The British Touring Car Championship kicks off at Brands Hatch this weekend, and having looked at the field last month, it’s time to be a bit more specific on who’s going to do what.

But first, there have been a few changes to the grid.

Three spaces won’t be taken up: Jason Hughes won’t be fit to race his MG; Paul O’Neill has a prior commitment; and the vacant Tempus Sport Chevrolet Lacetti won’t be filled until later in the season.

But there are a couple of additions: Nick Leason in a diesel BMW, and most significantly of all, Jason Plato in an RML run Chevrolet Lacetti – though only for Brands Hatch so far.

There are a number of important points about the Plato story. RML ran SEAT’s BTCC team for a year while Plato was driving for them, so it’s familiar territory in terms of the personnel, if not the car. It’s a very familiar car to RML though, since they now run Chevrolet’s factory WTCC team, and won multiple races with the Lacetti last season, ultimately taking Rob Huff to third in the championship.

If we add in the fact that Tempus Sport has many ex-RML staffers working for the team, it’s not unreasonable to think that, if all goes well, Plato could end up in the vacant Tempus car.

It’s worth nothing that we don’t yet know who – if anyone – is going to be driving the second Team Aon Ford Focus. But I don’t think the Focus is going to be battling for victories this early in the season, since it’s a new car and has had a few gremlins in testing. Though I think it could well become a factor as time goes by.

My gut feeling is that it’s going to be a disappointing season for Team Dynamics with the Honda Civic. Dave Pinkney is a surprising driver for the team to sign alongside Gordon Shedden, and I’m not convinced that the choice will have been purely on merit. It just doesn’t sit right. I’d very much like to be proved wrong though.

VX Racing is clearly going to be at the front, and it would be a brave man who’d bet against Fabrizio Giovanardi taking the title for a third year running. I think he’ll comprehensively – and deservingly – outclass team-mate Matt Neal.

For me the BMWs are most likely to pose a consistent threat to Vauxhall, and the battle between Team RAC and Airwaves BMW is going to be interesting. I’d like Airwaves to come out on top, just because I liked the cut of Motorbase’s jib last season, and it’d be nice to see Rob Collard doing well.

But it’s Colin Turkington in the Team RAC BMW who I think will bother Giovanardi most at Brands Hatch, at least for the first two races. I reckon that man Plato will probably concentrate on the final reverse grid race, and could well spring a surprise. Andrew Jordan for VX Racing is the other man I expect to see at the front of race three – and that could well hold true for the rest of the season.

So the question remaining is: how very, very wrong will I be?