Warren Hughes and MG

cos · 13 Feb 2004, 13:30 (Ref:873139)

According to this article Warren Hughes has 'split' with MG because "MG can't support their motorsport programmes to the same degree as previously."
It does suggest that MG will compete in some capacity this year though.

Neil Adams · 13 Feb 2004, 14:03 (Ref:873164)

"The reason I won't be continuing with MG is financial,"

could be interpreted that

MG arent offering Warren enough pay or..

they want him to be a 'pay driver'

"MG can't support their motorsport programmes to the same degree as previously."

could be interpreted that..

no btcc campaign?

or two cars instead of three as previously rumoured.

Super Tourer · 13 Feb 2004, 14:14 (Ref:873181)

Looks like MG are considering doing a 'Honda' and offering 'support', but that doesn't neccesarily get cars out on the track if the team can't fund the shortfall.

As we have seen with Honda only Chilton (Arena) and Neal (Dynamics) are confirmed, with the teams looking for funding to run another car each.

All a bit late in the day from MG surely....

racingdad · 13 Feb 2004, 17:17 (Ref:873365)

I read it as "They can't pay me what I think I deserve" or even "they actually expect me to come up with some funding"

Makes the SEAT prize won by Rob Huff even better, now doesn't it?

**touringlegend** · 13 Feb 2004, 18:09 (Ref:873419)

Sure does.

Amazes me that some teams are a complete opposite of the others, but then SEAT I presume have a lot of money behind them.

It could just be 'sour grapes' from Hughes, I hope so at least. I've thought for a few months though that MG might follow the lead of Honda as ST mentioned above. At least I have SEAT as a backup team to support should there be no works MG's.

SPARK Msport · 13 Feb 2004, 18:22 (Ref:873433)

autosport.com

Quote:

Warren Hughes says he will have to drop out of the MG Touring Car team for this season. A loss of factory support for MG means that Hughes continuing is no longer viable.

MG is likely to want a pay driver for 2004, which may mean that Anthony Reid would also have to step down. Both Reid and Hughes have both raced for MG at the team's Le Mans effort, which ended after 2002.

"MG cannot support their motorsport programmes to the same degree as before, and I have to look elsewhere," said Hughes. "British touring cars are looking pretty bleak at the moment; there are no openings.

"There is a danger of it becoming a championship for drivers with money. It will lose credibility if the situation doesn't improve and [more] manufacturers support the series."

Emmm...Warren sounds a bit bitter about being dropped, but you have to agree with him - pros like him are being forced out becasue paying drivers rule the world. To me his could be sparking the start of a little big problem for the BTCC, and if we start losing the Reids, Mullers, Thompson's...etc due to funding issue's the BTCC will be full of club members who's dads own Microsoft and therefore have the funding...

MikeH · 13 Feb 2004, 20:46 (Ref:873562)

And this brings us back to little over a month ago when people were forseeing 40 car grids and other such fantasies before the financial reality sets in...

fantasytoca · 13 Feb 2004, 20:47 (Ref:873563)

According to Ceefax MG have withdrawn £2 million of funding from the touring car team - so instead of paying drivers they now need 'pay' drivers to run the team.

Not altogether surprised, received an email from them a few days ago asking if we would like to advertise www.fantasytocatour.co.uk on their website for x amount a month or alternatively would we consider making a donation to keep their website going....

JAG · 13 Feb 2004, 23:05 (Ref:873665)

The rumour is MG will go to SCV8.

They would just need to provide a bodyshell like Jaguar etc. have done.

It would certainly fit in with there new V8 road car range.

**touringlegend** · 13 Feb 2004, 23:41 (Ref:873693)

I think at first glance we are all taking this as a negative point of the BTCC. We shouldn't.

Alan Gow has stated in Autosport this week that he expects a grid of 25 cars in the BTCC this year, and I don't reckon he's that sort of person that lives in fantasy land..

Remember MG Rover are a very hard up company. Although the motorsport promotes them well (which is why they are wanting pay drivers..) they have to look at what are the non-essentials to the compaany's survival and strike them off the list.

JAG · 14 Feb 2004, 01:10 (Ref:873767)

Quote:

Originally posted by touringlegend
I think at first glance we are all taking this as a negative point of the BTCC. We shouldn't.

Alan Gow has stated in Autosport this week that he expects a grid of 25 cars in the BTCC this year, and I don't reckon he's that sort of person that lives in fantasy land..

Remember MG Rover are a very hard up company. Although the motorsport promotes them well (which is why they are wanting pay drivers..) they have to look at what are the non-essentials to the compaany's survival and strike them off the list.

IMO, because the current BTCC cars are not very exciting to watch on there own, they require a big grid to make them entertaining.

I have a feeling, from the little I have read, that SCV8 will be very exciting to watch even with 15-20 cars.

peter briggs · 14 Feb 2004, 08:05 (Ref:873912)

I doubt that SCV8 will happen this season, although a very good concept you still need a budget to run and at the moment teams cannot find funds to run in BTCC a proven series with the best TV coverage of British motorsport. The budgets are similar.

**Stephen Green** · 14 Feb 2004, 08:55 (Ref:873946)

Hi Peter, I think it was announced this week that SCV8 has been postponed until next year so there's nothing for MG there.

Andy Metcalf · 14 Feb 2004, 09:21 (Ref:873969)

I think the full MG situation should clarify itself in the next couple of weeks. It would be difficult to judge what is happening just from the comments of one driver who appears out of the mix. MG Sport & Racing together with West Surrey Racing have made great progress developing a car to challenge Vauxhall and with Honda pulling back from a full works team they have more of an opportunity to succeed. Time will tell.

racingdad · 14 Feb 2004, 10:58 (Ref:874032)

Hey guys, lets be fair to MG..

The company has financial difficulties and, much as I love motor racing, if I was the CFO, I would also be asjing myself "Can we afford it"

Everyone keeps banging on about how much they love the team - try buying their cars (I just have - ZTT) as that's what they need.

BootsOntheSide · 14 Feb 2004, 11:06 (Ref:874041)

25 cars wouldn't be too bad, it's about the same as we had last year including the Production entries. Losing guys like Hughes, Morrison, Leslie and Bennett from the works ranks is extremely unfortunate though.

It's quite possible that MG will sstill provide significant works funding for 2 cars, with Reid and Turkington perhaps to remain, and that Warren is bitter at being dropped and trying to sour people's impression of the team. BTCCnews could be right that we'll find out soon enough.

kykiske · 14 Feb 2004, 12:05 (Ref:874072)

Think the best we can hope for is Turkington and Collard running in the MG's... I doubt Reid will be prepared to pay for a ride, whilst im sure Turk and Collard are.

BootsOntheSide · 14 Feb 2004, 15:43 (Ref:874182)

That depends on how much Collard has available to pay. I'd love to see Rob in a works drive, his battle agaisnt adversity and financial limitations has been awe-inspiring in recent years. It would be a shame to lose Reid as he did a good job developing the MG, and is a bankable name.

rdjones · 14 Feb 2004, 21:05 (Ref:874318)

This is really sad news. I have a lot of time for Warren, but I have had a feeling that this was going to happen for sometime. Let's just hope that we can see the MG's out again this year in some form or another.

racingdad · 16 Feb 2004, 10:57 (Ref:875583)

Expect WSR to run the cars at least for 2004 as semi-independents.

**touringlegend** · 16 Feb 2004, 21:53 (Ref:876242)

And for drivers?..Turkington?, Collard? (who claimed he was in discussions with a works team..) and O'Neill ????

rdjones · 16 Feb 2004, 22:12 (Ref:876262)

Sounds a good line up to me TL, in fact if that is the line up, lets hope they can give Vauxhall a good run for there money.........

JEMMO · 17 Feb 2004, 01:45 (Ref:876465)

The thing I dont understand is that BTC Touring was supposed to be a cheaper formula than Super Touring to encourage more manufacturer backed teams to participate. So why is it that manufacturers are pulling out/looking for paying drivers when a few years ago they were running a full works team with presumably a higher budget?

I understand that MG has financial difficulties at the present moment but hasnt Honda scaled back their input for the same reason?

Ive said this before but isnt the BTCC supposed to be the premier saloon car series in Britain? How can it claim to be when it ends up full of paying drivers!!!

kmchow · 17 Feb 2004, 03:42 (Ref:876496)

I think the touring car world needs to really rationalize some series. There are just too many global series around. While it's nice to have variety, it also makes it expensive for a manufacturer to build/race cars in each country.

The BTCC struggled b/c it had it's own rules. Now that S2000 has made inroads in other series, I think the touring car world is a little better off. I think the BTCC should have agreed to a shared set of rules earlier. But ditto for the rest of the world. It would be great if the Speed World Challenge would convert to the S2000 rules.

JAG · 2 Mar 2004, 19:35 (Ref:891593)

Anyone heard the story that MG will enter GT racing in 2005 with works and customer MG SVRs?

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