The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as the British Touring Car Championship for the 1987 season. The championship, currently running Next Generation Touring Car regulations, has been run to various national and international regulations over the years including FIA Group 2, FIA Group 5, FIA Group 1, FIA Group A, FIA Super Touring and FIA Super 2000. A lower-key Group N class for production cars ran from 2000 until 2003.
Daniel John Eaves is a British auto racing driver. He competed in the British Touring Car Championship between 2000 and 2005, and again in 2009, winning a total of six races and claimed a best finish of third place in the drivers' championship in 2005.
The 2006 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 49th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season. As in 2005, there were ten racing weekends at nine different circuits; each round comprising three races, making a thirty round competition in total.
The 2004 Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 47th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season.
The 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 50th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season. It was won by Fabrizio Giovanardi with 10 race wins and 17 podiums. Going into the final race, Fabrizio Giovanardi was one point behind Jason Plato but a second place for Giovanardi and a fourth place for Plato resulted in Giovanardi taking the championship by 3 points. The Teams' championship was won by SEAT Sport UK, the Manufacturers' championship was won by Vauxhall, the Independents' Trophy was won by Colin Turkington and the Independent Teams' championship was won by Team RAC.
The 2003 Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 46th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season.
The 2002 Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 45th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season which began at Brands Hatch on 1 April and concluded at Donington Park on 22 September.
The 2001 theAA.com MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 44th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season and marked the beginning of a new era of lower-cost rules and regulations for the series. The season saw a rivalry between Vauxhall teammates Jason Plato and Yvan Muller for the title.
Gareth Howell is a British racing driver, and multiple British Touring Car Championship race winner from 2000 to 2008.
Richard Marsh is an auto racing driver from Derbyshire, England. After competing in the Ford Fiesta championship and the Porsche Carrera Cup he graduated to the production class of the British Touring Car Championship midway through the 2003 season with John Batchelor's Team Varta squad. He remained with the team for 2004 in the Touring Class, initially driving a Honda Civic Type-R but subsequently a Peugeot 307. For 2006 he rejoined the BTCC at its halfway point again driving a Peugeot 307 entered by Team Griffin Motorsport with sponsorship from Farécla. He did not score any points in his first race back, and the team missed several races due to unreliable machinery. For the final round they converted the car to bio-ethanol, qualifying ahead of 6 other cars. For 2007 he and David Pinkney teamed up to drive Alfa Romeo cars for Gary Ayles in the series. He scored no points, and missed the final two rounds following the multiple collision at Brands Hatch. He is no longer racing in the series.
Vic Lee Racing (VLR), formerly Vic Lee Motorsport (VLM) was a UK auto racing team, most famous for running BMWs and Peugeots in the British Touring Car Championship, and most infamous for the drug-related convictions of its owner Victor "Vic" Lee.
The Vauxhall Astra Coupe is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2001 British Touring Car Championship season by Triple 8 Race Engineering, who ran Vauxhall's official works program. It was the first BTC Touring-specification car to be unveiled in late 2000. Triple 8 had worked on the Astra in the summer of that year and as a result, with 4 cars - 2 with Vauxhall sponsorship and 2 with Egg Banking sponsorship had given themselves a head start on the rest of the field at the start of the 2001 season. In the end, it was far more advanced in its development than anything else in the field, allowing to win 25 out of 26 races in 2001. A 3-way battle for the championship lasted throughout the season, with Jason Plato emerging victorious by 18 points. In fact, so dominant were the cars that the lowest placed Astra driver, Phil Bennett, who finished 4th in the Driver's Championship, was 58 points clear of the next driver.
The BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2005 British Touring Car Championship season by Triple 8 Race Engineering, who ran Vauxhall's official works program.
In 2005, Team Dynamics took advantage of a loophole in the British Touring Car Championship regulations that allowed cars to enter, whether they were on sale in the United Kingdom or not. They converted a pair of Honda Integra Japanese imports into BTC Touring spec racing cars, using the internals from the moderately successful Honda Civic Type R that had been competing in the BTCC since 2002. The car was an instant hit, winning its debut race at Donington Park despite only having a limited amount of testing. Matt Neal scored points in every single race to take his first BTCC title - the first for a privateer driver in the modern era. He repeated the feat in 2006 and by that point, five cars had been built, all of them race winners in the hands of the Dynamics drivers, before being passed into the hands of various independent teams. The cars remained in the championship until 2011, in the hands of Lea Wood, even finishing 7th at Oulton Park in that final season - an impressive result for a car that had been built 6 years previously. Indeed, it was the last of the BTC-Touring spec cars to be used in the BTCC; and was only finally retired as cars built to these regulations could no longer compete in 2012.
With the new low-cost BTC Touring rules encouraging private teams to build their own cars, Cheshire-based ABG Motorsport decided to construct a Lexus IS200 for 2001.
The BTC-T Proton Impian is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2002 British Touring Car Championship season by Team PSP, who ran Proton's official works program.
The BTC-T MG ZS EX259 is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2001 British Touring Car Championship season by West Surrey Racing, who ran MG's official works program.
The BTC-T Peugeot 406 Coupé is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2001 British Touring Car Championship season by Vic Lee Racing, who were selected to run Peugeot's official works program for that season.
The BTC-T Honda Civic Type-R is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2002 British Touring Car Championship season by Arena Motorsport, who ran Honda's official works program.
One of the new BTC Touring specification cars entered in the 2001 BTCC season was the JS Motorsport-built Alfa Romeo 147. It was the first of the independently built BTC-T cars to race, being ready in time for the first round of the season. Despite originally intending to run 4 BTC-T spec and 2 Production spec cars, only 2 BTC-T cars were ever entered in one event, and no Production spec car was ever built. The team had 4 different drivers across the season: the experienced David Pinkney and Tim Harvey sharing drives with the younger Mark Blair and Tom Ferrier. Darren Malkin had been announced, before the season started, as one of the drivers; however, he never made an appearance.
