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Good riddance to bad rubbish. The BTCC will be stronger without SEAT.

Seat have created a fantastic championship battle where the Indipendant teams just can't keep up. Honda and BMW have won a few races, but next year it will be all Vauxhall... I hope Onslow-Cole and Neal can get consistant results to keep Giovanardi company at the top of the table (if their contracts are re-newed). Sureley this will mean smaller grids as well?

Bad news if you ask me... And Seat had only just got their cars working well...

Bit of a shock anouncement and too bad. Doubt it will hurt BTCC too much though. Hope Plato can find a good ride for 09.

I think with a bit more luck Turkington and Jackson could've been battling for the title this season. Or would at least be on the points Plato is on.



Well, obviously two will go, but 19 of the 24 cars on the grid are independents, so purely on car count, the manufacturers make up a very small percentage of the grid.

Well I can see the good and bad of this...

It sucks that we're losing a manufacturer and that the BTCC will lose reputation amongst those who think that it needs multiple manufacturers to be a prestigious series.

On the other hand I honestly wouldn't mind if the grid was full of independants like Matt Jackson, Mike Jordan, Team RAC (Ok they're slightly more professional just without official works backing...) etc, even if the detractors would relegate the series to being "club level"

On the upside we know from 2001-2004 that Vauxhall don't impose team orders on their drivers, so if the drivers championship is fought between their three guys....so be it.

The racing will still be awesome either way, and as long as Gow is in charge, I'm not worried at all!

Something else I just thought of: They better damn well sell their cars to independants next year then.

Imagine how awesome Mike Jordan would be in one of them!

The Jordans will be in Civics next season.

Yeah, but have they actually signed a contract??

That was before these guys came on the market...seriously with the straightline advantage being perhaps superior than anyone expected..(who'd thought they'd be able to dominate KNOCKHILL with such little straights there...) people will be queuing up for them for 2009.

SEAT are also pulling the Cupra championship as well.

Wow, what's going to be on the schedule instead then?

Dunno yet, it's come as a complete shock to the organisers. SEAT Cupra's were signed up to continue as a support race next year as far as anyone knew.

Wonder what they'll have instead. At least it means Ginetta Juniors are safer now

It is such a shame that SEAT have decided to quit BTCC. Having start to improve half way and beating the Vauxhall's they could have stay next year with a fairly good chance of winning the driver and manufacturer titles.

I was just wondering about that yesterday, can't say I'm surprised. Hopefully TOCA can get another support series over to replace it. Must be said, apart from the last two events, the Cupra championship has been dismal this season.

I do sort of wonder if part of their reason for pulling out was because of fan backlash, I'm sure they'd have noticed a lot of negativity towards them.

Here's another plus- that fucking Casio ad is history.

It's all good.

Hadn't thought of that... result!

2009 BTCC >

Turner says he is goig to FIA GT championship fulltime

But Plato's by far the most popular and most famous driver in the field

Hmmm, well I never really took to that since the first season when they raced on the GT bill and featured Huff knocking everyone off at any oppertunity along with a lot more serious crashes...

When it came on the BTCC bill it calmed down considerably, but when they switched to the newer Leon it got crapper as for a while there was only about 4 of them and they had to run the old spec cars as support to save face....

I just hope we get something decent (Senior Ginettas, Caterhams, Legends...) rather than something lame like a longer Porsche Race or something