BTCC 2007 News, Rumours, Entries...

[gregc]

Fair point - having read the article again, (properly this time ) he's not actually getting any money from Maxim - as you said. Looks like I have to revise my estimates of how someones going to do every time I read a reply to one of my posts

I stand by the fact that there is a lot of sponshorship space there though

[FIRE]

Another boring looking BMW...
Why not a bit more effort in designing a nice livery?

[Go_For_Pole]

That's not the final livery, surely? Nice that Mat finally has a decent shot at BTCC, he richly deserves it. I am sure he will impress and I also think that this will be the best championship of the recent past. Too bad that Motors has given up their coverage and we over here will miss all the fun

[Craner Curves]

He's just taken delivery of the car not long ago. I doubt very much that's the final livery. I think they will do the test programme, take it to bits, paint it, then rebuild it, to gain as much knowledge of how the car works.

[Sodemo]

OK im a little confused, I thought the 2007 BTCC was just going to be S2000 only?

Are they allowing the older BTC-spec cars to compete also now?

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Always been the case. But they can't score points in the overall championship.

[BootsOntheSide]

Might be worth having a quick recap on the field? I make it:

Dynamics - Honda Civic confirmed, Matt Neal confirmed, Gordon Shedden confirmed

WSR/RAC - BMW confirmed, Colin Turkington confirmed, Tom Onslow-Cole confirmed

SEAT - Jason Plato confirmed, Darren Turner confirmed

Vauxhall - Tom Chilton confirmed, Fabrizio Giovanardi confirmed

Motorbase - SEAT confirmed, Gareth Howell confirmed, AN Other (Tom Ferrier?) likely

Jackson - BMW confirmed, Mat Jackson confirmed

Eurotech - BTC Honda confirmed, Mike Jordan confirmed

JAG - BTC Honda confirmed, John George confirmed

(Team name escapes me and I'm in a hurry, sorry) - BMW confirmed, Rick Kerry confirmed

Enke Sport - 2 BTC Vauxhalls confirmed

Arkas/ TechSpeed - 2 BTC Vauxhalls confirmed, Erkut Kizilirmak confirmed, AN Other (Paul O'Neill/Gavin Smith) confirmed

Geoff Steel - BMW, Martyn Bell likely AN Other x2 possible

Farec�*a - BTC Honda likely, Richard Marsh likely

Quest - Alfa/Eoin Murray possible

Collard - BTC MG/Rob Collard likely

Xero/BTC/Daniels et al possible?

Errors and Omissions Expected.....

[touringlegend]

I believe Kartworld & Jason Hughes are competing, although still in the MG's Maybe not officially confirmed yet.

West Suffolk Racing is the name of the team running Rick Kerry. Certainly a healthy looking number of cars so far.

[Aunt Sally]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

Motorbase - SEAT confirmed, Gareth Howell confirmed, AN Other (Tom Ferrier?) likely ???????????

JAG - BTC Honda confirmed, John George confirmed Team is called TH Racing!

(Team name escapes me and I'm in a hurry, sorry) - BMW confirmed, Rick Kerry confirmed West Suffolk Racing.

Arkas/ TechSpeed - 2 BTC Vauxhalls confirmed, Erkut Kizilirmak confirmed, AN Other (Paul O'Neill/Gavin Smith) confirmed. ??? Two drivers for one car???

Farec�*a - BTC Honda likely, Richard Marsh likely. Marsh will be in a S2000 car!

Collard - BTC MG/Rob Collard likely. You will more likely see Collard in a Seat!

I had added my comments...

[touringlegend]

The GR Asia Toledo ? Rob Collard's raced with GR in the past if I remember.

Re Arkas what do you mean two drivers for one car, they have said they have 3 BTC Astra Sport Hatches 1 confirmed for Erkut Kizilirmark and another one for a British driver ?

[PDS]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

The GR Asia Toledo ? Rob Collard's raced with GR in the past if I remember.

The guy who runs GR Asia was Collards team manager at Collard racing! So there is a connection there..

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Re Arkas what do you mean two drivers for one car, they have said they have 3 BTC Astra Sport Hatches 1 confirmed for Erkut Kizilirmark and another one for a British driver ?

I think Aunt sally picked up on where it said '2 cars confirmed' one for Erkut Kizilirmark and another one for Paul O'Neill/Gavin Smith!?!
Two cars three drivers! The argument over how many cars they are running is on all forums at the moment. As someone has posted this link, http://www.crash.net/news_view~t~Ark...~id~142972.htm
I tend to agree with them..

[redshoes]

I think what Boots was trying to say is that Arkas will run two cars - Erkut Kizilirmark will definitely drive one, the second could be driven by either Paul O'Neill or Gavin Smith, not that they will share the second car.

Everything I've seen so far says that although they have 3 cars they will only enter two of them.

[Hazard]

Collard drove for GR Asia at the 2005 European Touring Cup race as a last minute replacement for James Kaye if I recall.

[touringlegend]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Everything I've seen so far says that although they have 3 cars they will only enter two of them.

I took it as meaning that too, one bought as a spare.

[BootsOntheSide]

Originally Posted by redshoes

I think what Boots was trying to say is that Arkas will run two cars - Erkut Kizilirmark will definitely drive one, the second could be driven by either Paul O'Neill or Gavin Smith, not that they will share the second car.

Everything I've seen so far says that although they have 3 cars they will only enter two of them.

That's exactly what I meant. I didn't realise it was rocket science.

[touringcarnut]

I have been out of the loop on the off season, but it looks like there are healthy grids in store for this year..

I know there are BTC spec cars knocking around, but just think of 2001's Brands starting grid and you know its looking good thanks to the phase out of BTC spec!

[racingdad]

Originally Posted by Aunt Sally

So Matt Jackson is putting the same sort of money as WSR are putting into one of their cars???

I would be most surprised!

As a family run team they don't need the same kind of money.

firstly, the team is run out of the family Ford dealership - so no expensive premises to pay for;

secondly, the team is not trying to make a profit as such - all they need to do is cover the costs of the staff directly employed, the running costs and any repair bills.

Commercial teams do need to try to make a living - I'm sure that Dick Bennet at WSR believes he has the right to make a decent living on the return from the investment (and rightly so).

I stand by my original statement.

[touringlegend]

Plus I'm sure the £100,000 for winning the Cupra series helped a lot - probably for the BMW.

[FIRE]

Arena Motorsport will run a Zytek LMP1 in LMS for Stefan Johansson and......Tom Chilton.

[Tim Dunlop]

Hi there,

Managed to spend an hour or so at Oulton Park today spectating at their General Test.
There were loads of new Clio Cup race cars testing ready for the 2007 series, and also a new Seat Leon Cupra. I was just about ready to leave when I noticed that Matt Jackson was heading out on track in the ex Andy Priaulx BMW that he will run in this years BTCC. Managed to get some decent shots of the car as Matt put it through its paces.





Also got a good shot of Andrew Jordans new Clio Cup in its full 2007 livery. Nice to see this car in a similar colour scheme to his dads BTCC Integra.



Regards

Tim

[Rockmunky]

Sweet, i love the new look of the Seat.
The Clios should be good aswell.


No livery for Matt yet, it would seem.

[Matt]

Is that the new-look Seat León BTCC car? If so, it just looks like a WTCC car now...

[tin-top fan]

with the blaupunkt stickers I would guess that this is the Cupra Cup car

[PDS]

Originally Posted by tin-top fan

with the blaupunkt stickers I would guess that this is the Cupra Cup car

And Pirelli tyres!

[rdjones]

But doesn't it say in today's MN that that Cupra Cup are moving to Dunlop rubber in 2207.