FANS FLOCK TO DONINGTON PARK FOR OFFICIAL SEASON LAUNCH

NAPA Racing UK claimed a one-two on the timesheets during the final afternoon of official pre-season testing, as the reigning BTCC champion edged out team-mate Dan Cammish at Donington Park.

Rival outfit Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS enjoyed the morning run as Tom Ingram topped team-mate Tom Chilton.

Light showers interrupted the early afternoon running before thunder and lightning eventually brought an end to proceedings in the final hour.

Sutton had already set his benchmark time – the only driver to clock a lap time in the 1:07s bracket – and he was closely followed by Cammish.

“We didn’t get enough dry running, but I think everyone is in the same boat,” said Sutton. “Overall, I’m pleased – we got through our testing plan and we’re nearly there.

“The car is in a good place; we’ve made a few changes. They seem to have been positive, but you never really know until qualifying gets underway. We’re looking forward to getting stuck in and seeing what car we’ve got beneath us.”

Cammish admitted to having a tricky morning, but he bounced back with a productive afternoon in the #27 Ford Focus.

“It has been a good pre-season test programme,” said Cammish. “We’ve had some varying weather and different temperatures across the five days of running.

"We got some really nice, consistent and quick laps in there this afternoon, but there’s a bit to come. If it ends up as a one-two for us next week then I’ll be thrilled, but there’ll be others coming out swinging, so let’s see.”

Chilton ended his positive day in third overall, having fired his Hyundai into second during the opening session.

Ingram had to settle for fourth, ahead of NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Rowbottom and Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill.

The Donington Park test was the third and final test of pre-season with BMW, Hyundai and Ford machinery topping a day apiece – highlighting the likely competitiveness of this year’s top-quality grid.

A big crowd arrived at the Leicestershire circuit for the official Season Launch, which had already included championship photography, television, radio and media activities.

Alongside the six hours of testing, fans flocked to the lunchtime pitlane walkabout to get autographs and photos of the BTCC’s cars and stars.

With today’s action bringing down the curtain on the BTCC’s pre-season, attention now turns to the opening race weekend of the 2024 campaign… back here at Donington Park on the 27/28 April.

ULTRA-COMPETITIVE FIELD BOASTS A MULTIPLE OF CHAMPIONS AND RACE WINNERS  

The 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship has been officially launched at Donington Park (15/16 April), with the UK’s premier motorsport spectacle confirming a stellar line-up for the campaign ahead. 

The potential race for a record fifth drivers’ title, a returning world champion, significant increases to the hybrid, a new qualifying format and tyre regulations, plus an enhanced broadcasting strategy have headlined the off-season proceedings.

Three former champions, 13 race winners and no fewer than 15 drivers who have reached the rostrum in the BTCC will take part in the most competitive championship in the UK, so the race for the coveted title is set to provide unmissable action.

Official media duties commenced at Donington Park yesterday, prior to further photography this morning, before the cars took to the track in front of thousands of fans for the final pre-season test session.

The BTCC season officially gets underway here at the same venue on 27/28 April, before setting off on its annual nationwide tour, comprising 30 races across ten events.

Race for the title

Consistency throughout many teams in the BTCC has been one of the main features in recent years with the likes Ash Sutton (NAPA Racing UK), Tom Ingram (Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS), Colin Turkington (Team BMW) and Jake Hill (Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport) all competing with their respective outfits for at least the last three seasons.

Sutton’s all-conquering campaign in 2023 means he is now a record-equalling four-time BTCC Champion, alongside fellow tin-top legend Turkington… setting up an intriguing battle that could result in the first ever five-time champion.

Certainly, the likes of Ingram and Hill will have something to say about that with the former looking to reclaim his crown, whilst the latter targets his first BTCC title.

While continuity may have paid off for some of the big guns, Speedworks Motorsport has chosen to take a different route for 2024, with the squad announcing one of the most exciting line-ups in memory. 

It’s an all-new four-car entry for Speedworks with returning World Champion Rob Huff and reigning Jack Sears Trophy Champion Andrew Watson heading up TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK’s challenge, whilst multiple race winners Josh Cook and Aiden Moffat make the switch to the Corolla with LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ.

NAPA Racing UK was the standout outfit of 2023, taking the treble of Drivers’, Manufacturers’/Constructors’ and Teams’ titles and the squad has unsurprisingly announced an unchanged line-up, as Sutton is joined by Dan Cammish, Dan Rowbottom and Sam Osborne – all with trophy aspirations of their own.

Team BMW has maintained its line-up of Turkington and Adam Morgan – the latter will be looking to mount his own challenge during his second season with the squad, whilst a potential third WSR entry could yet be confirmed.

The consistency theme continues at Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with Ingram being joined once again by Tom Chilton, Ronan Pearson and Nick Halstead.

Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing enjoyed an impressive 2023 – both Árón Taylor-Smith and Mikey Doble stay with the team this season in the chase for outright and Independents’ honours.

Two new squads have also joined the fray – ensuring the popular Cupras remain on the grid – with Restart Racing signing series returnee Chris Smiley and debutant Scott Sumpton, whilst Daryl DeLeon will contest his first full BTCC season with Unlimited Motorsport.

BTCC powers up

BTCC organiser – TOCA – has introduced a number of exciting new regulation changes including the doubling of hybrid boost and a new qualifying format, whilst Goodyear’s option tyres are also set to further spice up the action in 2024.

The BTCC became the first touring car series in the world to introduce hybrid power when it was officially launched in 2022 and this season sees a further focus on overall performance.

The Hybrid Energy Management System (HEM) provides drivers with the ability to deploy the hybrid for a dedicated amount of time per lap in qualifying and for a number of laps in the races – depending on their championship position (for qualifying) and their race finishing position on race day. 

Now, from 2024 that same push of the button will have double the amount of power output through a combination of both hybrid and turbo boost, which will provide a whole different complexion to race strategy and performance. 

Additionally, the BTCC’s newly introduced ‘Quick Six’ qualifying will feature a number of short ten-minute segments, creating further interest for fans in attendance and the hundreds of thousands more that will be able to watch every qualifying session and race live via ITV Sport.

The format – similar to the one successfully used in IndyCar – will see the cars divided into two groups for the opening qualifying session.

The fastest six from each group will go through to make a 12-car second segment of competition. The top six from that next session will proceed to the grand finale of qualifying each weekend – Quick Six – a final ten-minute dash to determine pole position and the top six grid positions.

Goodyear’s option tyres have also been revised with tyre choice during the races adding a further tactical element to proceedings, whilst the top ten of race 1 at each event will be forced to use the hardest available tyre compound in their next race – making successive victories on a weekend even harder to achieve.

Going global

As the exciting news continued during the off-season, TOCA also announced that every race of the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship will also be streamed LIVE around the globe via TikTok – in full-screen horizontal mode – thanks to a world-first agreement with its partners at ITV Sport.

This ground-breaking agreement is in addition to the BTCC’s expansive and existing UK television contract with the ITV network, which sees around eight hours of broadcast – live and free – from each event across ITV4 and ITVX, as well as the continued highlights and catch-up offerings across the network.

It is the first ever sport to be streamed live via TikTok by ITV Sport, and it is also thought that it is the first major sporting organisation to stream its entire competition all season across the giant social media platform.

Following its launch in 2016, TikTok has since become one of the world’s most popular online platforms, now reaching more than one billion active monthly users worldwide, with some 45% of those in the 18-34 age group, whilst women make up around 57% of all users – further highlighting ways in which the BTCC will be brought to a new, younger and more diverse demographic.

The announcement is also fantastic news for the BTCC’s loyal global fanbase, as this agreement will see every race in the UK’s premier motorsport championship broadcast live right around the world for the first time in its illustrious 66-year history.

Alan Gow, BTCC Chief Executive, said: “It has arguably been one of the busiest off-seasons in recent memory with several on-track and off-track innovations and announcements set to bring further excitement to the BTCC.

“We have a grid that is firmly focused on a real depth of quality, with so many potential race winners and an ever-growing number of likely title contenders. 

“These driver announcements from the teams – combined with the new hybrid-turbo boost, qualifying and option tyre regulations – look set to be the perfect recipe for a hugely competitive and entertaining year ahead.

“I’m also incredibly proud of our ground-breaking move in ensuring that the BTCC will be the first major motorsport championship in the world to have its entire race season streamed live on TikTok around the globe, alongside our fantastic ongoing and absolutely vast UK coverage, which is live and free on ITV4 and ITVX.

“This will introduce the BTCC to a massive new and completely different demographic – a younger and more diverse audience whose engagement is vital for the future of our sport.

“I always look forward to the start of a new season, but this one feels a bit special – I really believe we have a cracking championship ahead of us.”

Click Here to view our 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship Entry List.

Nick Halstead will hope to make steps forwards in his second season in the British Touring Car Championship after a positive start to pre-season testing in his new-look Team Bristol Street Motors Hyundai.

Halstead revealed a striking new livery on his car in a special event at Donington Park last month having agreed a new major partnership deal with Razor, the company behind the Crazy Carts that he introduced to the BTCC paddock last season.

The launch event not only saw the covers come off the 'Crazy Cart XXXL' design on the Hyundai but also gave fans in attendance the chance to experience a series of Crazy Cart races involving Halstead and a number of his BTCC rivals - offering a taster for what to expect during the 2024 season.

Pre-season running kicked off at Brands Hatch where Halstead was able to lap nearly half a second quicker than he had done during the corresponding race meeting last season, despite running without hybrid in operation on his car.

Moving on to Croft, Halstead then had the opportunity to run the new-for-2024 levels of hybrid for the first time and whilst changeable conditions prevented him from setting a truly representative lap time, confidence is now high going into the final pre-season test scheduled for the annual launch event at Donington Park.

"It was fantastic to take the covers off the Crazy Cart livery at Donington Park and the reaction from the fans has been overwhelmingly positive, which is exactly what we hoped for," he said.

"Testing so far has been productive although like everyone else, the weather hasn’t been on our side, particularly at Croft where I didn’t manage to get my laps in when the circuit conditions were at their best.

"Saying that, I’ve been pleased with the pace I’ve shown and I’m feeling comfortable in the car already, so hopefully when we now head to Donington Park for the season launch test, we can get a full day of dry running to really set us up for the opening round.

"I’ve said over the winter that I felt the additional hybrid power would spice up the action. Having now had the chance to try it on track, I’m even more certain that that will be the case - and I think fans are in for a treat when the racing action kicks off!"

The final pre-season test before the 2024 season kicks off is at Donington Park on the 16th April.

EXCELR8 Motorsport's Ronan Pearson set the overall pace during the second official Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship pre-season, with the #14 Hyundai's morning lap time holding sway throughout the day at Croft.

With wet conditions setting in for much of the afternoon running it was NAPA Racing UK that enjoyed the best of the tricky conditions as Ash Sutton topped team-mate Dan Rowbottom in the order, albeit several seconds off Pearson's ultimate pace.

Toyota Gazoo Racing's Andrew Watson was third quickest in the wet, whilst Tom Ingram bounced back from an earlier fire in his Hyundai to take fourth in the afternoon.

It was Pearson, however, who stole the show with his 1:22.243s flier taking top spot from the WSR-run BMWs of Jake Hill and Colin Turkington.

The afternoon proved more difficult, however, with Hill's Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport’s crashing into the barrier while on a quick lap through the Sunny In/Sunny Out section.

Josh Cook was another likely title contender that ended his day early after the Bath driver also had an off-track moment.

The NAPA Racing UK trio of Dan Cammish, Sutton and Rowbottom were fourth, fifth and sixth overall, thanks to their morning efforts, as the squad proved the pace of the Ford Focus in both wet and dry conditions.

Tom Chilton’s #3 EXCELR8 Motorsport Hyundai was next up, ahead of a Speedworks-run treble of Robb Huff, Josh Cook and Watson rounding out the top ten.

Now the BTCC moves to Donington Park for the Official 2024 Season Launch and the final test session on Tuesday 16 April.

A full timing classification of the BTCC test at Croft can be found here.