1991 British Touring Car Championship

1991 BTCC season

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Will Hoy (pictured in 1995), the 1991 British Touring Car Champion.

The 1991 Esso RAC British Touring Car Championship season was the 34th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season and marked the first year of the Super Touring era.

Changes for 1991

• After a transitional year in 1990, the multi-class Group A regulations was fully dropped and replaced by the new Super Touring rules that had evolved out of Group A's Div. II category. Group A cars were still allowed to participate, but only as long as they were restricted to bring them down to Super Touring speeds.

Season summary

Group A had towards the end of its existence been dominated by Ford and their Sierra RS500. Super Tourers had first appeared in 1990, and with BMW and Vauxhall running their cars in that category they effectively had a years head start on their opposition for 1991. BMW also had the numerical advantage, the factory Prodrive team entering two cars and the semi-factory Vic Lee Motorsport team entering four. Vauxhall had two cars, as had Toyota, while Ford only appeared with a single car for Robb Gravett's Trakstar team. Nissan missed the start of the season but then ran a single-car effort for Keith O'Dor driving a 2.0 Primera entered by Janspeed, and was joined by ex-Formula One driver Julian Bailey towards the end of the season and Mitsubishi was back, engineered by BTCC stalwart John McGuire Racing, fielding a one car team for Mark Hales, the team elected to run the Lancer GTI at the beginning of the season but was replaced by the larger Galant mid season.

The privateer entries would consist mainly of BMW M3s with the odd Ford Sierra entry, the most notable being Andy Middlehurst, and the odd appearance of Jeff Wilson in a Vauxhall Belmont.

Rover and Peugeot would also be represented briefly by privateers Grahame Davis and Andrew McKenzie while possible entries from Audi, ^[1] Honda, ^[2] Renault and Lancia ^[3] were mooted but never materialised.

The championship battle would stand between Will Hoy and John Cleland. Hoy won the first two races of the season and kept scoring consistently, but as the season progressed it was Cleland who came out on top more often than not. Hoy's consistency however put him in a position to claim the championship at the penultimate round at Thruxton, provided he scored a good enough result. Indeed, Hoy took the lead of the race thanks to BMW team tactics, but soon thereafter he was controversially tapped into a spin by works BMW driver Jonathan Palmer. Hoy dropped down the field and later retired after contact with Cleland. Cleland would go on to finish 8th with a damaged car, taking the championship to the final race. There Hoy was able to finish ahead of Cleland, and thus claiming the first Super Touring championship win. Andy Rouse finished third for Toyota, and Steve Soper ended up fourth overall despite missing several races due to clashing commitments in the German DTM championship.

The 7th meeting of the season at Silverstone would be notable for the debut of future 3-time Champion Matt Neal in a Pyramid Motorsport-run BMW M3, finishing 13th out of 17 finishers.

Teams and drivers

Team	Car	No.	Drivers	Rounds
Manufacturer
Trakstar Motorsport	Ford Sierra Sapphire	1	Robb Gravett	All
Kaliber ICS Team Toyota	Toyota Carina	3	Andy Rouse	All
		33	Gary Ayles	All
BMW Team Labatt's	BMW M3	4	Tim Harvey	All
		9	Laurence Bristow	1–11, 13
			Armin Hahne	12
Vauxhall Sport	Vauxhall Cavalier	5	John Cleland	All
		6	Jeff Allam	All
		56	Bob Berridge	12–13
BMW Team Listerine	BMW M3	11	Will Hoy	All
		12	Ray Bellm	All
BMW Team Finance	BMW M3	22	Jonathan Palmer	All
		44	Steve Soper	1, 3, 7–10, 12
			Tim Sugden	2, 5–6, 11, 13
			Christian Danner	4
Nissan Janspeed Racing	Nissan Primera eGT	23	Kieth O'dor	2–13
		24	Julian Bailey	11–13
John Maguire Racing	Mitsubishi Lancer	88	Mark Hales	1–5
	Mitsubishi Galant			8–13
Independent
Pyramid Motorsport	BMW M3	2	Frank Sytner	1–8, 10–11
			David Leslie	13
		18	Matt Neal	7
			Alistair Fenwick	12
			Godfrey Hall	13
Sean Walker Racing	Ford Sierra RS500	7	Sean Walker	2
BMW Team Sweden	BMW M3	10	Nettan Lindgren	1–3, 5–6
		91	Peggen Andersson	1–3, 6
R&D Motorsport	BMW 318is	13	Angus MacKay	1–2
			Alistair Lyall	4, 7, 13
ACE Motorsport	Peugeot 405 Mi16	17	Andrew MacKenzie	7, 10
Judge Developments	Ford Sierra RS500	19	Dennis Leech	1–4
Moto-Build	Rover 216GTi	20	Grahame Davis	1–2, 7, 10
Brodie Brittain Racing	Ford Sierra Sapphire 4x4	21	Dave Brodie	10–13
Drambuie Racing	BMW M3	45	Ian Forrest	All
HWR Motorsport	Vauxhall Belmont	58	Jeff Wilson	9, 11, 13
			Tony Bardy	12
BRR Motorsport	BMW M3	59	Ian Flux	1, 3–5, 13
			Matt Neal	9
			Val Musetti	11
Auto Trader Techspeed Team	BMW M3	66	Nick Whale	1–5, 8–9, 11–13
			David Leslie	7
			John Llewellyn	10
		77	Nick Baird	1–5, 7–8, 12–13
			Matt Neal	11
Graham Goode Racing	Ford Sierra RS Cosworth	99	Andy Middlehurst	All

Race calendar and winners

All races were held in the United Kingdom.

Round		Circuit	Date	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning Driver	Winning Team
1	R1	Silverstone Circuit (National)	1 April	Steve Soper	Will Hoy	Will Hoy	BMW Team Listerine
2	R2	Snetterton Circuit	14 April	John Cleland	Will Hoy	Will Hoy	BMW Team Listerine
3	R3	Donington Park (Grand Prix)	28 April	Steve Soper	John Cleland	Steve Soper	BMW Team Finance
4	R4	Thruxton	27 May	Will Hoy	Will Hoy	John Cleland	Vauxhall Sport
5	R5 1	Silverstone Circuit (National)	9 June	Tim Sugden	Andy Rouse	John Cleland	Vauxhall Sport
6	R6	Brands Hatch (Indy)	30 June	Tim Sugden	Will Hoy	Tim Sugden	BMW Team Finance
7	R7	Silverstone Circuit (Grand Prix)	14 July	Steve Soper	Steve Soper	Steve Soper	BMW Team Finance
8	R8	Donington Park (National)	28 July	John Cleland	Andy Rouse	Andy Rouse	Kaliber ICS Team Toyota
	R9				Ray Bellm	Andy Rouse	Kaliber ICS Team Toyota
9	R10	Oulton Park (International)	11 August	John Cleland	Gary Ayles	John Cleland	Vauxhall Sport
10	R11	Brands Hatch (Indy)	26 August	Andy Rouse	Andy Rouse	Andy Rouse	Kaliber ICS Team Toyota
	R12				Ray Bellm	Will Hoy	BMW Team Listerine
11	R13	Donington Park (Grand Prix)	15 September	John Cleland	John Cleland	John Cleland	Vauxhall Sport
12	R14	Thruxton	22 September	Jonathan Palmer	Tim Harvey	Steve Soper	BMW Team Finance
13	R15	Silverstone Circuit (Grand Prix)	6 October	Andy Rouse	Tim Harvey	Tim Harvey	BMW Team Labatt's

1. ^  – Race was stopped after 10 laps due to heavy rain. The race was not restarted and no points were awarded.

Championship results

Drivers Championship

Pos Driver SIL SNE DON THR SIL† BRH SIL DON OUL BRH DON THR SIL Pts 1 Will Hoy 1 1 Ret 3 3 2 2 Ret DNS 2 2 1 3 Ret 5 155 2 John Cleland 3 9 2 1 1 12 6 3 10 1 4 3 1 8 9 132 3 Andy Rouse 5 3 9 8 4 3 7 1 1 4 1 Ret Ret 4 2 115 4 Steve Soper 18 1 1 2 Ret 3 6 Ret 1 96 5 Ray Bellm 6 2 6 7 5 7 4 6 2 6 14 Ret 4 5 6 90 6 Jeff Allam 2 4 5 2 2 5 8 5 Ret Ret 8 Ret 6 10 8 80 7 Jonathan Palmer 7 Ret Ret 6 11 6 5 4 3 5 7 6 Ret 2 21 66 8 Tim Harvey 10 7 DSQ 4 7 4 3 Ret 6 7 Ret 5 2 Ret 1 42 1 9 Andy Middlehurst 4 Ret 13 Ret 10 Ret 16 7 7 8 11 4 8 7 3 41 10 Tim Sugden Ret 12 1 5 Ret 32 11 Robb Gravett 20 13 Ret 14 18 9 Ret 9 4 9 5 2 7 9 13 28 12 Frank Sytner DNS 5 3 Ret 6 8 10 Ret DNS 9 7 Ret 26 13 Laurence Bristow Ret 6 7 12 16 10 11 8 5 Ret Ret DNS Ret 7 20 14 Gary Ayles 9 DSQ 4 Ret 8 Ret Ret Ret DNS Ret 3 DNS 14 Ret 10 19 15 Armin Hahne 3 12 16 David Leslie 9 4 12 17 Kieth O'dor Ret Ret 11 13 15 Ret 10 8 10 Ret Ret 9 6 11 10 18 Christian Danner 5 8 19 Peggen Andersson 8 8 12 11 6 20 Dennis Leech 16 14 8 Ret 3 21 Nick Baird 11 Ret 15 9 14 12 12 9 DNS 17 2 22 Ian Flux 13 Ret 10 9 14 1 23 Mark Hales 17 10 16 16 DNS 14 Ret 14 13 Ret Ret 11 Ret 1 24 Nettan Lindgren 19 Ret 10 13 14 1 25 Nick Whale 14 12 14 13 17 11 Ret 11 10 12 19 1 26 John Llewellyn 10 Ret 0 27 Ian Forrest 12 11 11 15 15 14 15 13 NC 12 12 Ret 12 13 22 0 28 Jeff Wilson 13 11 Ret 0 29 Julian Bailey Ret Ret 12 0 30 Matt Neal 13 Ret DNS 0 31 Valentino Musetti 13 0 32 Angus MacKay 15 15 0 33 Dave Brodie Ret DNS DNS Ret 15 0 34 Bob Berridge Ret 16 0 35 Andrew MacKenzie 17 DNS DNS 0 36 Alistair Lyall DNS Ret 18 0 37 Godfrey Hall 20 0  — Grahame Davis DNS DNS DNS Ret DNS 0  — Sean Walker DNS 0  — Tony Bardy DNS 0  — Alistair Fenwick DNS 0 Pos Driver SIL SNE DON THR SIL† BRH SIL DON OUL BRH DON THR SIL Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX)

• Note: bold signifies pole position, italics signifies fastest lap.

1. ^  – Tim Harvey was docked 48 points in round 3 for not keeping within the limits of noise regulations.

† Race was stopped early due to heavy rain, and no points were awarded. Note: Most fastest laps are unknown.

Manufacturers Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	SIL	SNE	DON	THR	SIL†	BRH	SIL	DON		OUL	BRH		DON	THR	SIL	Pts
1	BMW / BMW Team Listerine/BMW Team Labatt's/BMW Team Finance	1	1	1	3	3	1	1	2	2	2	2	1	2	1	1	134
2	Vauxhall / Vauxhall Sport	2	4	2	1	1	5	6	3	10	1	4	3	1	8	8	116
3	Toyota / Kaliber ICS Team Toyota	5	3	4	8	4	3	7	1	1	4	1	Ret	14	4	2	111
4	Ford / Trakstar Motorsport	4	13	8	14	10	9	16	7	4	8	5	2	7	7	3	102
5	Nissan / Nissan Janspeed Racing		Ret	Ret	11	13	15	Ret	10	8	10	Ret	Ret	9	6	11	53
6	Mitsubishi / John Maguire Racing	17	10	16	16	DNS			14	Ret	14	13	Ret	Ret	11	Ret	45
Pos	Manufacturer	SIL	SNE	DON	THR	SIL†	BRH	SIL	DON		OUL	BRH		DON	THR	SIL	Pts

References

1. "BTCC 1991: BBC Grandstand Season Preview (4:52)". YouTube . August 2022.
2. "20240711 161137 — Postimages".
3. "British Touring Car Championship". 7 July 2014.