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

By MJP Media | 23 March 2016

With a maximum capacity entry list of 32 cars the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship head to Brands Hatch in Kent on April 2nd and 3rd for the first meeting of the 2016 season.

The BTCC Class of 2016

With 32 cars on the entry list, the grid is at maximum capacity for the 2016 season. Indeed, the organisers had to turn away a further two proposed entries as there was simply no room for them.

Gordon Shedden remains with the Team Dynamics squad to defend his 2015 BTCC Drivers' Championship title however with Halfords now on board as joint team title sponsors, their Honda Civic Type Rs will be carrying the distinctive orange livery and compete under the Halfords Yuasa Racing banner. Shedden will once again be joined by long-standing team-mate Matt Neal with Andy Neate joining the team to make it a three car outfit for 2016.

Jason Plato and Colin Turkington remain at Team BMR along with team owner-driver Warren Scott and are joined by James Cole. For the 2016 season the team are fielding four newly-built Subaru Levorgs, replacing the Volkswagen CCs which won them the 2015 HiQ Teams' Championship and Independents' Teams Trophy. This will represent Subaru's first ever venture into the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Matt Neal was fastest in the recent test session at Donington Park

Other driver movements for the new BTCC season include Andrew Jordan moving to Motorbase Performance to join Mat Jackson, Jack Goff taking over the Team IHG Rewards Club BMW from Andy Priaulx and Josh Cook moving to MG Racing RCIB Insurance with BTCC rookie Ashley Sutton. With the Rob Austin Racing team not contending the 2016 season, former team owner-driver Rob Austin is now driving for Simon Belcher's Handy Motorsport squad whilst Austin's 2015 team-mate Hunter Abbott moves to Power Maxed Racing with rookie Kelvin Fletcher.

At the recent test session following the official launch at Donington Park, BTCC legend Matt Neal topped the timesheet in the closing minutes after languishing down the order, pushing rookie Ashley Sutton into a still highly impressive 2nd place behind the triple BTCC champion. Rob Austin topped the timesheet for much of the early running, ending the day 3rd fastest ahead of Speedworks Motorsport's Tom Ingram in 4th, MG Racing RCIB Insurance's Josh Cook in 5th and Martin Depper 6th for Eurotech Racing.

With their new Subaru Levorg's still being built, Subaru Team BMR were unable to take part in the session, however they expect to have all four cars built and tested ready for the opening rounds at Brands Hatch in just under a fortnight.

A capacity grid should ensure another fantastic season for the BTCC

With 32 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 29th.

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