BTCC half-term report: Too close to call

There may be the usual familiar names at the sharp end of the 2015 British Touring Car Championship table, but this season has been anything but predictable. New rules, new front running teams and new cars are all featuring in the title battle, which is shaping up to be one of the tightest for many years.

First, the statistics: Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden leads Team BMR’s Jason Plato by 195 points to 185 – a fair reflection of the first 15 races where both have been at the top of their game. But looking further back, Matt Neal, Sam Tordoff, Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan are all within 40 points of the summit.

The gap from first to sixth is 39 points, while at the same stage last year it was 90 points, and Shedden has 33 points fewer than eventual champion Turkington had at this point in 2014.

So a classic season, you may think? Well, perhaps not yet. There is the potential for 2015 to be a vintage year, but there is also the sense that it’s not quite got off the ground in some ways. The maturity of the NGTC rule set means there is little to choose between any of the cars at this stage of their development; and as a result some races have been unusually processional. A sign of progress perhaps, just not one we are that used to.

At the other end of the scale, we saw either the very best or very worst of the BTCC at Donington Park, depending on your viewpoint. The third race is one we can look back on now as a very entertaining race, but live it was watched through our fingers and with our breath held as driving standards deteriorated throughout.

The drivers have also had new rules to contend with, again with mixed results. The new qualifying format for the second race has provided an interesting strategic element to race one, with plenty of mixed up grids the result. And while this rule has delivered on the entertainment front, the combination of the existing soft tyre and the increased ballast weights have prompted calls of ‘one variable too far’ from some drivers.

Double champion Plato is the most vocal of these, and while some fans still criticise him for perceived ‘moaning’, they continue to miss the point. Plato is an advocate of the show and the series; he has shown increasingly in recent years that he has the spectacle in mind as well as his own interests, and the series bosses will undoubtedly take note. Dunlop is already testing a new harder tyre for next year, and changes on that front wouldn’t surprise anyone.

Title fighting…

Shedden leads the standings in a brand new Civic Type-R, no small achievement given how late the car was. The 2012 champion has been the model of consistency, racking up top five finish after top five finish to lead Plato by 10 points.

For their parts, Plato and new team-mate Turkington have turned the relatively new Volkswagen CC into a consistent front-runner, with Plato’s years of front-wheel drive expertise counting for plenty against the Northern Irishman, who is in his first full season in an FWD car since 2006.

Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal has found his mojo again after a trying 2014 and is right in the mix, as is West Surrey Racing’s Sam Tordoff, whose impressive performances at Oulton Park and Croft have catapulted him up the standings. While those drives were on BMW-friendly circuits, Tordoff’s form is impressive nonetheless. The extent of his title shot will be much clearer after the next two rounds.

Triple Eight Racing’s Andrew Jordan is also in contention, but the MG6 doesn’t appear to be the potent weapon it once was. Jordan hasn’t had the outright pace to challenge for wins at any circuit, and if anything his struggles show how much the others have moved on – and what a good job Plato did in 2014.

Brand new faces and old new faces…

Triple world champion Andy Priaulx is certainly not a new face to touring car fans, but in his own words his return to the BTCC put his reputation on the line. And he’s undoubtedly delivered, taking pole at the season opener at Brands Hatch and five podiums, including his first win at Croft last time out. While this may have been expected by some, it’s worth pointing out that equally illustrious names such as Fabrizio Giovanardi and Alain Menu struggled to get to grips with modern BTCC machinery on their return last year, and Priaulx has had no such issues.

Choosing a top rookie is the easiest call of all. Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook is fast and unflappable, and has been hugely impressive.

The Clio Cup runner-up may be softly spoken, but don’t mistake that for a lack of confidence. In a new team, new car and new series, Cook comes across as completely unfazed by what he finds around him, not to mention unimpressed with some of the driving standards he’s come across. His hefty accident at Croft may have left him with his tail between his legs, but he led the third race at Donington Park with the authority of someone who had been in the BTCC for a lot longer than one round.

AmD Tuning’s Mike Bushell beat Cook to the Clio championship last year, but his maiden season in the BTCC has been beset with bad luck. A nasty accident at Thruxton left Bushell with some painful injuries to go with his dented bank balance, and he will be hoping for a clean second half of the season to help establish himself in the series.

Not all plain sailing…

The BTCC is a notoriously unforgiving beast, and that’s been very evident in 2015. The entry of Infiniti as a manufacturer, with injured former paratroopers working on their Q50 racecars was a very interesting proposition and an excellent human interest story. But it quickly unravelled, with the Japanese manufacturer unhappy at the sight of their premium brand running at the tail of the BTCC field. They pulled the plug after Thruxton, leaving the team to continue in their absence, still with limited experience of a car which was finished very late. With almost every element of the team learning the ropes in the championship, progress has been steady if unspectacular, and the opportunity of further running was missed at the Dunlop tyre test. Drivers Derek Palmer Jr and Max Coates are certainly no mugs, and with a little extra progress on the car, they could be regularly troubling the points positions in the second half of the year.

Elsewhere, Welch Motorsport have endured another trying year with their self-built Proton engine. With so many teams opting to run the stock TOCA engine, Dan Welch and dad John were rightly lauded for going their own way and adding variety to the championship. Welch has managed a points finish in 2015 at least, but Andy Wilmot has called time on his drive due to the reliability issues he has faced. The Proton Gen-2 has been a top 10 car in the hands of Welch in the past, but this appears a way off at present.

Infiniti and Welch Motorsport may just be two examples, but there is the sense with a mature NGTC rule set, the chances of a giant-killing performance being sprung from the back end of the grid are much lower in 2015.

Looking ahead…

The series is balanced on a knife-edge ahead of the second half of the season, which starts at Snetterton next month. Aside from the top six contenders, we’ve got the likes of Adam Morgan and Tom Ingram as established establishment-botherers, not to mention the likes of Aron Smith, Rob Collard, Rob Austin, Jack Goff and Dave Newsham, who will all feature at the front at some stage.

And returning to the fray are Motorbase Performance, making a welcome bow in 2015 with their new Ford EcoBoost engine, and a driver in Mat Jackson who was one of the most prolific points-baggers in the whole of the final half of 2014.

Calling a favourite is just as hard now as it was at the start. So we won’t try. We’ll just be sitting back and enjoying another tense title run-in with the rest of you. Let battle commence in Norfolk!