TBK-Light.com

Put a Honda Racing livery on it and you'd bet your bottom dollar it was Shedden driving.

Just read that ES Racing are planning on running 2 NGTC cars. Also didn't realise that Adam Morgan is only 22.

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Welch are going to run a second Proton for next season....

Apparently, Thorney have the capacity to run 3 Insignia's next season, but is dependant on budget. Thorne has funding to run himself and is hoping two drivers with fat wallets can jump in his other two un-occupied car's. So... should be a repeat of what 888 had done this year then.

Also, if we had more than 32 cars, would there be some sort of pre qual or is it an owners points situation?

I don't see why they couldn't increase the limit on some circuits. I mean, 32 on some circuits like Brands Indy would be mental. Yet on Snetterton 300, you could easily have up to 40 cars if not more.

Lets just get to 32 cars first. We had 30 at the finale, and Aon/Arena are likely to go, so just get a good number of competent drivers full stop.

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

But it's off season, and there are always promises of more cars. No idea where ES Racing would get their money from but good on them.

If we were to get over 32 cars, then I agree that certain tracks (Snetterton, Donington, Oulton) could think about raising the limit. Brands Indy and Knockhill, probably not! Either split the cars into 2 qualifying sessions and eliminate the slowest few from each session, or a NASCAR style system where the top 20 in the points could be guaranteed a starting spot, and the slowest outside of that top 20 would miss the race.

Even though I want to be realistic, I don't see why we can't have close to 30 cars at each meeting. Interest in the series is up, grid sizes are up, TV audiences are up, and circuit attendances are well up. That 9 car race at Donington seems a long time ago.

Well at the moment, these are the confirmed entries

1. Matt Neal - Honda Racing Team (Honda Civic)
52. Gordon Shedden - Honda Racing Team (Honda Civic)
Matt Hamilton - TH Motorsport (Skoda Octavia RS)
Tom Boardman - Special Tuning Racing (SEAT Leon)
TBA - Special Tuning Racing (SEAT Leon)
TBA - Triple Eight Engineering (TBA)
TBA - Triple Eight Engineering (TBA)
Andrew Jordan - Eurotech (Pirtek Racing) (Honda Civic)
Jeff Smith - Eurotech (Pirtek Racing) (Honda Civic)
TBA - Thorney Motorsport (Vauxhall Insignia)
TBA - Thorney Motorsport (Vauxhall Insignia)
Adam Morgan - TBA

Add to that:
2 x Proton (Welch)
2 x Audi (RAR)
2 x MG? (WSR)
2 x Toyota (Dynojet, possibly where Morgan will be)
2 x Geoff Steel Racing
2 x RML (probable, with Plato & MacDour)
2 x Airwaves (Jackson & Griffin, possible Caine in a 3rd car?)
2 x ES Racing
1 x AmD (possibly a 2nd car)

And you have 28/29 cars there. That's without considering Aon, Techspeed (who seem in doubt), Lea Wood (who's looking at an NGTC motor), Speedworks and TGR Motorsport (who are advertising for driver coaching for their "BTCC 2012 entry")

But lets get some more confirmed yet

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

It's probably over-optimistic to expect two cars from teams like Geoff Steel, Welch, ES and so. They always have these sorts of ambitions but almost always fail to get beyond single cars. I'd take it as a pinch of salt. As for Thorney, they seem to have a long way to go to get one car running let alone two plus customer cars. Should still be on for a pretty good grid regardless, wish the regs were fully sorted out for 2012 instead of 2013 though so there wouldn't be more petty nonsense all season.

I will be 30 when the BTCC races again

_________________

I dunno, I trust Welch to get two cars out certainly. But you only have to look at RAR - back in April when he turned up at Brands and didn't race, who would have thought that by the next time he returned to Brands, there'd be 2 cars and already a podium scored.

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Everyone says they have the resources to run multiple cars, like STR who said they COULD run 4 cars in 2011. But in reality the resources are useless if they cannot find drivers with secured budgets to pay for those resources to be used.

And the sad fact is if drivers like Turks, Gio and Thompson couldn't drum up the funds to run BTCC this year, most of the capacity talk is for naught.

_________________

As much as I'd love Turkington, Giovanardi and Thompson to return, I feel like this year unearthed some new stars. We already had Neal and Plato, so hopefully they'll stay. Then in my opinion you have Jackson & Shedden as really top drivers. Then you have some young guns in Nash, Jordan and Wrathall. Not to mention the likes of Onslow-Cole. There's quality in the field.

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Thommo is looking at options in BTCC and WTCC for 2012 according to TouringCarTimes.

All 3 Ford Focuses (Foci?) are up for sale in this week's Autosport (Motorbase's lot)

Doing my 2011 driver review. Nearly up to 2000 words and haven't even started on the top 10

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Turkington and Thompson had great offers to race in other series, so why decline them and go for a halfassed BTCC campaign?

Gio is busy driving the Competizioni P3/4 to bother about touring cars right now, lol.

The fact remains though, the dollars weren't there in BTCC for them to even consider the option. Despite the increase in field size we've seen this past year, I'm not convinced there's enough sponsorship dollars in the series to consistently fund 30 drivers.

_________________

Who said anything about a halfassed campaign?

Thompson seems like the great missing man of the series as I've said before, I do feel like the series is a poorer place for not having him, but I feel he viewed the BTCC as done for him, box ticked when he won his two titles and wanted other challenges.

We may see BTCC as the number 1 touring car series but the drivers, especially those who want to be paid for their services, see it as a stepping stone to the WTCC.
Yeah I know, they'd rather race in front of no fans on tracks that aren't suited to touring cars putting on boring racing rather than the excitement generated in BTCC races, but hey, drivers and fans have very different priorities

Turkington too, both of them could become as big as Neal and *sigh* Plato if they were given the chance to stick around.
Gio? Ehh I never got the impression he was committed to the series long term, more like the manufacturer led invasions of the mid 90s, turn up, win the championship, goodbye.

Btw should be turbos, tantrums and trees tbh