Welcome to a new feature on the Touring Car Magazine website – This month in BTCC history will take you back 10, 20, 30 and 40 years to recount what was happening in the 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015 seasons.
The 1985 season kicked off at the end of March before an April Easter weekend where the Championship (then known as the British Saloon Car Championship) raced on Good Friday at Oulton Park, and Easter Monday at Thruxton. In 1985 the super Tourers raced at Brands Hatch and Donington. In 2005, even the championship kicked off at Donington, and a decade ago Brands and Donington kicked off a year where the championship battle would be decided by a four pint margin.
March 24th 1985 – Silverstone
The 1985 British Saloon Car Championship began with Andy Rouse aiming to win a third title in a row. After taking the crown in 1983 in an Alfa and 1984 in a Rover, he was due to start the year in an Austin Metro. That was only for the opening round as he waited for the new Ford Sierra to be homologated before the second meeting of the season, Rouse skipped the round, but it wouldn’t hit his year too hard. Public interest in the championship was at an all time high as former double motorcycle World Champion Barry Sheene was entered in a Toyota, and the two-wheel legend wasn’t just there to make up the numbers after a serious pre-season testing schedule.
Frank Sytner took the first round in his recently purchased two-year-old BMW 635 CSi after battling the Rover Vitesse of Neil McGrath in the opening laps before pulling away in damp conditions. Pete Hall, also in a Vitesse filled out the podium ahead of B Class winner Graham Goode with Sheene finishing fifth. Steve Soper made an appearance in a Metro, but was out within a couple of laps in his only race in the series for the year.
A major talking point in the early part of the season was a to-and-fro debate in Parliament over a proposed street race in Birmingham purely for Saloon Car racing with Birmingham council in favour, the majority of the MPs representing the city against, along with the RAC and the Governing body. Overwhelming public support would help in the motion being passed for the following season.
April 2nd 1995 – Donington Park
The growing attraction and influence of the British Touring Car Championship as a mobile sales pitch was evident in 1995. Ex-F1 drivers, encouraged by the success of Gabriele Tarquini were jumping onboard, with Derek Warwick hopping into the seat of the reigning champion at Alfa Romeo and BMW placing David Brabham and Johnny Cecotto in their 320i pairing. Although Nissan (temporarily) and Mazda had stepped aside, Honda had arrived, and the series was awash with the most politically powerful showroom machines available in Europe. At the start of the season though it didn’t make for exciting racing. Wings and aerodynamics – brought in by Alfa in 1994 – were the initial suspect as all the cars sprouted the associated appendages. The fans, and much of the media, hailed the opening Donington round as a failure. It wasn’t as bad as portrayed, however. From pole Rickard Rydell bogged down the Volvo (a saloon for 1995 after the boxback adventures of 1994) allowing John Cleland to get his Vauxhall Cavalier up to the lead. The top few places were essentially Alain Menu in the Renault second, and Paul Radisich in the Mondeo third after the Volvo slumped. Behind the leaders there was some action as James Thompson (Vauxhall) made some tasty moves to climb back to his starting position of seventh, and Will Hoy also made some late manoeuvres to come up to sixth from his 11th placed start. Rydell made a blinder of a getaway second time out to win by seven seconds. Despite Radisich and Menu being in the mix early on, and Thompson passing Cleland, the Scottish Vauxhall man went on the attack with Tim Harvey in the second Volvo in tow. The pair fought through to second and third with no chance of catching Rydell, who was taking it easy as he strolled to the win.
April 5th 2015 – Brands Hatch
Ballast was increased to 75kg for the winner/championship leader, race two grids were to be set by fastest lap times in race one and there were restrictions on soft tyres as the BTCC kicked off the 2015 season. Andy Priaulx scored his second BTCC pole position in a row – mind you there had been a European Touring Car and three World Touring Car titles in the 13 years between them. The Guernsey racer made an impact on his BTCC return, but it was WSR teammate Rob Collard who took the first win of the year in the BMW 125. Tyre troubles allowed Collard past Priaulx before the returnee dropped down the order letting Árón Smith, Jason Plato, Jack Goff, Colin Turkington, Gordon Shedden, Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal through. Plato in the BMR VW CC led Priaulx early in race two but a puncture fired him out of the race. Shedden picked up the win in a car that hadn’t even existed four weeks earlier – the new Dynamics Honda barely turned a wheel pre-season. Rob Austin drew himself on pole for race three, and retained it after it was redrawn, having admitted he spotted his number – he initially led the reverse grid race in his Audi, but Neal worked his way through to lead Goff (MG) and Smith (VW) across the line. Neal and Goff were at the top of the table on 37 points with Smith on 36. In the support categories now familiar names were successful. The new F4 equivalent MSA Formula races saw Ricky Collard mimic Dad Rob with a win, but a certain Lando Norris took the other two with Billy Monger claiming a Ginetta Jr win. Topping the podium in Porsches was Dan Cammish while Ash Hand beat Ash Sutton in the single Clio race.
April 5th and April 8th 1985 – Oulton Park and Thruxton
The Easter Weekend would see the championship race at Oulton Park on Good Friday and Thruxton on Easter Monday. Sheene claimed pole at Oulton with Sytner alongside. Both were out early in the race. It wouldn’t have mattered for the win anyway. After a careful qualifying Rouse, from sixth on the grid, walked to an easy victory of 14 seconds over McGrath and Goode. The Sierra was looking potent, despite not having much running.
Dave Brodie dominated Thruxton three days after the Oulton race. Pole was taken by a huge margin of three seconds by the Mitsubishi Colt Starion racer. He was simply untouchable. Behind him Sheene and McGrath battled all race long with the Rover driver pipping the bike racer by two tenths of a second at the line.
April 10th 2005 – Donington Park
Fuji, not the racetrack, but the camera company were introduced into every car on the grid for 2005. Onboard cameras for the Clerk of the Course were now in every machine to gather extra evidence if the shenanigans of 2004 were to be repeated. It wouldn’t be a large amount of work early on, with only 12 cars turning up for the season opener. There were lots of rumours. Paul O’Neil in a Tech-Speed Astra did not happen, and the Arena Honda team had to pause their entry with the ex-Dynamics Honda Civics – Alan Morrison couldn’t get the budget to race his car, and Tom Chilton had been confirmed to race the new MG in the DTM (which never happened after the company collapsed,) but it still turned out to be a competitive year. The works Seat team would struggle early on with their S2000 Leon, but both VX Racing with their Astra and Dynamics with their Honda were onboard for the BTC-T machines. Yvan Muller in his Astra grabbed the lead in the first race of the year from the start, away from teammate Colin Turkington, but it didn’t take long for the Honda of Matt Neal to move into second. Dan Eaves in the second Honda would finish third chasing the lead battle. Neal closed down Muller and took the lead at the end of the race at McLeans. For the second race Muller again got away from the line first, this time with the WSR MG of Rob Collard latching onto his tail and Neal joining the party. Neal took Collard at the Old Hairpin for second, before Collard snatched the place back after a battle from Redgate to the Old Hairpin. The lead trio circulated in tandem to the flag. Neal had more success in the third race with a second win from the fourth row on the grid, Eaves came second with Muller third. It was a portent of things to come with Muller and Neal.
April 17th 1995 – Brands Hatch
It was damp. John Cleland launched his Vauxhall past the Volvo of Rickard Rydell at the start of the first race at Brands Hatch. It was for nothing as an early red flag caused a full grid restart. He repeated the feat at the second asking on his intermediate tyres, flying past Rydell, before the wet shod Volvo, and that of teammate Tim Harvey, dived inside as the Vauxhall ran wide for the top two positions. For Cleland the tyre choice would be part of his undoing as the surface became wetter, and he found himself heading towards the Paddock Hill barriers, and being stuck in the gravel trap, allowing BMW man David Brabham (also on wets) into third. Rydell didn’t scamper away to win like he did in the second Donington race though. Harvey managed to slip past a slipping and sliding Rydell, who headed to the pits with a severely steamed up windscreen – allowing Harvey to control the pace to the flag. Ford Mondeos were everywhere behind. Paul Radisich – having been run wide early on, climbed from 16th to second, just ahead of teammate Kelvin Burt. The wet shod machines made mincemeat of Brabham’s similarly booted BMW that came fourth. Future BTCC commentator Charlie Cox had his day of days in his wet privateer Mondeo. Having climbed to fifth he spun in the wet down the order, before cutting through the pack back to regain fifth by the flag. Harvey doubled up in race two, but again a red flag from the initial start was called. For Harvey this was a saving grace, a changed starter motor in the pits had him starting from the pitlane, now instead he was sixth. Cleland, who repeated his start antics from race one in the race two start first attempt again flew off the line at the fourth go of the day. A bit of rubbing with Rydell had him once again in the gravel, with Harvey slipping into a lead he wouldn’t lose. Thompson followed him through, and he and Rydell completed the podium. Cleland got back on track, but a lap later was revisiting the same Paddock Hill gravel bed for the rest of the encounter.
April 19th – 2015 Donington Park
The second round of the season at Donington Park finished off with a queue outside of the steward’s office as a few contentious moments necessitated some investigation and explanation. BMR VW racer Colin Turkington started race one from pole but got a tap in the rear from teammate Jason Plato into turn one. Plato would squeeze into the lead at Coppice and lead to the flag. Gordon Shedden came through a lap later, with the trio standing on the podium. From pole Shedden let Turkington slip into the lead at the start of race two, the defending champion was away with the win, but behind him Shedden slipped down the order on soft tyres that were not working. Matt Neal worked his way from seventh to catch Andrew Jordan and Adam Morgan, passing the pair for second when they were rubbing one another, leaving Neal second ahead of Jordan by the flag. Neal then took the third race ahead of Jordan and Shedden, with everybody seemingly hitting everybody and the results being held as provisional with the confirmation of any penalties waiting until the following round at Thruxton. Youngsters Josh Cook and Aiden Moffat impressed with solid top 10 finishes. In the support races Senna Proctor in Ginetta Jr, Tom Oliphant in Ginetta GT4 and Ash Sutton and Ash Hand in Clios topped their respective podiums.
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