After its traditionally hefty summer break, the BTCC is back this weekend.

Regulations

It’s not a massive surprise that there’s been yet another turbo boost reduction since the last meeting, in the never ending, thankless quest to equalise the performance of the turbo NGTC engines and the normally aspirated S2000 engines.

As a result, the volume of moaning from NGTC-engined entrants has increased. This understandable tweet from Matt Neal last week, for example:

“New boost reduction for turbo cars for #BTCC Snett. Chevy was on pole at Croft by 3/10ths & now we’re restricted further. Hilarious! »:-/”

Will the latest turbo reduction stop the normally aspirated folk – by which I mean Jason Plato – from moaning? We’ll see.

Size matters

Here’s something I find amusing. Most of the grid is made up of cars with a S2000 chassis and an NGTC engine. A lot of these chassis – including the championship leading Honda Civic – are too short to conform to the full NGTC regulations.

The Chevrolet Cruze, meanwhile, is one of the few to exceed the required 4.4m. So the car most vocally stuck in the past, is actually more capable than most of embracing the future.

Meanwhile, in Scandinavia…

The regulation wrangling in the BTCC is bad enough, but it has nothing on the situation in Scandinavia – as expertly covered by TouringCarTimes.

The Scandinavian Touring Car Championship has long talked about adopting NGTC regulations. It met opposition from some of the teams, who joined forces to form the TTA (Touring Car Team Association).

With NGTC regulations now set in stone for the STCC, the TTA have decided to form their own championship, based on the Solution F silhouette car.

It’s a right old mess. History – specifically North American open-wheel racing – suggests that it will probably end badly for everyone.

So, tedious though it can be to sit through the BTCC’s inexact equalisation process, at least it’s still one championship, and it seems in reasonable health.

Photo Credit
Tony Harrison, flickr