Old news: Giovanardi out of Triple 8.

New news: Glew also out.

What a shame for the series to lose a known star and a promising rookie.

And a simplistically beautiful black 'UNIQ' Vauxhall Vectra.

A terrible disgrace indeed. Now, as expected, Plato's going to walk it...

So what really happened then...?

UNIQ decided not to pursue their UK advertising till later so there was no money for none pay drivers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IKpiKLv1o

Now subtracting 250kg, making the tyres skinnier and removing the front wing as per the Sierra... that should make it interesting.

A heads up for those who can receive ITV4, 1100hrs to 1500hrs tomorrow 25/04/10. BTCC rounds 4 & 5 live from Rockingham.

I doubt if Glew is being paid by Triple 8.

With the loss of UNIQ I expect Triple 8 needed him to provide more funding for the seat, which I guess could not be found, hence he is out.

Nash has the backing of avatar, so no shortage of cash.

Looks like Gio is going open wheel, he is entered for surfers paradise.

The sponsors were getting too much publicity so they panicked and pulled out...

Not the usual sort of problem sponsors complain about, is it?

Looks like we might be getting a bit of rain later on...

Gio is driving a V8 saloon at Surfers isn't he?

Sometimes i really struggle to see how the btcc presents itself as a frontline 'professional' championship.

Which other top level racing series can boast NOT having the defending world champion on the grid, becuase he cant afford to drive? and NOT having the multi time champion of the last few years on the grid becuase he cant afford a drive? (Before i am corrected, i am fully aware its a sponsor issue, not thier own bank accounts)

i adore the BTCC. its has been one of my favourite racing series since i was a small child (getting a ride round croft in Rydell's volvo at age of 8 = win : )) but at the moment it is nothing short of a joke. Three serious teams, two decent BMW outfits that are hamstrung by dopey tech regs and a load of pay drivers who would go to the WTCC if they could afford it.

Again, i adore it. but can you see Leslie, Aiello or (even muller or thompson in more recent years) lose thier drive after a couple of races becuase everybody ran out of money? it's completley ridiculous.

Not even the rubbish 'spec B' teams of the early 2000's were ever this much of a joke. at least they could put a season together.

Would make sense, I just assumed they meant open wheel.

It is a bit curious. I think it is at the front line of UK motorsport, but its a different world to the US (NASCAR, Indy, ALMS) and the international scene (F1, FIA GT, LeMans etc).
I mean, 25,000 people at a BTCC race is a good turn out - NASCAR got that at Martinsville on a Monday afternoon. I don't think the exposure is there in BTCC for someone to drop £1m for sponsorship for a year, so drivers have to bring sponsorship, even their own team - most are not paid to drive.

US and international motorsport is seen by hundreds of thousands, if not millions across the world, BTCC is very local. I think Gow has done a pretty good job over the years, but it could do with a Bernie to really get the commercial side going.
Once the NGTC rules are in and everyone knows the score I reckon the manufacturers will come back - lots of rumours about Volvo coming back, I think Vauxhall will be back when they can, with all the work done by Arena over the last two years it would be pretty easy for Ford to come in, maybe even VAG would come in with SEAT again, or even VW themselves. Then I think you'd see bigger budgets and a more "normal" season.

It struck me this morning that the field is a little on the light side now. It sounds silly but even if there was one more big name in the grid line up it would look a lot better.

Still; i dont think its too bad. I'll still take this batch of BTCC drivers and tracks over anything the likes of WTCC nad DTM have to offer.

BTCC has generous coverage on a free-to-air channel. It is certainly the highest profile domestic racing championship. Unfortunately even that does not seem to be enough to guarantee good sponsorship and good entries season after season.

As much as anything else, it seems to suffer from a natural ebb and flow. I started watching in the 2-litre Super Touring days - it was magnificent, with works teams filling the grid - and Alfa basically spoiled it (combined with the rulemakers failing to take the opportunity to stop the aero on the cars). Then there was the switch to the BTC rules - and Vauxhall basically spoiled it because the Astra Coupe was too good and there were too many of them on the grid. Then, they opened it up to S2000 specs - and costs/the economy/the WTCC spoiled it.

So we are now in the situation of having a weak grid - where is the appeal to big sponsors and manufacturers in joining that? Probably another new set of technical rules is the impetus needed to get it started again.

As alluded to before, it is a tragic reflection on the state of the series that the best driver of recent BTCC history (Giovanardi) cannot get a drive on talent alone.

Why don't they do the street race thing and suck moneys out of government coffers as per Aussie Bernie (V8s) or the IRL? They could get 80,000-100,000 easily on race day.

I imagine the turnout would be good for 3 x action packed BTCC races in downtown ___ + Muse concert at the park on the infield + fireworks display to finish it off, all for a tenner type deal, with rides, defence force promotions, dance music, car tuning competitions, hypercar displays etc.

I've thought about this, but I think the reason is it's because a 'contact' motorsport. Cars can go round corners 3 wide at times on normal tracks, but on British streets it would be joke, especially with all the traffic calming measures, islands, and bastard speed bumps. You mentioned the Aussie V8 Supercars, which is also regarded as a 'contact' motorsport, but Oz has it's own way of doing things.

The Birmingham Superprix back in the 1980s had a vast amount of paperwork attached to it, it had to go to Parliament, and the whole thing was doused with red tape. Twenty years later, in a more health-and-safety concious society it'd be even more difficult to organise. And it'd also inconvenience locals, NIMBYs and would be hideously expensive.

I am a huge fan of street races, but many may argue that the BTCC isn't a big enough event to warrant shutting off part of a city, whereas F1 and the likes might do.

Funnily enough, I think like this. And after watching the DTM - That is professional!! The whole look of the BTCC was 'small time'.
Somebody pointed out the coverage on ITV4 - I have to say, the BTCC is extremely lucky to get that much coverage. it doesn't really deserve the coverage for what is a National series. That type of coverage is for a World Championship, or a Le Mans type event.

100k ? hmm not sure about that.
The reason they can't do a street race is money - to put on such an event is hugely expensive, you need to find a promoter who would stump up the readies to put the event on and be fully prepared to make a big loss.

Donington couldn't get the money together to hold a GP, which is at the very top of motorsport, ok they needed far more money than a btcc street race would, but it just shows how hard it is to raise money to provide a facility.

£10 is an unrealistic price really, btcc races are £25+ already, without the extra expense of setting up a street race circuit.

At the end of the day its a national series, we should be comparing it to British GT, F2, F3 etc.

Thought i'd bump this thread incase anyone's interested or forgot (shame on you!).

So it's the final round of the season and four drivers can win it and it's not unrealistic for any of them to do so, even Onslow-Cole given that there's 52 points on offer (i think i calculated that correctly, feel free to correct me) and only 24 points separating 1st (Plato) and 4th (the aforementioned Onslow-Cole). Ford wont have much of an advantage with their superior straightline speed as tehre isnt really much of a straight at Brands Hatch Indy, so my money is on Plato to wrap up his second title. Hopefully there wont be any below the belt tactics and we get a clean enough 3 races that could well be even more exciting than last year's finale!

The Stig is going to be there this weekend!

How jolly exciting...

He's been racing in LMS for a few races already this season, can't see what the fuss is to be honest.

Ah i totally forgot about Ben Collins being there, usually when there's a guest driver they sort of trundle round the outskirts of the top 10 for a few races. Doubt he'll make much of an impression except for a bit of publicity.

I don't care, I just saw it, like it was an amazing thing a racing driver was racing.

Is he going to be wearing his white outfit and helmet then?

ITV extend BTCC deal, BTCC to air in HD from 2011: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87334

Yay!

Bemused that Autosport have opted to use a picture of Steve Ryder in that article, despite the fact he left ITV several months ago.

He still presents BTCC.

Does he? Shows how much attention I pay.

I hope Shedden wins it actually. Plato and Neal already have plenty of championships between them and Onslow-Cole would be slightly tainted down by the whole controversy with the LPG Fords. Plus he's young and will probably win it in the future anyway

anyone but Matt Neal to win the title. would prefer if Sheddon or Tom OC won their 1st title cos theyve both driven well all season

Has only won it once...

Sheddon and TOC out of the Championship battle now. 4 becomes 2.

typical Matt Neal

Im very pleased Plato won it. Not a big Matt Neal fan whatsoever. Shame Shedden + TOC had their problems though. Anyways, congrats to Plato and lets hope for a barnstorming third race

60 BTCC wins equalling the record. It's amazing he's only got two titles.

Well done Jason

Indeed a great job by Plato

Being a relative BTCC newbie, I was quite surprised he hadn't won more championships.

To be honest, he's rarely had the car to do it with. Besides the Astra that he won title number 1 with and the Laguna he had in his rookie year (against Menu in his prime), he's not had the equipment to win the title. Win races, yes, but not championships.

The Super 2000 Seats were never consistently good against the BTCC-spec Integra and the bigger S2000 Vectras and BMWs always seemed to have the upper hand when carrying success ballast.

Had he not left VXR for the ill-advised attempt at stock car racing, he'd probably have done so much more.

But fair play to him. He and Roy Mallock took a massive gamble last season building a team from nothing at the last minute and it's really paid off now. Congrats to them.

Of course it's easier to rack up wins when you've got three races every weekend! It wasn't until 1994 that most weekends were double headers, and the switch to three occured in 2004. A bit like the points inflation in F1 this year, it makes comparison across eras a bit meaningless.

Yes, thanks, I misremembered that. He's been in the running so many times I forgot he'd only got the tin cup once

Was hoping TOC could pull it off but it was not to be. At least Aon won Independants trophies.

Glad Plato won in the end I certainly did not want Neal winning it again. Hope Plato comes back to defend next year.

Will be interesting to see if TOC does get a drive in the V8 supercars, I'd love to see how he'd do.

But at the same time we've got reverse/lottery grids and success balast which offset the extra races somewhat.