[BTCC] BTCC 2021

[S griffin]

I think Vauxhall would always be welcome in the series. I just think they were happy to let PMR do all the work. And it worked well that way. Was quite different though from the way Honda, Toyota, BMW and Subaru do or did do it. It probably suited Vauxhall better to do it their way

Manufacturers still have a place in the series and that is evidenced by how well BMW, Toyota and Honda have done for themselves. Would be great to see Vauxhall back

[Matt K]

It goes without saying, Vauxhall is always welcome in the BTCC. But I'd be even more pleased to see the Vauxhall red colours and big logos, like in times of VX Racing
As for the fact that manufacturers have place in the BTCC, I'd love to see a bigger interest from them once the hybrid era kicks in. Would be great.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

" Multi year deal" what does that mean exactly.......

It means exactly what it says in the article.
Cataclean have agreed to a multi-year deal with Halfords to sponsor the TD entry, that also sees promotion of Cataclean products in Halfords branches.
And that for 2021, Rowbottom is driving for the TD-run Halfords Cataclean team.

[DaviePHD]

It was long rumoured that Rowbottom was going to Dynamics and I have to say fair play to him for securing a plum seat. We can only hope that he is in fact better than his 2019 results showed.

This is likely the right time for Matt Neal to go, as much as I would have loved to see one more season of him vs JP

With one seat left in the game of Musical Chairs, and Nic Hamilton stating he would be racing then it might just be time to reveal a render of the Rokit Racing Cupra Leon. I know Nic isn't likely to win the Championship, and I know others feel differently but I for one am happy to see him in it and look forward to see what he can do in a new car.

The Series has lost Cammish, Neal, Thompson and Proctor, and gained Plato, Lloyd, Taylor Smith, Edwards, Rowbottom, Shedden and Parfitt Jr, if we accept that Cammish and Shedden cancel each other out then trading Neal, Thompson and Proctor for Plato, Lloyd, Taylor-Smith, Edwards, Rowbottom and Parfitt Jr is overall in terms of Driving talent an uplift

I am happy to see Jade Edwards get a season in the BTCC, I hope she can do enough to prove she belongs there.

It's sad to see a manufacturer leave the series, but Dynamics have done well as Privateers in the past, they could do it again!

But on the car front it looks brilliant! a lot of older machinery cleared out and some new shiny stuff in it's place.

5 BMW's but with a 3rd Infiniti, that's going to be tight.

The CC's are finally gone to be replaced with the Cupra Leon, and it has to be said HARD have raised their driving talent game with Goff, Taylor-Smith, Geddie (and probably Hamilton)

BTCC 2021 is looking healthy

[stuart thompson]

Ha,was Rowbo playing his poker face all along, or did he genuinely not know when he denied it on here a month or so ago? 😂

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

It means exactly what it says in the article.
Cataclean have agreed to a multi-year deal with Halfords to sponsor the TD entry, that also sees promotion of Cataclean products in Halfords branches.
And that for 2021, Rowbottom is driving for the TD-run Halfords Cataclean team.

What like Cammish's multi year deal.. .

[antnee]

Originally Posted by Overboost

There is a good chance 3 teams will be in the manufacture championship, with an outside chance of a 4th, so don't write it off yet 😉

Hmmmmm, my thoughts are;
Cupra - at least a tie-up with the UK company as HARD have been quite vocal about support from their local dealer
Hyundai - been mentioned in the past about getting some support
Ford - with MB being involved, its a high-profile person for Ford UK to be involved with

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by DaviePHD

It was long rumoured that Rowbottom was going to Dynamics and I have to say fair play to him for securing a plum seat. We can only hope that he is in fact better than his 2019 results showed.

This is likely the right time for Matt Neal to go, as much as I would have loved to see one more season of him vs JP

With one seat left in the game of Musical Chairs, and Nic Hamilton stating he would be racing then it might just be time to reveal a render of the Rokit Racing Cupra Leon. I know Nic isn't likely to win the Championship, and I know others feel differently but I for one am happy to see him in it and look forward to see what he can do in a new car.

The Series has lost Cammish, Neal, Thompson and Proctor, and gained Plato, Lloyd, Taylor Smith, Edwards, Rowbottom, Shedden and Parfitt Jr, if we accept that Cammish and Shedden cancel each other out then trading Neal, Thompson and Proctor for Plato, Lloyd, Taylor-Smith, Edwards, Rowbottom and Parfitt Jr is overall in terms of Driving talent an uplift

I am happy to see Jade Edwards get a season in the BTCC, I hope she can do enough to prove she belongs there.

It's sad to see a manufacturer leave the series, but Dynamics have done well as Privateers in the past, they could do it again!

But on the car front it looks brilliant! a lot of older machinery cleared out and some new shiny stuff in it's place.

5 BMW's but with a 3rd Infiniti, that's going to be tight.

The CC's are finally gone to be replaced with the Cupra Leon, and it has to be said HARD have raised their driving talent game with Goff, Taylor-Smith, Geddie (and probably Hamilton)

BTCC 2021 is looking healthy

I admire your enthusiasm but putting Edwards, Parfitt and Rowbottom on par with Cammish, Proctor or Neal is well, a bit overoptimistic to put it mildly.
In my opinion, the grid level is quite significantly weakened this year. Fortunately, there still some exciting factors to look forward to and the title fight should be interesting, too.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

What like Cammish's multi year deal.. .

Yes - like every deal on the grid; circumstances change and the deal that was in place has to be amended/cancelled.

At the end of the day - having a multi-year deal is better than a single-year deal. Having a single-year deal is better than having no deal at all.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by S griffin

We’ll see what the camouflaged livery means hopefully soon enough

I suspect what the camo livery means is that they only had one car ready for the reveal and all 4 cars will be running different liveries so they couldn't pick one over another for the reveal.

[mj088]

Originally Posted by Matt K

I admire your enthusiasm but putting Edwards, Parfitt and Rowbottom on par with Cammish, Proctor or Neal is well, a bit overoptimistic to put it mildly.
In my opinion, the grid level is quite significantly weakened this year. Fortunately, there still some exciting factors to look forward to and the title fight should be interesting, too.

You are not really comparing apples with apples there as Neal aside they are not direct replacements and nor are they meant to be, if you were to look at the last race in 2020, If you just want to pick random drivers to compare, i would say Edwards, Parfett, Rowbottom are probably on par or potentially better than Hammerton, Philpot, Rivett. - so the grid is no worse for them being there.

You also need to remember that the likes of Plato, Shedden and Lloyd returning are probably fair replacements for the driver criteria you are trying to compare in Neal, Cammish and Proctor (in terms of quality/experience/chance of winning something).

I would say the grid is neither better or worse than last season its just different

[BTCC frog]

Originally Posted by Matt K

I admire your enthusiasm but putting Edwards, Parfitt and Rowbottom on par with Cammish, Proctor or Neal is well, a bit overoptimistic to put it mildly.
In my opinion, the grid level is quite significantly weakened this year. Fortunately, there still some exciting factors to look forward to and the title fight should be interesting, too.

I think to say that the grid level has significantly weakened is a bit unfair. It's not just the drivers to be considered, but the teams they are driving for too. I agree that the grid level weakened considerably between 2019 and 2020, but between 2020 and 2021 I think it is pretty much the same. I think a good way to analyse is to split them into categories, (with the 2021 ones being predictions and here are my five.

Championship contenders:
2020 - Sutton, Turkington, Cammish, Ingram, Butcher
2021 - Sutton, Turkington, Shedden, Butcher

This category has admittedly dropped one, due to Ingram's switch to a less competitive car, which is a shame.

Potential race winners:
2020 - Oliphant, Hill, Morgan, Cook, Chilton, Neal
2021 - Oliphant, Hill, Morgan, Cook, Chilton, Ingram, Jelley, Plato

Despite losing Neal, we have added Plato and Jelley to this list, while Ingram has only dropped one group. This is a positive, as I also think this group will be closer to the title contenders than they were last year.

Upper midfield:
2020 - Jackson, Proctor, Smiley, Moffat, Jelley
2021 - Jackson, Smiley, Moffat, Rowbottom, Lloyd

We have lost Proctor, which is a negative, of course, but we have added Rowbo and Lloyd. Jelley has moved up a group. If the car is good, the Cupras of Goff and Smith could be added to this group, of course.

Lower midfield:
2020 - Thompson, Crees, Gornall, Osborne, Boardley, Goff
2021 - Crees, Osborne, Boardley, Goff, Smith, Geddie, Parfitt Jr, Smelt

In this list, we have lost Thompson and Gornall, but replaced them with Smith, Geddie, Parfitt Jr, Smelt. This looks like quite an even split considering Thompson and Gornall were two of the best in this group, but actually both Boardley and Goff should be much better than last year with better cars, and Crees and Osborne should also improve. Aron Smith could also be great depending on the Cupra.

Backmarkers:
2020 - Neate, Butel, Hamilton, the rotating HARD, the rotating PMR
2021 - Edwards, Neate, Butel, Hamilton

I put the PMR and HARD from last year here because they were mostly backmarkers, although Austin and Bushell did well. Edwards might be in the group above but I think in her first season this is more likely, while the other three are about the same.

So from this I think the grid is very equal to last year, although nowhere near the level of 2019. Losing Jordan, Plato, Tordoff and Collard, along with many drivers in less competitive cars really weakened the 2020 grid, but this year I don't think it has been weakened further. These are predictions, of course.

[crmalcolm]

Better or worse - how does the list compare? When you compare those drivers in the 26 who competed at Rd1 last season to their replacements in the 29 drivers this season, the field looks stronger.

Changes for 2021:

2020	2021
Cammish	Shedden
Neal	Rowbottom
Proctor	Plato
Thompson	Taylor-Smith
Gornall	Lloyd
Brown	Smelt
N/A	Geddie
N/A	Edwards
N/A	Parfitt Jr.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by thetool

I'd be stunned if any brand would want to be associated with HARD. I do believe at least one brand they've run before has specifically asked not to be!

Exactly. Haha I'm not surprised!

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by mj088

Edwards, Parfett, Rowbottom are probably on par or potentially better than Hammerton, Philpot, Rivett. - so the grid is no worse for them being there.

Edwards has zero Clio podiums and Rivett won 4 titles Parfitt and Rowbottom are in a different league to Edwards also.

[S griffin]

Edwards was slowly improving in Clios, however she doesn’t compare to Rivett as you say. Glad Rowbottom has got his chance, let’s see, hope he makes the most of it. And Parfitt is a nice addition to the grid

[porsche962fan]

that leaves just Hamilton not officially confirmed at HARD and the grid is finished

[S griffin]

Will it happen? We’ll wait for confirmation.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by stuart thompson

Ha,was Rowbo playing his poker face all along, or did he genuinely not know when he denied it on here a month or so ago? 😂

I am led to believe the cards all fell into place in the last couple of weeks. And I mean all the driver cards: Dan Camm, Sheds, Rowbo and Matt. So I genuinely believe Rowbo will have had the call to confirm it all very recently. He's got some big shoes to fill and a bloody great teammate to learn from. Good luck Rowbo!

Honda were out ages ago, that I know 100% from sources in Swindon.

[antnee]

I wonder if the final straw was actually the Yuasa backing going?

[Rowbo01]

So guys,

I owe you all an apology.

When i said i wasn't talking to Dynamics, it wasn't to deliberately de-rail anyone, but if you can appreciate there is a fairly complex and potentially rocky commercial agreements at times, i couldn't afford to have anything unnecessary upset the balance.

Sorry, if any of you feel that i was 'lying' - think of it as protecting a business plan!

For the record, my deal was done long before the change for Dan Cammish.

I hope you guys are all well, and i now need to pop and have a glass of red! It's been a busy day!

Take it easy,

[bella]

if anyone's going to hold it against you they're probably watching the wrong sport

congratulations for, er, the press release today and the discussions and contracts a while ago!

Originally Posted by Matt K

I admire your enthusiasm but putting Edwards, Parfitt and Rowbottom on par with Cammish, Proctor or Neal is well, a bit overoptimistic to put it mildly.
In my opinion, the grid level is quite significantly weakened this year. Fortunately, there still some exciting factors to look forward to and the title fight should be interesting, too.

i mean in the end the semantics don't really matter. it's about the racing on the track. ultimately when they're on the grid the titles, podium trophies and race wins mean nothing. if it's a close, clean race then frankly i couldn't give a stuff if it's between title winners or not.

[Sodemo]

Well I’m intrigued to see the Honda livery now after being quite similar for a few years.

[BTCC frog]

Originally Posted by Rowbo01

So guys,

I owe you all an apology.

When i said i wasn't talking to Dynamics, it wasn't to deliberately de-rail anyone, but if you can appreciate there is a fairly complex and potentially rocky commercial agreements at times, i couldn't afford to have anything unnecessary upset the balance.

Sorry, if any of you feel that i was 'lying' - think of it as protecting a business plan!

For the record, my deal was done long before the change for Dan Cammish.

I hope you guys are all well, and i now need to pop and have a glass of red! It's been a busy day!

Take it easy,

Congratulations on getting the drive, Rowbo, and good luck for next year!

[thetool]

Originally Posted by antnee

I wonder if the final straw was actually the Yuasa backing going?

Honda and Yuasa are strongly connected.