Photo credit to; Lee Fisher Motorsport Photography
After 2 weeks of driver swaps, team collapses and “new” teams the British Touring Car parade heads to Donington Park! The BTCC community has been treated to an offseason worth of drama after the sudden collapse of Plato Racing and the departure of Jason Plato from the team, whereas a week beforehand he stood on the podium in the rain at Knockhill with a look of disbelief with a team winners trophy.
Going slightly under the radar due to the headlines about the BTCC’s newest team CPRL was the news that Restart Racing have had a driver swap, with Daniel Lloyd coming into the seat and James Dorlin vacating it after reports of Dorlin running out of funding after Knockhill! Ricky Collard is another driver struggling with funding, creating more chatter about the finical viability of the championship, and if it’s really worth the cost?
In terms of the championship, Ash Sutton still leads Tom Ingram by a healthy margin with Sutton having the season of his life, currently having a win in every single event of the championship, making 7 wins out of 18 in total with almost a 100 point lead! The question floating around is whether or not Sutton could possibly win the title a round early at Sliverstone a feat never accomplished in the modern era!
The Manufactures / Constructors championship is simply a re-tell of the drivers championship, Alliance Racing / Ford leads by 160 points to EXCELR8 Motorsport / Hyundai in second. If Sutton was a Manufactures / Constructors by himself, he would actually not be last in the Manufactures / Constructors standings, with Toyota on 325 points and Sutton on 327, and in the team standings he’d be 2nd! Only behind Team Vertu by 6 points!
The Independents Championship is a very close battle among many drivers, with Mikey Doble leading the standings on 264 points before a gap behind to Daryl De Leon on 228, Charles Rainford on 227, Gordon Shedden on 223 and Dexter Patterson on 203 in fifth place, with the Independents wide open for anybody to win, along with a new entry replacing James Dorlin – who was in sixth on 199 points – which is of course last season Independents champion Daniel Lloyd!
On the teams front it’s another close fight between LKQ Euro Car Parts and Power Maxed Racing on 300 points exactly with WSR in chase on 283 points in second. Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport is in third with 277 points and Restart Racing behind them on 262 points with Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing last on 224 points, so PMR are first and last in the independent standings, the British Touring Car Championship is definitely a confusing series sometimes!
It’s safe to say Donington Park GP always serves a treat on 4 wheels, or even 2 – or 3 if your into sidecars! Make sure your doing nothing on Sunday and get sat and posted in front of the TV and get on ITV4 so you don’t miss a second of the action this Sunday!