Alan Gow, the man in charge of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, says his series has once more underlined it is in a league of its own in 2005. He also says that interest in the championship for next season is at an all-time high.
The 2005 BTCC season drew to a close at Brands Hatch last Sunday. Matt Neal was crowned champion for the first time in his career and his team, Team Halfords, became the first independent squad for 14 years to beat the manufacturer outfits.
Britain’s biggest commercial terrestrial television network ITV1 saw a considerable rise in BTCC viewing figures. In 2005, it virtually doubled the amount of air time it previously gave the BTCC, through also showing repeat programmes, and upped its live coverage from five rounds to seven.
There has also been a noticeable increase in the number of people pouring through the gates at circuits to come and watch Britain’s biggest and most exciting motor racing championship in action. And the BTCC has gained thousands more new fans in 2005 with ground-breaking, high-speed city centre shows in NewcastleGateshead and Milton Keynes. Even the world-famous Forth Road Bridge closed back in August to showcase the BTCC cars in Scotland for their round at Knockhill.
BTCC Series Director Gow comments: "The BTCC is leagues ahead of anything else in British motor racing as far as public profile goes. Just look at the volume of viewers and spectators. Our TV audience is up by some 38 per cent and the gate numbers by around 22 per cent.
"No other championship in Britain has had that sort of an increase. In fact, I doubt any other sport has, with the exception of cricket. This has been a great year for the BTCC and has been better than we’ve had for many years."
Gow also believes that Neal’s title triumph is testimony to the strength of the BTCC’s all-important technical and sporting regulations that enable independent teams to compete and succeed at the highest level.
Gow adds: "It shows that a private team can build a car that is the equal of a factory team, even without manufacturer support. The sporting regulations, with our testing and cost-control restrictions, also enable those teams to compete with the manufacturers on an equal footing and ensure the better funded teams don’t necessarily have an unfair advantage.
"The fact that in 2005 we’ve also had nine different winners – with five of those drivers from three independent teams – also underlines the competitiveness of the BTCC."
Gow believes there is every indication that the BTCC will hit the ground running in 2006. He says: "As people can read nearly every week in the specialist media, there are a lot of people talking about joining and putting together programmes to run in the championship. That is new. That level of genuine interest hasn’t happened for quite a few years.
"A turning point was the forum we held for prospective independent teams. It led to us receiving much more genuine enquiries than I’ve ever known while I’ve been in charge, either currently or in the past. People there learnt a lot and some have admitted it was quite an eye-opening experience. As a direct result of the forum alone, we will probably see at least four new cars next season in addition to the many other prospective entries also being discussed.
"Like all high profile championships, grid sizes were down at the start of the season – something that was not unique to us – but these picked up considerably as the season progressed. And yet again, the BTCC put on some amazing racing which is what our most important customers, the spectators and viewers, want to see."
