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Revised tyre rules amongst minor 2020 changes

A change to the existing tyre rules are amongst a series of minor changes that will be introduced for the 2020 British Touring Car Championship season.

The rules for recent seasons have seen drivers forced to nominate what tyre they will use for each of the three races prior to qualifying, locking-in their strategy for race day.

However, under the revised change for 2020, drivers will instead be free to choose which Goodyear tyre they will run over the course of race day, providing the opportunity to adapt strategy depending on the outcome of qualifying.

Snetterton will once again see drivers using all three compound of tyre after a successful trial this season, with the same rules also being put in place at Croft after the North Yorkshire circuit was resurfaced earlier this season – with the two circuits being suitable to run the hard, medium and soft compound rubber.

Success ballast will be tweaked, with the maximum ballast rising to 60kg and then dropping off in 6kg increments down to tenth place, whilst there will also be a new two-part qualifying format trialled at Snetterton.

The session will see all 30 drivers hit the track for 25 minutes of running before the top ten drivers go through to a ten minute shootout to determine who will start on pole position.

“Clearly, the regulations for the BTCC work tremendously well,” series chief executive Alan Gow said. “That’s self-evident from the fantastically close racing and championship battles, but we’re always looking at ways in which they can be improved, so whilst these are fairly minor tweaks, they will certainly add some interesting new elements to next season’s championship.”