BTCC announces capacity grid for 2016 season

The British Touring Car Championship has announced a capacity grid of 32 cars for the 2016 season at the official media launch at Donington Park this morning.

In keeping with recent years the vast majority of the line-up has been known for several weeks, with only a handful of surprises kept until media day.

The first of those is a new outfit, Team BKR, which joins with two former Team BMR Volkswagen CCs for Aron Smith and Renault Clio Cup masters driver Mark Howard. The team had planned to enter the inaugural year of the B-TEC Development Series before this was postponed earlier this month.

Also announced this morning is that Kelvin Fletcher, better known to many as Andy Sugden in British TV soap Emmerdale, will drive the second Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet Cruze. The 32-year-old competed in a partial season of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB in 2014, and also took part in the Porsche Supercup race supporting the British Grand Prix in the same year.

The biggest headline of the winter was the announcement that Subaru would be joining the championship with four works Levorgs for Jason Plato, Colin Turkington, team boss Warren Scott and newcomer James Cole. The factory Honda team will defend their titles with a new colour scheme and a return to Halfords backing, with champion Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal joined in a third Civic Type-R by Andy Neate.

In the third of the works teams it is all change at Triple Eight Racing, with Josh Cook back in the series for a second year alongside a new face, Clio Cup champion Ashley Sutton in a pair of MG6 GTs.

Elsewhere, Jack Goff replaces the outgoing Andy Priaulx in an otherwise unchanged West Surrey Racing line-up, with his 2015 team-mate Andrew Jordan joining Motorbase Performance alongside Mat Jackson.

The aforementioned Howard, Sutton and Fletcher make up a list of six series debutants, with former Mini champion Chris Smiley and VW Cup front runner Michael Epps joining Jake Hill in an expanded line-up at Tony Gilham Racing, and former hot rod and Quaife Intermarque champion Matt Simpson in a Honda Civic Type-R at Speedworks Motorsport.

Hill is one of two series returnees as he prepares for a first full season in the championship, with Ollie Jackson rejoining AmD Tuning after a year in the Ginetta Supercup.

In other changes, Hunter Abbott has moved to Power Maxed Racing and Stewart Lines is swapping a Toyota Avensis for a Ford Focus ST, a car which will be run by his own Maximum Motorsport team. And finally, Dan Welch returns to using a Swindon engine in his Proton Gen-2 after two seasons battling issues with their self-built Mitsubishi unit.

The series bids farewell to a familiar face in Dave Newsham, who has switched to British Rallycross, while Rob Austin Racing, Support Our Paras Racing and JWT Performance head up the departures on the teams front.

British Touring Car Championship Entry List

No – Driver – Team – Car – Engine
52 – Gordon Shedden – Team Dynamics – Honda Civic Type-R – Neil Brown/Honda
25 – Matt Neal – Team Dynamics – Honda Civic Type-R – Neil Brown/Honda
57 – Andy Neate – Team Dynamics – Honda Civic Type-R – Neil Brown/Honda
99 – Jason Plato – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg – Mountune/Subaru
4 – Colin Turkington – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg – Mountune/Subaru
39 – Warren Scott – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg – Mountune/Subaru
20 – James Cole – Team BMR – Subaru Levorg – Mountune/Subaru
66 – Josh Cook – Triple Eight Racing – MG MG6 GT – Swindon/TOCA
116 – Ashley Sutton – Triple Eight Racing – MG MG6 GT – Swindon/TOCA
100 – Rob Collard – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M-Sport – Neil Brown/BMW
31 – Jack Goff – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M-Sport – Neil Brown/BMW
600 – Sam Tordoff – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M-Sport – Neil Brown/BMW
33 – Adam Morgan – Ciceley Racing – Mercedes A-Class – Swindon/TOCA
16 – Aiden Moffat – Aiden Moffat Racing – Mercedes A-Class – Swindon/TOCA
7 – Mat Jackson – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST – Mountune/Ford EcoBoost
77 – Andrew Jordan – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST – Mountune/Ford EcoBoost
54 – Hunter Abbott – Power Maxed Racing – Chevrolet Cruze – Swindon/TOCA
84 – Kelvin Fletcher – Power Maxed Racing – Chevrolet Cruze – Swindon/TOCA
80 – Tom Ingram – Speedworks Motorsport – Toyota Avensis – Swindon/TOCA
303 – Matt Simpson – Speedworks Motorsport – Honda Civic Type-R – Swindon/TOCA
30 – Martin Depper – Eurotech Racing – Honda Civic Type-R – Swindon/TOCA
55 – Jeff Smith – Eurotech Racing – Honda Civic Type-R – Swindon/TOCA
12 – Michael Epps – Team HARD – Toyota Avensis – Swindon/TOCA
48 – Ollie Jackson – AmD Tuning – Audi S3 – Swindon/TOCA
14 – Alex Martin – Dextra Racing – Ford Focus ST – Mountune/Ford EcoBoost
11 – Rob Austin – Handy Motorsport – Toyota Avensis – Swindon/TOCA
22 – Chris Smiley – Team HARD – Toyota Avensis – Swindon/TOCA
24 – Jake Hill – Team HARD – Toyota Avensis – Swindon/TOCA
17 – Dan Welch – Welch Motorsport – Proton Gen-2 – Swindon/TOCA
95 – Stewart Lines – Maximum Motorsport – Ford Focus ST – Mountune/Ford EcoBoost
40 – Aron Smith – Team BKR – Volkswagen CC – Swindon/TOCA
38 – Mark Howard – Team BKR – Volkswagen CC – Swindon/TOCA