As you may have read in one of my previous blogs, many years ago as a child we as a family followed the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC).

This was the era of John Cleland, Will Hoy, Tim Harvey and Steve Soper. Also back then in their younger days were Jason Plato and Matt Neal, who are still in it today.

This was when BTCC was very exciting, near enough every manufacturer was in it to win and it was very, very close racing between all the brands. No one driver ran away with the points.

The final race of the season in 1992 at Silverstone was one of the best races I have ever seen, anyone of 3 drivers could still take the Championship. Tim Harvey, in his Listerine BMW 3 Series, the late Will Hoy in the Omega Securicor Express Toyota Carina and John Cleland in the Vauxhall Sport Cavalier.

It was exciting and heart breaking in so many ways. The race started and Hoy took the early lead of the trio and looked comfortable until Harvey caught him and you could see on the replay deliberately put Hoy off the track! Penultimate lap and Harvey was in front of Cleland, but Cleland would still take the title on points. This was until Soper (Harvey’s team mate) appeared behind him in his battered BMW that looked more like a Compact 3 Series than a Coupe due to an earlier incident he had been in that had put him to the back of the field, leaving him to make a remarkable fight back. Turning into Luffield, Soper made the biggest lunge up the inside of Cleland after Cleland had leaned on Soper on the previous corner, resulting in them spinning off across the track leaving Harvey to take the Championship controversially. Racing is racing though and this is what the BTCC is all about.

This race was so close and exciting it was untrue, the last three laps are well worth watching:

What I’m getting at is that all the manufacturers were in this series. It was a cheap day out to spectate, plenty of support races, lots of manufacturer stands showing off the latest road cars, and loads of memorabilia stalls to purchase hats, coats, umbrellas, stickers and badges etc.

The crowds at these events were huge; booked seats in the grandstands were a must. You could go on the Pit Lane Walkabout and get to talk to the drivers and get their autographs too.

After about 2000, the BTCC started to fade off. More and more manufacturers pulled out and at one stage only 3 were left in it. The rest of the field were made up of independents. Don’t get me wrong the racing was still exciting, but it lost its shine.

Last year after years not really following it on TV anymore I saw a race on ITV4 and thought to myself ‘it’s getting back how it used to be,’ so I was lucky enough to be treated to a day at Silverstone courtesy of RacingLine (yes that was a plug!) and have to say what a day!

The sun was shining and it was t-shirt weather, which is not normally the case at an old airfield circuit in England. We easily found a seat in the grandstand at turn 1 for the first race of 3. A nice grass embankment to watch race 2, then back in a grandstand overlooking the final complex of the lap for race 3. The racing was fantastic, all the usual nudging and scraping  that the BTCC is renowned for.

Of course there were all the support races such as the Porsche Cup, Ginettas and the fearless Junior Ginettas, as well as the awesomely close cut Renault Clio Cup. To be fair, I didn’t get to see much of the support races, as we were being whisked around the pits and hospitality by our host from RacingLine (yes another plug).

Looking online now and ticket prices are around £25, which for a full day out isn’t bad at all and you get to see probably the closest racing the world has to offer!

One tip though, if you’re a bit short of money take a sandwich as for 2 hamburgers, a portion of chips and a bottle of Coke from a glorified ice cream van, I didn’t see any change from a £20 note!

So has the BTCC got its shine back? The racing was superb, not stupidly busy (yet) and good value for money. There wasn’t the same amount of memorabilia or manufacturers’ stands as years past but pretty sure that will grow.

So, yes the BTCC is back – go to a race this year – I certainly will!

Last but not least – thank you to RacingLine. 🙂