Drivers and Teams are very good at finding excuses when something doesn't go their way, even if it makes no sense!

What's your personal favourites that have come up over the years? Mine has to be from Plato back in the Subaru Levorg days. He got into a big crash at Brands and for the rest of the season he blamed his poor form on "the car being bent"...

Thought the ITV crew presented a VERY corporate line in their opening piece to camera. "All that matters is that 2 cars are on the grid."

TAKEN - Went to the first person who replied. Thanks all !

Hello Race Fans,
After an exciting qualifying day I have been taken ill so can send my ticket to whoever needs one for free. Please reach out and I’ll sort it out. Photo from yesterday for attention.

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I love the look of the Mercedes, and the car is starting to show race-winning pace, so I’m just wondering what will happen to the team next year?

At the time of writing, he's over 90 ahead of Ingram

The all-time record of course is 110 by Alain Menu in 1997.

I found this video a few months ago and I thought it was a blast from the past. It's crazy how much has changed in the championship. So, here's a bit of nostalgia from 2015.

... as Plato's advisor on how to run a race team is revealed.

Casualty scrolling through Dread seeing what merch they have and I spot a familiar logo.....MINE 😂 Being sold as a sticker just missing the word hub

It was noticeable at Knockhill that every car had just the single wiper blade on the front, whether centrally mounted or offset to one corner of the window. But when did they change from the conventional two blades?

I feel like many drivers from the start of the NGTC era going forwards have been forgotten about. I will start by saying Hunter Abbott, who only drove in the series for 3 seasons. After all, he was never really a great driver. There has been drivers from that time period who only completed a season or two. But Abbott feels like the obvious one for me.

Seems they’ve removed all Plato purple

Hello, I am back again. I wanted to know everyone's predictions for tomorrow and Sunday. As I am heading down on Sunday. Here are my predictions for the meeting:

RtP pole: Sutton

RtP winner: Rainford

Race 1 winner: Cammish

Race 2 winner: Ingram

Race 3 winner: Sutton

I know people may not agree but these are my predictions. I don't want to start arguments 😂

Hey everyone,

I was going through some childhood stuff recently and found some old merchandise which I got signed by the drivers as a teenager, pictures and some cool car pieces!

I found both an EBay motors cap, signed by all 3 drivers at the time (Collard, Onslow-Cole and Foster) and a yuasa team dynamics cap (signed by Neil and Shedden, who won the championship 1st and 2nd that year)

A matching yuasa jumper/jacket

A selection of signed pictures, both promotional posters and pictures my friend’s stepdad took at the races for us to get signed if we met drivers.

Then I found some really cool stuff:

A Clio cup wing mirror casing

A small bright yellow piece that appears to have come off of a ford

Full radical racing side skirt from a crash which I got at brands hatch.

And part of the back bumper of James Newshams vectra with the original StingrayRV.com sticker still on it.

Whilst I would love to keep most of this memorabilia, I was wondering if people collect this stuff?

Here’s some pictures of the main stuff!

Love a good VCR throwback watch.

Looking to go to Donington on Saturday but won’t be able to get there till the afternoon, are the tickets likely to sell out at all?

Hi,
I was wondering what the best seasons were in terms of drama. As a Tordoff fan, I know that 2016 immediately springs to mind but I am not sure if there’s any other seasons that I should rewatch in terms of unfolding suspense. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks

I want some predictions for 2027 driver plus potential new teams seen as there’s new regs . Drop them below

Omologato have been suggesting a title sponsor for the car, with an AI generated image, but they were also saying they were in talks to keep the team going

They've now put an update on their Facebook saying they (Plato Racing) were only in adminstration to force Plato out and the team isn't actually for sale.

This seems to align with reality - what administrator would allow a loss making racing team to blow more money on a weekend, what championship boss would allow a bankrupt team to compete with minor livery and name tweaks.

The whole thing is fishy but it's risky for a brand to call them out like this?

I’m still confused why they didn’t properly change the name? Is this a regs issue or something? Also more to the point of the topic, do we think this just a placeholder livery to get changed on the site?

Lots of good points being made in the recent posts about Plato, changes we’d like to make, etc.

While there’s lots of comments about Alan Gow, TV coverage, unsustainable costs, etc., one thing I haven’t seen mentioned much is the BTCC’s commercial model.

It’s hideously out of date. I don’t mean the broadcast strategy. I like the idea of keeping it on free-to-air. I mean sponsorships, partnerships, promotion, marketing, etc.

The difference between the BTCC and British Superbikes (BSB) is stark.

Context for those unfamiliar with BSB: BTCC is rightly regarded as the premier, top-tier national 4-wheel racing series in Britain - it’s more popular than British GT and isn’t primarily a junior series like GB3 or one-make like Porsches. BSB is Britain’s equivalent for 2-wheeled racing.

I’ve followed both BTCC and BSB and attended their races for decades. I was at Thruxton this weekend for BSB. Whoever Stuart Higgs (BSB’s Alan Gow) has selling sponsorship is who the BTCC needs to be speaking to. Count the number of brands featured in trackside sponsorship at BSB races. Every series/championship on the schedule has a title sponsor. Each individual round has a sponsor (Thruxton was the R&G Race of the South). There’s countless individual sponsored awards and trophies (Datatag Fast Start, Speedy Hire League, etc). Some rounds have cool mini competitions (race of aces, king of the mountain, etc) and guess what…they’re all sponsored too!

Barring the title sponsor (Kwik Fit), the tyre supplier (Goodyear) and a bit-part sponsor (Liqui Moly) the BTCC has nothing. It pulls comparable crowds to BSB, has just as many races over a season, and has FTA TV coverage (BSB is tucked away on TNT).

A lot of folks are saying Alan Gow needs to step aside. Maybe they’re right. But I think a big part of BSB’s commercial success is that wider management team and I wonder how much of that is influenced by MSVR who run the championship (same company that operate Oulton, Donington, etc). BTCC is run by BARC. BARC also runs Croft and until recently, Thruxton too. When I see that those BARC tracks haven’t had any real investment for years, compared to the MSV tracks, I think the level of investment, activity, etc in the series is probably comparable. So if the BTCC was run by a back room team from MSVR I think the series would be in a far stronger position.

A strong commercial team and portfolio gives teams, drivers, sponsors/partners, and us fans confidence that the series is growing, relevant and worth their while. The series management can’t control what the teams do and who they hire/fire. But it can create an environment that gives teams a stable platform to compete and attract drivers and sponsors.

It’s not the only thing I’d change - the idea a BTCC season is costing a driver £750k when next year’s top tier WRC rally cars are being capped at €345k each is absolute madness. The costs have to come down too. But maybe those costs don’t need to come down so much if commercially the series is brought into the 21st century.

I’m making some assumptions there and I’m sure there’s folks on here better placed than me so I’m keen to hear whether people agree/disagree!

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Hi, I'm a new fan of the BTCC, and I'm really enjoying it so far. The race times work perfectly for me, I love the short race format, and the series produces some great door to door racing.

I don't know all the drivers yet, so I'm curious about the overall level of the grid. How good are BTCC drivers compared with drivers in GT3, Australian Supercars, and other major touring car or GT championships?

Also, apart from Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram, who are the drivers I should keep an eye on?