1986/87 BTCC - Group N proposal

[racer69]

Received a few Autosports from the 1986/87 period over the last week and noticed an article from early 1986 indicating that a plan for the 1986 BTCC to include Group N cars alongside Group A cars had been shelved, as had the plan for the 1987 BTCC in which Group N would have become the main class, with Group A being dropped.

How close did this Group N plan come to be implemented, were the Group A grids really that bad at the end of 1985?

Also in the Autosport report for the final BTCC round of 1986 at Silverstone (won by Dave Brodie's Starion), it mentions that the drivers had an extra incentive to put on a good show due to the race being televised, is the footage out & about anywhere?

[chunterer]

I don't remember the prodsaloon/Grp N idea but it's true that a number of Uniroyal runners entered standard cars at Brit GP supporters in mid 80's so maybe that's what led to that plan being mooted?

BTCC grids were pretty poor in '85/86 and even '87 to an extent. I think the MSA didn't realise the effect the withdrawal of ARG and subsequently, BMW GB after '84 would have.

In one foul swoop the series lost about 10 cars if you include 3 Rovers, 3 Metros, 2 635's and also a selection of others cars.

whilst there were always rumours about new makes or privateers entering, they didn't materialise. If it wasn't for Rouse, Longman, Brodie, Hughes of Beaconsfield's Supra and a few series stalwarts in the classes the series would've struggled to hit double figures. I think there were serious concerns about the future of Grp A in Britain.

I might have the final round of '85 on tape somewhere, so i'll let you know if/when I find it mate!

[KA]

The BTCC certainly looked to be in decline at that time- the continued rules controversies in 1984 let to Austin Rover pulling out en masse mid season- both the TWR Rovers and the Class B Metro turbos, and the CC Motorsport/BMW GB 635CSi programme ended at the end of the year as well the cars being sold off to Frank Sytner and Mike Newman.

Grids weren't that bad during 1985, but the next season started off looking far from healthy with several significant entries lost at the end of '85- Dave
Brodie's Starion lost it's factory support at the end of 1985, and would only appear sporadically after that, the Hughes of Beaconsfield/Toyta GB Supra programme for Barry Sheene ended (although it was replaced by Chris Hodgetts' new CHMS Corolla campaign), Frank Sytner withdrew his 635 as he felt it was no longer competitive, and with Hodgetts' defection to Toyota and the Escort RS1600i's declining competitiveness, 1600cc class stalwarts Brooklyn Motorsport reduced their programme from the 3 cars they'd run for much of 1985 to a single car.

Looking at some notes of race results I've got here 1985 grids had generally hovered around the 20-car mark but the 1986 season kicked off at Silverstone with only 14 cars on the grid....

The cars were out there, the problem was getting enough of them in one place at any given time, not helped by the dominance of the turbo cars, particularly the Rouse XR4Ti- an indication of this is that the British GP support at Brands drew over 30 starters- the races either side of this having only 13 and 16 on their respective grids.

Things were sufficiently bad that at one of the later season Brands Hatch rounds the organisers added an invitation class for half-a-dozen of the Brands Racing School instructors, driving some of the School's fleet of standard production Escort XR3is, and I believe the distance of some races was reduced.

Other measures tried included the re-introduction of the up-to-1300cc Class D, dropped a couple of years before in 1983- the only runners enticed out were Tony Lanfranchi's Production Saloon Nova and a second proper Group A Nova-(a borrowed rallycar)for James Kaye at the GP.

Several Production Saloon competitors and several cars from the Renault 5GT Turbo one-make series also appeared, particularly at the GP, and a number of occasional entries helped, such as a Peugeot UK-entered 205GTI (another converted rallycar) for their regular British Rally Championship driver Mikael Sundstrom but overall the series didn't look to be in great shape

Grids did pick up a little in 1987, but more significantly there were a number of significant new front-running entries in the form of several privateer Rovers, Mike O'Brien's ex-Grice Commodore, and Sytner's Prodrive M3 mid-season, although a lot of cars were still only appearing sporadically. Growth really picked up in 1988 with RS500s and a TV deal signed

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

I don't remember the prodsaloon/Grp N idea but it's true that a number of Uniroyal runners entered standard cars at Brit GP supporters in mid 80's so maybe that's what led to that plan being mooted?

I definitely recall there being some reports in Autosport at the time that the Prodsaloon/Group N idea was being considered. Certainly as you said a number of the Uniroyal runners used to regularly turn out at the GP supports.

As an indication of the decline, the regular core of the entry in 1985 looked something like this:


Class A
Andy Rouse (ICS Sierra)
Pete Hall (ICS Rover)
Dave Brodie (Starion)
Frank Sytner (635)
Mike Newman (635)
Barry Sheene (Supra)
Neil McGrath (Linden Rover)
Brian Chatfield (Capri/635)

Class B
Jon Dooley (Alfa Romeo Dealer Team GVT6)
Rob Kirby (Alfa Romeo Dealer Team GTV6)
Graham Goode (Bluebird Turbo)
Phil Dowsett (Terry Drury GTV6)
Terry Drury/Mark Hales/Barry Barnes (Drury GTV6)
Richard Longman (Datapost Escort RS Turbo- from mid-season)

Class C
Chris Hodgetts (Brooklyn RS1600i)
John Morris (Brooklyn RS1600i)
Alex Moss (Brooklyn RS1600i- 3rd car from mid-season)
Alan Curnow (Datapost RS1600i)
Richard Belcher (John Jeffreys RS1600i)
Geoff Kimber-Smith (AGK Corolla)
Tony Crudgington (Clausthaler Corolla)
Stig Gruen (Corolla- about half the season)
Patrick Watts (North Essex RS1600i)

These all ran the majority of races or at least a half-season. Apart from that, a number of other cars made occasional or one-off appearances- a second Rouse Sierra and Brodie Starion a TWR Bastos Rover for Walkinshaw, Dennis Leech's Rover which appeared at a few rounds; in Class B, a Metro Turbo for Soper, Alan Minshaw's Demon Tweeks Golf GTI, a Prodsaloon Escort Turbo for Mike Smith, and a couple of Renault Turbos; and in Class C, RS1600is for Barry Lee and Karl Jones

As a comparison 1986's 'regulars'- I don't have complete results to hand, but AFAIK, these all ran the full year, or at least half-a-season:

Class A:
Andy Rouse (ICS Sierra)
Pete Hall (ICS Rover)
Dennis Leech (Rover- missed 2 or 3 races)
Mike Newman (635)
Mike O'Brien (Linden Rover- missed a couple of rounds)

Class B
Jon Dooley (Alfa Dealer Team 75)
Rob Kirby (Alfa Dealer Team GTV6/75)
Richard Longman (Datapost RS Turbo)
Alan Curnow (Datapost RS Turbo)
Mark Hales (Terry Drury RS Turbo)

Class C
Tony Crudgington (Clausthaler Corolla)
Chris Hodgetts (CHMS/Toyota GB Corolla)
Paul Taft (Brooklyn RS1600i)
Alan Minshaw/Barry Sheene (CHMS/Demon Tweeks Corolla- possibly the last half of the season at most)

Plenty of other cars appeared but none did more than 2 or 3 rounds from the notes I've got- there may be a couple of others, as I currently have a couple of rounds missing:
Dave Brodie (Starion), Neil McGrath (Linden Rover), Peter Lovett/David Sears (Hughes Supra), Barry Barnes (Mann's 635), Jean-Louis Schlesser (TWR Rover), Jeff Allam (TWR Rover), Brian Chatfield (Capri) Barry Robinson (TW Robinson 635)

Colin Pearcy (Metro Turbo), Martin Carroll (prodsaloon Merc 190), and a few of the Renault 5 Turbo Cup cars- Roger Saunders David Gibson David Grimshaw, amongst others

Mikael Sundstrom (Peugeot Talbot Sport UK 205GTi), Geoff Kimber-Smith (AGK Corolla), Lionel Abbott( RS1600i), Alastair Davidson (Fiesta XR2- possibly a Fiesta Challenge car on slicks....), Nick Sismey (Alfasud)
Richard Belcher (North Essex RS1600i), and the 6 Brands Racing School XR3s at Brands in August

Tony Lanfranchi (Monorep Nova- prodsaloon), James Kaye (Containerships Nova)