In 2006 Mondello Park was raced on for the last time, in 2018 it was Rockingham that waved farewell. Ireland is an expense too far at the moment and ‘The Rock’ – it’s a giant car park now, and more profitable than it was as a race track.

The British Touring Car Championship should have theoretically raced at the new Circuit of Wales by now – not that anybody ever really believed that would be built – but any dreams of going somewhere new are just that really – dreams.

Back in 2020, just before the pandemic arrived, Media Day was held on the Silverstone International layout. It was meant to be introduced to the calendar for that season, but it is yet to arrive. Scheduling issues are the official line. According to four current and former BTCC racers I asked at a TCR race there last weekend, the truth was more along the lines of “boring with nice garages,” “not suitable,” “waste of time” and “pile of shit, it’s awful for racing.” It seems that the powers that be took some feedback from that media day and binned the idea.

Five minutes online with BTCC related social media and you’ll see the ‘Why no Castle Combe? Why no Anglesey? Why no Street Circuits?’ questions cropping up. The answers being Combe doesn’t have a suitable paddock (don’t shoot the messenger here, eh?) Anglesey is too far, with too little accommodation. The law prevents mainland UK from hosting road races, but that hasn’t always been the case. The BTCC has raced from small paddocks, it has raced in Wales, it has raced on the streets, but where are those circuits, and where do they fit in the list of 17 tracks that have held championship rounds of the BTCC, and its predecessor, the BSCC since the championship launched in 1968?

BRANDS HATCH

First Race: 1958

Number of Rounds Held: 154

The total would be higher if non-championship rounds were included. In the first season of the championship the Kent venue held nine championship rounds (and one non-championship event – we’re not counting non-championship events here.) That first year featured the now legendary Jack Sears/Tommy Sopwith duel to settle the title, and the circuit has featured many a showdown all the way up to Jake Hill being crowned 2024 BTCC champ just a fortnight ago.

MALLORY PARK

First Race: 1958

Number of Rounds Held: 16

Mallory was there at the beginning, but only sparingly. 1958, 1960, then 1967 through to 1982 – skipping only one year. From the small postwar Austins to the US Muscle Cars of the seventies, the oval with a leg is certainly lacking the infrastructure to hoist modern day BTCC races, which was proved in the early eighties when the championship still had to split grids to fit the track, and struggled to control the massive crowds out to see Stirling Moss race in the BTCC. It won’t be back.

CRYSTAL PALACE

First Race: 1958

Number of Rounds Held: 13

It’s a track where legends were born. Not just tin top or Formula One heroes – although the likes of James Hunt, Graham Hill, Bill McGovern and the like graced the track, but also a young photographer called Jeff Bloxham, who had published a photo of Jochen Rindt having an accident. Jeff is a legend, and for me his snaps during Super Touring were epic and he’s still now – 54 years later – active trackside photography of the BTCC! It’ll never come back, but you can walk parts of the track today.

GOODWOOD

First Race: 1959

Number of Rounds Held: 8

Once upon a time the trio of world-famous British circuits were Brands, Silverstone and Goodwood. They were the world renowned tracks, but alas Goodwood as a ‘modern’ active circuit was canned many, many years ago, but it has paid us back handsomely. The two meetings per season for historic racing has given us a chance to witness this area of the sport in its fifies, sixties and seventies glory. Historic Touring Cars repeatedly delivers some of the best racing around the track. From the sliding Mini to the massive oversteering Yank Tanks, no other place can do those cars the same kind of justice.

AINTREE

First Race: 1959

Number of Rounds Held: 6

It started with an Non-Championship race in 1958, at a time when the circuit was still only equipped to time to 0.2 of a second – which would be a bit of a struggle in the modern BTCC! The short span of the Tin Top life for the circuit, beside the Grand National horse course – of course – had more than it’s fair share of ‘big’ names claiming success. Graham Hill snagged a few class wins in his Jag 3.8. Jim Clark grabbed a top step on his way to his BTCC title in 1964 in what turned out to be the final season of BSCC racing for the venue.

SILVERSTONE

First Race 1959

Number of Rounds Held: 130

There has been quite a few variations of the Silverstone layout to have been used in the BTCC. The current National version for Touring Cars has been the staple for the last few years, and another iteration before that. The Grand Prix layout hasn’t been used for a long time, and its arguable that the BTCC could benefit from worming its way back onto the F1 bill (as has been rumoured for a Thursday/Friday slot) to boost its popularity in the country – and with fans. Universally unpopular among BTCC supporters, the venue has visibly lacked spectators on the banks and grandstands over the last few seasons, but it still delivers some great, flatout competition, as it always has.

SNETTERTON

First Race: 1959

Number of Rounds Held: 59

Snetterton is a staple of the BTCC. It has been an almost yearly calendar attachment since the first race there in June 1959, and for the time, that’s a bit odd. While other tracks have been afforded the luxury of multiple visits for multiple seasons in the sixties and seventies, the Norfolk venue has been held to one per season, but it has had the honour of hosting a night race, and the 60^th anniversary ‘Diamond Double’ special in 2018.

OULTON PARK

First Race: 1960

Number of Rounds Held: 82

Like Silverstone, Oulton has held races on a number of layouts. During the Super Touring era the frantic Fosters layout, in front of 70,000 race weekend fans, had some of the tightest crowds in Touring Car history in the UK. Movement sometimes wasn’t an option. Having only two seasons since it joined the series without any BTCC (1973 and 1986) and quite a few when it has appeared twice, the Cheshire track still packs in the fans, with the 2024 edition matching the crowd sizes of the late nineties.

THRUXTON

First Race: 1968

Number of Rounds Held: 85

The Hampshire Speedbowl is a law unto itself. Thanks to a harsh track surface it’s hards all the way. The track has had a number of multiple round seasons and delivers feast or famine. The high speed nature can create slightly boring races with line astern trains of Touring Cars following each other, but the chicane and complex has given us some of the big balls moves in the BTCC over the last fifty-odd years, and Church Corner? Referred to as ‘arse twitching’ by drivers of every BTCC generation.

CROFT

First Race: 1968

Number of Rounds Held: 32

Joining the calendar at the same time as Thruxton, the North Yorkshire venue went three and out within a couple of years. By 1971 it was forgotten about as far as Saloon Car racing went, and in the eighties the place closed to circuit racing, becoming a RallyCross venue, but a nineties resurrection came from nowhere and the BTCC returned not long after the track opened again, becoming a permanent fixture on the roster from 1997.

INGLISTON

First Race: 1973

Number of Rounds Held: 3

Knockhill wasn’t the first Scottish round of the BTCC, that honour goes to Ingliston. Sat beside Edinburgh Airport, the venue held just three rounds in the seventies before being dropped from the BSCC schedule. Even for the day the facilities weren’t brilliant, but it was the first meeting outside of England to feature in the ‘British’ series. It should have come back. At the time that Autosport was reporting the planned return to racing for Croft, North of the border the Jackie Stewart Motorsport Centre should have re-developed the venue into a place through the nineties where the BTCC should have cemented a Scottish presence.

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DONINGTON PARK

First Race: 1977

Number of Rounds Held: 72

Yes, we know, Mercedes and Audi in 1937, Senna in 1993. Actually that 1993 race, Tim Harvey in conditions that were worse than in the F1 race, he went from 14^th to first in 18 laps. Wowzers! The track has been popular for Tin Top racing since opening. More than one race a year for a time, something that we have now, but also the spiritual home for the big Touring Car championships coming from abroad. The ETCC of the eighties, the DTM of the nineties, the WTCC of the 2000s – they just felt right at the track. Oh, and Nigel. Twice.

BIRMINGHAM

First Race: 1988

Number of Rounds Held: 3

It’s two rounds really, and both were won by Andy Rouse. The track was famous in BTCC terms for the sight and sounds of those Cossie RS500s blasting through what looked like an IndyCar/IMSA style street circuit, with British road signs. The event, headlined by FIA F3000, was a bit of a political nightmare, and when the F3000 crowd decided to smash the living crap out of each other, there wasn’t enough time left over for the BTCC race in 1988.

KNOCKHILL

First Race: 1992

Number of Rounds Held: 31

Where Ingliston failed, Knockhill prospered. It has delivered us the best corner in motor racing and is known for that Tarquini roll in 1994. What a lot of people forget is the state of the toilets in that first year of 1992. Some of them were troughs with no roof, but it didn’t halt progress for what is now a cornerstone round of the series. The popularity of Knockhill is undiminished even on the wettest of days, and possibly has the most fervent set of fans in the country, especially when the likes of Cleland and Shedden were winning!

PEMBREY

First Race: 1992

Number of Rounds Held: 2

The BTCC went properly British in 1992 with races in Scotland and Wales. While Knockhill is still with us, Wales was dumped after two seasons. Logistics at the track had a little less space than was needed for prime nineties Super Touring, and even though it really helped to put the ‘B’ in BTCC, the circuit was never going to continue to make the grade, and even today it still falls short of having what’s needed to host a round of the championship.

MONDELLO PARK

First Race: 2001

Number of Rounds Held: 6

The only ‘foreign’ round that the BTCC has appeared at. In the aftermath of Super Touring going South this totally new addition to the schedule certainly turned heads and pepped interest. Mondello became a bit of a fan favourite, with a holiday feel emanating through all the paddock. The circuit is brought up as a regular proposition from fans when the ‘where next?’ question comes up. When asking team owners about the race now the words ‘too expensive’ still comes to the fore. If the BTCC grows in popularity again, and if the finances are healthy it seems like the obvious ‘off the beaten’ to go to.

ROCKINGHAM

First Race: 2003

Number of Rounds Held: 13

The last new track to be added to the BTCC calendar, Rockingham appeared in 2003, went AWOL, and came back for an unbroken run from 2007 until the place was shut down as a racing venue in 2018. The advantage that the circuit had over others was the fact that the main grandstand gave a view of the whole track, and when the rain came kept you dry, if you were sitting at the back! Rumours resurface every now and again to say that it could come back, and if it did it would be a welcome re-addition – although those based outside the oval in the support race section might not agree. If you think the Brands tunnel and paddock is a pain in the……