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British Touring Car Championship
Brands Hatch (Indy) Preview - WIN TICKETS!

By MJP Media | 25 March 2015

The waiting is nearly over as the cars and drivers of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship head to Brands Hatch in Kent on April 4th and 5th for the first meeting of the 2015 season.

The BTCC Class of 2015

With 29 drivers expected to take to the grid for the first meeting of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship and another 3 hoping to join them later in the year, 2015 promises to be a bumper year for Britain's premier motor sport series. Series Director Alan Gow said: "The BTCC is renowned for its extreme competitiveness and the levels of unpredictability seem set to reach new standards in 2015." He continued: "Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to predicting an eventual champion but what is for sure is that we're in for another titanic battle." We agree!

2015 will see a large number of driver changes amongst the teams. The most exciting of these is at Team BMR where 2014 Drivers' Champion Colin Turkington and runner-up Jason Plato are now team-mates having left WSR and MG 888 respectively. Both former double BTCC champions, the pair laid down the gauntlet at the recent test session at Donington Park by topping the time sheet in their Volkswagen CCs with Plato just 0.006 seconds faster than Turkington.

Jason Plato was fastest in the recent test session at Donington Park

With Jason Plato moving to Team BMR and his 2014 team-mate Sam Tordoff moving to JCT600 Racing with GardX, the two seats at MG 888 Racing are now taken by 2013 BTCC champion Andrew Jordan and new team-mate Jack Goff. Jordan and Goff were 6th and 5th fastest respectively at the recent test session, just behind the Mercedes Benz A-Classes of Aiden Moffat and Adam Morgan in 3rd and 4th. Elsewhere, Dave Newsham joins Power Maxed Racing to drive a Chevrolet Cruze and Andy Priaulx returns to the BTCC for Team IHG Rewards Club. Some things never seem to change and Honda Yuasa Racing return for another season with the long-standing pairing of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden in control of their all-new Honda Civic Type Rs.

There are also some interesting changes to the regulations for the 2015 BTCC season. The rules for success ballast have been changed to reflect the increase in the weight of the cars over recent years and will now be applied to the top 10 cars. The amount of success ballast is also increasing to a maximum of 75Kg which is considerably more than last year. The rules for the race 2 grid are also changing. Instead of being based on the finishing order of race 1, the grid for race 2 will be determined by each driver's fastest lap time in race 1 however they must complete at least 90% of the race AND take the chequered flag. Failure to meet these requirements will result in the driver starting race 2 from the back of the grid!

A capacity grid should ensure another fantastic season for the BTCC

With 29 cars expected on the grid and a fantastic blend of new and established drivers all keen to do well for their teams and sponsors it is going to be another memorable year for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. Watch all the race day action live on ITV4 or better still, come to Brands Hatch and experience Britain's premier motorsport series plus a full support programme first-hand. For tickets visit the Brands Hatch web site or call the Ticket Hotline on 0843 453 9000.

WIN TICKETS!
In association with MJP Media we have two pairs of weekend admission tickets for the opening meeting of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch to give away. To be in with a chance of winning and for full entry details click here and answer a simple question based on this preview. Competition ends at 12:00 on March 30th.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media