WSR has announced an exciting new partnership with Pirtek Racing and Andrew Jordan for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The former BTCC title winner will race the latest development of the WSR-designed-and-built BMW 125i M Sport, which won both the teams’ and manufacturers’/constructors’ championships this season, in both 2017 and 2018.

Andrew, 27, brings a wealth of experience and success to WSR. Since making his BTCC debut in 2008, he has scored 16 race wins, 53 podium finishes and six pole positions. The Lichfield racer won the overall BTCC crown in 2013 and has been the champion independent driver three times; including this year.

He joins a WSR team that has taken five outright BTCC titles as well as nine in the independents category and he will compete under the Pirtek Racing banner.

Sunbury-on-Thames-based WSR will begin Andrew’s winter test programme later this month as the Red Bull Athlete acclimatises to the BMW ahead of what will be his first season racing a rear-wheel-drive touring car.

WSR expect to announce additions to the 2017 driver line-up before the end of the year.

Dick Bennetts, Team Principal, said: “It’s great to welcome Andrew Jordan and Pirtek Racing to WSR. Andrew is one of the fastest and most successful drivers in the BTCC and crucially knows how to win a championship. Being able to announce this exciting news in November enables us to make the best possible use of the time available between now and the start of the 2017 season and kick off our winter testing programme with Andrew before the end of the month. The team have been working hard on the development of the BMW to make sure we’re title contenders again next year.”

Andrew Jordan said: “I’m incredibly excited about joining WSR, who have been one of the outstanding teams in the BTCC for the past 20 years and achieved so much success in single-seater racing before that with legends like Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Mika Hakkinen. To have signed a multi-year deal is fantastic as it gives myself and Pirtek the continuity to build something really special with WSR over the next two seasons. I’ve been very impressed by what I’ve seen of the way WSR operate and am sure that we can be right at the sharp end throughout the 2017 season. I’ve never raced a rear-wheel-drive car in the BTCC, but the BMW has proven to be one of the best cars on the grid and I’m looking forward to learning plenty over the winter.”

To mark Aiden Moffat's earlier announcement the young Scot has been talking with his long-term partners at Laser Tools.

Such has been the success of Aiden's relatively short but successful BTCC career so far the 20-year-old is delighted to also welcome back Car Shop, Spence Insurance, Brown Brothers, Colin A Renton Transporter Maintenance, Smart Fleet Solutions, EnjoyCarLife, Secure Airparks, AST Signs Ltd and Butler’s Vehicle Solutions as part of his loyal group of backers.

In this video Aiden talks candidly about his 2016 season and speaks in detail about the last three rounds at Brands Hatch in October, which included that memorable podium in the final race. He also explains why he is looking forward to the 2017 season behind the wheel of his Mercedes A-Class.

Click below to watch the video:

Scottish driver Aiden Moffat will contest the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in a Laser Tools Racing Mercedes A-Class, after an extended partnership with the leading tools brand was confirmed earlier today (15 November).

“The BTCC is where we’re going to stay,” said Moffat. “It’s a fantastic championship and as a team we’re constantly improving.”

Moffat scored a very popular and well deserved podium in the final race of the 2016 campaign at Brands Hatch, which completed an impressive run of three top ten finishes at the famous Kent venue. Second place in the season finale was testament to the growing maturity and speed being shown by the 20-year-old, as the youngest driver in BTCC history now targets regular rostrums in Britain’s toughest championship.

“We developed our Mercedes a lot over the 2016 season and we’ve got further progress planned before the 2017 season starts too. I’ve had a full year now with race engineer Federico Turrata and we have a definite bond — we know how each other thinks — and this has shown in the race results.

“At the closing rounds at Brands the car just felt right, I had great pace and I could place it wherever I wanted. With this confidence and the new TOCA engine, we’re in a great position going into the 2017 season.”

The success of Moffat’s three years in the BTCC has been proven both on-track and off-track, with both the sporting and commercial benefits attracting a number of long-term and loyal partnerships.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time in the BTCC so far and the podium at the end of the year was just reward for everyone involved,” he concluded. “Laser Tools Racing fully appreciates that our partners have committed again for next year, and this puts us in a very strong position. So for their continued support I would personally like to thank Car Shop, Spence Insurance, Brown Brothers, Colin A Renton Transporter Maintenance, Smart Fleet Solutions, EnjoyCarLife, Secure Airparks, AST Signs Ltd and Butler’s Vehicle Solutions.

“What a team!”

Will Burns will become the latest rookie on the grid for the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship having put pen to paper with Team HARD.

The 2016 Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup runner-up is to compete in one of the team's newly-acquired trio of Volkswagen CC's – a car with an undoubted track record of success in recent seasons.

Burns will make the step up to the BTCC following perhaps the most successful of five seasons in the single-make Ginetta competition. The Western-super-Mare racer finished runner-up, taking the championship challenge right down to the wire in 2016, taking 17 podiums and three race wins – bringing him to the attention of Team HARD Team Principal, Tony Gilham.

A test at Snetterton in the outfit's Toyota Avensis – a first for Burns in BTCC machinery – back in October left Gilham suitably impressed.

"We have been talking to Will and his family for a few months now and have already formed a great relationship," said Gilham. "We share the same drive and ambition and Will is an amazing up-and-coming talent.

"We are genuinely excited about 2017 for a number of reasons and that includes the potential that Will has shown in the last few years and in his first ever taste of front-wheel drive machinery at the recent Snetterton test.

"The capabilities of the Volkswagen Passat CC have been known to us for a few years now having originally introduced them to the grid in 2013. We've seen its progress and it's had great success over the years as a proven race-winning car.

'We've every confidence that we have a very competitive package for the year ahead and look forward to working with Will both on and off track as he continues his development and rise to the very top."

A seat in the BTCC is something of a childhood dream come true for the 26-year-old, who is well aware of just how much of a leap is required to compete in Britain's top-line championship.

“I am absolutely delighted to be stepping up to the British Touring Car Championship," said Burns.

"I’ve watched the BTCC since I was a child, and when I started racing back in 2011 I could have never imagined I’d be on the grid.

“I’m under no illusions as to the size of the challenge ahead. It's the pinnacle of British motorsport and it’s going to be a steep learning curve for me, but I really can’t wait to get the season started at Brands Hatch in April."

The competitiveness that should be exuded by the Volkswagen package is something highlighted by the new recruit, as well as by his new Team Principal.

“I’m excited to be part of Team HARD’s plans for the 2017 season. I really enjoyed my first test with them last month and they are a really talented, professional team – it’s going to be great to work with them next season.

“The Passat CC is a proven race-winning car in the series and I’m confident that we will have a strong package heading into next season. I’m looking forward to getting to grips with the new car as soon as possible.

“Thank you to all my sponsors for their continued support, to Tony Gilham and Team HARD for the opportunity, and also to Douglas Motorsport and Ginetta for giving me the platform to show what I could do this year, which helped me get to this exciting next stage of my career.”

Motorbase Performance enjoyed its most successful Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship campaign to date in 2016, securing both the Independent Teams and Drivers titles.

The Wrotham-based outfit amassed an impressive tally of seven outright race wins, seven outright podiums, 15 Independents' race wins and 21 Independents' podiums between Mat Jackson and Andrew Jordan.

"It was most certainly our best year in the BTCC to date," said Team Principal, David Bartrum. "To finish just 16 points off the overall championship and to get two titles in the bag was quite an achievement. The overall title was what we were really aiming for at the start of the season, but to end up with what we did was far from the end of the world."

Despite the success, Bartrum harbours a sentiment of what might have been given just how close Mat Jackson came to winning the coveted Drivers' crown.

"From my point of view, it was a good season albeit edged with a little tinge of disappointment because we didn’t win the Drivers' Championship, and we can pinpoint particular things that happened along the way this year that cost us points.

"There were four moments during the season that ultimately cost us, I think. You look at Mat’s puncture at Thruxton, the power control module packing up at Snetterton or him and Andrew making contact at Brands Hatch Indy that caused his wishbone to break.

"Then you look at Gordon (Shedden). When his car was in a million bits all across the circuit at Thruxton, you would never have thought he would be champion. It shows anything can happen in the BTCC."

Bartrum spoke highly of Motorbase mainstay, Mat Jackson – a driver he feels is an underrated specialist in his field deserving of more credit

"Mat did an excellent job and Andrew did a very good job. Mat had a little bit of an edge, as he has done for a while. Mat doesn’t get enough recognition for how good he is.

"Mat rarely gets the testing opportunities that other people do – It’s all about budget and how much work you can do pre-season – but from my point of view, I think he is one of the genuine BTCC specialists on the grid. Look at Mat’s stats this year and how well he did – he deserves to step up to that next stage.

"That’s where you’ve got to with this championship now – it’s such a tough championship with such a variety of drivers that the guys that are good become real specialists in the product.

"That’s borne out when you see the likes of Andy Priaulx, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Alain Menu coming in, and even though they are international names, the guys they are up against now are bloody good."

Behind the scenes, the team and management are working harder than ever ahead of next season. With Andrew Jordan's departure confirmed, the focus is on improving the car and the current aim on the driver front is keeping hold of Mat Jackson. Bartrum believes the future is bright.

"Andrew was a good guy to have in the team. I really enjoyed having him here and I think we did a good job for him. He had a good year working with us; he won the Independents’ title and was instrumental in helping us to win the Teams’ title. There was nothing sinister in our parting of the ways.

"Oly (Collins – Team Manager) and I are working probably the hardest we’ve ever worked, going out seeing people and coming off the back of a good season helps immensely.

"We’re searching for all the right elements and the right backing to take the team forward and we’re getting there.

"There’s some very exciting things in the pipeline for Motorbase over the next few months. It’s obviously a big aim of ours to keep Mat on-board and just keep working away to move the team and car forward."

Motorbase Team Manager Oly Collins echoed the sentiments of his Team Principal. With some tweaks to the already speedy Ford Focus package and a new tyre to figure out, Collins is hoping the squad can get the jump on its rivals in 2017.

"It was no doubt our best year, and the fight with the manufacturers shows where Motorbase are now. There are some seriously good Independent teams out there and we won it convincingly in the end.

"We’ve got a few things in the pipeline for the Focus, with some aero detail and packaging that we’re working on this winter.

"Then there's the new tyre to work out, which will be a big thing for everybody in the championship. Whoever gets a hold on it quickest will get a jump on everybody else. Hopefully that can be us.

"It’s a big engineering task for us, and being an Independent didn’t do us any harm this year with the new RML suspension to figure out. We did a good job with that, so there’s no reason why we can’t do the same with the new tyre."

When asked to pinpoint where things could have gone better in 2016, Collins indicated that, as is often the case, the rub of the green played a part and maybe a lack of qualifying pace.

"You can’t over-analyse the season. Yes, you have to in order to move forward, to work out where you went wrong or where you could have improved, but there were a couple of decisions that were made, there were a couple of bits of bad luck.

"The one you look and think, ‘wow that was bad luck’ was Snetterton. We’d had a first and a second, Mat’s had fire in his belly and he was going to finish on the podium again, maybe even won. Though had he done that, we’d have gone to the next race carrying more weight. There are no certainties, even with hindsight."

"Our qualifying by far away wasn’t good enough this year with Mat," Collins continued.

"At Oulton Park and Silverstone in particular, his performance was not down to anything he was doing – it was down to the team as we went the wrong way on set-up.

"When everybody is so close and you’re talking just tenths of a second, even a slight misjudgment in that respect can have a catastrophic effect. We genuinely went the wrong way on both of those occasions and by the time we rectified it, it was too late.

"In 2015 and 2016, I think you’ve seen the best of Mat Jackson and I’m hoping that will remain the case in 2017."

Subaru Silverline BMR Racing's James Cole recently completed two solid days of testing as preparations for the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship gather pace.

Cole enjoyed trouble free runs at Donington Park – the scene of his fiery moment earlier in the year – as the multiple race-winning outfit looks to make up for lost time.

“We’ve managed to get a lot of mileage in across the two days,” he said. “We’re carrying out all of the things that we’d liked to have done pre-2016 and it has gone really well. It hasn’t been about lap times but more about trying set-ups A, B and C, working out what works and what doesn’t. Of course, we practically missed the first three events of the year so it’s also good to get some solid data at Donington.

“It’s mainly for the benefit of the team but of course I’m learning too, any time behind the wheel is valuable. Mileage is always positive and sampling the 2017 Dunlop tyre has also been beneficial, it seems to be a very good stable tyre.

“We did lots of eight lap runs and I provided feedback on each of the set-ups. Like I say, we weren’t necessarily chasing lap times but we were able to lap quicker than Colin Turkington’s lap from earlier in the season.”

BMR’s quartet of Subarus performed extremely well in the latter half of the season, with Colin Turkington and Jason Plato spearheading the squad’s title challenge. Cole and stablemate Warren Scott often played a supporting role, but the former British Formula Ford champion is keen to push on.

“I was the newbie in the team this year,” continued Cole. “Building relations is so important, more than people realise I think, and it takes time. The relationship is really strong at this point and knowing the team trusts my feedback means a lot. I’ve improved a lot since we were last here in April, which is down to a number of factors, but confidence and experience is key.

“Having Jason (Plato) and Colin (Turkington) as team-mates brings positives and negatives but it can hit your confidence. They’re both world class drivers who can probably jump straight into any car and be quick, while I needed time to relax, develop and improve.

“I didn’t always get the results that my pace deserved, and again experience played its part, particularly when making the right calls during qualifying, which is why we have a good off-season of preparation taking place."

Gordon Shedden and Colin Turkington were the best British Touring Car Championship drivers in 2016, according to an exclusive poll of tin-top team managers published in Motorsport News this week.

Shedden, who lifted the crown in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R, and Turkington, who placed fourth in his Team BMR Subaru Levorg GT, could not be separated by the 17 team managers who selected their top drivers of the season.

The only stipulation in voting was that the team managers could not nominate drivers from their own squads. 

The team managers selected three drivers who finished outside the top 10 in the championship points among the star performers.

The four-page season review of the 30-round British Touring Car Championship, including the full results of the team managers’ poll, is in Motorsport News this week, published on Wednesday.

Motorsport News editor and BTCC reporter Matt James said: “It is usual for a journalist to pick out their top 10 drivers of the year when compiling a season review, but we wanted to do something a bit different.

“The team managers are the ones who get to see what really goes on up and down the pit lane and they scrutinise every bit of on-track action from the free practice sessions through to the races. They have a real inside track on who is turning heads.

“The results make for very interesting reading, and really get underneath the skin of who over-performed and who under-delivered in the BTCC this season.”

Louise Goodman presents the best of the action from the 2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, including the dramatic end to the season at Brands Hatch which saw Gordon Shedden claim the BTCC title for a third time.

A full complement of 32 cars made the grid last season, with 11 different marques represented. The balance achieved between manufacturer-backed outfits and independent teams created superb racing right through the field and left pundits and fans alike guessing as to who would come out on top right until the very last round of the season.

Indeed, 2016 was one of the most open, unpredictable and fiercely competitive seasons in living memory – as an unprecedented eight drivers went into the finale around Brands Hatch’s legendary ‘GP’ circuit still in contention to clinch the coveted crown.

The momentum swung back and forth throughout the year, with no fewer than 12 different race-winners – another BTCC record – being testament to the championship’s perfectly balanced regulations and level playing field.

Having suffered a variety of misfortunes mid-season, defending title-holder Shedden looked to be almost out for the count, but underscoring the mantra that nothing can ever be ruled out in the BTCC, the Scot dug deep and grafted his way back into the reckoning behind the wheel of his Honda Civic Type R. In the very last race of the year, he overhauled Sam Tordoff on the track to similarly overhaul him in the championship classification – in so doing becoming the first driver in almost a decade to secure back-to-back Drivers’ crowns.

“In terms of entertainment, the BTCC has once again delivered in spades as the title battle went all the way down to the last race – and what a storming race it was!” reflected the Halfords Yuasa Racing man.

“All year, I’ve really stuck my neck on the line and made some bold, heart-in-the-mouth moves that were on the edge more often than not. After Croft back in June, it looked like we were down-and-out, but we stuck to our guns, kept plugging away and gave it absolutely everything to claw our way back. It just goes to show that every single point really does count in this championship.

“Winning the championship for the first time felt phenomenal, last year was a real rollercoaster ride and this year it was just a huge release of emotion. It’s unbelievable – an incredible feeling!”

Of course this was only part of the story so don’t miss ITV4’s blow-by-blow account on this incredible touring car season. Catch the unmissable BTCC television treat at17:20 on Sunday 13 November.

Japanese racer Osamu Kawashima took up a seat in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis yesterday in testing at Donington Park.

Kawashima made his UK racing debut back in 2013 with Century Motorsport in the Michelin Ginetta GT SuperCup. He then entered the Ginetta GT5 Challenge in 2014 before graduating into the Michelin Ginetta GT4 SuperCup for 2015.

A maiden foray out on track in a BTCC car was a proud moment for the 47-year-old, who dreams of being a figurehead for the championship back in his homeland.

"I was very happy with how things went yesterday," said Kawashima. "I appreciate Speedworks Motorsport's help and guidance and the help from Tom (Ingram). Testing a BTCC car is something that fills me with great pride.

"Over the course of the day I spent lots of time in the car and I really am grateful to the team for this opportunity. With Tom having made the switch from Ginetta machinery into the BTCC himself, his advice was invaluable to me as I got to grips with the Toyota.

"My dream is to race in the BTCC, and I am hoping to get a deal together for 2017. I want to be the driver who takes BTCC to Japan and makes it as popular there as it is in places like the United States."