F1 Fanatic

This is looking like a great season and we aren’t even in the new year! I am looking forward to seeing who will replace Neate at MG, and will there be any returning legends from the past?

@ryanwilliams The best pairing on the grid so it’s no surprise and now of course they’re both champions.

Well, the news we already knew has been comfirmed, and the BMW will be great, I think WSR seem like a great team. One thing I have noticed is that, although the NGTC regs were introduced to get people to enter with saloons, Dynamics, Motorbase and now WSR have gone for small cars, and the MG isn’t the largest, so maybe Team HARD and the others have missed something by going for the Passat, Toyotas, Proton, Insignias etc.

Tom Onslow-Cole will drive one of Tony Gilham’s new NGTC Passats http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=8478

Dave Newsham has just signed for Speedworks Motorsport http://www.btcc.net/html/generalnews_detail.php?id=3282&month=0&year=2012&form=&searchterm=

I’ve been watching some season reviews from the Super Touring days and it got me wondering when the next retired Formula 1 driver will join the BTCC? The problem is that they would probably want a paid drive rather than scrape together the £300k+ in sponsorship each season. Johnny Herbert was the last former F1 driver to compete when he drove for Team Dynamics for half of 2009 and he didn’t do too badly, the same goes for Nigel Mansell when he had a go in the late 90s. If my knowledge is correct DC did a couple of BTCC races before he went to Formula 1?

It was nice to see Williams on the grid as well with the Renaults, the chances of them coming back however are slim if non-existent. It would still be great to see them return though.

And of course lets not forget the 1964 champion, the late great Jim Clark.

@robk23 Damon Hill did a race or two in the late 80′s, I remember watching clip on youtube where Damon was one of the drivers in those endurance races they used to run with two drivers per car when the grid was all RS500s and M3s. According to BTCC net Coulthard did one race in 1990, back when he would have been a very young gun.

And Gabriele Tarquini was an ex F1 driver, multiple race winner in the BTCC and a champion to boot. I’m pretty sure he has the record for most failed attempts to pre-qualify for a race back when there were more than 26 entrants. Jo Winkelhock was a failed F1 driver as well. Anyway they both were fantastic touring car drivers.

Gianni Morbidelli did a season for Volvo back in 1998, although the team was so heavily focused on Rydell he never really had a chance to show what he could do. I remember back when Jean-Christophe Boullion was the Williams test driver he did a season for Renault back in ’99. Then there was Jan Lammers who drove for Volvo in ’94, Julian Bailey had a couple of years with Toyota in the early 90′s and I’m surprised you forgot Derek Warwick from the ‘good old boys’ as Charlie Cox used to call him and John Cleland. And of course everyone remembers Nigel Mansell’s guest stint with Ford back in 98. None of these guys were that sucessful but it is uncanny how some of the pre-eminent touring car drivers of the last 20 years are in fact people who couldn’t cut it in F1. There’s Tarquini, Nicola Larini, Bernd Schneider, Emmanuelle Pirro, Jo Winkelhock, Tom Kristensen, Gary Paffett and I’m sure there are others I’ve forgotten. Your post got me wandering down memory lane, I might have to get my old VHSs out of the supertouring era as well!

Those Confirmed So Far – This is what I could find so far, those in brackets are drivers who are not confirmed, but either drove for that team last year or are associated with the team through testing etc.

Honda Yuasa
NGTC – Honda Civic
- Gordon Shedden
- Matt Neal

MG KX / 888 racing
NGTC – MG6
- Jason Plato
- ???

Pirtek Racing
NGTC – Honda Civic
- ??? (Andrew Jordan, Jeff Smith)

eBay Motors / WSR
NGTC – BMW 125i
- ??? (Rob Collard, Nick Foster)

Motorbase Performance
NGTC – Ford Focus
- ??? (Mat Jackson, Liam Griffin, Aron Smith)

Speedworks
NGTC – Toyota Avensis
- Dave Newsham
(Lea Wood, Carl Boardley)

Cicely Racing
NGTC – Toyota Avensis
- Adam Morgan

Team HARD
NGTC – Vauxhall Insignia
- Jack Goff
- ???
NGTC – VW Passat CC
- Tom Onslow Cole
- ???
(S2000 Honda Civic)
(Howard Fuller, Aaron Williamson, Robb Holland, Tony Gilham)

ES Racing
??? (S2000 Vauxhall Vectra)
- ??? (Chris James)

Rob Austin Racing (?)
NGTC – Audi A4
- ??? (Rob Austin, Will Bratt, Chris Swanwick)

Dynojet (?)
NGTC – Toyota Avensis
- ??? (Frank Wrathall)

AMD Milltek (?)
NGTC? (S2000 VW Golf)
- ??? (Ollie Jackson)

Welch Motorsport (?)
NGTC – Proton Persona
- ??? (Daniel Welch)

BINZ Racing (?)
??? – (S2000 Vauxhall Vectra)
- ??? (Lea Wood)

Thorney Motorsport (? – To be announced at Autosport)
NGTC – Vauxhall Insignia
- ??? (John Thorne)

tech-speed (?)
S2000 Chevrolet Cruze
- ??? (Joe Girling)

You’re missing Chris Stockton for BTC racing, he’s going to be running a EX-RML Cruze they were developing.

AMD are selling/sold their Golf in an attempt to get a full NGTC car next year
and ES racing are trying to sell their Vectras though one is heavily crash tested thanks to Chris James ;)