2014 starting to take shape

As the 2014 BTCC season draws ever closer, things are starting to form nicely; a number of driver announcements have been made, all of the ToCA licenses have been issued and bar a few teams, the fans have an idea of who to expect on the grid for the first round of the 2014 season at Brands Hatch in March.

After a number of rumours circulating that there could be seven BTCC champions in the series this year, Airwaves Racing have officially confirmed that double champion, Fabrizio Giovanardi, who has been away from the series since 2010, will be returning to the series, and will be lining up alongside Jason Plato, Gordon Shedden, Matt Neal, reigning champion Andrew Jordan and another returning champion, Alain Menu. 2009 champion Colin Turkington has yet to announce his plans for the season, with his team from last season eBay Motors also keeping their plans under wraps for the time being, but it is very likely that he too could be back alongside the other champions.

The only other uncertainty regarding the series so far is whether we will see Speedworks back on the grid, as well as the full driver line up for Airwaves alongside Giovanardi. There is also uncertainty regarding the future of ES Racing, despite team boss Chris James stating his intent on returning to the series in NGTC machinery. 

On the whole though, the majority of the teams have already confirmed their entries on the grid, and the cars that they will be competing in. Some of the teams have already begun pre-season testing too, with Honda Yuasa completing a five day test at Rockingham in their new Civic Tourer. Reigning champion Andrew Jordan has also been out testing in the hatchback model of the Civic along with his new team mate Martin Depper, as well as Rob Austin giving his re-shelled Audi A4, Sherman, a maiden run out.

Until media day has come and passed, it is very hard to make any predictions yet as to who will shine or fall in the upcoming season. However, with Alain Menu and Fabrizio Giovanardi returning, it is very likely that this year's BTCC season could be the most competitive yet, depending on how quickly teams get their cars set up and, of course, what incidents may occur in the 30 unpredictable races.

Could Triple 8 be title challengers?

So with Triple 8 confirming that Marc Hynes will be driving a third MG6 next season, it looks like they are pulling out all the stops to take the teams and manufacturer's titles from Honda, who have been back to back winners of the titles for the last 4 years.

Ian Harrison's team last won the titles back in 2009, ironically when they had current Honda driver Matt Neal in the team alongside Fabrizio Giovanardi and newly crowned BTCC champ Andy Jordan. They are currently the only team on the grid who have confirmed a three car assault on the championship next year, with Honda looking likely to field only two cars with the new Civic Tourers for Neal and Shedden.

The question is though, are they good enough to end Honda's dominance? Well to start, they still have Jason Plato behind the wheel of one of the KX backed MG's, with the second yet to be confirmed. Any BTCC fan knows exactly what Jason Plato is capable of in almost any car, and is always #1 driver at any team. He will be leading the charge straight away. It's not certain what qualities Hynes will bring to the series, but I'm sure he will be just as eager to be up the front end of the grid as soon as. Depending on who will be driving the second KX MG could decide whether Triple 8 will be serious title challengers or not.

As well as driver choice, reliability will play a huge factor of Triple 8's title challenge. Since the NGTC project was launched for the team in 2012, there have been a number of issues with the cars, ranging from punctures to boost failures to fires. Last season though, the MG's did seem to be more reliable, so providing the cars are set up correctly for the majority of 2014, then they could be consistent front runners next season.

It is also a big advantage for them that the current holders of the manufacturers and teams titles, Honda, have switched to a brand new car for next year. It may be another Honda Civic, but with it being the Tourer model, then the Team Dynamics boys will have to alter the setups due to the different shape of the car, and it may take them a number of rounds before the team get the cars set up just right in order to run at the front of the pack. Again, reliability will play an issue there for Honda, as they don't know for certain how reliable the new cars will be.

It'll be interesting to watch next season, but one thing is for sure; there will be a much closer fight for the teams and manufacturers titles than ever before.

Welcome back Martin!

I don't think I was the only fan that was surprised today when I found out that Pirtek Racing have hired Martin Depper as a team mate for BTCC champion Andrew Jordan, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise to find out he'll be back next year.

Since I got into the series in 2010, I've always been a big fan of Depper and then team mate Arthur Forster for their BTCC project. I can't imagine it is an easy task to run a team in touring car racing, even for the manufacturer teams. Forster Motorsport deserve a lot of credit for trying in 2010, and even though they didn't have that many great results, not many people can claim they have run their own team and raced in Britain's biggest motorsport championship.

In my opinion, I'm delighted to see Martin come back. He shown a lot of potential in the ageing Forster Motorsport BMW in 2010, and with his vast experience from the MINI Challenge, he should have more than enough skill to handle a front wheel drive touring car. Of course it's a completely different ball game and a huge jump up from the MINI's, but with him being back in familiar territory in a front wheel drive machine, then I honestly think that he can get consistent top 10 finishes. He's got a fantastic team mate in the reigning BTCC champion, and Pirtek's engineers have been fantastic time and time again with their Honda Civic's.

It's far too early to make any predictions yet though, and it won't be until after the first few rounds that we will see what Martin can deliver, but for me he is a fantastic addition to the 2014 grid and I can't wait to see him back in action and hopefully mixing in with the action 

2014 dream driver and car lineup

Now that the chaos of 30 BTCC races has finished, the big question now is who will be there at Media Day in 2014, and who will they be driving for? 

With the new licence system that TOCA have introduced for the upcoming season, places are limited. There are more restrictions on the teams as to how many cars and drivers they can run, and the experience of the drivers. So that makes driver choices quite difficult for a new team coming into the series. 

For me, if I was a team manager entering a brand new team into the series, I wouldn't want to go for the obvious choice of NGTC machinery - the Honda Civic. Of course, it has proven to be the best car on the grid over the last two years, and aided Gordon Shedden and Andrew Jordan to their maiden BTCC titles in 2012 and 2013 respectively, but with it being likely that Honda and Pirtek will return, then there will be at least 6 Honda's on the grid - and one thing that makes the BTCC so special is the variety of cars that appear on the grid every year, no matter what era. 

Going on the basis of that, I would choose a car that has not really seen much track action this year, but I think has huge potential and can be a real front-runner with the right engineering and development - the NGTC spec Chevrolet Cruze, which will feature next year in the hands of Aiden Moffat and possibly IP Tech Race Engineering. In my opinion, it was the best looking car on the grid throughout the year, and we have had some amazing looking cars on the grid this season. If the Cruze was to be engineered and developed by the guys at RML, like the S2000 spec car, then it'd be a force to be reckoned with.

So that's the car sorted, but what about the drivers? To get the best out of a new car, then two top experienced drivers will be needed. The first driver I'd love to see in the wheel of an NGTC Cruze next season is BTCC double champion Fabrizio Giovanardi - firstly because it will have been 4 years since the Italian last appeared in the series, but mainly due to his driving style and huge reputation around the paddock. For a team mate, I'd go for Josh Files. He's shown his skill over the years in the Clio’s and now has the championship under his belt. As well as that, a young driver can learn a lot from someone as experienced as Fabrizio, and if they were both in the same team in the Cruze, then I think they'd be able to compete with the big boys. The chances of that happening though are unlikely, but I'd love to see it happen next year

Silverstone review

The penultimate round of the BTCC at Silverstone was always going to be a tough place for some of the teams up and down the paddock, most notably the Honda Civics of Honda Yuasa Racing and Pirtek Racing - the national layout only has four corners per lap, with three long straights which was a huge advantage to the like of the MG KX Momentum Racing team, who have always had a very good car when it comes down to straight-line speed.

Unsurprisingly, both of the MG drivers Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff took full advantage of the track layout, as they dominated qualifying yet again to lock out the front row of the grid. With the championship battle still very tight, Plato's pole position gave him the perfect opportunity to close the gap on the other championship contenders, especially with championship leader Andrew Jordan only managing to qualify 10th on the grid.

There were no prizes for guessing who took the victory in the first race of the day, with Plato and Tordoff pulling away from the grid fairly quickly, even with the safety car within the first few laps of the race. The biggest surprise of the race was the man who completed the podium - step forward Matt Neal, who going into the race was fourth in the standings and, to make matters worse, was suffering from a broken finger over the weekend. Surely it’s about time that he stopped breaking bones around this time of the year? There was also a strong finish for Colin Turkington, with the eBay Motors drivers finishing 4th to keep his slim championship hopes alive, while championship leader Jordan finished 6th to help reduce the damage inflicted by Plato in terms of points.

After his dominance in race 1, Plato faced a much more difficult task to stay ahead of the pack, after picking up maximum ballast and having two Honda's much closer to him on the grid than in race 1. The ballast took effect as the race progressed, as team mate Tordoff, who had 36kg on his car, dropped down to 4th at the chequered flag. Plato, however, had managed to just keep his nose ahead of the rest, but there was no way that it was an easy victory for the MG driver, as he was chased down by championship leader Jordan, who had to settle for second place after a great display of pure bumper to bumper touring car racing. Considering Jordan admitted at the end of the weekend that Silverstone was the team's "worst track" he was proving that even the underdogs can get good results, something that was vital for him if he was going to maintain his lead at the top of the championship.

As usual, the reverse grid draw for race 3 often shakes up the grid, and there are a number of surprises that tend to occur due to the draw. For the final race of the day, it was Matt Neal who was promoted to pole position, giving him the perfect opportunity to claw back some points over Jordan and, more importantly, Plato. It was Neal's team mate Gordon Shedden however who had the better race. The Scotsman had a fairly quiet weekend up until this point, where he stormed his way from 7th on the grid to take the final victory, and highlight once more that he was not out of the title fight just yet. Neal finished third, yet another strong finish despite fighting through the pain barrier, while Jordan finished a solid 5th.

So after a topsy turvy weekend, Andrew Jordan held on to his strong lead at the top of the championship table on 378 points. His nearest challenger is Matt Neal, who lies second in the standings, but is a huge 34 points behind Jordan. Just a point behind him is his Honda team mate and reigning champion Gordon Shedden. Colin Turkington is 4th on 330 points, with MG driver Plato in 5th; although both Turkington and Plato have effectively ruled themselves out of a realistic title challenge this season. With the Brands finale almost upon us, it’s certainly going to be another exciting race for the 2013 driver's title.

Photo credit: Phil Laughton Photography

ITV respond to complaint

As most of you know, ITV have been showing the BTCC qualifying sessions online for the last two seasons now, and since this introduction there have been a few problems experienced by a number of the fans who have not been able to attend the meetings but still want to watch the action live.

Some fans have told me that they have often complained to ITV over the qualifying coverage, but have failed to get a response from them when they have sent a complaint. After the qualifying session from Rockingham this season, when the coverage was cut short by ten minutes, I too felt the need to complain to the broadcasters about how disappointed I was by their poor coverage. I sent an email to ITV not long after the session expressing my disappointment and suggested that they created a live slot on ITV4 for the coverage to be shown live on TV, therefore allowing more viewers to watch the qualifying problem free - much like the F1 fans can do.

On 16th September I received an email from ITV notifying me that my comments about the session had been forwarded to management. At this point, I wasn't expecting anything else to happen and that my complaint would simply be ignored. How wrong I could be. About an hour later, I got another email, this time directly from ITV's BTCC series editor Simon Parry, who asked if he could contact me at home to explain the situation relating to the qualifying.

The day after, true to his promise, I did receive a phone call from Simon Parry. First off, he apologised for what had happened and admitted himself that the coverage that was shown during the Rockingham meeting was very poor. He then went on to explain that the coverage was cut ten minutes short due to a situation involving their online provider, which was beyond ITV's control. I can understand that, as it was just as frustrating for ITV as it was for the fans that the coverage was cut short, as it was them who was getting to stick off the fans, when it was down to their provider who had let down the many fans at home who wanted to watch the qualifying.

Fortunately, he also told me that for next season ITV will be using a new provider for their online coverage who is more reliable, so hopefully they shouldn't experience the same problems they have done over the last 2 seasons. In terms of doing a live session on ITV4 for each round, Simon basically explained that it was down to budget, and that it would cost them another £250,000 each year - money which they would simply not be able to make back due to the BTCC only attracting around 30,000 viewers per round.

On the whole, I feel satisfied that ITV took my complaint seriously, and it was also good to know that they doing all they can to provide the best quality coverage possible for the BTCC viewers

Rockingham review

It was a mixed bag at Rockingham for a number of reasons this season, with the weather changing constantly across the weekend which lead to dramas for the teams when it came down to tyre choices, and a couple of shock results which really helped to shake up the championship standings once again.

The MG duo of Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff dominated qualifying, with Tordoff battling out for pole position with the Audi of Rob Austin, who had to settle for third after a superb lap from Plato locked out the front row for MG KX Momentum Racing.

The conditions for the first race of the day were far from perfect as far as MG were concerned, and a damp track seen the pair drop into the pack, Plato finishing 5th and Tordoff a dismal 16th. Title challenger Andrew Jordan took full advantage of MG's falterings, as he claimed his fifth win of the season. Rob Austin just snatched 3rd after a last ditch move on the home straight against reigning champion Gordon Shedden, while Airwaves Racing's Mat Jackson finished 2nd in a strong showing for the Motorbase Ford Focus.

With similar conditions for the second race, it was the rear wheel drive Audi of Rob Austin that got the best getaway, as he lead from the first corner and managed to hold on quite comfortably to take his first ever win in the BTCC, and showed once more what he and his team are capable of doing in the right conditions and settings. Gordon Shedden claimed another podium finish in 2nd, while Colin Turkington kept his brief championship hopes alive by taking third, another rear wheel drive car showing its prowess around the Rockingham track.

The final race of the day saw Andrew Jordan take another win, which enabled him to stretch out his championship lead to over 30 points heading towards the penultimate round at Silverstone. Colin Turkington took 2nd place, showing once more the progress eBay Motors have made with the new BMW 1 series and that the Irishman still wants to fight for the title. Jason Plato completed the podium, though the result was enough for the MG driver to officially rule himself out of this year's title race.

After the three rounds at Rockingham, Andrew Jordan continues to lead the championship, thirty points ahead of the current defending champion Gordon Shedden. Colin Turkington maintains third spot, three points behind Shedden and is still within a strong shout of the title. After a fairly quiet weekend, Matt Neal drops to fourth in the standings, who is just one point behind Turkington. Plato is fifth in the standings and has ruled himself out of the title race due to the 62 point gap between himself and Jordan.

Photo credit: Phil Laughton Photography