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Category:
Touring Cars – BTCC, WTCC
For the first time in years, there are no foreign drivers in the BTCC this season. I produced a map of the drivers last month, and in the comments it was suggested that I look at past champions. A fine idea. So here’s a European heat map of BTCC champions, 1991-2010:
And here’s the detail:
Super TouringI chose 1991 as a starting point for two reasons: that was the beginning of the Super Touring era, and before 1991 the last non-British champion was in 1973. Super Touring lasted until 2000, when it was broadly replaced by BTC, and then Super 2000. As such, it’s interesting to compare 1991-2000 and 2001-2010:
People often bang on about Super Touring being the good old days of the BTCC, and clearly it had more international class: foreign drivers were responsible for an overwhelming 7 championships between 1991 and 2000, compared to just 3 between 2001 and 2010. Was the BTCC better back in the ’90s? Frankly, I can’t remember. Helpful, I know. There’s a lot of talk in Formula 1 today about the likelihood or otherwise of News Corporation launching a bid for the sport. It’s healthy to be suspicious of News Corp – but don’t forget that Formula 1 has had its fair share of questionable dealings in the past. Inevitably, all this has raised the prospect of Formula 1 coverage going to Sky Sports. Being a selfish Freeview watching sort, it’s the last thing I’d want. It’s also not terribly likely – I hope. Formula 1 with no presence on free-to-air TV would be a significantly less attractive prospect for pretty much everyone involved – fans, teams, sponsors, FIA. MotoGPMotoGP rights holders Dorna realised that a couple of years ago, and made a push for free-to-air coverage at the expense of subscription channels. That stripped Eurosport UK of its rights, which didn’t go down well at all – chiefly because of Toby Moody and Julian Ryder commentating on Eurosport, compared to Steve Parrish and Charlie Cox on the BBC. A compromise was reached, with delayed coverage of the MotoGP race on Eurosport, but Dorna essentially stuck to their free-to-air guns. WRCWorld Rally Championship promoters North One Sport didn’t seem to share Dorna’s view when the WRC rights were awarded to subscription-only channel ESPN earlier this year, having been on free-to-air Dave previously. Google still shoves more traffic to this site on that subject than anything else, so it’s clearly not just an issue for me. I genuinely believe that the WRC will suffer in the UK for not being on a free-to-air channel. Obviously I’m more than a casual motorsport fan, but I realised yesterday that I didn’t know who won last weekend’s Rally Jordan. Out of sight, out of mind. North One Sport was acquired by CSI last month, and I’ve seen no mention of the ESPN deal being multi-year. So hopefully the new owners might give a little more priority to getting the WRC in front of a few more eyeballs in 2012. Fingers crossed. WTCCThe World Touring Car Championship seems even less bothered about free-to-air. Given that the promoter is Eurosport, that’s perhaps not a surprise. Until this year, ITV4 had half-hour highlights from every round, but it looks like that hasn’t been renewed for 2011. That’s a shame, obviously, but I’m not sure I’m that fussed. There’s a lot of uncertainly in touring cars at the moment – particularly around regulations – and the WTCC seems to have suffered the most. It could pick up again, but this year doesn’t look like it’ll be a classic. I think I can live without it. For the first time in recent memory, it looks like the British Touring Car Championship in 2011 will be contested solely by British drivers. Last year was pretty close: the only foreign involvement was Fabrizio Giovanardi’s brief first round appearance for Triple Eight. So with everyone on the grid from this fair isle, and the entry list kindly noting their geographic location, it seem like a good idea to shove them on a map. While we’re at it, let’s differentiate between manufacturer (M), constructor (C) and independent (I) entries; and NGTC, S2000/NGTC-engine, and S2000 entries. Let’s add flags for the circuits the BTCC will be visiting in 2011 too. Incidentally, I’ve not included the couple of drivers due to make appearances later in the season; I’ll believe them when I see them. I’ve also only mapped Tom Chilton and John George once, despite them both greedily listing two places for their location; I don’t believe that they exist in quantum states. It’s bizarre how concentrated the drivers are along the diagonal from south-east England, up the M1 and M40, through the west midlands, and up the M6 to north-west England, and further north into Scotland. Nobody from Wales, Northern Ireland, East Anglia, north-east England, and only John George from south-west England. Looking at the circuits though, it does sort of make sense. Other than Snetterton in East Anglia, and Croft in north-east England, the tracks are broadly in the region that the drivers are concentrated in. The map also illustrates the obvious fact that most entries are independents – only Silverline Chevrolet & Honda Racing Team class as manufacturers, and Team Aon as constructors. And you can clearly see from the colours that the grid will be dominated by S2000/NGTC-engine cars, with a fair number of full S2000 cars thanks to Chevrolet and BMW, and a just a few completely NGTC cars – to being with, at least. Once the late entries have entered – if they do – then I’ll think about producing something a bit fancier on the make up of the grid, in terms of teams and cars. What do sponsors get out of motorsport? I suppose it’s a mixture of straight advertising, softer brand awareness, corporate hospitality, and business to business opportunities. But sometimes it’s more interesting than that. Okay: slightly more interesting. The Chiltons & AonIt’s hardly news that Tom Chilton has a privileged position at Team Aon. As much was obvious after the appalling way team orders were employed last year in the BTCC. Tom Onslow-Cole was the man who lost out, and it’s great news that he’s recently found a new home in the YRC-backed AmD Milltek VW Golf. Tom Chilton, on the other hand, was confirmed at Team Aon for 2011 way back last year. The explanation is simple: Tom’s dad is Grahame Chilton, chairman of Aon Benfield and vice chairman of Aon Group. Nothing particularly sinister or remarkable in that – there are a lot of dads financially propping up their sons. What’s impressive is the speed with which the sponsorship was forthcoming. Grahame Chilton took up his position in August 2008, when Benfield – of which he was chief executive and 10.7 percent shareholder – was sold to Aon. By March 2009, Team Aon was born. I reckon seven months is pretty bloody good going. Younger brother Max Chilton was also sponsored by Aon in 2009, driving for Carlin in British F3. And more recently in GP2. The Chiltons & LegoThat’s not the only curious association with the Chiltons. I’ve written about their relationship with Lego, specifically the video games, before. Unfortunately, it still confounds me. There was Lego Star Wars for Tom in 2004 BTCC, and Lego Batman for Max in 2008 British F3. I still can’t find any sign of Graham Chilton at the developer of those games, Traveller’s Tales – whose logo was also on Tom’s BTCC Honda Civic. But I have found him in the credits of Lego Star Wars, being thanked by TT Games – parent company of Traveller’s Tales. But I’ve no idea whether that’s cause or effect of the BTCC sponsorship. Internet avenues exhausted, I give up. John George, JAG & Go MobileI’ve written about John George before too, and his pre-2010 BTCC entries carrying branding for his mobile phone retailer JAG. So when he was confirmed at GoMobileUK.com with Tech-Speed, the sight of a mobile phone retailer rang bells. And indeed he does have links with the company. JAG went into pre-pack administration in 2009, following a failed attempt to merge with Go Mobile in 2008. That merger was revisited in 2010, but ended with JAG being sold to Go Mobile. That was John George’s exit from the industry, but he clearly held on to sufficient links to encourage Go Mobile to back a BTCC campaign. It means he’s driving, which is a touch unnecessary, but if that’s the price we have to pay to have Paul O’Neill in a competitive car, then that’s a price well worth paying. Paul O’Neill & Sunshine.co.ukOn that subject, it’s charming that it was previous Tech-Speed sponsor Sunshine.co.uk that purchased the 2010 title winning Chevrolet Cruze for O’Neill. I’m not sure if he has any relationship with the company, but nothing is immediately forthcoming. And that’s more than enough digging around for now, so we’ll leave it there. UPDATE: It doesn’t stop there! A nice nugget just pointed out by @Pete93Allen on Twitter: O’Neill is godfather to Sunshine.co.uk MD Chris Brown’s newborn son, as @PaulONeill29 announced himself on Twitter. Probably a pre-existing relationship then… I’m a little bit obsessed with the colour orange. Not in a mental way, you understand. But I do like to see an orange paint job on a car or bike. It’s colourful. The world doesn’t have to be all corporate, clinical, white and blue.
If you’re looking for a good orange livery, then the obvious place to start is Orange Arrows, active in Formula 1 between 2000 and 2002. Well, active in part of 2002, until the team ran out of money. It’s the obvious place to look, but not the best place: I think there are stronger combinations than orange and black.
Funnily enough, the team raced as Repsol Arrows in 1999, so orange was prominent even before Orange. But that colour scheme is better known in MotoGP, on the factory Repsol Honda bike – amongst others. Orange and red though? We can do better. There’s somewhere else obvious to look for a bit of orange. Somewhere just over the North Sea. It wasn’t a surprise that A1 Team Netherlands chose orange to represent their country in A1GP. But it was impressive just how pure the orange paintwork was.
The same can be said for the Hummer that Robby Gordon entered in this year’s Dakar. After losing Monster Energy sponsorship to BMW, he was left to run a livery based on his own Speed Energy brand. It was, to say the least, bright. Not bright enough to attract his team mate’s attention when Gordon was broken down on the side of the road in need of help – but that’s another matter. BTCC
Still not the best use of orange in motorsport though. For that we have to come home, to the British Touring Car Championship. Specifically between 2006 and 2008, when the BTCC was blessed with orange cars from both Team RAC and Team Halfords. Of the two, Team RAC wins it for me: orange and white is a virtually unbeatable combination, isn’t it?
I’m optimistic for 2011, because the Dynojet Racing Toyota Avensis in which Frank Wrathall is contesting the BTCC is looking mentally orange. Perhaps not quite up to the standard of Team RAC, but pretty bold stuff going by the workshop shots from Toyota. Now there’s a reason to be cheerful. Photo Credits It’s shameful to admit, but I’m becoming increasingly jealous of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship. The latest big name signing is Colin Turkington, who joins fellow former BTCC champions James Thompson and Rickard Rydell. Even assuming that Jason Plato joins Matt Neal in the BTCC this year, it’s virtually guaranteed that the STCC will have more BTCC champions on the grid than the British Touring Car Championship itself. Which simply isn’t fair. Any other BTCC champions?With Yvan Muller, Alain Menu and Gabriele Tarquini firmly ensconced in the WTCC, realistically it would take the return of Fabrizio Giovanardi to bring the BTCC level with the STCC. Given that there wasn’t the money to keep Giovanardi at Triple Eight for more than one meeting last year, and Triple Eight have completed their driver line-up for 2011, it’s not looking very bloody likely. And Giovanardi seems quite happy working with N.Technology, anyway. But let’s check: are there any other former BTCC champions who could be tempted back? Laurent Aiello (1999) is retired; Frank Biela (1996) continues to dabble in racing for Audi; John Cleland (1995) is retired; and Tim Harvey (1992) has switched to commentating on the BTCC. So no, there aren’t. An embarrassment of Scandinavian driving richesBack to Scandinavia, then. The STCC is new for 2011, the result of the Swedish and Danish championships merging. So as well as STEALING OUR CHAMPIONS, there’s no shortage of illustrious local names, like Jan Magnussen, twice Danish champion and Formula 1 points scorer; and multiple Swedish champion Richard Göransson. In short, it’s a field of drivers to rival the World Touring Car Championship. Rydell himself goes further, and puts the STCC ahead of both the BTCC and WTCC. With varying degrees of works entries from BMW, Chevrolet, Volkswagen and Volvo in the STCC, he might have a point. Not that there won’t be plenty of quality drivers, and a very healthy variety of cars, in the BTCC in 2011. But it slightly pales in comparison to the STCC, doesn’t it? NGTC regulationsBut even without fancy foreign drivers, the BTCC can boast about one thing: the new NGTC regulations, which the STCC will be adopting from 2012. It nearly didn’t happen, and the reception in Scandinavia hasn’t been entirely positive. But it has to be good news for the BTCC. I’d say more about the STCC and NGTC, but Neil Hudson and Matt Salisbury have both beaten me to it. So just read their pieces instead, and pretend that I would have written anything remotely as informed. As has become traditional, the BTCC grid is forming pretty slowly, such is the difficulty in securing a budget. It’s starting to come together now, but I always find it intriguing that the grid in British Superbikes takes shape so much sooner. Anyway, Wikipedia is pretty good at keeping up with who’s confirmed. But there are – hopefully, if we want a healthy grid – still an awful lot of unknowns. Most of the pieces should be in place by the time of the official media day – which this year is at Silverstone on 24th March. But until then, this is my modest wish list for the season ahead. ColourCollectively, the 2010 liveries were bland: too many cars were mainly black or white, with little more than a bit of blue or red. Seriously, have a look. It was only really Silverline Chevrolet (light blue), Pinkney Racing (pink, obviously), and Pirtek Racing (garish) going out on a limb. Oh, for the days of Team Halfords and Team RAC – both in slightly different, but equally pleasing, shades of orange. At least we got a bit of orange in 2010 when Daniel Lloyd did a few races for Triple Eight. And it looks like the new Dynojet team will have a bit of sort of orange on their Toyota Avensis in 2011. So all is not lost. But what about other colours? Maybe someone should take inspiration from Team Atomic Kitten and splash a bit of yellow around. Now that was a livery. ForeignersYes, it’s the British Touring Car Championship. But I can’t help feeling that the lack of any foreign drivers last year – other than Fabrizio Giovanardi at the season opener – took a little bit of the shine off the series. A national championship with international drivers is that one notch higher on the world stage. I’m not sure who we might expect to descend on this fair isle, mind you – mainly because most international drivers would probably want paying. Paying! Ha! Nice one. Not even good old Erkut Kizilirmak came back after taking a ‘year out’ in 2009. Regulations & EqualisationThe trio of regulations in the BTCC this year – NGTC, S2000 and BTC – could be a recipe for disaster. Or more specifically, a recipe for a whole lot of whinging about the attempted equalisation of those different regulations, and how terribly unfair it all is. Naming no names. Jason Plato. As if that’s not enough variation, it looks like most entries will be a combination of two of those regulations: a S2000 chassis with an NGTC engine. The Honda Civic, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Vectra, Seat Leon and Volkswagen Golf will all fall into that category. The various Toyota Avensis entries, and the Rob Austin Racing Audi A4 will be pure NGTC; RML and WSR are expecting to run fully S2000 Chevrolet Cruze and BMW 320si respectively; and Lea Wood has confirmed that he’ll be back in a BTC-spec Honda Integra. But even the NGTC engine in isolation isn’t straightforward – there will be a number of bespoke efforts, and they will have to have parity with the TOCA unit built by Swindon Engines. At least it looks like the waters won’t be further muddied by LPG or diesel engines this year. And there’s always going to be contention around front- and rear-wheel drive. Rob Austin Racing’s Audi A4 is confirmed to be rear-wheel drive, as doubtless the BMW 320si will be. Will the Audi have a long first gear imposed on it, like the BMWs did last year? Presumably. So: no moaning about all that, please. Just get it right in the first place – I’m looking at you, Alan Gow – and let us enjoy the racing. The confirmation that BMW are returning to the DTM in 2012, is unsurprisingly accompanied by enthusiastic quotes from BMW and the organisers of the DTM. Far more interesting are the quotes from BMW’s rivals in the championship, Audi and Mercedes. Both are very nice and positive, but also keen put it in the context of their company being better. Audi’s Wolfgang Ullrich:
And Mercedes boss Norbert Haug:
So they’re telling BMW that yes, you are welcome back, but remember: Audi is the most successful, Mercedes has been around the longest. In other words: know your place, scum. It’s just about as busy as weekends get for motorsport on Freeview: Formula 1 has the Japanese Grand Prix, MotoGP has the Malaysian Grand Prix, and BTCC comes to a climax at Brands Hatch. Watching all of it won’t be terrifically straightforward, because the Commonwealth Games mean that there is precious little space on that single BBC Red Button stream on Freeview – which seems to be my favourite topic – so some of it will only be available online. We need a timetable – what, when and where!
UPDATE SATURDAY So it’s going to be tricky to watch or even record the 125cc and Moto2 races – you can only record the Red Button on Freeview, and they’re not on the Freeview Red Button. And you might well want to record them, since not only are they on early, but they clash with the Formula 1 race. Fortunately, the BBC is pretty good at putting both support races on the iPlayer – keep an eye out here later on Sunday. This all seems desperately complicated – and it is – but I’m just grateful I’ve not got Eurosport: then I’d have to add in the British Superbikes finale from Oulton Park too. Cor blimey! Team Aon had a storming weekend at Silverstone, taking victory in all three races, despite more restrictions to the LPG turbo engine after the Ford Focus locked out the front row of the grid in qualifying. But team orders were extensively employed, and to questionable effect. The BTCC standings before this weekend looked like this:
Tom Onslow-Cole – The OC, if you will – was the team’s highest place driver, and took pole position. Despite that, the team favoured Tom Chilton, and The OC moved over to let Chilton win both races one and two. Missing a gear was the excuse trotted out by The OC after the first race, but Chilton acknowledged team orders after race two. Team orders are legal in the BTCC, though it is frustrating when teams try to hide it. But in this case, the team orders seem wrong as far as the championship is concerned. The only conclusion is that Chilton has something in his contract. Regardless, after today’s final race, which The OC won with Chilton down in 6th, this is how the standings look:
But how different would it be – for both drivers – had The OC won all three races today, as he really should have? Swap the two Toms’ finishing positions in today’s races, and the points would look like this:
It wouldn’t change the position of either driver, but The OC would be more comfortable in 2nd, and within sniffing distance of Jason Plato at the top of the standings. Chilton’s 5th in the championship would be more vulnerable, but really, if you’re 44 points or 52 points off the lead of the championship, what difference does it make? All Team Aon have done is make Plato’s life at the top a little easier, and similarly Matt Neal’s task of retaking 2nd overall. Getting behind The OC is the best chance they have of taking the title. If they miss out by a few points to one of those two seasoned campaigners, they’ll only have themselves to blame. |
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