1985

A double header at Donington and Silverstone (supporting the British Grand Prix) kicked off in the usual fashion – with Sierra driver Andy Rouse once again dominating proceedings in Leicestershire. The two-time defending champion went for a walk in the park to take a fourth win on the trot. Dave Brodie in the Mitsubishi Colt placed second with Graham Goode in the Nissan Bluebird coming third, with a class B win. Rouse took the honours over the F1 weekend – again from Brodie. Overall championship challenger Graham Goode was disqualified for having three valves from his four-pot not meeting requirements. ETC racer Klaus Niedzwiedz took third ahead of Neil McGrath.

1995

Silverstone

A single race on the Formula One support package – where future BTCC driver Johnny Herbert would take the win, partially thanks to former BTCC racer Damon Hill wiping out former DTM driver Michael Schumacher – would see John Cleland take a fourth win in a row and extend his championship lead from 28 points to 52. In full wet conditions Cleland headed to the grid on pole for a third round in a row, but the rain had stopped. Once the lights changed to start the lack of water in the air was rectified as the water from the track left everyone blind across the first few laps, but the track did begin to become less wet as the Vauxhall skipped off down the road. Tyre temps and misting would influence the result with Will Hoy struggling to see out of his car on a run to second ahead of Paul Radisich wearing his wets as the water dissipated. The main rivals for Cleland – Alain Menu and Rickard Rydell finished outside of the points with limited view in their heated cockpits with steaming on a higher level than that suffered by Hoy.

Knockhill

So it was that Cleland headed home to Knockhill with four wins in a row on the board, and just wasn’t competitive. Rydell and Menu were determined that Cleland would not grow his lead on home turf, and they obliged that promise with a win each. Rydell grabbed pole for both races at a sunny Knockhill. Menu led the opener but gearbox problems forced a retirement and Rydell ran to the flag with teammate Tim Harvey playing rear gunner, with Burt filling the podium ahead of the BMW Jonny Cecotto and Cleland in fifth. Menu took a win by three seconds in race two from Rydell and Harvey with David Brabham scoring another haul of points for BMW. James Kaye took fifth with Cleland scoring sixth which meant his lead in the championship was cut by 14 points. The meeting also saw the full time return of Gabriele Tarquini with Alfa Romeo a year after ‘that’ roll at the circuit in his title winning season.

ITC/DTM Donington Park

Two weeks after John Cleland had doubled up at Donington Park in June, the feat was repeated, but this time by a visitor. The International Touring Car component of the DTM landed in the East Midlands. It was a turning point in the season for the D2-AMG works Mercedes outfit. Team leader Bernd Schnieder won both races with teammate Dario Franchitti following him home. In roasting hot conditions the C-Class was a step ahead of the rest of the field, which was confirmed by Kurt Thim and Jorg van Ommen also bringing the second tire works outfit and the Zakspeed versions home in third in the two races. Future F1 racer Giancarlo Fisichella was the highest placed non-Merc with a fifth place for Alfa in the second event.

2005

Tech-Speed, who had been attempting to put a deal together with Paul O’Neil prior to the season starting eventually joined the grid at Croft. Fiona Leggate would drive the 2004 Championship winning Astra that had been campaigned by James Thompson. With funding from the Government as part of their Motorsport Development UK body, the car had been converted to run on Bio-Ethanol. Before the Croft round the cars moved 45 miles North to put on a display on the Quayside at Newcastle as a promotional stunt, one of a few City/Town centre visits to promote the series. Colin Turkington, now known as a Croft Specialist, took pole and a win from race one in his VX Astra, ahead of teammate Yvan Muller. Honda racer Matt Neal in the Honda and Jason Plato in the Seat followed him home. Muller cleared Turkington at the second start with Neal chasing and Plato fourth. The rivals clashed exiting the hairpin with Neal having to reset the car and get going again to run to sixth. Plato wasn’t done with the physical stuff. Pushing and shoving with Turkington down the straight and through turn one and two immediately turned into a side-by-side with Dan Eaves through the chicane, with both going off and having to recover. It was an easy win for Muller. Eaves would win race three from pole, while Neal would take second and Plato would take third, to not be popular on the podium after hitting both Hondas in the previous race. The discussion about driving standards was just beginning, as the three would make contact again next time out.

The news over the Mondello Park weekend was around the sentencing of Vic Lee. The former BTCC boss was given 12 years for being one of a number of men found in possession of cocaine, he was found guilty of drug trafficking charges. It was a repeat offence, as Lee had already been sentenced to 12 years for a similar offence in 1993, which had famously involved his BTCC team testing in Holland, and his car returning with extra ‘ballast.’ The racing could have been a backseat event, but the 1.5 million fans who tuned in for the final race got to see one of the bigger grids of the year (16 cars) get into a bit of a smashfest. Yvan Muller walked the opener in the VX Astra. Jason Plato (Seat) and Matt Neal (Honda) managed to drop Colin Turkington (Vauxhall) from second to fill the podium. Turkington would take race two, but it wasn’t a walk in the park. Muller and Plato, in drying conditions, hit the pits before the start to switch tyres, which would result in a 30 second penalty each. Turkington (wet rears, slick fronts) biffed into Rob Collard (WSR MG) at the start but gathered things up, only to see Tom Chilton (Arena Honda) breeze by on wets, which he had to pit to change to slicks after four laps. Dan Eaves and Matt Neal (Both in Dynamics cars) finished second and third. The final race was won by Muller, with Chilton second and Collard third. Plato hit Collard, Collard hit Plato. James Pickford (Seat) then made contact. Plato went int the back of Eaves after the Honda driver braked early, then he and Neal hit one another. Plato came away more upset over the two points on his licence more than championship points lost.

2015 The mid-season break meant in 2015 there was no racing in June, but Colin Turkington in the VW CC topped the Snetterton test ahead of Andrew Jordan and Jason Plato.