Mat Jackson’s new livery for the final two rounds of the season
(Photo from: www.touringcartimes.com)
24 races down, 6 more to go as the British Touring Car Championship heads to the penultimate round of the season, Silverstone. Unlike Formula 1, the championship will use the national circuit, which uses the old pit straight, copse before turning right at Becketts to head down the Wellington straight and into Brooklands, round Luffield and round the sweeping flat out Woodcote.
Since there are only four real corners on the circuit and three long straights, it is a circuit favoured by cars with a lot of power and good aerodynamics. Traditionally Honda have struggled at Silverstone, which may affect championship contenders Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, who are both chasing down current championship lead Sam Tordoff.
Leading into this weekend’s race, news stories have surfaced surrounding new programs being launched and new liveries.
The most recent and striking news is that Mat Jackson has released a new livery for the final two rounds of the championship. The Motorbase performance man, who is fourth in the driver’s standings, will be hoping for a strong weekend to try and close the 28 point gap to the championship lead.
Onto driver news now and it has been confirmed that Michael Caine will miss the Silverstone rounds though injury. It is the same injury which forced him to miss Rockingham, where Tony Gilham deputised. Team Principal Gilham will pilot the third Team HARD Toyota Avensis this weekend.
Ciceley Motorsport also announced in the build up to Rockingham that they would be entering the new Renault Clio Cup Junior championship next season, becoming the first current BTCC team to do so. Ciceley, who run Adam Morgan and Aidan Moffat, already run three cars in the Renault Clio Cup have confirmed a “multi-car entry” into the new for 2017 championship, which is aimed at drivers between the ages of 14 and 17.
Onto this weekend’s talking points as both Colin Turkington and Matt Simpson have fallen foul to the “three strikes” rule, which means they will start from the back of the grid for race 1, regardless of where they qualify.
It should be a fantastic weekend full of good racing and talking points as the series nears the end.