Motorsports, News

BTCC blazes in with 31-car entry for 2014!

btcc

It seems 2014 will be a great year for the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) as a record of 31 cars with 7 champions will feature on the grid this season, including the returning Fabrizio Giovanardi in a Motorbase Ford Focus and Alain Menu in a BMR VW Passat.

MG driver and Fifth Gear host, Jason Plato, who is a two-time champion in 2001 and 2010, said: “It is going to be a brilliant season for the racing, and there is a real buzz about the championship. It’s tough enough as it is. I don’t think it is going to be any tougher. Whilst Fabrizio Giovanardi and Alain Menu are world class drivers, they are going to take some time to get themselves in gear – probably Alain more so than Fabrizio, because he has a hill to climb with the team.”

In last year’s battle for the BTCC driver’s title, the manufacturer entries from Honda were defeated by a privately-entered Honda Civic of Andrew Jordon of Eurotech. For this year, the Honda factory team will replace their Civic hatchbacks with the Civic Tourer wagon cars. Proton has two entries via Welch Motorsport, where the team is fielding two Proton Gen-2 saloon cars (aka the Persona, below), which was powered by the standard Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) 2L turbocharged units.

welchproton

The first race of the BTCC starts at Brands Hatch on 30 March 2014. With 13 different car models competing and 7 champions in the lineup, this could be the best touring car race in the world.

The confirmed 2014 British Touring Car line-up as below:

Team                                     Car                              Drivers
Eurotech                                            Honda Civic                       Andrew Jordan/Martin Depper
Honda (Team Dynamics)           Civic Tourer                      Gordon Shedden/Matt Neal
MG (Triple Eight)                          MG6                                      J Plato/S Tordoff/M Hynes
Ciceley Racing                                Mercedes A-class            Adam Morgan
Motorbase Performance            Ford Focus                         F Giovanardi/J Clarke/M Jackson
AmD                                                    Ford Focus                         Dave Newsham
Rob Austin Racing                        Audi A4                               Rob Austin/Hunter Abbott
Welch Motorsport                       Proton Gen-2                     Dan Welch/Ollie Jackson
United Autosports                       Toyota Avensis                James Cole/Glynn Geddie
Rotek Racing                                  Audi S3                                Robb Holland
Handy Motorsport                      Toyota Avensis                Simon Belcher
Team BMR                                     Vauxhall Insignia             Jack Goff/Warren Scott
Team BMR VW                            Passat CC                             Alain Menu/Aron Smith
WSR                                                  BMW 125i M Sport         C Turkington/R Collard/N Foster
Speedworks Motorsport          Toyota Avensis                Tom Ingram
Houseman Racing                       Toyota Avensis                 Lea Wood
Moffat                                              Chevrolet Cruze               Aiden Moffat
BTC                                                   Chevrolet Cruze               Chris Stockton

[Source: BTCC & Autosports]