The 2009 British Touring Car Championship finished at the weekend, and already the 2010 calendar has been announced.

We start at Thruxton next year instead of Brands Hatch. The two visits to Brands Hatch remain, but with the Grand Prix track in May, and the season finale around the Indy circuit. That’s a slight disappointment: it seems fitting for the season to build up to a climax at a special circuit, which Brands Hatch GP definitely is. And of course it proved the perfect way to end the season this year.

The Donington Park meeting has moved back to September so that it doesn’t get in the way of preparations for the Formula 1. Assuming that actually goes ahead there.

The summer break will be a huge seven weeks. That’s apparently for the aforementioned British F1 GP (wherever it is), Football World Cup, and Tour de France.

The Tour de France is presumably taken into account at the request of ITV, since ITV4 shows both. Incidentally, the three year mass coverage deal with ITV4 enters its final year in 2010, unless of course it is extended. Which I think we’d all like to see, wouldn’t we? I’m not sure even Eurosport or Eurosport 2 could devote as many hours to the championship as ITV4 have.

It looks promising for an extension, I reckon. It’s already been announced that ITV4 will again be showing British Superbikes highlights next year – and sooner after the meeting than this year – so there are no obvious signs of ITV shrinking its motorsport quota.