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British Touring Car Championship
2011 Season Preview

By MJP Media | 24 March 2011

As the 2011 season approaches, we take a look at what the UK's premier motorsport series has to offer.

The 2011 British Touring Car Championship gets under way next weekend as the teams and drivers make their way to Brands Hatch in Kent for the first meeting of the 2011 season. Tyre manufacturer Dunlop return as title sponsors for a season that promises to provide the kind of thrills and excitement that only the UK's premier motorsport series can provide.

With ten different makes and thirteen models of car on the 27-car strong entry list, the 2011 season will start with more cars on the grid than at the start of 2010 season, defying the current economic climate. 2011 will also see the return of Audi, Toyota and Proton to the BTCC.

Jason Plato returns to defend his 2010 Drivers Championship title, again driving the Silverline Chevrolet Cruze alongside team-mate Alex MacDowall. Former BTCC champion Matt Neal and team-mate Gordon Shedden return to drive the Honda Racing Team's pair of Honda Civics.

Tom Chilton returns to Team Aon driving the Global Ford Focus with new team-mate Andy Neate. Airwaves Racing will compete in 2011 with a pair of Ford Focus STs in the hands of Mat Jackson and Liam Griffin. West Surrey Racing will again run a pair of BMW 320si models driven by Rob Collard and Nick Foster.

Elsewhere in the championship, Andrew Jordan returns with Pirtek Racing driving a Vauxhall Vectra, Tom Boardman returns driving a SEAT Leon for Special Tuning Racing and Tom Onslow-Cole moves to AmD Milltek Racing.com to drive their VW Golf MK5.

At the recent testing session at Silverstone, six different teams occupied the top six places on the timesheets indicating that we can expect some closely contested races. Topping the timesheet were the Vauxhall Vectras of Andrew Jordan for Pirtek Racing and Tony Gilham for 888 with Colins Contractors. Former champions Matt Neal and Jason Plato were 3rd and 4th for Honda Racing Team and Silverline Chevrolet respectively with Neal just beating Plato to 3rd place. Mat Jackson was 5th fastest in his Airwaves Racing Ford Focus ST with Tom Chilton 6th for Team Aon in his Global Ford Focus.

Live race day coverage can be seen on ITV4 with race highlights on ITV1 and ITV4. Race reports from all meetings will appear in these pages. 2011 promises to be yet another exciting year for the British Touring Car Championship - don't miss out on the action!

 

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media