Forthcoming UK Events
| Date | Event | Location |
| 06-08.07.2012 | Formula 1 British Grand Prix | Silverstone (Arena GP) |
| 01-03.06.2012 | British Drift Championship | Norfolk Arena |
| 23-24.06.2012 | MG Live 2012 | Silverstone |
| 25-26.08.2012 | FIA World Endurance Championship | Silverstone |
The 2012 Season Starts Here
The last week has seen a flurry of activity as championships big and small held their annual media days and opening tests, with some already even getting down to racing proper. The British Touring Car Championship heads strongly into a new all-turbo generation and this year boasts 10 models from nine different marques on its 24-car grid, including the technicolour liveried return of the MG name.
The BTCC season opener hits Brands Hatch on 1st April, followed a week later by the first rounds of the British GT Championship and the British F3 International Series at Oulton Park. While some single-seater formulae have struggled in recent times - Formula Renault postponing its UK series due to poor entries - British F3 continues to attract young talent. With recent champions including the Scuderia Toro Rosso pairing of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, its status as a stepping-stone to Formula 1 is hard to dispute.
Read more...BTCC Announces 2012 Dates as 2011 Title Fights Heat Up
- Details
- Category: Home Page Editorials
- Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Sticking with BTCC, there are six races left to run and it's tied at the top of the table. Honda team mates Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden are neck and neck with 204 points, 24 ahead of reigning champ, Jason Plato. Mat Jackson and, after his first series win at Rockingham, James Nash follow with 159 and 158 points respectively.
There's been a lot of debate about performance balancing as the championship transitions between regulations, but hopefully much of that will be sorted out by next season as the NGTC teams ramp up in numbers. Honda have announced a NGTC spec Civic for 2012, Skoda have an Octavia in the pipeline, and long-time BTCC entrant, Triple Eight have announced a switch to the new specification for next year. The Vectra which took Nash to his maiden win is currently a S2000-spec car running the new turbocharged NGTC engine. The new Insignia will join a field of meatier looking cars which already includes the Dynojet and Speedworks Toyota Avensis, Welch Motorsport's Proton Gen-2 and Rob Austin's Audi A4.
Over on planet GT, the British GT3 drivers have it all to play for. With the two remaining rounds being extended single races, of which the longest race of the season is this weekend's three hour epic at Donington Park, the stakes are high. Father and son pairing, Jim and Glynn Geddie have a small lead in their CRS Ferrari 458, but Mike Guasch and Matt Bell of United Autosports want back the lead they previously held with their Audi R8 LMS.
GT3B is all sewn up by Aaron Scott and John Dhillon by virtue of them being the only car in the glass for most of the year, but there's still work to do in GT4. Here, Marcus Clutton and Peter Belshaw are leading the class in the ABG Motorsport KTM X-Bow, but Leyton Clarke and Freddy Nordstrom are chasing hard, desperately looking for that elusive win in their Lotus Evora.
In the top national single-seater series, British Formula 3, the top prize was secured by Felipe Nasr at Rockingham. However, Kevin Magnussen, William Buller, Carlos Huertas, Jazeman Jaafar and Rupert Svendsen-Cook will all be fighting hard to finish the season in the top three to bag themselves a prize test in a World Series by Renault car in November. Magnussen and Buller are in the prime positions at the moment, but with three races each at Donington and Silverstone, the fight is far from over.
There's a little less pressure in the Rookie class where Hitech Racing’s Kotaru Sakurai will claim the crown at Donington as the only current class entrant. His rival Bart Hylkema lead the class comfortably in the first half of the year, taking 11 wins from 15 starts, but stepped up to the championship class mid-season, leaving Sakurai to close up and take the Rookie title.
