2024: BTCC chat & discussion

Alliance Racing (Motorbase) don't have any official ties with Ford, and neither do Excelr8 with Hyundai. I don't know why those teams are included in the Manufacturers/Constructors championship points.

From what I understand, the main reason for introducing the Hybrid was to try and make it more attractive to manufacturers, but since then there's actually one less with the loss of Team Dynamics as the works Honda entry and no signs of interest from any new manufacturers.

The regs state:

a 'Constructor' is defined as the entrant, company or individual
who is the originating designer and builder of their own competing cars. Classification as a
Constructor may not necessarily exclude their eligibility for any or all of the awards or prize
money offered to Independent entrants. The final decision as to which entrants may be eligible to
be classified as a Constructor and/or for any awards or prize money available to Independent
entrants rests solely with the Administrator, whose decision will be final

I remember their being a bit of a furore about one of the teams a few years ago (WSR I think) who insisted they were independents but Gow said "If something walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck..."

Again from memory, there have also been cases of independent teams choosing to run as constructors even though they didn't have to.

I think the only way for BTCC to regain relevance to the majority of manufacturers would be to follow the lead of the SuperUtes Series in Australia, move away from being based on a type of car that's declining in popularity and reform itself as the 'Britsh Crossver Car Championship'. The UK car buying public want crossovers, and that's what most manufacturers are reshaping their model ranges around.

I don't think it would actually be too awful either, we've seen the WRC versions of the Puma, Countryman, and C3, and they look pretty good in tarmac spec. The current BTCC technical regulations would make a shift to crossovers straightforward as well.

Is there a decent intersection between people who are interested in motorsport and people who choose to drive crossovers though?

That's a shame :-(
He would be in my Top 10 of recent drivers

Rumour mill... Bobby Thompson to BMW.

My Nephew told me... so it must be true.

He also forgot to inform Bobby Thompson — it will make his year!

Is is confusing though, don't most teams design and build their own cars?

Even TOCA are unclear on this. They refer to "The Manufacturers/Constructors Championship", "manufacturers/importers/constructors", "manufacturer-backed teams", "full manufacturer-backed entries", and then in the "Sporting Regulations & Commercial Undertakings" document, they state:

The Manufacturers/Constructors Championship:
"For the purpose of this regulation, a 'Constructor' is defined as the entrant, company or individual who is the originating designer and builder of their own competing cars. Classification as a Constructor may not necessarily exclude their eligibility for any or all of the awards or prize money offered to Independent entrants. The final decision as to which entrants may be eligible to be classified as a Constructor and/or for any awards or prize money available to Independent entrants rests solely with the Administrator, whose decision will be final."

I read a comment from a youngster the other day regarding the supertourer era. He actually thought all they did to those cars was put a roll cage and seat in them and race.

Goes to show what people will believe if the car looks as close to the showroom model as possible.

Not convinced that crossovers is the way to go just because that's what people buy. If that was the case the pickup series in the USA and Aus would be more popular than the car equivalents surely?