BTCC History of the British Touring Car Championship 1957-2013 FULL DOCUMENTARY

For more than 50 years, the British Touring Car Championship has been one of the most popular motorsport series in the world. This is the story of the legendary drivers. The legendary cars and the legendary moments that have made it a success. This is the race secretary of

touring

car legends. john easton gibson informs his drivers, men, we don't want to bite, hit or scratch and we leave it to you when to break, now come out of your corners fighting the first

british

saloon car race was held on boxing day

1957

and It was won by Tommy Sopwith driving a Mark 1 Jaguar.

The first race I did in that car I was spending Christmas with my parents near Winchester and I drove it to Brown's Hatch, put the numbers on it, won the race and came back to have dinner and surely yes. I couldn't do that today the inaugural 1958

championship

would be fought between sopwith and his jag and gentleman jack sears in his austin westminster that car was a rally car owned by bmc

british

motor corporation they sold it to me so it was my car but they had Be careful, they made the engine and it had plastic numbers that I put on each door and then I had to take them off before I went home because the rules said you shouldn't drive home with your racing numbers. because it would create a bad impression for other road users and that's how we continued, this was a production car race in its purest form, everyone drove to the circuit of the car they were racing and dressed in their Sunday best, everyone They were a little more formal.

Back in the 50s, I had the habit of almost always wearing a tie and it never occurred to me to take it off, I just tucked it inside my shirt and I didn't have overalls, I had a helmet, but I just continued with work back then, racing Passenger cars were divided into different classes depending on the type of car. Soprathon Sears both won their class and at the end of the season they had the same amount of points that the organizers wanted to declare an overall winner. and he suggested they toss a coin. We both threw up our hands in horror and said you're not going to get away with this, we haven't raced all year to spin a car and decide who the winner is.

You have to think about something else. the solution was a face-to-face shootout at Brands Hatch. Jack Sears' Thomas Software were each given an identical 1.5 Riley until, to continue, two five-lap races were altered by changing the cars in between to make everything fair and honest with the winner decided in aggregate times. northward. They went to their needle game with the rain falling. The software kept its lights on for identification purposes. Tommy had his headlights on. I had them turned off. That's right, look how wet he was. 2.2 seconds to good old Tommy of course, we won the first race in five laps and made it to the start line.

We change cars and do another five laps. It's not far to go, but if it gets dark, they'll need radar. they are fantastic watching this brings back all the old memories lovely wallowing in nostalgia i love the music they played at the time and jack sears takes the flag again the

championship

thanks for the loan of riley's marcus and congratulations jack finally the checkered flag I came out because I was looking in the mirror to see if the gap for me in the second race was bigger than the gap he had created in the first race, they added the two race times together and I won the championship by 1.6 seconds.

That's how they decided the tiebreaker, well looking back I mean I must have been an idiot to agree to drive BMC cars against BMC's number one driver, obviously if I had the same option for the benefit of hindsight I would think about a different solution, but since they defeated me and that was that we have seen you and goodbye for now jack sears tommy sopwith and another of the first protagonists, sir john whitmore, they really were gentlemen races whitmore was educated at eaton and sandhurst while the father Sopwit gave the world a bite with camel and the Hawker Hurricane fighter jets, but even in these early days of

touring

cars they were competing against the best, the Formula One stars of the time, they all drove someone's car at some point, They were very, very versatile, you never see that today, of course, I thought about it. was absolutely fantastic in 1958, sopwith came face to face with mike hawthorne, who was on his way to winning the formula one world championship for ferrari, which was the grand prix meeting in 1958, michael hawthorne, who was then the number one driver one from ferrari. and michael was a jaguar dealer in farnham and was very friendly with lofty england who was the jaguar team manager so he said he was going to drive another car at the meeting and then he became the first british world champion that year .

It was one of the few times where I was facing Michael and we ended up a little further apart than that, but in reverse, but since he was the world champion that year, I don't mind being beaten by him. Hawthorne was just one of many. Formula One stars graced the touring car paddock in those early days. Graham Hill won the Formula One world championship twice, the Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans, but still had time to win eight touring car races between 1961 and 1963. Current Formula One world champion Jim Clark. he even won the championship in 1964 while driving for lotus and its founder colin chapman was amazing he joined the lotus team in 1960 colin chapman had discovered his ability racing in bran's hatch at one of the boxing day meetings and they had a unique ability to work together so well that he won the saloon car championship in 1964.

They congratulated jimmy, everyone smiles, a big cut, a big silver cup, I don't look very happy, but I must have been there, there was no one like him before jim clark and There hasn't been anyone like him since Jim Clark, he was so dominant in his time and he had this wonderful smooth style, he had this fantastic partnership with Colin Chapman, which is, I think, without a doubt, the best partnership between engineers and drivers in

history

. of Formula One, better even than Sebastian Vettel. and adrian newey today just drove instinctively and very very well jim clark was also a hero of two time british touring car champion john clelland he was the scotsman who was winning everything he was a great guy he won formula one he won indy he did everything who drove saloons in the British Touring Car Championship on strange weekends and won the championship for me, that was the main part of winning the championship in 1989, was taking home the trophy that had Jim Clark's name on it and that was, already you know for me just fantastic, I was serious, I didn't talk much, I didn't want to talk to people, I didn't want to talk to journalists or anything, I couldn't make a decision, I mean I used to live in my flat sometimes in London and it was called Scottish embassy for that reason, but when he, when we were there at night, I said, do you want to go to a movie or do you want to go to a restaurant? and he said, well, we are one. or the other one what are you going to do and I said well I need something to eat what food do you want you know do you want some Chinese food or this restaurant saying I don't know he said you have whatever you want and it was extraordinary so he didn't make decisions but when he got in a car I was very, very clear about what I decided to do with the car but outside of the car I couldn't make a decision.

I still think that Jimmy Clark was the most talented driver of all time because he would set a time on lap three or four and Graham was still taking one off. tenth. uh, at the end of the second day's practice, he was just raw talent as clark led the way on the track graham hill dominated the post-race parties funny character absolutely hilarious self-made racing driver, of course, he He came from nothing, he was a mechanic and he made a career in car racing and he was brilliant, he fooled people, you know he led people down a garden path and did funny things sometimes and that kind of thing and he didn't.

I was an ordinary person in that sense, but I mean, I actually felt like there were a lot of people running there. since they weren't very common people because they were crazy competing as a team, first of all, Graham was chosen after dinner speaker of the year by the emcee association and you can't get a higher praise than that and he was a tremendous man fun. I thought it was a big boost for saloon car racing that these Formula One aces were there playing against us, sometimes I could beat them, sometimes I couldn't, but it was great fun trying and the Formula One drivers weren't the only ones. celebrities in a touring car the series even attracted the interest of a young hollywood actor the initial success of touring car racing saw the paddocks filled with some of the world's top grand prix drivers and even hollywood celebrities sir john Whitmore had already won the The 1961 championship, with one race to spare, he handed the reins to his American movie star friend, Steve McQueen, he and I met riding motorcycles.

He was really into cars and motorcycles and I had motorcycles at the time and we talked a lot about it and when the last race was coming up I said to Steve why don't you drive my car because I don't need to drive at Bran's Hatch and he said Yes, I will do it. He was a very good driver, I mean. he was also extraordinary on a motorcycle and he did it very well, he was an extraordinary person, we did a lot of crazy things together, fun things you shouldn't do and get away with it in the 60s in

full

swing, touring car racing enjoyed its early years steve neal is now the manager of the honda yuasa touring car team and the father of triple champion matt, but in the early 60s he was a promising young racer living the dream, it was a fun time, there really was a kind of atmosphere around the place was electric in the 60s everyone was making money there were no recessions or layoffs or anything like that nothing bad happened and it all added to that background that the beatles and carnaby street and all That was brilliant for Neil and many of his contemporaries.

There was only one car option for the budding racer. The Mini was an absolutely ideal car. In the right place. At the right time. The cars were very basic, as you can imagine, there was nothing dramatic or technically advanced. all with a mini, drop it on its bumpers and go driving. That was the philosophy now. For those of you who are new to mini racing, we should point out that it is a tradition among drivers that someone must spin on the first lap. If possible, on the narrowest part of the course, the first few days we didn't even have roll cages, in fact we didn't even have seat belts to begin with, he had a fiberglass cube that he would sit in and think, it depends Lucky. you were and it was probably homemade and it wobbled, you just had to hold onto the steering wheel and this notion of little steering wheels to steer them because he didn't have power steering so the thing was solidly on the ground.

I could fit the biggest steering wheel possible and you would sit as close as possible and fight with it in the corners. He was very rough, very rough. Another mini number 77 shows the correct way to corner and the wrong way for the driver. It's not as bad as it seems, a damaged pair of glasses and a broken tooth. Several things happened when I was trying to get into the races, but I was impressed with the speed of the mini in the corners, so I just played with the mini on. the highway, I mean, it was just an 850, so it wasn't going very fast and what I found out is that you would go

full

speed anywhere, I mean, you just didn't have to slow down with a Minion brand hatch, you know, you go. flat in every corner, even in the druid's curve and everything was nothing for a mini the druid's curve resonates with the tapping of tiny tiles.

I was accused of doing all kinds of crazy things on a mini because I was putting them at really fun angles that were interesting. to me and people told me why are you racing in this little box, you know, and I said, well, it's fun, I really enjoyed racing it and then if you do something and you do it the way you want, you'll be successful anyway and that is what I was the Ford Cortina, it too began life as a humble family car, but in the hands of Lotus founder Colin Chapman, it became an iconic racer in a special factory just north of London.

An even more powerful version of the car is developed. The Cortina Lotus is being brought in. for racing for the 1964 season, it had that distinctive color scheme, white bodywork with a green flash and there's colin chapman talking to a couple of guys colin chapman lotus wizard is always available to advise and check the work of his experts colin Chapman was very involved in managing a racing team, that was his passion. The men who built the Cortina brand proudly found their car to have won more races and rallies than any saloon car before it. We used to come regularly to Snatterdon and drive around. them on the road and all that was a lot of fun because the mechanics used to drive them there and back and the a11 was silent then, you could go up to a hundred miles an hour and a quarterand there was no problem in all brands.

Public holiday in England in August. A battle royal will be fought for the British saloon car championship. Jim Clark on Cortina 146 already has six wins under his belt and is eager to reach that vital number seven. Never have a car and a driver been so well placed for this. The championship so early in the season here was a leading Formula One team with arguably the greatest driver of all time taking on the British Touring Car Championship, it wasn't until the super touring era of the 1990s and the arrival of Williams Renault that we would see something like that again.

Three curtains cross the line and Jim Clark's lead gives him his seventh victory in seven consecutive matches. The British saloon car championship was won by Ford for Jack Sears in 1963, when the curtain first swung. Participation in this event was happily followed by Clark's victory in 1964. Jimmy Clark was famous for driving the coal tubs and could lift them up on two wheels and you know, the commentators enjoyed all this and the crowd. Lotus cartina with all three wheels, you know, Brian was born in the bottom corner with one wheel up and Silverson on the Grand Prix track again just moving one front wheel, that was something you already knew about touring car racing, racing of saloons and for me.

That was really the reason I got involved in this. Jimmy Clark used to say it's fun to drive them, if you enjoy what you do you'll put on a good show and it was very friendly, too, that the racing was competitive. but at the same time you could go and talk to the galaxy boys and the mini boys and you know we were all in this together. One of the few men capable of fighting Clark in '64 was Jack Sears, who by the way had traded in his Austin Westminster for a Ford Galaxy when he won the title for the second time in 1963.

What the American bully lacked in finesse he made up for in raw power and he still has a place in the Sears garage. I got the same satisfaction and as much excitement from winning the championship the second time with this galaxy because no one thought they could do it when it first came, everyone was at each other's throats so to speak, the wheels would come off, it would be a big handful to corner him. . but it handled well and the wheels didn't come off, so it surprised everyone, including me, a 450 horsepower seven liter v8 engine which is the power of the car and we possibly almost touched 160, but probably close to 155. the difference between the standard car and the nascar race cars this front fender is all fiberglass front bumpers made of aluminum and fiberglass the seats you see here were standard seats for the car we were not allowed to put bucket seats and these seats they are the real seats that I used in 63, the competition dashboard here are all competition instruments of course not standard instruments, the steering wheel is standard, it was the normal steering wheel for this car and as per the rules and regulations it was required have a fire extinguisher and that little fire extinguisher downstairs.

There it was classified, I don't think we would have done much good, but we still had a fire extinguisher. It was an exciting but dangerous time in 1968. Jim Clark was killed in a Formula 2 car race for Lotus at Hockenheim. Steve. Neal remembers the effect he had on passenger car regulars. A major catastrophe that took place when he was 60 years old was the death of Jim Clark. I think that affected everyone because he was a very nice guy, he was the Mr. Nice Guy of motorsports and the shock that it was, it was never going to happen to you, it was never going to happen to Jim Clark and the fact that it happened to jin kark made us all think about our own vulnerability jim clark's death was something like the death of president kennedy Anyone who was alive at the time can tell you where they were when they found out that president kennedy had been assassinated and equally the People can tell you where they were when they heard about Jim Clark's death.

I was always amazed at the number of people who had serious injuries and were limping or whatever and would do it forever and the people who had actually died, you know, I was shocked. I got into racing in the first place because I wanted to prove myself and then I felt I could do something right. Why go ahead and kill yourself? Why not quit while you're still fine? You know, that's what I really thought. I didn't want to keep doing it when the 60s turned into the 70s and the Australian hit four. frank gardiner had raced in formula one but was more comfortable in a saloon winning back-to-back championships for ford in '67 and '68 before winning again in 1973 while driving a chevrolet camaro well frank had the most wonderful sense of humor he ever gave me.

He laughed all the time and made everyone laugh because he spoke in a peculiar way, but he said the most amazing things, I mean, he was a very different type of human being. You can visualize the bone breaking rod did something like this. He lets you know that he takes off all the buttons on your jumpsuit. I guess that's why they invented zippers. I really enjoyed driving with him because we always laughed a lot. You know, and you know, whenever something happened in a race, he always had a joke to make afterwards, you know, he was always funny and I really enjoyed the outspoken owner, he was a lovely guy to everyone.

Gardner's success. Touring car racing was still a class war. Bill McGovern wasn't winning races outright, but his Hillman imp carried him to three straight races. championships from 1970 to 1972. I think the Hillman Imp was an incredible iconic car. The car was so superior to anything else on the track. George Bevin used to build engines on the kitchen table in his house. He was an absolutely brilliant engineer. 10,000 revolutions. in every gear, the handling and the gearbox, the gear ratios, everything else was so advanced, so fine-tuned that it wasn't doing many dice, it came out at a measured pace to the master point, early 1970s too It marked the arrival of a man who would win 60 races and be a key figure in the championship for the next 20 years Andy Rouse a brilliant engineer Ralph's worked for Broadspeed the team responsible for his Dolomite triumph I was an engineer mainly because I worked at Broadspeed in The Workshop and eventually I became manager of the racing department, but I raced the cars and did all the test drives as well, so you know I was pretty involved and you know, it was something I could do that not a lot of other people could do.

I could do and you know that skill was very useful to me throughout my career. The Dolomite was a difficult car to drive. It was actually good in the fact that it was the only car on the grid with a two-litre 16-valve engine, so the engine was quite good, but the car itself was quite basic because the rear axle was attached with a rubber band, so it was a bit rough and it didn't have brakes, it had little solid discs, so it wasn't a performance car as such, but with a bit of engineering and some clever tuning we managed to make it work well enough to win the touring car championship in 1975.

Rouse was part of a new generation of racers who saw it as less of a gentlemanly pursuit and more of a professional career, my focus was on engineering, so I worked hard and long hours and, You know, I was pretty fit and healthy anyway, so driving the car wasn't a difficulty at all and of course, they weren't high G force cars or anything like that, so you know I was always fit enough to do the job, but you know preparing the car to get the best out of it was really my focus. Andy Rouse was an absolute professional. he was an engineer with a brilliant mind and most of the drivers would come in and say, well, you've got a little bit of understeer or a little bit of oversteer on the fast or this has to be done and andy would come in and sit down and two clicks on the bump, three on a bounce and take one of these, you know, a softer spring in the rear and it tells you exactly what the car needs.

I remember Andy as a very calm, deliberate, extremely bright guy, who is basically excellent. engineer, but he is also very talented as a driver and it is not very often that there are people who can play both the roles of engineer and driver. His meticulous attention to detail was already very evident; He even designed and built his own. exercise machine, so this is a machine that I came up with to improve my fitness and increase the strength of my arms and hands, so you just sit here and watch TV and keep doing this for about half an hour each way, I want That is, it is efficient in the fact that it builds your arms, your shoulders, your hands, your grip and your thumbs all in one go, so you save yourself going to the gym for hours doing many different machines.

Nowadays fitness is a big thing in racing, but it probably wasn't in those days, but the cars were quite heavy and very hot to drive, so you needed to be fit when exercising in this machine. I wore a lot of clothes, my racing suit and sweaters and all kinds, they get very hot, but Rousey's commitment was in stark contrast to another of the touring cars. Great people, Gordon Spice, I never went to a gym in my life, I never considered going for a run or going to the gym to get fit, until the first right-hander Spice had first entered the touring championship in the 1960s in The steering wheel of a Mini Gordon Spice almost lost it.

Gordon Spice really is driving absolutely on the limit. Now he just went too far. If Sears and Sopwith had been gentlemanly racers, then Spice was a player in tune with the spirit of the 1970s. It was the vibrant '60s that continued into the '70s. People had a much more relaxed attitude toward relationships in those days and We certainly took advantage of it. There was a good camaraderie among the races in the '70s. The competition was intense but not. We had some good parties and yes we used to drink too much most nights and I used to make the excuse that I needed to get a good night's sleep and then get up for a race but then they started talking about bringing breathalyzers to the grill which was a good reason . giving up on saloons, even his trademark Griffin helmet had a dual purpose: it was a pretty revolutionary helmet at the time with a large opening for safety features, we said, but we actually said you could smoke a cigarette without taking the helmet off. and they were very very popular at that time, we sold them all over the world.

Gordon always amused us because he always had a cigarette in the car, he would sit on the grill, smoke and smoke, and as soon as the race was over, the flag bearer would drop him. He would be lighting a cigarette on the way around the slowdown lap for the 1980 season. Spice invited Rouse to join him on the Ford Capri Dream Team. Yes, there were a lot of Capris for a while in the championship, there were big American V8s. with Stuart Graham and you know some of those really big cars, but when the rules changed and the championship came back to us, I think a maximum of three liters, then the Capri became the car to have.

They were really good days, lots of great racing. I remember my dad taking me to Walton Park and queuing behind the pits to get autographs from all the lads. There was Stuart Graham. There, Jerry Marshall Gordon seasoned all the capris and it was fantastic. I loved him. I loved the part. I stood on the shore watching with everyone else and got my autograph book, which I still have to this day. Gordon Spice will have to draw on all of his vast experience in motorsports to win this race. I remember I won 27 races. in a capri and that was a record at the time, they were lovely cars to drive, very easy, you could put them at ridiculous angles, it didn't help your lap time, you had to try to be careful with them, that was what we spent our time on time. on setting them up to be easy because easy cars give you confidence and it's all a matter of confidence how fast you go into a corner, they were absolutely idiot proof as far as I'm concerned, we wait for the lights to change, there they go .

And it's a very good start for Gordon Spice and Vince Woodman goes with him. Andy Rousey is doing well, but hey look, the two rovers are there too. In fact, how can all these cars pass for police on the first lap? His teammate Spice and Rouse would have many close battles. throughout a dominant season and all the while this battle now between the team's two cars really seems set up for a proper cliffhanger, it's still Andy Rice but the spices worry every inch of the road, look at the dent in the door Have they had contact with each other?

This time we asked ourselves on the straight towards the braking area, I think he made it, yes, he's in. Gordon Spice leads the race and then Andy Ross in second place. He had a contract with Ford. I ran a two car team and tried to get the best drivers to take second and was lucky enough to get Andy for a coupleof years and here it seems that Andy Roush is going to try to go, so inside he does it, it is inside, a small hole is always difficult. maneuver, so it's a tremendous battle between Gordon Spice's capris running towards Knickerbrook once again Spice is right behind Andy Rouse, he's not going to let this go, but it's Rouse who leads through Knickerbock and up for Clay Hill once again as just ahead of teammate Gordon Spice crossed the line once again which of Gordon Spice's two capris is this time it's Gordon Spice again in the lead just ahead of Andy Rouse and it's a race wins a one-two for Gordon Spice Racing we thought it was going to be a race to the line and there was a moment where I think it really hit you passing Nick Brook.

It could be that it's never far away, that's for sure, tell me something, isn't this going to present difficulties for you at the end of the year if you two are going to be fighting and I must say that from a spectator's point of view it is a great race engine, but couldn't it make them lose the championship with fastest lap points and stuff? Well, the winner of the saloon car championship hasn't come from the large class for a long time and I don't think that, even if we drove to order, there would be very little chance of a large class taking an overall victory in the championship. there was competition in the team for the victory there were never team orders here we are in mallory park there is a pretty good grid of cars there capris mainly and there go gordon Spice has a very good start andy rice goes with him but so is vince woodman and , since they crossed the devil's elbow this time, they are very close together.

I won the race there, but Gordon wouldn't have been too interested in that, even though he finished second, he was the team leader after all. And coming to take the checkered flag, Gordon Spice's Andy Rouse in second, not only did you win the race, but you also set a new lap record, so that gives you an extra point and I think the whole championship thing now. It's in doubt, isn't it? Because if there are no restrictions on Gordon Spice's team, then it could cost him the championship, in theory, right? Maybe it will, but it will be an interesting situation that will develop during the season.

For starters, there were no team orders until I beat Gordon about three times and then I got a letter in the mail that changed what we could do a little, in that you don't beat the team leader. It was Gordon's team and he had to win, so after that I was a support driver, but we still had a great time in many races, while Spice's battles with Andy Rouse were generally good-natured, his relationship with a cunning Scottish driver, Tom Walkenshaw, was anything but. It's no secret, we were long lost enemies, we fought like Kilkenny cats in the late 1970s, gentleman drivers were being replaced by players and few played harder than Tom Walkenshaw.

He would be a key figure in the British Touring Car Championship from time to time. until the late 1990s, but it was as a host that he first became famous. His battles with Gordon Spice were legendary for all the wrong reasons. There is no secret about it. We were long lost enemies and in fact we had fought like kenny cats kills tom and I we didn't see eye to eye we respected each other but we didn't see eye to eye there was a race at Brands Hatch where we were both in the last race of the season Tom had I had to win the race and I had to get ahead, or rather, to win the class of the year and we had what is best described as explosive races and reports came in from every corner of the circuit saying that these two lunatics were out there hitting each other and end of the race, I think we came in last and a little bit, Tom hadn't won anyway and the race director called us to get us patched up and I told some of them I said, you know, let's not surround each other, let's We lost our licenses in this case and of course we both went in there with our helmets on because I thought Tom would hit me if I took mine off and with our arms around each other and convincing the stewards that we were there was nothing disgusting. about that and it was that tom was in his prime oh gordon wouldn't do that to me at all and all that stuff and we left it with a warning but that was a memorable race 1977 i think tom walkenshaw went on become andy rouse not just a tremendously talented engineer not only a tremendously talented driver who won championships but a tremendously talented businessman walkenshaw founded tom walkenshaw racing or twr as it was better known and in 1980 twr partnered with mazda and a driver named win percy Percy and Walkenshaw's relationship goes back to 1975 and wins the first Turinka race in which he won his class in a Toyota after a battle with Walking Shores forward the first time they won the class and then gathered in the paddock saying "Well you know , please". and this burly guy pushed his way through the small crowd and said wind it's a funny name I said well it's winston but they call me win you know that's my name and this is your first touring car race I said yes and he stayed He extended his hand and said I have to say he said you are very good and one day I will have my own racing team he said and I would like you to drive for me and he shook my hand and left that's how we met and obviously became friends later.

From that, true to his word, five years later, Percy would drive for TWR in a Mazda RX-7, well, he said, I'll pay you six thousand pounds to win the championship, but if you just won I'm not sure if I'll pay you, so that we shook hands and that was my deal and it was a tremendous sky here not to drag and a beautiful start, a lovely start there and he is immediately bursting into leadership. Allen tries to get his bearings. behind it they are very, very tight, in fact the RX-7 had a radical rotary engine. The surprising thing was that in those days people didn't trust the rotary, it was a market that Mazda wanted to enter and compete with. the rx-7 rotary was a way to promote it, it had to burn some oil, that's how the car was designed, and the first year in 1980 it had a megaphone exhaust that blew your brains out, the noise it made was just Amazing, we had to use mufflers the second year, so they had this huge muffler box at the back, next to the rear bumper, but the amazing thing was that it didn't lose any power, it was a very tricky little engine, amazing little car, Percy won again. 81 but when twr switched from mazda to rover walkenshaw told him he had lost his drive, this was a cunning plan to reduce percy's salary but it backfired when wynn was offered a toyota drive for 82 and winning his class in a corolla he took a hat -trick of the British titles, the funny thing was that I took the corolla, won the championship for toyota and beat the rovers, which is what he expected to win the championship, but during that year and it was a thruxton in particular , I remember beating two of the rovers. in the 1600 corolla over the finish line and one of the drivers was frank sittner, who was absolutely blown away by frank when he realized that this corolla had beaten the rover he was driving, you know, because he felt that tom had let him down .

Which was the Corolla, it was so good, it was a crazy little car, it's fabulous, we had another play at the front with a winning record, Tom protested, he said it was an aerodynamic aid, it was a little bigger than it should have been been and was inclined. slowly, but we took it off anyway, it was a classic walk along the shore that took everything to the limit, the rules are there to overcome if you can and Tom surpassed them brilliantly with a supposed blessing, he is no longer here, but I still find myself supposedly saying um. roll bars supposedly filled with gas and things like that that allowed the car to go faster and that was fair game as far as Tom was concerned, he explored gray areas to the limit, yes if there was a way out I think you'll find it.

Most people had their own tricks. I found that if Tom ever did what you would call a stunt or pushed a gray area to its limits, the opposition found it difficult to do much about it because they also knew what they were doing. When you look at where Tom started, like usually hauling his car from Scotland to where he ended up as a multi-millionaire, having had a formula one team with Bennett and then with Arrows and then ending up in Australia, you can look back on his life. With great pride in his achievements, Walkenshaw's determination to play fast and flexible with the rules would have a huge impact on the talented young Briton Steve Soper, who raced for TWR in the 1980s, Soper had first entered the championship in a meter, but it would establish his reputation.

In a v8 rover I had been branded as a front wheel drive person who could only drive front wheel drive cars so I guess there was a lot of nervousness about him being able to drive this rover and it was very easy to drive. compared to a front wheel drive car, I drove the same way in a row as they do with a front wheel drive car, as I did later in BTC, you know, super touring cars or prototypes, I never changed my handling and it was just a race car and I drove it, so going back to what it was like in 1983 with the rogue was easy, I thought, for God's sake, this is so easy compared to, you know, the subways and the parties and all the things horrible things you had to do with those cars to make them work and are competitive suddenly the rover was a breath of fresh air bought the car soup introduced a new level of professionalism and will be official driver for the next 20 years 1992 champion tim harvey who also made his debut in a rover remembers the impact of soup Steve was my hero because when I started in motorsport it was with Austin Rover.

Steve was a factory driver, so I introduced him very early and realized how professional Steve was. I always compared him to the Airton touring car hub he was. so committed that he knew every engine dyno and shock absorber. He knew all the engineers, whether in Germany or England. He really worked like a professional being a racing driver 24 hours a day and I learned a lot from him. Also, Steve is a tremendous talent behind the wheel and achieved international success, you know, he raced all over the world in world championships, he drove for many manufacturers, you know, and he was one of the kings of touring car racing if you look at the two drivers that You know I respect probably in my era of racing more than anything, so you'd be looking at Andy Rouse.

I would put it along the same lines, maybe Jensen Button and when you get to Steve Soper, then I would see Sebastian Vettel more in the way they are, the way they present themselves and the determination to win steve was a very determined person steve was there to win but for now soup success was in the future despite winning the 83rd championship in the twr rover, a protest from another driver saw his car and the team were excluded from the results, everyone really knew that Tom sailed a little close to the wind and Frank, sitting there, had a fight with Tom at some point and decided to get revenge, so he protested against Tom's rovers at Donington One. of the races must have been 83 and the consequences of that they were not resolved until 84.

The argument went all the way to the high court, but Sopa would ultimately lose its championship to the class-winning Alfa Romeo of Andy Rousey. I think we won. the championship for six months, so you know, but unfortunately I'm not in the record books, uh, with the rover and I mean Tom used to annoy a lot of people on his way and he would certainly rub it in the scrutineer's nose. and a few times during that year and previous years and I think they wanted to prove a point to him and we lost, I think six months later in a higher court we lost the championship because it had hydraulic tappets on the engine and I think They were modified so they could be adjusted, not of a much quicker and easier way, they didn't improve performance, but as far as the rule book was concerned, the car didn't comply, they fought and fought and fought and we lost.

That championship flew away six months later, once you stop and look back, um, yeah, it would have been nice to have been in the record books at a time when I didn't care at all, in 1984, Walkenshaw not only I was losing. In the high court, his team was also being beaten on the track by Andy Rouse in a rival rover. It was a bit ironic really because in '84, the year it was finally resolved, I was driving a rover against Morgan Shaw's best rovers and beat them by half. Throughout the season I think I've won more races in rovers than them, so they retired and it looked pretty bad for them because not only did they get disqualified for cheating, but they also got beaten and we moved on.

Winning the championship class that year with the Rover would be the Rover's last championship success. A new era was about to begin with the launch of the revolutionary Ford Sierra. It is the early 1980s and Ford has just launched the Sierra, a radical replacement for the iconic curtain cruelly nicknamed the jelly mold its futuristic stylediscouraged british dealers from burnley to basingstoke the new ford sierra is one of the most efficient aerodynamically controlled cars ever created drive the new ford sierra yourself it's man and machine in perfect harmony the sails were ford in trouble needed a solution , so they turned to the British Touring Car Championship to give the Sierra an image boost.

The cars were good, you know, the racing was good then and of course television also started to take an interest in the championship at that stage. but the sierra was the jelly mold car, it was following the curtain and i think ford was struggling to sell it so as soon as it came out they gave us a program to develop it for racing in preparation for the sierra cosworth, the car we had was The Mercure had a 2.3 liter RM block American turbo engine, so it was our first turbo car, so it was a pretty quick learning curve for us to go from a V8 Rover to a turbocharged Ford, but we managed to get it.

It went very well and we won. the championship with him in 85. This is Bran's hatch, it is not the first time that a major manufacturer competes on a Sunday to sell it on Monday and this is the Ford Sierra, a car that has never stopped improving. I won the championship with the first Ford Sierra. I produced a one-minute TV ad that ran in the middle of the 10 o'clock news for about six months, so my name and face were mentioned in this ad so people knew me, which made a big difference. For me, you know, with the way I was recognized during that period we all became very well known and you know it was a great time, it was a 90 horsepower 1.8 family five-seater and in 1985 it turned Andy Rouse British saloon champion, Ford Sierra's time for racing.

Success transformed the Sierra's reputation and in 1987 its legend was completed with the launch of the RS 500. This was a homologated special built for racing. They were challenging cars to drive because they had 500 horsepower and the tires weren't that big. Although the Sierra was a good car overall, the handling wasn't actually that good because you weren't allowed to lower the car as much as you wanted. One of the things I remember about driving this saw was how hot it was inside because of the turbocharger. it was right on the other side of the driver's side bulkhead and the exhaust pipe was under the seat so after half an hour it was so hot in there you couldn't touch the floor but i never won the championship in an rs 500 but i enjoyed some titanic battles with people like rob gravitt and steve soper it was just a great car it just improved the whole car had been built around motor racing and ford did a fantastic job at the time it had over 500 horsepower. and he did everything you wanted him to do after an accident cut short a promising single-seater career.

Tim Harvey moved into touring car racing and won three races in a rs 500 in the late 80's. The Sierra was especially in their rs 500 guys. They were the masters, but they made 560 horsepower, went 175 miles per hour , not on a long straight on a normal circuit, so they were fantastic cars, it was a fun time to be a touring car driver, they were great times and stuff. I really don't see cars like them coming out again. We could still have some fun in those days. In those days, all the pilots had their own motor homes. We all cornered ourselves on the circuits and I had a lot of fun, it was a really good crack.

We always hoped to have a race at four or five in the afternoon the next day so we would have flushed the alcohol out of our system by the time it arrived. For many the rs 500 was the iconic touring car of the late 80s but it wasn't the only show in town and that's ian forrest who almost lost the bmw godfrey hall who passed it on the frank sidner black bmw who He passed on the right and they interspersed. him on each side a bmw sandwich and they go bmw entered the

btcc

in the early 80s and won its first title in 1988 in the hands of frank siter and the pro-drive team led by david richards frank sitner appeared in the offices here in Banbury and I said, would you build me an m3 to take part in the British Touring Car Championship? and we thought about it for a few days and we looked around and we thought well we have all the pieces to do this and we're building the rally car anyway so let's do it and we went with frank and that was our first foray into touring car racing.

Steve soper would join citna in a bmw, who would trade his rs 500 for a bmw m3 pro drive, it was great fun because he could actually give it his all and it was a lovely car, light, very agile, drove absolutely what you would imagine it to I should drive a saloon. Like it was a great car. I still have very fond memories of those cars. They were fantastic. Fantastic for competing. The arrival of Prodrive coincided. With full-time coverage on the BBC Grandstand, the cars and drivers were about to become household names as race highlights were broadcast weekly with commentary from Murray Walker The Rabbit Is Going Through Gravity he's taking the lead, he's taken the lead and there's contact and he's going to grab it's not entirely out of place andy rouse is on his way there will be a big discussion about that too i'm sure and andy rouse the leader has slipped away when you're commenting You can't afford to look at the photo and think, Do I say it this way or do I say it that way or do I say it this way?

You say what comes to mind to describe the image you are seeing and the emotions you feel. I always considered my job as a commentator. It wasn't just reporting that anyone can talk about who is leading and who is in third place. I was always conscious of the fact that we were in show business and my job was to not only inform but hopefully also entertain along with him on the racing line and there is contact and he has lost it jerryman is lost looks over his shoulder straight into the gravel trap and that's wally I don't think Jerry is happy at all and I guess you can't blame him I have a huge like Because, uh, Murray, he's just a lovely, charming man and it was great to have been involved in the championship and I think it was his dulcet tones and some clever cutting and closing of some of the video covers that weren't live races in those days that made some of the racing very exciting, but Murray with these classic phrases and he was deliberately tripping over himself just to look a bit silly which is just fabulous, you can't underestimate the value Murray brought to the championship. pay a bill for murray to be there for two days at the bhp studio in london doing the voiceover and I thought this is crazy why am I paying someone two days to do a half hour voiceover um full of mistakes um and It was just when I said I went in there one day and I sat there for two days and I saw Murray doing it.

You think this guy is a professional. Mistakes weren't always mistakes, many times they were there on purpose, but he would do it. Sitting there for a whole day going over every minute of the action writing everything down and then you saw that for two days a year he put his heart and soul into it and I didn't mind footing the bill for him, so everyone loved it. Murray Walker and he had a genuine enthusiasm for racing. He came to the races without having any work to do, but he just came to the races just to be there, so he was a genuine enthusiast.

The BBC grandstand began showing BTCC highlights. It was the late 80s and one of the most memorable races was the championship decider in 1989. Opel's John Clennan was battling against BMW's James Weaver and came into the final round with a dose of paranoia. He had heard all sorts of rumors that a BMW was on the grid. They asked me to delete myself now, if that was true, if it was paranoia, I'm really not sure, but I wasn't prepared to take the risk. All I had to do was win the class and try to get the fastest lap and the championship. mine, but in wet conditions, Clelland ranked among the BMWs calling for drastic action.

There's Clelland at the back of the grid and everyone overtakes him and he seems to have some kind of problem with gear selection, I told my wife the night before. I think the safest way to do this is to stop at the grid and start from the back and there was nothing in the rules that said I couldn't do that and then I proceeded to pick my way through the class I knew. I was able to do it because the car was very capable of doing it. Championship leader John Clelland is 23rd out of 35 and is leading his class.

He has broken the lap record and that will be fine. John got the fastest lap, got the win in his class and got. The championship was a huge relief because no one in the team knew what they were doing, only my wife was almost home to win the 1989 British Touring Car Championship. John Clelland in his Vauxhall Astra 16 valve. I spent the entire year staying out of the way. bmws and I thought I was in the pack and maybe it was better to avoid the problem, there was no element of a predetermined plan, no at all, so we were a bit worried about it before, that's what James Weaver says.

The mechanics tried to lock me in the truck before the race, so I knew there was a plan somewhere. I think there was a bit of suspicion afterwards, but the stakes were high because it was Opel's first foray into the British Touring Car Championship. which they stayed in for 20 more years in those days, you win races on Sunday and sell cars on Monday and that's what it was really all about, we had to win this championship and beat the mighty BMW that was. Really important, a new era of BTCC was dawning, but the arrival of conventional television put pressure on passenger cars.

The old class system. Casual spectators struggled to understand why the fastest cars did not win the championship. That era was quite difficult because you had all three. four classes and you'd have the sierra cosworth flames on the side running at the front of the field licking everyone, you'd have us with the m3s and then you'd have john clelland driving in a and a vauxhall in the I came back and won the championship so no one knew really what was happening. It was not the ideal environment for manufacturers or sponsors. I never felt like I really deserved to win the British Student Car Championship after having won it. the lower classes, but until that moment it had always been earned from the lower classes.

Twelfth place in a race was the highest I ever finished. How can I win the UK's most prestigious championship and not win a race? So that didn't really mean. For me it was many years later that it began to sink in that something had to be done. A group of us got together at that time and sat down to think about the future of the championship, if I remember correctly it was either Andy Rouse or Dave. vauxhall cook it was myself david lapworth on our technical side and we sat down we looked at what we needed to do to create a championship that worked for everyone in the long term most of the manufacturers were their main products were front wheel drive and um but no one was competing with front-wheel drive particularly competitively at the time, so it was quite radical thinking and the idea of ​​striking a performance balance between front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive was also quite novel at the time the two-wheel drive formula was pushed. liters. for all the good reasons, that's what was needed, that's what the market wanted at the time, you know, manufacturers wanted to advertise their mid-range cars and they need to produce cars instead of local location specials, I think That's why it became so popular, because the people who went to the track and watched the races or watched them on television could obviously identify with the car they had in the garage or drove to work every day.

In 1991 there will be a single class of 2 liter cars, BMW, Vauxhall, Toyota, Nissan. and Ford signed up for the launch of what would soon be known as the super touring era and 1991 is gone and it's a scorching start from Will Today on the left now we're with Steve Soper to Kantz, he's second today in the left corner of intercom three up front is will today bmw clelland sofa carver in his bmw and there is palmer on the left he is turning his thumb has hit andy wake up half goes to toyota what a start for his first toyota race now we are looking back from steve Sofa and Andy Rouse's car in the race and is going for third place from the first race.

The action was frenetic in that first year, four drivers each winning three races for three different manufacturers, one of them was John Clenand, whose association with Vauxhall would be a highlight of super touring. John Tellen is ahead of Will Today to second place. in stoke corner since i got on the cavalier. I knew we were going somewhere because you know from the first race we were really competitive with them, it was the fleet car getting good, you know? It was just the representatives car duringthe week, but I was winning races at the weekends, it was mainly about John Clerned in a Cavalier against the mighty BMW with German drivers, British drivers and everyone else, so it was really rolling up your sleeves, go ahead and get your elbows, it made me in a sort of hero at the Luton plant where they make these cars, but effectively we didn't have a racing car like BMW and we made a road car with it, we had a road car that thousands and thousands of times drove around the country. and I ran on the weekends and also won races.

He's kind of a Scottish Cockney sparrow to me. He's not a Cockney, of course, he's very, very Scottish, but he has that almost birdlike glow. uh, tremendously witty, very funny, very sharp sense of humour, an excellent driver and he drove for Vauxhall, and Vauxhall was not a car that you would expect to win races in a British Touring Car Championship against all the other works cars, but the advertising that they obtained. It was absolutely fantastic and John Clelland and the Cavalier contributed enormously to the vastly improved image they got. 1991 was famous for some classic battles. Clelland went head to head with the late Will Hoy in his BMW M3 and it's a sensational start for Will Hoy. from highway two, coming out of the old hairpin, getting on starkies towards the trains and will today is passing, the boy passes the leader, steve silver is following him, he is passing second position, passes second, goes down to the third position and when he was t fighting against clelland today battle when steve soper in another bmw and today he leads super second in prairie this is it then from super passes steve super passes and takes the lead today he will fall back as they turn through brooklyn towards the lefty steve silva bmw leads today bmw the championship came down to the end of the season it was the last race for the m3 and it would end in style okay i will be watching you in the middle yes they are off and andy rouse leads the boy has gone along with clella they did the police the first turn on the right here they are ralph leading high in second place john clelland third and andy middlehurst ford sierra is in fourth position we are in the car with the boy and he is passing clelland in fact he has already passed clelland and he is in sixth position with jonathan palmer in front of him and almost hit him.

Jonathan Palmer hesitates, so today he moves up to fifth position and finishes fifth to become the 1991 British Touring Car Champion for himself, for BMW, for his team and his sponsors, and very well. He deserves it too. It's all about continuing to score points. If you couldn't win, you had to score points to keep the momentum going and I think that's why we won the championship. We've always been up there, well, fabulous. boy he was a very close mate, I would run side by side, well he could do a lap at thruxton donington or anywhere, side by side we will be in sight and trust him every inch of the way.

A very sad loss for motorsport. He was a great friend in 1992. The championship would surpass that of '91 and go on to be one of the most exciting and controversial in the

history

of British touring cars, so that was the point at which he pushed the inner thorns at the rear of the circuit and bounced off the inside curb and qualified. He picked me up when he came around the corner so I was on the outside so we both ended up hitting the barrier really hard and we beat each other and all we had to do was beat John Clennan I almost fell off the track laughing they're watching these two bounce off the barriers and I had to stop myself from crying with laughter nothing good is that it was easy between them despite The brand debacle Today I would still make it to the final round at Silverstone, as one of the three drivers capable of winning the championship, John Clennan had dominated the start of the year, only for Tim Harvey to fight back in the new BMW 318.

This is going to be Tim Harvey. third win of the season thanks again says tim harvey harvey and teammate soper were hit with a curveball when team manager vic lee was sentenced to 12 years in jail for smuggling cocaine in a team transporter police had wondered about why the team tested so frequently in At the Zanvort circuit in Holland we had a very difficult year. That year we weren't competitive at the beginning of the year and then all of a sudden we found the sweet spot and all of a sudden Tim was on a roll. Losing the team owner in the middle of the season was difficult.

Everything had been blown up in the press, getting BMW to agree to let us continue was a huge effort, they didn't want to see those cars, we begged them to let us continue with the championship, we arrived at Donington and the truck was there. and all the team members were there, we were waiting for a phone call to say no, you can't, you can't race or yes, go ahead, and we got the yes for all his faults, he was still running the best motorsports team I ever drove For no one, I worked harder on the attention to detail and was more excited about the effort they put in and the end result than Vic Coming into the final race of the season, Harvey Clelland and Hoy would go head to head in the decision for the qualification.

It will go down as an infamous day in BTCC history. There is no doubt that he eliminated me. There was only one benefactor that day and it wasn't Stephen, it wasn't me. It's the final round of the 1992 BTCC championship at Silverstone and the top three drivers. They are separated by just a handful of points, what happens next is part of touring car folklore, the stakes are huge and it's 15 laps in the car with Tim Harvey 12th on the grid, passing James K and That's our door, keep our door on the Nissan that is. I moved on, I was there to help Tim Harvey win the championship, but not at all costs and he's catching up to Leslie.

The sofa in the upper corner goes for third place. He is right next to the boxer. He passed it. He is spinning. He lost it. I loaned him to David in the first round. He wasn't having any of that and David took no prisoners, he was taken out, I'm not sure he was taken out, but he had an incident with David Leslie and he thought that many years later when Steve and I talked about this, he thought that David Leslie was part of our master plan to deliberately take him out, he got hit, someone hit him, it's Rob Gravitt's peugeot, he hit Steve Sofa and he's in last place again and I look at the bodywork so then I get going again and obviously the adrenaline is pumping and i.

Now I'm irritated and upset because the master plan went wrong and I actually went from the back of the field to where I caught Tib and John without touching a car, so I didn't push my way from the back to the front. and pushing and leaning on people i didn't touch a single car until i met john meanwhile harvey made his way past today making the toyota fall for the order and harvey is attacking the police from the inside the boy is swerving he's on the sidewalk outside gone harvey lost momentum there's clelland passing him sopho passing him now tim harvey has dropped to sixth position the gloves are offered pickets the incredible steve soper is in fifth position from 21 after his recovery I just had to follow will today tim harvey and then me in any position, it didn't matter if we were first, second, third, eight, nine, ten, if it was Will Tim and me, the championship was mine, but I think what I hadn't trusted was that the exact super missile will arrive on the scene.

Then John thought, "Hey, my championship is going out the window," and he pulled off an absolute masterstroke by going under the bridge and allowing Harvey to enter. I swerved a lot, ran very fast in the next two corners and then everything became complicated. He was on two wheels. Super holds his line, they push him to the right, he attacks again when they come in at the right angle, you and they both turn, they are both out, Sophie and Clelland, both out of the race, obviously it will tell a different story, but my story. Did he get a little desperate at McLean's and seriously lend me a loan?

I think if my car wasn't there, it probably would have fallen over. I would say if his car wasn't there, he wouldn't have taken that line which I respect. I lunged around the inside of Steve, but I didn't really lean on him at the time, but he kept coming, looking for an apex, so I pulled slightly to the left and grabbed the curb on the inside, which made the thing lift up. on two wheels, which made it look even more dramatic than it was, but until then I hadn't touched it, there was no paint, it had changed hands and then I made a non-committal move into the next corner and that was my mistake , that move in the next corner was not right, I'm going to take you out, I thought he would have seen me coming, he turned and I was already there, without a doubt, he took me and that's to this day, that's what I think happened ,Steve.

I was more than capable of making it around the next corner without getting knocked down there was no argument there was only one benefactor that day and it wasn't stephen it wasn't me six wins for tim harvey this year and now beating clilland and today andy rouse wins for the 60th time in his career and tim harvey wins the drivers' championship for bmw an excellent drive by tim harvey joy for the team there is tim and it is for john clelland total dejection there were mistakes on the part of both drivers let me say that But we were obviously driving to win the championship.

He had overtaken Steve and John to be ahead of them when the incident occurred and, more importantly, by being ahead he was going to win the championship anyway, so it wasn't as if he drove through the accident to win, I want to. I mean, it happened behind me. John initiated the attack and Steve finished it off. That's probably the best way to sum it up. If I had been there to take him out, I could have done it very easily. It seems like an accident and I still finished the race maybe on the podium, so eliminating him and I wasn't the plan.

If I wanted to put it off, I just pushed it and pushed it and pushed it to the right side. I have it. on the grass and that would have been the end or left him on the loose marbles, but I gave him enough room and I foolishly turned into the next corner and all I could hear was this BMW at 45,000 revs coming towards me at that speed. of the sound and that was the end of the story Clelland's reaction to getting out of his car is almost as famous as the accident itself, it seemed worse than what had actually happened because keep in mind I broke my sternum and my back low.

In an incident fifteen or three weeks earlier, I had padding on the shoulders of my jumpsuit to prevent the seat belts from opening my chest, so when I got out I looked a little like a football player, I didn't know where. he was at that point because from where I got out of the car I couldn't see him, I didn't realize he was gone at that point too, I was standing there thinking, well that was a bit harsh, where did he go? Then I realized he was in the gravel so naturally I walked across trying to chat with him.

What I didn't know was that he had a lot of broken ribs at the time, so he could have been a little braver and gotten out of there. I got in the car and confronted him, but I couldn't actually open the door, so I was trying to get out and he was banging on the window, calling me all kinds of names and I mean, I was still sick of him at that point, so I probably It's a good thing I didn't come out, so I tried to yank the door open, but he was inside holding on to the door to make sure it didn't open, which was maybe lucky for all of us because he was going to have a serious argument. . with him and then we were separated by bailiffs who didn't think this was a good idea, the man cut me off a couple of times and ran towards me and took me straight to the barriers, I mean what are we doing here?

There is a stock car. racing or is it this motor sport, he could escape in Germany, but he could be Mr. Superstar, but this is the clean mind, it's an animal, of course, he made it an iconic race, it's one we still talk about, we both They defined my championship in terms of that. the year I won was that year the accent but it also tarnished it a bit because it happened in that same period but I'd rather people keep talking about it than nothing at all so I guess it's a case of any post being good. advertising, it was on the covers of everything and got coverage you wouldn't believe and I think that was the real moment when touring cars became a real spectator sport, with real fans, that's what made touring cars so special and so popular with the public. with the spectators it was just that event the Australian alan gow the man in charge of the championship admits the publicity was a welcome boost it was great the shame was that it was the last event of the year because if you had that kind of publicity um Over the course of the year , the crowds would have increased during the latter part of the year, but you couldn't take advantage of it because it was another six months before we started running again, while Gao enjoyed Clennan's attention and Sopa faced an investigation that would last several months.

It seemed that all the purposes were intensive. Steve had deliberately taken me out of the rac he wanted something done about it so they called the court and were going to disarm someone the nightbefore court. John called me and he had a lawyer for me and I had a lawyer and it was going to be, you know, one of us was obviously going to end up taking the rat, I said, Steve, this is nonsense, what we have to do here is go and get together let me tell you what I think we should do I don't want you to lose your license that won't get me back my championship harvey won't suffer for this let's work on a plan it was a racing incident you didn't take me out and we'll do it get on with it I said well first Raise your hand and say you don't have a problem and then I'll follow you, I said I don't trust, I don't trust you to tell you it was a racing accident, no.

I knew that but that's basically what we did and I think unfortunately the rsc got very upset that they couldn't catch one of us and hang us. Former champion Wynn Percy was one of the members of the RSC committee tasked with apportioning the blame. like two little school kids, you know, with their tails between their legs, looking very innocent and you know, like you'd expect them to, I said you know better than one of those forgotten things, but of course, give them a Percy , the king of the roller, is one of the purists of motorsports, but even he admits that the fans like a good fight, he won't have fury like a woman, but the crowd loved it when you talk to the racing public of motorsports if you analyze why people go to compete.

The sad truth is that many people go to see accidents and incidents, it is terrible but it is true for many people, if it is a boring race because someone has driven very very well but there have been no incidents, they do not enjoy it the same as if there is an accident. The crash was something for which 1993 would also be better remembered thanks in part to the exploits of two former grand prix drivers. Thunder crashes against the barrier. It's the support race for the 1993 Silverstone Grand Prix and former Tyril and Lotus Formula One driver Julian Bailey is in second place. his teammate will hoy, the toyota carina julian bailey, and will hoy, the biggest event of the year for toyota, which is a grand prix meeting, were heading to their first victory, toyota had never won in that car, so they head to one, two.

It was fantastic, it was a dream, a dream, the victory in front of a Grand Prix crowd had it all and then, unfortunately, Julian I think he made a bit of a clumsy move. Will Julian Bailey is flying, he's attacking his teammate Wilhelm, in fact, he really attacked him, that's all. Skidding to a stop in his path, he climbed onto her roof. Nissan passed and won the race. They probably got more publicity from that incident than if they won at the end of the day. Toyota also did very well in the instant. it also sparked one of the biggest Mariaisms of all time the car upside down is a toyota with will today coming out of it when i came out with the line the car on the roof is a toyota it was a play on the fact that toyota advertising The slogan at the time was that the car in front is a Toyota, but I hadn't thought of that before.

I didn't know it was going to happen, obviously, and I thought about it beforehand. I thought it would be nice to say it. At some point it just appeared. You are very competitive with your own teammate, he is the first guy you have to beat, but what you don't do is eliminate him and you certainly don't throw him on his roof in the Grand Prix support round at silverstone in front of pits that It's a no-no, but the impact of Bayley's spill would be nothing compared to the appearance of one Nigel Mansell in Donington Park. The 92 F1 world champion had just won the 93 Champ Card championship in America and this was his La welcome donation and we got together and put Nigel Mansell in a car at the Donington Toker event which was not a championship event, of course Nigel hadn't raced in this country since he won the world championship because he went straight to the States United and this.

It's the first chance for Nigel to see his fans, if you like, after winning the formula one world championship, Mansell will drive Andy Rousey's Ford Mondeo. I think he realized what he was getting into because he thought it was more of a celebrity race when it was actually a serious car race and when we first sent it out during test day it couldn't go slow enough. It didn't break down early enough and he went off the road and totaled the car a few times, so we fixed it a couple of times and then he damaged it so much that we had to give him the Paul Ryder City car to practice on because he hasn't done it yet. made.

He didn't get it on race day, our nige had no problem drawing a crowd. He was a big star at the time, wasn't he because he was an Indycar champion and a former champion at the same time and here he was coming to donington to drive a touring car which was just a huge event, there was something like 68,000 people, uh they filled the doors to get in, another x formula one driver was having a rare outing in a touring car, as this server was called in to drive a voxel knight. mansell struggling to regain control i went to where there was a gap the new boss dell has nowhere to go hits mansell who slides across the grass towards the barrier right in front of the bridge parapet on the starkey bridge mansell went to the hospital and ford were left with a hefty repair bill but for

btcc

mental mania it was a win it was a big deal race was in the media from the previous thursday to the following wednesday because nigel crashed of course it was front page news all over the world and It was really surprising, you know, to be involved in that and the fact that Nigel drove my car, crashed it and wrote it off.

There was a high-profile TV host involved in the incident and people and those two were criticizing each other. it just had it all, so it was on the front page of almost every newspaper the next day that one event probably did more for the btcc than any other event in its first ten years, when they get to mcleans, now this group fights for the second. third and fourth and mantle again testing the wide line looking for grip, found grip mansell had unfinished business with the touring cars and in 1998 he returned in spectacular style at donnington park and mansell says thanks inside oh, a little touch there with Clelland and Mancel, Who would believe this man hasn't raced touring cars for years?

This is real touring car racing and Mansell is in the thick of it, he just drove the car the way he drove it and forgot about it as a touring car and so he's doing things with that car that other drivers would never have done. and the way he handled it in W was totally at odds with the way you would normally treat a touring car, but he didn't know what to do if you wanted to, so he just used his raw speed and that's what got him there and mansell is again going to try something here I'm sure Reed lost it Reed lost it what's his contact I don't know burrito fang on the barrier on the outer mantle now he's in control and the ford The guys can hardly believe their eyes.

Mansell leads the race now as the battle for second place begins behind him. Mansa would finish the race just off the podium, but his appearance was well received by the other drivers. There were quite a few doubts. pessimism in the pit lane over the last week about what Nigel would actually achieve, but he's sorted all that out, I mean when I saw the restart and he was in the group and he was on the geiger, I don't think that's the case. Can a man get so lucky and suddenly abandon the intermittent career? I wonder what's going on here.

Nigel never won a race, but his feat certainly made him a touring car legend. A great co-worker, while Bailey and Manson were still getting me acquainted with touring car racing, another F1 refugee, Joe Winklehawk, was taking the 1993 championship for the Schnitzer BMW team. His teammate, Steve Soper, had been the favorite from the point of view of BMW Germany and my boss at the time when it was my championship. and I should have won it you know I'm English I know the circuits like the back of my hand joe was going through a lot of circuits he had to learn I hadn't been there before and that's why although it hurts he beat me fairly, but at that moment I thought it was mine , I think the team thought it was mine, but he pulled ahead, I finished pretty close seconds, I think I had two mechanical failures and a shunt, he beat me, you know? life goes on another one got away if you like it wigglehawk was the first grand prix driver to win the championship since jim clark in 1964 and his arrival marked the beginning of a new era for the btcc the gentlemen's races of yesteryear were being replaced by racing Highly paid international superstars such as car manufacturers did everything possible for victory.

There was a period in the mid-90s when there were known to be more paid touring car drivers in the British championship than there were people paid to drive Formula One cars. It was fabulous everywhere I went in the world. to race cars in Australia, South Africa, it didn't matter where they were, they knew about the British Touring Car Championship, we had 10, 11, 12 manufacturers, at some points they entered the championship with two-car teams, you don't enter with a turkey. I come with two professional drivers, well paid guys who are capable of bringing home a car and a good result, so yes, that was a turning point that everyone wanted to be in our championship, so it was like to prove the point, gabrielli tarquini and alfredo.

Maya arrived in 1994 and won the championship on his first attempt. We're with our queen, you can almost see the chicken flag and that's victory number four. It was amazing, especially because I came with an Italian driver from the Italian team. We were especially under pressure. because our car was very strong from the beginning and winning the season in the PTC at that time was not so easy for an Italian driver he does not know the race he does not know the environment I do not know the truck because I have to learn the trucks and also the opponent because in At that time the competitor was of a very high level.

My Alfa Romeo 155 card was very, very fast. He had a very professional team. A lot of money and everything well done to win and we won. first season, so they were incredible memories for me, but the success of the 155 was controversially eager to improve the aerodynamics of the car. Alfa came up with a novel solution that they came with Alfa Romeo with a plastic piece on the front and a fun spoiler on the rear that if you bought one off the street and were looking alive for an air distributor, all of these pieces would be on the trunk, you had to screw them in yourself, so there was a lot of discussion about whether it was legal or not, yes. it was a space homologation, I mean half at the moment came from Fiat and Lancia and the senior engineer comes from Raleigh and they use this gray area to emulate the car to ensure that we do everything we can to make a very strong and fast car and Someone England doesn't like this kind of stuff and we also had a big fight with the rules and with the other team, but in the end everything was fine and I can continue the season, probably every car on the grid had a less obvious quirk.

To them the Alfa Romeo at least was obvious because you could see what they were doing, but go to an Alpha dealership and find the front spoiler on the trunk and everything else. There are many cars out there that you will learn about later. that wasn't exactly what it should have been and these were companies that were spending tens of millions of dollars or pounds developing these cars and we were never going to find everything they had, the risks were getting higher and the drivers were feeling the pressure , it was a time when you had to take it seriously, I mean, the amount of pressure and money was indescribable, this kind of late '80s Motown drinking went out the window, it was very serious and that came down to drive on the highway. track because if you were driving a Volvo and there was a Renault trying to overtake you, it was better to crash into that car and defend your line than to let it pass because you were letting another manufacturer overtake your car and that's when the driving position changed. massively because the element of defensive driving, even with contact, was introduced to prevent other cars from overtaking you.

In 1995, the BTCC had had a great moment. Look, the fingers on the left let go. 1995 was a pivotal year in the history of British passenger cars. and it will be the last hurray for one of the great double acts of the championship and here is the talent almost at home after a stunning day of success first in race one from pole position with a pole position record left race two fastest lap race two and win the car It was just incredible at the beginning of the year we tested it and I said we were going to win this championship.

It's easy to put it back in the truck and take it to the first race. It's fabulous. That's how confident I was after six wins that Clelland would take home. the title in the fall john park finishes second to win the championship and he's happy with um he put a microphone under my nose to say well done you won the championship what do you mean and I couldn't say anything I choked upstairs I had worked all year to I'm delighted, but I don't know whatTo say now, it's been a long year and which is great, really good, and for the victor the spoils, that was probably the real highlight, but there have been so many high points in BTCC, so many things, so many real characters, so many professional drivers and I think probably the best thing is that I was offered to drive with virtually every manufacturer at some point in my career except Honda and I decided to stay with them until the end.

Continue with Opel. I do not regret at all. I think Volkswagen got their money's worth out of me, but they also had to have a full-time lawyer because I wasn't shy. speak my mind and that sometimes got everyone in trouble, but I always think before I open my mouth, it may not always seem that way, but I have always prided myself on saying the right thing that will get the right amount of publicity or for you. better go and talk to him you know man is an animal how good is it that everyone uses that new thing in formula one nigel mansell was my man because wherever nigel was there was something dramatic going on and to a slightly lesser degree it was the same with john Clelland because she understood the Scottish nature of it, the mischievous humour, see the fact that he was in a vauxhall and not a car that one would have expected to automatically win, but above all his personality and character, he was always the one that was. always cheerful always tremendously intelligent always very funny and charming being with a great novelty in '95 made the triumph of the clones even more impressive, just as alfa romeo, vauxhall and volvo entered the british touring car championship to gain publicity, so did many others particularly renault and renault really filled in because they didn't just take a loophole and make one or two changes to it, they went to the williams formula one races and said make us a loophole when the formula one team of Williams showed up with Renault and a 60-man team to drive a touring car, you know, that seemed a little extreme.

Williams Renault arrived a year after another team with F1 connections, Tom Walkenshaw Racing Twi, won the BTCC with Win Percy in 1980 and returned in '94 with the crazy 850 Estate, you think of Volvo and the BTCC, you can give it the 850 Estate and interestingly it was only for one year of their eight years of competition or something so it just goes to show how powerful the estate was. the same mechanics as the sedan and they knew that they were not going to be as competitive the first year, they needed to have a year under their belt driving the car, the team and the drivers, that's why they use the station wagon and it was simply a paradise for btcc and volvo . john clennan might have raced for vauxhall but his day job was running a volvo dealership, it was the car that we as volvo dealers sold a lot and a lot changed the image of the car immediately in In the days when Volvo was participating in that championship, we saw people walking in the door saying the car they were racing at the weekend and yes it was and it just completely changed the perceived image of the Volvo brand trench that would replace the Cavalier with the new vector to the '96 season and although cleland would win two races in '98 he would never compete for the championship again he finally retired in 1999 with happy memories for me it was fabulous I was doing something I was getting paid to do something I would do I did it for free I never told people from Volkswagen who had done it for free but they paid me to do it for fun, it was just a ball, uh, it was something I dreamed of, something I always wanted to do, but then it evolved into a massive spectacle and I was a part of it , I was one of the main lights on that show and it was brilliant, absolutely brilliant, I get paid to do it, how cool is that and now it's time to go in 1996, the green lights.

If further proof was needed that the btcc was succeeding, it came with the arrival of a works audi team in early '96. crosses the line to win the third consecutive race with the audi a4 quattro audi outperformed audi must have done it I've been watching the British Touring Car Championship and someone must have said: I think we'd better have some of that, so they sent Frank Bieler and he had a British mate, John Big Cliff, who drove the other four-wheel drive Audis and They made minced meat. Of everyone else, the man of the British Touring Car Championship this year is Frank Bieler, with eight wins and says he hopes to be back next year to defend his title, which is very good news now that suddenly you had half the field full of internationals. guys who couldn't even pronounce their names, so that gave it a whole different level.

The easiest way for me to evaluate it was a paddock and you went from conveyors with a canopy to these massive structures that they bring and you look at some of the hospitality and infrastructure that they would bring to the race, it means you think this is crazy. You know that a few years ago the cost of doing it would be for the entire championship, but now. someone's sandwich bill for the year would probably run a privateer for BTCC veterans. It was a culture shock. There were so many good drivers in the touring car championship when it was super touring.

They came from all over Europe. Know? There were, you know, teams from Italy and Germany. You know, it was an international championship held on British circuits. We played along and we may have enjoyed it while it lasted, but you have to remember that in the mid 90s. There were nine factory teams, that is nine fully paid manufacturer teams, all spending millions of pounds with two professional drivers, international drivers from all over the world, so there were 18 fully paid factory drivers and you shouldn't think one of them was under 150. great, it was the ultimate professional racing series, more professional drivers than night time formula one until the day of today.

In fact, he had a contract with twr when he drove the Volvos. I had to weigh 80 kilos in my riding gear. I mean, it was a time when I had to take it seriously, I mean, the amount of pressure and money was indescribable, so it was a period of absolutely incredible excess, it was getting silly, it was getting out of hand, but You know, we're in this, we get paid to be there. in it they think well, let's not make waves, guys, this is a lot of fun, let's keep it up, keep our heads down, you know, let them spend the money in 1997, there was even a hit computer game, touring cars, which introduced the btcc in the playstation generation.

We never thought the name Toca would be in a computer game. You know, that was something new. The amount of kids that came up to me and said, "I took you out and took a two or whatever last night." The truth is, I think I've only been to that game of tag once in my life and my kids beat me senseless, so I was never around it again. the new star would soon make his mark on btcc jason plato i woke up full of hell and um i thought i wasn't going to stand this i'm going to go see frank and that was the day that changed my life with so many international superstars competing for a place on the btcc grid just getting noticed they called for desperate measures jason plato had just completed a successful test with the williams renault team when a letter arrived from sir frank williams saying look, you did a great job in the test, there is nothing you can do could have done to get the puck, it is out of his reach and the reasons are that we need someone with a profile, we can have a driver who already knows, and it was going to be jean-christophe boulion or jean johnny more, but that mobideli and that It was actually a big kick in the teeth because what do I need to do?

The only thing you have to have is know this crazy belief in your own ability, you know, and I have that and I think all drivers do that actually. Doing the part in the car I never had a doubt in my mind, this is a big step up for me and I will give it absolutely everything, whereas with these failed F1 drivers it is really a step up in their career and they just already know it. They're on their way down, you know, give me a break, give me a chance, a few weeks after that letter from Frank and the right-wing phone call, I woke up full of hell and thought I wasn't going to have this.

I'm going to go see Frank and that was the day that changed my life. His radical plan was to confront Sir Frank in person at Williams' headquarters. He passed security, but the boss's father was a different matter. You can't get out of there. Street and come see the most important motor sport in money mode, you will have to go. I argued a little anyway. I didn't win the argument, but right before I left, she blurted out a nugget of information that I said, well, look, can you pass it on? You know my greetings, but also let Frank know that I've been to see him and maybe I can reschedule, you know, make an appointment, he said, see if you're wasting your time, he won't be here until lunchtime anyway, so the next plan was to leave.

I think I moved my car here, it was definitely there and I chose this because I can see the security and in the old days that hedge wasn't there so I could wait for your car to arrive and I'm also a little hidden from the factory unit, so basically i sat here smoking myself into oblivion, eating mint, talking to myself, dad, am i doing the right thing for the better part of three-odd hours and then frank frank's car pulled in, i went after him, i charged over here with my briefcase that was empty and Frank's car turned right just the way those flat flags are and from this perspective I thought he was going to go through that back door and he left, so I was in full Christie mode in a hurry.

I crossed the grass only for him to turn right and park exactly where that car is, but I already made it to the car in a full run and now I'm looking at the car from this distance trying to brake. on a cool hike it was awkward to say the least and that's okay we'll go there this is where all this is you know it was the defining moment in my career it was this this is where I ended up here looking I mean I was in the car door like this looking to Frank thinking oh my God, what am I doing?

I forgot that you know you have to get it out of the car. Now I have this horrible, gut-wrenching discomfort here thinking what the hell? I'm doing? You know and I begged and pleaded with him there to give me five minutes of his time when he agreed after a little bit of negotiation and then we had, probably one of my proudest moments in my life, actually, you know, No, If I hadn't done what I did that day, we wouldn't be talking now, you know, I wouldn't have had a career in touring cars, yeah, it was all because of that tree and that grass and that little parking space and a little bit of The Offer of tough-talking Sir Frank, it was a shootout against Bouyon and Morbidelli Jason emerged victorious and this launched him on a career that would see him win more races than anyone in BTCC history, but first he had to prove himself against his fellow Alain Menu team, I remember.

Alan getting out of the car saying this is amazing this whole thing is a championship killer you know so I mean it's the most amazing place oh you know I'm in the best team not the best car okay I have the best world touring car. drivers, my teammate, but what fantastic criteria and we got pole not once but three times, the first three races, pole, position and I beat my teammates. I started well, but it wasn't until later in the year that he won his first race, a great finish to the championship. very happy caroline menu and in the car a very happy ally menu I think everyone is very happy actually jason plato will not be very unhappy with his first victory 97 he was the best driver in the world in touring cars and his performances were simply epic and you know , I know how hard he was pushing and I know how detailed our analysis was and you know how finite we were in our performance and he just went faster and it was something that was a little bit all over the place the engine revs increased as we prepared. to start, rydell on the left, as we look at him, reed on the right and james thompson achieving a good third place, the 1998 championship would see the Swede rickard rydell win his only title and that of volvo in an s40 a year later, laura aiello would win the championship. in his first attempt at a Nissan premiere, but the year was best remembered for the performance of a young British man in a private Nissan.

Matt Neal moves away from pole position. James Thompson goes with him. He's not a brilliant far from Thompson, but I think he got it. in second place is ala menu then in third place but matt neal was at the front in his private car ahead of the manufacturer entrants matt neil had made his debut in 1991 but in 99 he got his big break the series promoter alan gao had put a prize of 250,000 pounds for the first private driver to win a race, which was a prize that we awarded during the year for the first independent driver to win a race directly and because it had never been done for the last I don't know seven or eight years , we're pretty sure it'll take some time in the first round at Donington Park, Neal qualified second but almost blew his chance at the mandatory pit stop, time is ticking, they're going for bothside tires. change they did it, he dropped it oh he stopped it I don't think so but it goes again when it stopped I thought it was all over because the Nissan then was incredibly difficult to start when the engine was hot so wouldn't you always be there turning it to stop and immediately press the button and it activates immediately?

Pure appearance, it's a brilliant recovery, but you've lost crucial time, where is it going to lead? he comes out, look at them, here come the leaders one, two, three, four, fifth, he comes back in fifth, then I saw them passing the end of the pits and I thought, oh, ruining this now, but I knew I had stopped later, so my tires were fresher and I thought I'd put my head down and see where we can go up to see if we can get on the podium. Matt's father Steve raced touring cars in the 1960s but was now back as team manager in a way we always could.

Making Matt go faster was making him angry and missing his anger. There was a thrill that fueled him with the adrenaline needed to go faster and I think he was so angry with himself instead of collapsing in a big heap that it inspired him and he just ripped the neck out of that car, it was a great car all the way back. hairpin, he snuck away, he snuck away, he's there, he's on the side and James Thompson, I thought he had protected his position, but Mcneil just took it off anyway and got in front once again and just watch. at the reaction there in the garage and Matt Neil is heading for victory, he is heading for the first victory of independence, he is heading for 250 thousand dollars, what a performance it has been for Matt Neil and the family team that they have achieved, they have defeated it.

All the manufacturer teams here and they had to fight for it too, leading in the early stages, losing control in the pit stops, but coming back to win you will see Matt Neil's name written very barely with the scoreboard because suddenly We weren't prepared for it and I had to quickly write his name on it just before we met there, so it was a shame he got paid at the first race meeting, but to a very deserving team, you know, Matt and steve and the team dynamics are great stalwarts of the championship, it couldn't have gone to a better team, the win would put Neil on his path to success in the Naughties, it was almost an out of body experience winning the first race because, I mean , I.

I had almost been in touring cars for a decade, it seemed like a decade, it was probably about six, seven, eight years, but it was pretty surreal because I thought winning my first race was a big deal, everything, check everything, it's going to change your life and, in fact. It doesn't change anything, you know, you still understand it the next morning, you're the same person, so you get up and go straight, the next goal is this and you and you move on and it changes you as a person, I think a little bit. It changed me a little bit when Matt Neil's victory in the £250,000 was a highlight in a championship that was becoming a battle of budgets, we didn't have the control over the technical regulations that we had before and things started to get out of hand. control, so to speak. aerodynamics and homologation specials and everything else that increased the cost considerably, we had some interesting homologation problems and there were a lot of debates about how we could build x number of cars with a certain wing special just to get the dynamic aerodynamics. right of a car, but that's part of the game and it's part of, I guess, part of the fun that we have, but it's not necessarily the best thing for the sport, the worst part of it is that it increased the cost and, in fact, it reduced the races because there were cars, so it was so aerodynamically efficient that they couldn't follow the cars in front too closely and it just took about ten and a half million out of the races, it was the maximum budget that I knew of. and I'm sure there's more besides that, it's just the racing budget, not including marketing, hospitality and everything else, ten and a half million was something I knew and the best driver got eight hundred thousand pounds, but no I know. i think you would probably admit it today the ford mondeo produced by richard's pro drive that took alan maneu to the championship in 2000 was probably the most expensive touring car ever built the mondeo behind me is a very sophisticated piece of equipment a v6 engine which is built like a Swiss watch and all the other tricks and we drove two cars to the front of the field and I guess at that time we probably employed about 80 people running that little program, deep down those involved knew it couldn't last.

Even before the 2000 season started, Renault, Nissan and Volvo pulled out, it was just impossible to last, but I think for me it was that budget issue when budgets became unjustifiable unless you won and only one of the nine manufacturers was going to gain. We were always going to lose manufacturers, so for me that was the problem. The year 2000 was the last hurrah for super touring cars. New regulations were introduced for 2001 that reduced costs by 40 percent, but of the large manufacturers only Opel remained the voxel. It was light years ahead of everything else, like in years when we had such an advantage in our car that we weren't going full throttle because it would have looked stupid and then it became an interesting dynamic because then it was me against Muller, not the harmonious times, It must be said, and another great lesson about the dynamics of team rivalries and politics.

The seeds of this rivalry had been sown at Thraxton a year earlier when Plato was forced to concede the race lead to Muller, whose contract dictated that he was the number one driver. In my opinion, what number one status meant was that towards the end of the year, if a van was ahead, then of course I would support him and if that meant I would let him pass towards the end of the year, not the race. two, especially when I'm ahead of him in the series. It just didn't make sense to me, so I ignored the radio calls until the last lap and then I did it. the large deceleration indicator waved him through.

You can complain about the team's orders. You can complain that Mueller may have given this victory away, but you can't fault Opel for the performance of these cars. Box absolutely dominant this afternoon. Muller and Plato want to do it from that moment on. knowing that I just got a kiss on the butt from Ivan, oh yeah, and uh, that's not a very nice thing to do and you knew it, I did what was required and I conceded wins and I conceded positions and, but you know, you come back to home. the check comes in the mail, you deposit it and everything goes well, so just one of those things you have to do as a professional driver during the second year, although Plato managed to secure the same number one status, he joined the Plato Muller battle in 2001 for The right and wrong reasons will be remembered for a long time.

They all started at Donington. I remember a truck made a beer, but a furry movement burst towards me. I thought I didn't have that, so I stormed back in and it actually turned out pretty. He went away. a little exaggerated on board with Plato, that's about Mueller in front of us, all the protagonist, a little headbutt from Jason Plato and he has forced himself through, did he leave more contact? Muller says you've got to be kidding me, Sunshine, you're not. going on that easy, yeah, I think he can really spell the back of Jason Plato's vauxhall from here.

Ivan Muller burying his nose in momentum. Yeah, then we got to Silverstone, where he actually went into orbit on the last lap. Plato was chasing Muller when the Frenchman. Problems What are you doing now putting Mueller under real pressure? Yes, it's a bit wobbly for Muller after the left of the bridge. This is his chance. Contact though Plato is through contact with Mueller and Plato, for some reason, would bump into his left forehead. wheel there was no need because I was in it we should just accelerate a truck didn't pull out but its front suspension retracted and it went well jason plato is turning around and taking the checkered flag great race i won the race the truck took the flag to checkered, parked at the circuit and got out, she started shaking her head, so at that point I still didn't know what happened in my mind, I was completely innocent, I didn't crash it, something had gone wrong, the team split up.

Half of the information was not transmitted, it was kept secret that Havana ran out of fuel and the officers killed me and kicked me out. I was looking after my tire for the last three laps and unfortunately I had a small engine cut out on the bridge and when the engine had a big chance, so that's it, anyone can watch the TV and judge themselves. I was the villain because of that in everyone's eyes and I just wasn't. It was a completely innocent party and the performance of a van on the podium where he did the big thing refused to shake my hand just now that we know what happened is horrible and that's why the relationship between the van and me was broken.

Muller was both a brilliant pilot and a brilliant politician. The team was divided into two and the discussions continued until the end. round at bran's hatch the track is absolutely packed as the championship decider begins dish trying to go to the outside of ivan warren hughes leading dish squeezing muller and passing them both phil bennett passes on the inside and goes up to second although the mothers go on the attack once again, jason plato needs to follow ivan muller and keep him in sight to win this title, what a rivalry there has been between those two, but phil bennett is just ahead of those two in these track conditions. it doesn't get any better Warren Hughes sliding that's Plato that's Plato he lost it in the 30th round takes a real turn he's trying to get out of the grass would you believe this is the end of the championship for Jason Plato?

Well, he found it quite the other way around. he has quickly missed the barrier, I don't think he has touched it, he rejoins, but as things stand now he has just thrown away the 2001 title. Ivan Muller is in control of this race at the moment, but one has to wonder. Oh and he lost it again in the 30's, well not so bad, he saved it and crossed the grass, he didn't do the spoon you saw from Plato earlier, but that's the second time Mueller has done that and Ivan Muller will just wait for the car of security. to come back to try to maintain the lead there was actually something under your car just take a look underneath if our mullet has flames oh crisis it caught fire in the front of your car it's stopping it's stopping right next to the track he is achieving now the fire is still there oh and this surely means the end of his championship now he had to finish ahead of Plato then he will get his first win of the season but for Jason Plato there is a much bigger prize on offer and that is the 2001 title and his father is there to celebrate, since Jason Plato won the championship.

What day Plato was the champion, but he was left without driving, he won it in 2001, he couldn't drive for the team because the truck had another year on its contract and there was no way it was going to work and of course, you know, In those days there was only one major manufacturer to drive and where they were going to pay us, so I went and tried to get into Nascar. but coming as a newcomer to that style of racing at this stage of my career and my age was a bit scary, to be honest the 2001 season would also mark the retirement of one of the great btcc stalwarts at the age of 49 .

Steve Soper was persuaded to return to the championship with Peugeot, but a major accident in the final round in the Brand hatch ended his professional career. It's a massive break, that's Steve Soper, it's a massive crash. Looking back, I probably wish I had never done it because the car we could. To become competitive I never won a race so we ended the season with an accident without winning a race and somehow I had a pretty bad neck injury and that stopped any joy from there after I felt good at the time as time went. Basically it became quite painful when I went to a consultant and was referred to further concerns, they all said to stop competing so it was a tough blow.

I think I had a privileged life. 30 years. I ran for 21 years. to be paid professionally, so what a fantastic privilege life as one legendary race was ending, others were just beginning and the returning Plato would enter a rivalry more intense than any other in touring car history. I'm going to rip your face off, you know what? I'm playing manufacturers have come and gone but one name continued to top the tour card time sheets in the naughty Vauxhall Yorkshireman James Thompson would win the championship for the first time in 1994 He claimed the 2002 and 2004 championships in an Astra and he won the first time it was you Be amazing, but you know the fight we've had all year, you know, and take it to the last last race of the year, um and uh, you know do it on the fastest lap, you know, whatI knew and at one point, but That's why I worked so hard in the first part of the race and then, to be honest with you, I just let them get on with it.

You know, I just sat there. The car was fantastic. His teammate at the time. Ivan Muller won his only title in 2003. while Fabrizio Gillinardi became the second Italian winner with consecutive titles at the wheel of a Vector in 2007 and 2008 the Italian flag for Fabrizio Giovanna but the highlight for many during this period was the fierce rivalry between jason plato who returned to the btcc in 2004 with sayat and matt neal champion in 2005 6 and eleven the three times british during the car championship the champion of 2011. it is matt neal, he has done it, matt neal wins the title that started at knock hill in 2005.

I knew it was going to happen I couldn't believe what's going to happen here matt neil is gone surely you're there fighting with his towel on his side with plate and his plate that's out now and neil has come back through mcniel's back through all that incredible incredible The action going on, the intensity of their rivalry would surpass even the Clennan couch battle of yesteryear, when Iran started playing and Jason ran me over from behind. I look forward to seeing how proud you are of the main driver, the way he drives was horrible. I was lucky to get out of this.

He has his way of doing things and his views on me and I have the same, so yes, he has his followers. I have mine, but his followers are not very interested in me, but yes, we have our own way of doing things. Five percent is pantomime. 95 is pure animosity. I will be completely frank and honest. You already know me. and Matt we don't get along and his dad doesn't get along with me and the team dynamic we don't get along we never have I don't trust him and I don't trust his dad and I don't trust the team and I'm pretty sure he feels exactly the same for me.

Things went south at Snetaton in 2006. Can Matt get a better exit? He's out He's out This could be contact at the bottom of the hole Not a good place to have contact oh my nails on the side championship leader intrigue problem on the side he recovers it again it's plate and matt neil next to each other he hasn't yet finished matt won't like his car doing a quick lap here now he's behind but this time jason plato on the other side of the grass matt neil is looking in the wrong direction can you start jason plato is going to win the race mcneil tried but lost his chance to get points and jason plato takes the win that sets up an incident is where it all yeah that was quite a start, I think they're both a little naughty.

I should have accelerated, but of course, you're going 110 miles per hour and you only have six feet to make that decision. before it moves on to something else and I didn't make that decision it was still in the corners I'll mind the corners of mine and of course then it gets to the point where it's now in the front of my car what can you do ? Of course, tempers were scared at the time and you know, and you could kind of see one of my frustrations, it's just the car advantage I had around Coram, I mean, just like you know, I'm like that and he's spinning around and, of course, he came down from the inside and there was a professional foul committed surely with his hands up. 2010 saw Plato overtake Neil to claim his second championship this time in a Chevrolet, while the 2011 season began with history made.

Jason Plato will become a record winner in Great Britain. passenger cars has now broken Andy Rousey's record. He has 61 wins in the British Touring Car Championship and that is a huge achievement in British Touring Cars. This was also the year in which his rivalry with Matt Neil reached new heights during qualifying at Rockingham. There was a lot behind the camera that people didn't know or didn't know had been going on between him and I and um, we had had a little bit of a race in qualifying and not even in the race and it's just kind of caused it. things to break loose a little more, oh, Matt Deal really hit Plato's back there.

What's going on with him in some sort of qualifying race and he crashed into the rear bumper of Plato's track position? It's pretty sure it's important, you know? The last thing I want to do is put stuff behind one of the Hondas and since you have to get out of the pit lane in the garage, you know what could have happened and this is my generation, my general distrust in the Honda operation and it's a fight. at all costs against Plato and we know that because we scanned their radios, my concern was that I was going to get stuck behind one of the Hondas and they were going to effectively hinder my pit lane session, it all started.

Ripping your face off, you know, that's one of my proudest moments, but it probably has to be done. Although he wouldn't take off his helmet, would Matt's second degree black belt be in what they call street fighting? He is very, very competent, very, very. strong, very, very fit and the last guy anyone would want to fight, honestly it would have been a bit one-sided. I feel like the last thing you do is go and fight with a driver who has a helmet on. I'm sure you know, hey, I'm a lover, not a fighter, you know I'm not a fighting guy, I'm a runner, I can definitely run away from things, at least Jason's dad Tim gave me some slight relief.

Look how funny. I'm playing it with this, it's just my old man with his fancy voice, for God's sake, Barry, tell him to stop it, man, that's my old man, he just comes out with some gems, you know, after this, yeah , after all that. I calmed down a week or so later, yes, that footage was circulating on YouTube and the only thing that made us laugh over and over again is just my old man, but in his goofy voice, the two biggest legends of the 21st century. century they have been such bitter rivals has certainly raised the temperature of the modern BTCC, I think it motivates them both.

I think Jason is equally motivated by his frustration and anger, and he gets very frustrated. Jason has a very high opinion of himself, doesn't he? And maybe he deserves it. He has done extremely well. Your profile is important and I made the decision that you can actually achieve more success by being the villain than by being the good guy and you can gain more interest in the column by being the villain, so I've played around with that a little bit and, uh, yeah, so I just have a kind of guilt, I guess, for that reputation, but you know.

It served me well, I'm sure at some point in the future we'll sit down and, you know, let off steam, have a beer, laugh and dance. and share some humorous stories. I guess that tends to happen when you get older and calm down. If it will happen before I stop competing. I highly doubt it lately. Plato and Neil are not the only pilots who face each other. There was also a famous moment when Neal hit teammate Gordon Sheddon into a Red Bull and took second place. He goes to the card. Look, he's holding his head. He knows that he has made an absolutely terrible mistake there and should have taken second place.

He can't believe it. I thought there was enough grip on the inside and obviously there wasn't, but I had to go back, obviously, I had to talk to the team, then talk to Flash and the night to go and we got 200 Honda. guests there, including the doctor, the PR director and the marketing director, so I had to go and stand in front of all of them, which was not one of my proudest moments, it was difficult if that had happened to me four or five years before. I think I would have been jumping off the roof, you know, freaking out, but I had enough time to try to collect my thoughts a little bit and it was my attitudes that probably brought us together a little bit. a little bit closer as a team, you know, from that point on, it could have gone one of two ways: we could have split the team in half and split the garage in half from that point on, but that It was never really a thought, it was never a Consideration if something would have brought us closer together and you know we've moved on from that and we've had a lot more success since, you know, since that cold, wet day at Oden Park Champion in 2012. the new generation of British touring car racers fighting the old guard for me was always about smashing cars, it was never about formula one or you know, single seater or anything like that, and I was just the kid on the benches of spectators with my dad, you know, watching, you know, he went to knock hill to see it in 1994, you know, at the height of the super tours, I still have the posters that signed it.

You know Tarquini, Steve Soper and you know the BMW guys at the time. and then i saw them racing when i was a little kid, i mean tim harvey and even matt, you were racing back then and that was me still in shorts in elementary school, the dream was about touring cars, i never thought it would come to you. you know how to drive in one, let alone win a race, and you know you'll finally win a championship at the final round of the

2013

season at Brands Hatch. Neil Plato Sheddin and 2009 champion Colin Turkington were competing for the championship alongside 24-year-old Andrew Jordan, with new rules encouraging larger grids and a host of young stars the next generation of racing legends. touring car is taking shape the racing in these cars is very very close and again that's what makes touring cars so good to watch you know alton park this year we were having 45,000 people there huge audience figures on TV and you know, regardless of what the cars are, how fast they go, it makes the racing exciting.

One of the original legends still has great interest. Jack Sears was back at Brands Hatch where he won the first championship in 1958 it's been raining as hard today as it did 55 years ago aquaplaning cars uh we didn't have tires as good as they have today of course we didn't have tires to wet weather actually i mean we only had to have road tires but the weather is still the same 55 years later nothing has changed i enjoy coming to watch races it gives me a boost and makes me think young man the first sedan car race was fantastic jason plato did the trick he has now won 81 British Touring Car Championship races when I saw him recently I congratulated him on his 80th win and he looked at me and said I want you around when I've done a hundred and I bet he'll do 100 too .You are on the right track.

He took the manufacturers' championship, but there was a new name on the drivers' trophy as Andrew Jordan claimed the title for the Pertek racing team and down the timing line comes the new MSA British Touring Car champion. It's Andrew Jordan, congratulations and you've done it. There is excitement about the launch of 10 years of work. his dreams come true, a fantastic and deserved champion, a great brand for all the Vertex Boys and Mike, so if we could have done it, I couldn't think of a better person, a better team of people to do it in an absolutely fantastic way, more than half a century after the first titanic gem between sopwith and sears the turinka british championship remains britain's best-loved motorsport series the old recipe still works great cars great characters great racing and an irresistible spirit you