The 2013 Dunlop[1] MSA British Touring Car Championship is a multi-event motor racing championship for production based touring car racing cars held across England and Scotland. The championship features a mix of professional motor racing teams and privately funded amateur drivers competing in highly modified versions of Family cars which are sold to the general public and conform to the technical regulations for the championship. It is one of the most popular domestic motor racing series in the United Kingdom, with an extensive program of support categories built up around the BTCC centrepiece. It will be the 56th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season.
This will be the third season that cars conforming to the Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) specification will be allowed to compete and the first season since the end of the phased transition from the Super 2000 specification which saw the organising body, TOCA, maintain a performance equalisation between the two chassis specifications. The season will see teams compete with car chassis built to either NGTC or S2000 specification although the NGTC cars will have a significant performance advantage over the S2000 cars. They will achieve this by giving NGTC cars a significant increase in the turbo boost pressures which they are allowed to run. Teams can choose to use the NGTC 2.0 litre turbocharged engine, or S2000 2.0 litre Naturally aspirated engine. Teams with S2000 cars will be eligible for the newly introduced S2000 trophy named after the winner of the inaugural British Saloon Car Championship in 1958, Jack Sears, known as the Jack Sears Trophy, of which Sears himself will award to the top S2000 finisher of the year at the final round at Brands Hatchbased on the amount of S2000 wins (known as 'cups') over the season.[2]
2013 also sees the return of the British Formula Ford Championship to the support race timetable.
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[edit]Teams and drivers
- Notes
- ^ Robb Holland will race at Snetterton and Knockhill only, replacing Howard Fuller in a Passat CC for those rounds alone.
[edit]Driver changes
- Changed teams
- Having spent the 2012 season driving for Speedworks Motorsport, Adam Morgan's family run Ciceley Racing team will step up from Ginetta racing to run a single car team for him in a 2011 specification NGTC Toyota Avensis purchased from the Dynojet team.[11]
- Tom Onslow-Cole will switch from eBay Motors to drive the Team HARD.'s Volkswagen CC.
- Dave Newsham joins Speedworks Motorsport to drive the Toyota Avensis, moving from Team ES Racing.com.[21]
- Andy Neate left MG KX Momentum Racing despite previously stating he would stay there in 2013,[32] but he announced his intentions to continue in BTCC in 2013 under his own newly createdIP Tech Race Engineering team.[15]
- Entering/re-entering BTCC
- Chris Stockton will return to the BTCC full-time in 2013 with BTC Racing driving their NGTC Chevrolet Cruze.[10]
- Joe Girling enters the BTCC driving for Tech-Speed Motorsport in their S2000 Chevrolet Cruze.[29]
- 2012 Renault Clio Cup UK champion Jack Goff and 2009 British Formula Ford champion James Cole will graduate to the BTCC, after signing for Team HARD. to drive their two NGTC Vauxhall Insignias.[23][24]
- 2009 BTCC champion Colin Turkington will return to eBay Motors to drive one of their three new BMW 125is after competing in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship in 2011 and making sporadic appearances in the World Touring Car Championship.[14]
- Leaving BTCC
- Tony Hughes and Liam Griffin both left the BTCC at the end of the 2012 season after their second years with Speedworks Motorsport[20] and Redstone Racing[33] respectively.
[edit]Team changes
- BTC Racing return to the BTCC for the first time since 2008 with a single NGTC Chevrolet Cruze, originally constructed for use in the 2012 season with RML before Chevrolet pulled their manufacturer support but acquired by BTC Racing in October 2012.[10]
- Team HARD. will expand to at least a 4 car team in 2013 having acquired two NGTC Vauxhall Insignia VXR-R cars from Thorney Motorsport[22] and entering two NGTC spec Volkswagen CCs, with the ambition to run two more by the end of the season,[25] though some of these cars may be run under a different team banner.[34] The team sold their S2000 Honda Civic after deciding that it would be too difficult for the team to run a car in the Jack Sears Trophy alongside their NGTC cars.[35]
- In January 2013, AmDTuning.com announced that they were building a NGTC-spec Vauxhall Astra that will debut mid-season, running alongside the Volkswagen Golf that the team have been running since 2010. [36]
- Following the successful introduction of a NGTC Ford Focus ST at Snetterton for Mat Jackson in 2012, after the final round at Brands Hatch, Redstone Racing announced they were selling their three S2000 Focus' to build two more NGTC Focus' for a two car team in 2013.[17]
- Tech-Speed Motorsport plan to return to the BTCC, having missed the 2012 season, running a single S2000 Chevrolet Cruze chassis powered by an NGTC engine. The team had hoped to run at Silverstone and Brands Hatch toward the end of 2012, but did not feature. The car will be driven by former Dunlop Production Touring Car Championship driver Joe Girling.[29]
- West Surrey Racing are switching to NGTC spec BMW 125i cars to replace their S2000 BMW 320sis that they have been running since 2007.[13]
[edit]Race calendar and results
The provisional calendar was announced by the championship organisers on 29 August 2012, with no major changes from 2012.[37]
| Round | Circuit | Date | Pole Position | Fastest Lap | Winning Driver | Winning Team | Winning Independent | Winning S2000 Cup | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | R1 |  Brands Hatch(Indy Circuit, Kent) | 31 March | ||||||
| R2 | |||||||||
| R3 | |||||||||
| 2 | R4 | Donington Park (National Circuit, Leicestershire) | 21 April | ||||||
| R5 | |||||||||
| R6 | |||||||||
| 3 | R7 | Thruxton Circuit (Hampshire) | 5 May | ||||||
| R8 | |||||||||
| R9 | |||||||||
| 4 | R10 | Oulton Park (Island Circuit, Cheshire) | 9 June | ||||||
| R11 | |||||||||
| R12 | |||||||||
| 5 | R13 | Croft Circuit (North Yorkshire) | 23 June | ||||||
| R14 | |||||||||
| R15 | |||||||||
| 6 | R16 | Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit (300 Circuit, Norfolk) | 4 August | ||||||
| R17 | |||||||||
| R18 | |||||||||
| 7 | R19 |  Knockhill Racing Circuit(Fife) | 25 August | ||||||
| R20 | |||||||||
| R21 | |||||||||
| 8 | R22 | Rockingham Motor Speedway (International Super Sports Car Circuit,Northamptonshire) | 15 September | ||||||
| R23 | |||||||||
| R24 | |||||||||
| 9 | R25 | Silverstone Circuit (National Circuit, Northamptonshire) | 29 September | ||||||
| R26 | |||||||||
| R27 | |||||||||
| 10 | R28 | Brands Hatch (Grand Prix Circuit, Kent) | 13 October | ||||||
| R29 | |||||||||
| R30 | |||||||||
[edit]Regulation changes
- Unlike 2012, S2000 and NGTC cars will no longer have performance parity.[38]
- The amount of change (i.e. increase/decrease) in the turbo boost pressure adjustment will be reduced from the current level.[38]
- Adjustments will be applied to either individual drivers or teams – yet to be determined – but not per car type/chassis as in 2012.[38]
- The frequency in which the adjustments are calculated is also to be finalised – currently it is a "rolling two-event" average.[38]
- In all events except Thruxton, drivers will be required to use a new softer compound of Dunlop tyre in one of the three races of the day which will offer "superior performance to the standard compound tyre." However, they must nominate which race they will use them in prior to qualifying. They will have distinctive markings so that rivals, spectators and TV audiences can see who's using them.[39]
- Cars must now have a matching set of tyres. They are no longer permitted to have a mix of wet and slick tyres.[39]
- In addition to the fines and licence points system in 2012, from 2013 if a driver receives three warnings; verbal or otherwise, they will be relegated six places on the grid on the third penalty.[40]
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