Today saw a pretty important moment in the current changing world of touring car regulations, as the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship confirm it will adopt the Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) model currently being introduced into the British Touring Car Championship from 2012.
The STCC, born back in 1996 modelled on the BTCC even then, will introduce an unchanged version of the NGTC next year after some months of debate. I had spoken to BTCC Series Director Alan Gow back in August of last year as an announcement similar today’s was due, and he was optimistic of the move and what it would mean for touring car racing in north Europe. Just a month later, things had changed quite a bit– with the STCC now looking at a variation with all rear-wheel drive and larger engines, with Gow a little less enthused about what was happening, whilst the STCC’s ‘TTA’ (think of it as the STCC’s version of Formula 1's FOTA if you will) was putting forward a suggestion to run with the specification which is run in the Silhouette 1 class of the Belgian Touring Car Series - a mid-engined space frame silhouette with a Solution F built powerplant.
The Solution F and NGTC packages would be much cheaper than the current Super 2000 regulations, and even more so compared to S2000 with the new World specification 1.6 litre turbo engine. NGTC has come out a bit more expensive than first touted, and so the TTA was pushing to run the Belgian silhouette model as an interim measure to watch and see which ‘wins out’ between the FIA's new S2000 with 1.6 turbo regulations, or the BTCC’s NGTC model.
There are probably two things that have driven STCC Managing Director Bob Huzell to make his call today.
1. The significant take-up of the low cost 2.0 litre NGTC engine by almost all of the BTCC teams. Even teams with significantly smaller budgets (Dynojet Racing, Rob Austin Racing) are developing new engines, certainly a surprise as they were the kind of operation's that the TOCA engine developed by Swindon Engines was aimed for and
2. Alan Gow’s recent appointment as president of the FIA Touring Car Commission.
Although it’s not correct to assume that Gow’s appointment means NGTC will become the World Touring Car Championship model as well in the future at this point. The STCC’s move should only be considered as one that mirrors in its intention with the BTCC's intention – to drive costs down and encourage more competition into the championship, and to be able to survive without involvement from manufacturers. Indeed as a result, more manufacturers could be tempted into either championship because of the lower cost as part of a slightly different approach to past years. This has already been seen with Ford, Honda & Chevrolet in the UK – which aren’t works efforts to the extent as a works car has been in the past.
The WTCC’s alignment with the FIA World Rally Championship’s regulations has a theoretical benefit to manufacturers who wish to compete in both, and keeps the WTCC a top level professional category without the tag of being a low cost championship. The Global Racing Engine concept only further opens up opportunities in future years - the series is still strong with BMW, SEAT, Chevrolet & Volvo all already building 1.6 litre turbo-charged engines, and the WTCC is all set to start with at least 18 cars for the season opening round in Brazil. The only issue for WTCC teams is they now have less places to sell their cars after they're done with them, with them no longer eligible in the BTCC, and the Danish and Swedish championships merging into one championship, and now also following suit with NGTC.
Today's news is very good for the BTCC, as there will be two championships developing new cars and engines which can be sold on to teams in each series to compete with. With the STCC enjoying a strong position in terms of sponsorship investment to the teams, which has seen world class drivers attracted to the series such as James Thompson, Jan Magnussen, Rickard Rydell & Colin Turkington – and the BTCC still enjoying full crowds, a strong TV package and highly competitive racing, there’s certainly more reason to be more positive about the current and future state of touring car racing today.
Good post Neil. The WTCC promoters do seem to be quite keen on getting more championships to come on board with S2000, for example China and Japan.
Posted by: Pete93Allen | Feb 15, 2011 at 18:43