Barwell step down from BTC class

Super Tourer · 19 Dec 2002, 10:02 (Ref:453278)

From a piece in Autosport magazine.

According to Autosport, Barwell will abandon their BTC Astra's to focus on the production class instead.

Sponsorship issues seem to be the reason for the team stepping down to the BTP class. Likely cars mentioned are either the Honda Civic type R or Peugeot 307.

I presume this means that Tom Chilton has taken his Bluesure cash elsewhere - to Honda possibly - and shows the downside of running a BTC team effectively based around one pay driver.....

touringcarnut · 19 Dec 2002, 10:20 (Ref:453287)

Would anyone be likely to buy the Barwell astras? If not, there's not going to be many Astras on the grid next year, if Vauxhall only manage a 2 car attack. Hope Kiwi Slight gets a drive somewhere!

Sim_Da_BTCC_Man · 19 Dec 2002, 13:04 (Ref:453396)

Bad news for BTC-T but atleast it will bring up gridd numbers for the production class. I wouldn't see it financialy viable for them to carry on with the astras because now being two years old getting podiums would be allot mor difficult and car upgrades would proberbly set them back abit?

Super Tourer · 19 Dec 2002, 13:16 (Ref:453412)

Sim

They are advertised as 2002 cars, built over the winter for Barwell by 888. I think it's just a case that without major sponsorship (I am assuming Chilton as moved on) they can't afford to run BTC cars.

ST

BootsOntheSide · 19 Dec 2002, 13:49 (Ref:453454)

The Civics would make the most sense,maybe the ones Synchro used this year. Hoefully Simon Graves will be back in the fold, as Chilton and Slight will be gone. Its a pity as they were quite strong in the Indie Cup, but in a way its what they deserved after dumping Kaye and Graves in favour of a rich kid and his bag of soiled gold.

redshoes · 19 Dec 2002, 14:13 (Ref:453475)

Car upgrades are not really an issue. Barwell already had both cars rebuilt/upgraded to 2002-spec. As there's been no changes in the regs and many of the parts are controlled the actual differences between 2001 and 2002-spec are mostly minor tweaks. Remember that the Astra used by Triple Eight this year were actually built in 2001 (with 2002 updates) and they didn't have much trouble getting on the podium.

Kaye wasn't exactly dumped. He was asked by Honda to join Synchro, which he did.

racer69 · 20 Dec 2002, 04:11 (Ref:453940)

Yeah the age of the cars, unless over time they have attracted a fair bit of carnage, shouldn't be an issue, as it is meant to be a non-development formula.

Shame, but hopefully someone else will pick up the cars

redshoes · 20 Dec 2002, 09:19 (Ref:454067)

Quote:

Originally posted by racer69
unless over time they have attracted a fair bit of carnage

I seem to remember Slight's car had a couple of minor scratches after the last round at Donington.

Speeddemon555 · 21 Dec 2002, 02:43 (Ref:454670)

Unfortunately, the economic factor can undermined a motorsport team. That is a setback for Barwell and I hope they will be back in the Touring Class in 2004.

pink69 · 21 Dec 2002, 23:48 (Ref:455129)

weren't GA motorsport set to run the Barwell cars or last years 888 cars. Don't know whats going on there now. Shame Barwell have had to drop down. Shows even in this new cheaper economic climate, there are still finacial worries for privateer teams.

**touringlegend** · 22 Dec 2002, 00:02 (Ref:455140)

GA Motorsport are running two ex-888 run cars from this year. I think one is the Thompson car, and the other is the Neal car.

Radisich Fan · 4 Jan 2003, 19:29 (Ref:463749)

From the Barwell website I got the impression they were doing both proddie and touring class this year?

redshoes · 4 Jan 2003, 19:40 (Ref:463756)

That was the original plan. What you've seen is the original details from a couple of months back. Barwell's website hasn't been fully updated to reflect the change.

Radisich Fan · 5 Jan 2003, 18:28 (Ref:464635)

Ahh right, I see

Sim_Da_BTCC_Man · 5 Jan 2003, 20:37 (Ref:464759)

I think the change of plan was down to the cost of running Touring class cars. They would be financialy better off using production cars? IMO they should of stayed another year in production and then moved up.

Radisich Fan · 7 Jan 2003, 10:20 (Ref:466137)

Shame really, hope they will be back soon!

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