BTCC battle set to begin at Donington Park

It’s a case of quality over quantity in the British Touring Car Championship this year as a stellar line up of champions, race winners and podium finishers get ready to kick-start the 2024 season at Donington Park this weekend.

Following the departures of One Motorsport and Team HARD over the winter, a reduced 20-car field has been confirmed for the new season and it has all the hallmarks of being one of the most competitive campaigns in recent years.

Ash Sutton tops the billing with the coveted number one adorning his NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST. After a history-making campaign last year, Sutton is now looking to become the first five-time champion in the series’ history – and he’s set to go head-to-head for that particular accolade with Colin Turkington.

Fellow former champion Tom Ingram and perennial contender Jake Hill will both be worth keeping an eye on however as they look to stake their own claims for the big prize.

While last year’s top four have opted for the familiar surroundings of the teams that have brought them success in recent years, Speedworks Motorsport have gone down a completely different route by announcing an all-new four-car entry.

World Champion Rob Huff makes a triumphant return to the UK’s premier motorsport series on a full-time basis and he’s joined at TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK by the 2023 Jack Sears Trophy winner Andrew Watson.

On the other side of the Toyota garage – running under the LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ banner – is Josh Cook and Aiden Moffat.

Consistency is a theme throughout a lot of the remaining entrants though with Dan Cammish, Dan Rowbottom and Sam Osborne once again teaming up with Sutton in the NAPA Fords.

There’s a familiar feel to EXCELR8 as well with Ingram being joined by Tom Chilton, Ronan Pearson and Nick Halstead. Over at West Surrey Racing, Adam Morgan fills the remaining BMW 330e M Sport.

The other unchanged line-up – and tipped by many as being the favourites in the Independents’ Championship – is Power Maxed Racing, where Aron Taylor-Smith and Mikey Doble will pilot a pair of Vauxhall Astras.

Two new squads, both of which are running Cupra Leons, have joined the grid too. Restart Racing will field two cars for series returnee Chris Smiley and debutant Scott Sumpton, whilst Daryl Deleon will contest the forthcoming campaign with Unlimited Motorsport.

This weekend will also see a raft of new regulations be introduced, including double the amount of hybrid power being available to the grid on a sliding scale, virtue of a drivers success.

Saturday afternoon will also see a format for qualifying with the debut of the Quick Six. Running across three phases, Q1 will see the grid split in half depending on where a driver finished in second practice, with the top six from the two Q1 sessions going through to Q2. From there, the top six will again progress into Q3 to fight for pole position.

The final alteration that has been made for 2024 season is that on race weekends – other than this weekend and at Thruxton – where the option tyre is in play, the top ten from race one will run the hardest compound available to them for race two.

With an ultra-competitive grid all poised to go wheel-to-wheel, the battle for supremacy promises to be as captivating as ever in the BTCC this year.