BTCC: 2019 Brands Hatch Discussion Thread

[Paul Jeffrey]

Welcome to the central discussion thread for the opening round of the 2019 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.

The new season looks set fair to be another bumper championship filled with new cars, new drivers, returning greats and a grid where it is practically impossible to pick a likely season ending champion.

Fresh for 2019 is the all new BMW 3 Series of defending team and drivers champions WSR. With the might of triple champion Colin Turkington once again behind the wheel, joined once again by fellow former champion Andrew Jordan, WSR and BMW are well placed to hit the ground running at the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit this weekend.

Expected rivals Honda have been hard at work over the winter months, the formally dominant Team Dynamics run squad will be keen to make up for a year of development with the new FK8 generation Civic Type R last year, and former champion Matt Neal will be sure to be putting in the effort as he looks to prolong his impressive career in the BTCC.

Of the old guard, Jason Plato switches from his troubled times at Subaru to the Power Maxed Vauxhall squad, the veteran driver still in search of the 100th BTCC victory as he teams up with former WSR man Rob Collard in the impressive looking Astra.

New for this season is another star name, former Grand Prix and IndyCar driver Mark Blundell will be making his debut in the BTCC this weekend for the TradePriceCars Audi team. At 52-years-old, Blundell claims to have lost none of his competitive instinct, and once the British star finds his feet in the category, expect the former McLaren man to spring a surprise or two later in the year.

Another team looking to make a surprise is Speedworks Motorsport, the squad now enjoy the backing of Toyota GB and have a brand new Corolla at their disposal, something that 2018's outstanding talent Tom Ingram will be keen to display right from the first green flag of the year.

All in all, 2019 looks set to be another outstanding year of tin top racing in the BTCC.

For more news from the new BTCC season, be sure to head over to the RaceDepartment Motorsport Sub Forum and get in touch with the community!

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[antirussia81]

"the veteran driver still in search of the 100th BTCC victory"
And his third championship Jason, you know you have to!

 

[CMGARAGE]

"the veteran driver still in search of the 100th BTCC victory"
And his third championship Jason, you know you have to!

He can't blame the car this time!

 

[Kenny Paton]

Nice write up Paul, and those lucky enough to be in the UK can see it live on ITV 4, Sunday from 10:15 till 18:15.
ITV have got the contract at least until 2022, by that time I will probably be gaga anyway

 

[Trebor901]

cant wait for this season i really hope Jason Plato can pull some wins out the bag and show all the doubters over the last few years that he hasnt lost it

 

[apex11]

He can't blame the car this time!

Oh he can....

 

[apex11]

cant wait for this season i really hope Jason Plato can pull some wins out the bag and show all the doubters over the last few years that he hasnt lost it

Ash showed him up....

 

[CMGARAGE]

Nice write up Paul, and those lucky enough to be in the UK can see it live on ITV 4, Sunday from 10:15 till 18:15.
ITV have got the contract at least until 2022, by that time I will probably be gaga anyway

Qualie is streamed from around 3pm UK time Saturday on the itv.com.

https://www.itv.com/btcc/qualifying-live

Live timings also available via btcc.net

Anyone outside of the UK should hopefully catch highlights:

"The BTCC also enjoys extensive coverage overseas, including CBS Sports Network screening highlights in North America. A multitude of networks such as Speed, ESPN and FOX are among those that ensures that Britain’s biggest motor sport series is broadcast across six continents throughout each season. Viewers in these regions should check local listings for latest broadcast dates and times."

 

[apex11]

Free practice is up. Unlike F1 for the most part these sessions are pretty much how the cars will perform for the most part.
BMW looking good, Plato still not troubling the top.

But the thing with BTCC is..... it is so dependent on BOOST levels (hate this) and also the weight penalties (don't mind this so much)...
I'd say it could be Ingram's year..... seems a bloody nice bloke, personally i don't care who wins it so long as Plato fails...

 

[SVP Skins]

Can't rule out WSR and Turkington. The new 330i looks fantastic and looking at the time from Media Day, it's on the pace from the get go. I also expect Oliphant to be challenging for wins this year, after joining WSR/Team BMW.

Regards to Plato, The Astras shown it's a great chassis, Senna Procter and Josh Cook got some great results last year, so i except JP to be up front on a regular basis proving hes not lost it...

...But i think it going to one of the closest championships in years with the new Weight reg this year.

 

[apex11]

Can't rule out WSR and Turkington. The new 330i looks fantastic and looking at the time from Media Day, it's on the pace from the get go. I also expect Oliphant to be challenging for wins this year, after joining WSR/Team BMW.

Regards to Plato, The Astras shown it's a great chassis, Senna Procter and Josh Cook got some great results last year, so i except JP to be up front on a regular basis proving hes not lost it...

...But i think it going to one of the closest championships in years with the new Weight reg this year.

He never 'lost it' same as Alonso didn't 'lose it' .... it's simply the fact that a crap car / set up, will make a good driver look crap and also affect their heads.

Having said that Plato won a lot of his trophy's in the days of useless old rich blokes buying their way into the 'sport' so his competition was light.
Seems that we now have more hungry young lads in the game which improves the show somewhat and means the old guard, Neal and Plato have had to up their game...

 

[Dobermann92]

11 different car models, what a nice variety

 

[apex11]

11 different car models, what a nice variety

Yep, but its basically a silhouette series now days, you could fashion any car body on top of the chassis, so you could, if you wanted, have a huge fiberglass penis racing around...
And the engines are pretty much all the same off the shelf as well standard TOCA units.
Honda have their own engine builders and maybe some few others..but yes, the 1990's hay day this ain't....
Same with WTCR, the SEAT / GOLF / AUDI are all the same.

 

[apex11]

Here you go...

" The only significant differences between different models is the external body shells and the use of front- or rear-wheel drive; the suspension, brakes and transmissions are common to all cars, and engines are of uniform performance."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_Touring_Car

The differences are set up and dreaded boost levels and weight.....

If you are 'supporting' a manufacture......you are being mugged off... bar say in Honda's case...

 

[CMGARAGE]

...and those rules were introduced to allow close racing between packed grids which you wouldn't be getting if things were kept as they were.

The shared components (and stuff like limited testing) are there to keep costs reasonable and all cars competitive.

And no, unless I missed the new road-going Corolla being modelled on a giant cock and balls, you can't just drop on a body shell. The cars have to be developed from actual road legal bodies.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Good grief no they're not silhouette - there is an actual UK silhouette tintop series if you want to compare ( I have no idea why anyone thought that was a good idea! ). The engines are spec, but you can either build one yourself or buy a standard one. Some suspension components being common doesn't mean the entire suspension setup is common, just the size & weight distribution of the car makes a difference there. It'd be awesome to see what you could do with rules as open as Supertourers but noone could afford to do it - look where WTCC ended up and that wasn't even that open.

TCR has more common areas than NGTC, but then it is meant to be even cheaper.

Dunno who I'm rooting for this year. Ash is a nice bloke who'll chat with you when he streams every now and then, and obviously super quick so I guess I'll see how he does, but really I'm just hoping for some good racing. I wish they'd bring back the feature race though. For some reason I've never really liked Plato all that much, he just irritates me.

 

[apex11]

Good grief no they're not silhouette - there is an actual UK silhouette tintop series if you want to compare ( I have no idea why anyone thought that was a good idea! ). The engines are spec, but you can either build one yourself or buy a standard one. Some suspension components being common doesn't mean the entire suspension setup is common, just the size & weight distribution of the car makes a difference there. It'd be awesome to see what you could do with rules as open as Supertourers but noone could afford to do it - look where WTCC ended up and that wasn't even that open.

TCR has more common areas than NGTC, but then it is meant to be even cheaper.

Dunno who I'm rooting for this year. Ash is a nice bloke who'll chat with you when he streams every now and then, and obviously super quick so I guess I'll see how he does, but really I'm just hoping for some good racing. I wish they'd bring back the feature race though. For some reason I've never really liked Plato all that much, he just irritates me.

The Subaru is a fibre glass body on top of standard components and same engine as say the Astra......
It is silhouette racing as there is NOTHING on these cars that is the same as the standard road cars.... in fact just sticking any body on top doesn't suddenly make it a Subaru unless you are stupid.... yet you then get the Subaru owners club turning up en masse ... what a surprise...

 

[Dobermann92]

The Subaru is a fibre glass body on top of standard components and same engine as say the Astra......
It is silhouette racing as there is NOTHING on these cars that is the same as the standard road cars.... in fact just sticking any body on top doesn't suddenly make it a Subaru unless you are stupid.... yet you then get the Subaru owners club turning up en masse ... what a surprise...

How does it compare to other categories? For example in Blancpain GT series Audi and Lamborghini has the same chassis and engine, does the series count as a silhouette too?

 

[CMGARAGE]

If your arguement is that there's no connection as there is little shared components between a race and road car then I'm not sure what to say, welcome to the last several decades of touring cars?

The 90's Supertourers were not production cars with coporate logos as liveries.

The cars do start of as original road going, homologated models.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

The Subaru engine is the stock TOCA engine, originally it was a Subaru boxer. Rules require a production bodyshell. The standard subframes are a bit iffy, I'll give you that. Still, the car balance just thanks to the body will at least make them not all be the same car, there.