Everyone ready for btcc 2008

[JasonP06]

When they say sell cars, they mean road cars! Whether you have 2 or 12 cars on the grid at a racetrack, the aim of a manufacturer is to sell cars in a showroom. Race on a Sunday! Sell on a Monday!

Yeah, I was aware of that too. Though I must adit I may not have made that clear in my post.

But where I am unsure, on the issue of a manufacturers involvement in the BTCC and sales of their roadcars, is whether or not the sales of SEAT's, Vauxhall's, Honda's, BMW's and recently Chevrolet's, are affected by Independent entries of the manufacturer's cars aswell as the actual factories teams.

BMW in the WTCC obviously have their three factory teams. As far as I know two are prodived with cars from BMW (RBM and ROAL) and the other (Schnitzer) have the benifit of help from BMW. But what about Proteam and Weichers-Sport? Yes Andy Priaulx won the Drivers Trophy and BMW won the Teams Trophy but Stefano D'Aste (Weichers) won the Yokhama Drivery trophy whilst Proteam won the Yokohama Teams trophy. I am wondering if that success for BMW's Independent teams didn't completely pass BMW by. Surely they would have taken notice of that. It is hard for me not to.

 

[ZBOYD]

BTCC 2008 - Provisional Entries

This is the current provisional entry list, mainly gathered from announced known information. Some are confirmed entries based on press releases the others are expected to be confirmed soon.

This is currently as much as I know at the moment. More info will come to light in the New Year at Autosport I would expect.


SEAT Sport UK
Jason Plato - SEAT Leon - confirmed
Darren Turner - SEAT Leon - confirmed

Triple8 VXRacing
Fabrizio Giovanardi - Vauxhall Vectra - confirmed
Matt Neal - Vauxhall Vectra - confirmed
Tom Onslow-Cole - Vauxhall Vectra - confirmed

Team Halfords
Gordon Shedden - Honda Civic - confirmed
Tom Chilton - Honda Civic - confirmed

Team RAC
Colin Turkington - BMW - confirmed
TBC - BMW 320si

Jackson Motorsport
Mat Jackson - BMW 320si - confirmed
TBC - Possible 2nd Car though not confirmed.

Eurotech
Mike Jordan - Honda Integra, - confirmed
Andrew Jordan - Honda Integra, - confirmed

Arkas unconfirmed
Erkut Kizilimark - Vauxhall Astra Sportshatch,
TBC - 2nd Car possible

Robertshaw Racing
Harry Vaulkard - Chevrolet Lacetti, - confirmed
TBC - Chevrolet Lacetti,
Alan Taylor - Honda Integra,

In-Tune Racing
Michael Doyle - BTC-spec Honda Civic Type R - confirmed

AFM & NJL Racing To run as a combined team.
Rick Kerry - BMW 120D
Nick Leason - BMW 120D

TH unconfirmed
John George - Honda Integra

Allaboutproperty.com
(Team not confirmed but Martyn is expected to enter in a new FWD car, not a BMW)
Martyn Bell - Car TBC

Motorbase Performance
TBC - (Matt Allison likely) - BMW 320si
TBC - BMW 320si

Kartworld Racing (not confirmed)
TBC
TBC

7 - BMW
7 - Honda
4 - Vauxhall
2 - SEAT
2 - Chevrolet

15 - S2000 spec
7 - BTC Spec

 

[Boy]

Does anyone find that a little sad? The under-representation of the manufacturer in the BTCC. Mainly for the manufacturer really more than the thrill of seeing other SEAT's in the field which are not all the time a SSUK Leon. Though it made me happy to see GR Asia for the final few meetings last year.

I mean I heard either on the teams main website or on crash.net Jase' saying something like the team or manufacturer is in the BTCC to sell cars.

If the sales of SEAT's via the BTCC stretches to independent entries then the fact theirs so far no Independent entries running SEAT's is not good.

i do

 

[ZBOYD]

All comes down to money at the end of the day, there is nothing sad about it really.

SEAT are miniscule in comparison to the financial bulldozer of BMW. The fact they are there at all should be applauded and supported.

This isn't the super-touring era where money was burned for fun.

 

[ZBOYD]

Tom Onslow-Cole joins VXR as a 3rd driver. Just announced at Autosport. SEAT news should be coming soon.

 

[tris]

Tom Onslow-Cole joins VXR as a 3rd driver. Just announced at Autosport. SEAT news should be coming soon.

That was in last weeks motorsport news

It went on to say that SEAT would not run a 3rd car even tho VXR where but they may look at a driver to run the odd metting in a 3rd car

 

[ZBOYD]

It was 'officially' announced at the show today. So i reported it, its not really an issue of when and where it got reported.

 

[tris]

Strange as it was a interview with the VXR guy cant remember his name

 

[ZBOYD]

Yer it was widely talked about on some of the touring car forums and stuff, so I knew it had been mentioned. It's probably a pay drive anyway. But nothing official had hit any of the main media sites regarding it until this morning.

 

[IainW]

Definitely another paydrive like when O'Neill, Hines and Smith had the 3rd cars. If it reportedly cost him £200k for the RAC seat last year, this could well be double that.

 

[ZBOYD]

kerrchinggg Is he paying Gio's wages then.

 

[IainW]

Holiday Inn has gone as a sponsor, so you never know. It was said when Gavin Smith went there, that he paid £500k for a works drive plus a bit extra that was then paid back to him as a "salary". Not sure whether that was true or just another malicious rumour, there's always plenty of them about.

 

[ZBOYD]

Some press shots from the show now in the Gallery.

MORE HERE >>CLICKY<<

 

[Boy]

Nice, I'm going to autosport tomorrow

 

[m0rk]

it'll be heaving tomorrow - was busy today

 

[Boy]

It was packed, the show was good.
We managed to see Darren Turner but just missed Jason

 

[Boy]

Not long now
http://www.MakeCountdowns.com/show.php?id=96572

 

[JasonP06]

Who looks at the pics of the Leon at Autosport 2008 and isn't impressed by what he/she sees?

Not many I presume.

 

[Timmbo71]

Hello guys. Dont know if anyone can help me here... Wasnt sure where to put this, but as i was at Brands last year and was parked up in the SCN bit, i couldnt help but notice that most of you had SCN number plates.. With your nicknames on.
Anybody know how i could get them?

Cheers.

 

[Matt230]

Cant wait for this year, been following since the old RS500 cossies

Matt