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HiQ Teams Champions and Independents Champions - The BMR Story

By MJP Media | 21 October 2015

Team BMR RCIB Insurance won the 2015 BTCC HiQ Teams Championship, the Independents Team Trophy and the Independents Drivers Trophy. We look back at their remarkable story.

Team BMR RCIB Insurance celebrating their 2015 season

Having purchased the assets from Team HARD. back in 2013, the Team BMR squad went on to make its full debut in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in 2014. Running under the Chrome Edition Restart Racing banner, the team entered two VW CCs for double BTCC champion Alain Menu and Aron Smith, and Vauxhall Insignias for Warren Scott and Jack Goff. Smith took the team's first two wins. For 2015 the team scooped the stellar signings of double champions Colin Turkington and Jason Plato who joined Scott and Smith in an all VW CC quartet.

As a new outfit, their professionalism was apparent immediately with the team testing pre-season and looking very strong right out of the box. Staffing was spot on in both the front of house and engineering departments and Team BMR were clearly meaning business. Despite many saying that it would be difficult to shoe horn so many talents (and potentially egos) into the same team this proved to be unfounded. We were lucky enough to be with Team BMR at Oulton Park for a test back in March and the spirit in the team was evident even then. Everyone got on well and team owner Warren Scott's organisational skills were clearly to the fore in a focussed way.

Warren Scott collecting the HiQ Teams Championship trophy

Round one saw the new team's debut at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit and they were immediately successful with four podiums in that opening weekend. Whilst race wins are important, it is certainly better to judge a team by their consistency towards the top of the table. Aron Smith had two podiums in that first outing with one apiece for Jason Plato and Colin Turkington.

Moving on to Donington Park and it was another three podiums with Turkington bagging two and Plato the third. Thruxton showed a disappointing haul for various reasons with only Jason Plato making it onto the podium. Strangely it was again Jason Plato who took the team's only silverware at Oulton Park and Croft with two at the Cheshire circuit and one at the North Yorkshire circuit.

Colin Turkington won the Independents Trophy

In the second half of the season, Snetterton provided the team's best weekend with five podiums in the three races. Jason Plato and Colin Turkington enjoyed two apiece and Aron Smith one. Then came the dreaded Knockhill. Dreaded because the car is not ideal for the short twisty Scottish circuit and the team travelled with very few expectations. Their thoughts were manifested in the only weekend where the team had no one on the podium. Rockingham then saw a return to form as all three of the drivers made a trip onto the trophy steps. Silverstone provided Smith and Turkington with more trophies but Plato missed out, probably ending his title hopes. The final round saw Aron Smith and Plato achieving further success to give the team a massive 24 top 3 finishes in the season.

In the end it was a sensational season for the team in its current format, clinching the HiQ Teams Championship by 76 points and the Independents Team Trophy by 116 points from their nearest rivals. In the Independents Trophy, Colin Turkington took the title with Jason Plato 2nd and Aron Smith 4th. To say that the team were competitive would be an understatement and they certainly deserved their end of season celebrations. The worrying thing for the rest of the paddock is what they could do in 2016 with all of the data and experience gained from this year. Only time will tell!

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