever champion Jack Sears – who recently had the new Independent Trophy named after him, 1989 and 1995 champion John Cleland, the first ever triple-champion Bill McGovern and 1992 champion and current ITV4 commentator Tim Harvey.

Fans were also treated to a stand dedicated to the type of cars that will be featured in the new series, including the 1995 title winning super-touring Vauxhall Cavalier of John Cleland, the BMW 318 of Steve Soper and the 1998 Dynamic’s Nissan Primera of Matt Neal.

Back to 2013, and some tin top rookies joined in the action on the Dunlop stand, including Team HARD’s newest recruits Jack Goff and James Cole, who took part in driver-signings and interviews allowing fans to get to know the new faces on the grid. A gathering of touring car stars also took part in the allocated driver signings and main stage interviews over the weekend, some of which included; Gordon Shedden, Matt Neal, Jason Plato, Andrew Jordan, Dave Newsham, Rob Austin, Dan Welch, Will Bratt and Adam Morgan. American Robb Holland, who made his BTCC debut with Team HARD. last year also made an appearance.

World Touring Car stars Andy Prialux and 2012 Champion Rob Huff were also present at the show, and featured on the main stage giving sharing stories about their previous twelve months of racing.

Jason Plato’s KX Academy was another one of the big highlights from the show. Jason and the successful KX applicants – Tom Ingram, Stefan Hodgets, Daniel Lloyd, Sam Tordoff, Rob Boston, Luke Herbert and Anthony Whorton-Eales all appeared on the KX sponsored Autosport stage on Thursday to talk about the scheme and why it’s important for racing drivers in today’s current climate to get the support from an association like KX.

Sticking with Jason Plato, his success after a late last-minute deal with MG in 2012 brought more fans and enthusiasts to the MG stand on display at the Autosport International. With two MG6s on display, MG also put on The Racing Bug – a remote control race where visitors could take on each other on a short circuit – with all the thrills and spills of a standard touring car race!

Adjacent to MG was the artist Ian Cook, who on Saturday was undertaking another ‘PopBangColour’ challenge by creating Gordon Shedden’s Championship winning Honda Civic with remote control cars and tyres.

ITV4 pit-lane reporter Louise Goodman took to the stage throughout the weekend with Paul Mussell acting as sidekick to present the live show in the Live Action Arena. The show saw a selection of racing, from motorcycle stunts, Robin Reliant Racing and monster trucks.

The Autosport International show kicks off the start of the motorsport calendar for many competitors and fans. Next stop for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship is Media Day on Thursday 21^st March at Donington Park – with free access for fans after 12pm.