P AT H T O T H E B T C C
WorldMags.net
ven during its difficult
mid-noughties struggles,
the British Touring Car
Championship retained its appeal
for drivers. It’s always been
competitive at the sharp end and
offers a marketing platform like
few others in motorsport circles,
and certainly stands on its own in
Britain in car-racing terms. Whether
you’re looking to showcase yourself
as a driver or promote a business,
the BTCC has always been an
attractive option.
Series director Alan Gow says
the BTCC has the ability to make
stars, not just attract them. Colin
Turkington, Jason Plato, Matt Neal,
Gordon Shedden, Andrew Jordan
and others have the following they
have because the BTCC introduced
them to a wider audience and their
talents did the rest.
In special cases, racing in the
championship can be an end in
itself, although for the time being at
least the BTCC will not reach the
same heights as it did in the 1990s,
because manufacturers are no longer
pouring money into it as they once
did. But the budgets are, to a point,
reasonable to compete in the BTCC,
and the quality of driver not just
winning races but fighting for
podiums is now at a higher level
than it has been since 2000. Triple
world champion Andy Priaulx is
back, after all, and that’s a handy
calibre of opposition for an aspiring
racing professional to prove
themselves against.
This, combined with the
reverential status it enjoys with fans
of national racing, is why more and
more series are pushing to establish
a link with it, to try to create a
so called pathway to the BTCC.
So how do you get there? To
use the five of the drivers named
above as examples – via Renault
Spiders (Plato), Ford Fiestas
(Turkington), the National Saloon
Car Cup (Neal), the SEAT Cupra
Cup (Shedden) and the Renault
Clio Cup UK (Jordan). So there is no
obvious, definitive answer. But the
British Automobile Racing Club is
hoping that will change, and the
last of those five examples has
gone some way to helping that.
In recent years the Clio Cup has
developed into a real feeder series
E
JSCC champion Dorlin
is moving up into
Clios this season
WorldMags.net
MARCH 5 2015 AUTOSPORT.COM 103
103
BTCC?
The BARC wants the Junior Saloon Car Championship
to grow into something that develops touring car stars.
SCOTT MITCHELL and RUSSELL HAYES ask how