BTCC 2011 Rumours

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Originally Posted by jackmarsh

Another Lacetti for Chris James!!

Big old grid!!

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Big Indeed, here's how i've got it so far

SPECIAL TUNING UK - SEAT LEON: Tom Boardman, ???, ???, ??? (Carl Breeze rumoured to have one of the drives)
MOTORBASE PERFORMANCE - FORD FOCUS ST: Mat Jackson, Liam Griffin, ???
CHEVROLET - CHEVROLET CRUZE: Jason Plato, Alex MacDowall (Not confirmed yet but it is sort of expected)
TEAM DYNAMICS - HONDA CIVIC TYPE R: Matt Neal, Gordon Shedden
ARENA MOTORSPORT - FORD FOCUS ST: Tom Chilton, ???
TEAM EUROTECH - VAUXHALL VECTRA: Andrew Jordan, Jeff Smith
ROB AUSTIN RACING - AUDI A4: ???, ???
BAMBOO ENGINEERING - CHEVROLET LACETTI: Harry Vaulkhard, ???
TRIPLE 8 ENGINEERING - VAUXHALL VECTRA: James Nash, Tony Gilham
WEST SURREY RACING - BMW 320si: Rob Collard, Nick Foster
GEOFF STEEL RACING - BMW 320si: ???, ???
AmD MILLTEK - VOLKSWAGEN GOLF: Shaun Hollamby
TEAM DYNOJET - TOYOTA AVENSIS: Frank Wrathall
SPEEDWORKS MOTORSPORT - TOYOTA AVENSIS: Tony Hughes
WELCH MOTORSPORT - PROTON GEN-2: Daniel Welch
TEAM WOOD - HONDA INTEGRA: Lea Wood
TEAM ES RACING - CHEVROLET LACETTI: Chris James

Now I make that a potentially staggering 31, yes THIRTY ONE cars, the biggest potential BTCC entry in over 20 years (With the likes of Techspeed still to announce their plans). What makes me even happier is the amount of teams intending to field multiple car entries.

At this rate, DNQ's might have to make a return with a danger of the championship becoming over-subscribed

Does that bring into question the size of pits at any of the race tracks?

31 cars - surely there are some tracks that cannot facilitate that amount?

I would also say there is a 3rd AON car on the way, but also not sure whether 4 SEATS will get out?

There's a lot of S2000 equipment being used this year, as it is ofcourse its final year in use in the UK so everyone is making the most of it, probably bought for cheap prices. I suspect if we do see four Seats, if one gets wrecked beyond repair we wont see a replacement, it would be pointless with the formula being phased out.

It's not the final year of S2000, that isn't until at least 2013.

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Originally Posted by Alfa Fan

It's not the final year of S2000, that isn't until at least 2013.

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Ah, silly me, I've just checked the interweb and you're right. Goodness knows why I thought otherwise (insert facepalm here maybe? :) )

In this weeks Autosport (a little snippet on page 23), Tom Boardman said that even though Special Tuning have 4 SEAT Leon's, they are likely to run just 2 of them

The new Arena Focus has broken cover:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89671

I find it surprising that they've decided to go down the S2000 route though. Perhaps to increase the resaleability of the car? Or is it a Ford-driven thing that its built to the outgoing regulations in the BTCC?

It's been known it would be S2000 for months. It's not really that new a car is why its S2000.

I keep hearing that Chris James' Chevy Lacetti, is an ex-Scandinavian car and not one of RML origin. Does anyone know what this means? (cos I thought all S2000 Lacetti's were built by RML) and what is the difference?

All the S2000 Lacettis are built by RML, I think the article simply means it is not one of the three Lacettis that RML ran in the BTCC in 2009.