BTCC 2019 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[Mike Harte]

Stop talking sense, Viv. It has no place on these webpages.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Stop talking sense, Viv. It has no place on these webpages.

Sorry Mike. To be fair it's not something I'm usually prone to do anyway, it must have been a temporary lapse...

[S griffin]

Plenty of BTCC have done one off races in TCR series. Remember Matt Neal did one in the Benelux series in 2016? So let’s not read too much into it yet

[jsmee]

Apparently a BTCC announcement tomorrow. Seen one person has hinted on Twitter as to what it may be, but may have left it a little too easy for me...

"Can anyone think of 3 words with the initials T P and C and then combine them with numbers of 17, 10 and 18?"

Isn't 'T P C' Trade Price Cars, ie Team HARD.

And 17, 10, 18... Dan Welch, AWE and Senna Proctor? From 2018 car numbers.

[Craner Curves]

Vw cup backmarker Tom Pettigrew-Churchman has announced a drive for Team HARD in car number 45?

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by jsmee

"Can anyone think of 3 words with the initials T P and C and then combine them with numbers of 17, 10 and 18?"

Isn't 'T P C' Trade Price Cars, ie Team HARD.

And 17, 10, 18... Dan Welch, AWE and Senna Proctor? From 2018 car numbers.

Talk about 2 + 2 = 157

17-10-18 is tomorrow's date, 17th Oct 2018
And yes to Trade Price Cars, their Facebook profile now shows that date.

Not sure how I'm going to sleep tonight. I can't bare the suspense.

[S griffin]

Yes, wouldn’t be the BTCC off season without suspense like this

[Robin Marriott]

Originally Posted by jsmee

Apparently a BTCC announcement tomorrow. Seen one person has hinted on Twitter as to what it may be, but may have left it a little too easy for me...

"Can anyone think of 3 words with the initials T P and C and then combine them with numbers of 17, 10 and 18?"

Isn't 'T P C' Trade Price Cars, ie Team HARD.

And 17, 10, 18... Dan Welch, AWE and Senna Proctor? From 2018 car numbers.

17/10/18 has to be the date, I can’t see Senna moving from a good team to the back of the grid, I wouldn’t imagine seeing Ant there either and I don’t think Dan will be back for an full season ever again.

It’s more likely to be Trade Price Cars announcing sponsorship again rather than driver names I reckon.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Not sure how I'm going to sleep tonight. I can't bare the suspense.

It's probably an announcement that #HARD have bought some wiper blades from a small dog called Colin.

[jsmee]

Play nice all!

It's a fair cop.

Genuinely hadn't noticed the date tomorrow!

[psq43]

So the news is that Trade Price Cars have purchased the two Audi A3s and TBLs from AMD and will enter next year, with AMD running the cars....give or take

http://www.btcc.net/2018/10/17/trade...tcc-programme/

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by psq43

So the news is that Trade Price Cars have purchased the two Audi A3s and TBLs from AMD and will enter next year, with AMD running the cars....give or take

http://www.btcc.net/2018/10/17/trade...tcc-programme/

Well, honestly can't say I expect too much given the Audi's track record but good luck to them! Always good to see a new team!

I assume this leaves HARD without a title sponsor now?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Evantra

I assume this leaves HARD without a title sponsor now?

Trade Price Cars was only the title sponsor for two of the cars, and a secondary on the other two.

Bushell's 2019 entry has already been confirmed as having a new sponsor (Fox Transport).

[Robin Marriott]

So how does this fit with Shaun’s radio chat about 4 cars? Are we likely to see 4 AMD cars plus these or are these part of the 4?

If they’re part of it, we still don’t know where the Eurotech cars are...

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Robin Marriott

So how does this fit with Shaun’s radio chat about 4 cars? Are we likely to see 4 AMD cars plus these or are these part of the 4?

If they’re part of it, we still don’t know where the Eurotech cars are...

'the plan is, as we speak, I mean I can, we are going to be carrying on running four cars in 2019 - Uhm, there'll be some changes in what type of cars we're running'

It would seem that two of the cars are the Trade Price Cars Audis - so that would mean the MGs are gone from AmD.....

[Craner Curves]

Cue some underwhelming announcements about random club racers getting the seats.

I'm sorry to be so negative about it but it's just not exciting. It'll only appeal to the fans who can go follow the guys on twitter and claim they're best mates because they get a selfie with them at every meeting.

[Robin Marriott]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

'the plan is, as we speak, I mean I can, we are going to be carrying on running four cars in 2019 - Uhm, there'll be some changes in what type of cars we're running'

It would seem that two of the cars are the Trade Price Cars Audis - so that would mean the MGs are gone from AmD.....

The MGs are still quick though. Seems an odd choice.

Jackson at TPC this year with AWE?

[btccbloke]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

Cue some underwhelming announcements about random club racers getting the seats.

I'm sorry to be so negative about it but it's just not exciting. It'll only appeal to the fans who can go follow the guys on twitter and claim they're best mates because they get a selfie with them at every meeting.

a new favorite for "the jeff army" then lol

The Audi's are underwhelming anyway, never really looked front runners, I am surprised they didn't try and take an option on the MG's if AMD are not running them, they at least look like top 10 challengers still

[Rob877]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

It'll only appeal to the fans who can go follow the guys on twitter and claim they're best mates because they get a selfie with them at every meeting.

Absolutley savage, nicely summed up in one sentence.

For what it's worth I think there is perhaps still some potential in those Audi's. They've never really had a top line driver in them to be fair. I think AWE would've done it justice this year if he had been able to get another year in the car. Ollie Jackson seems like a nice guy and steady pair of hands but isn't exactly considered a top driver, so it would be interesting to get one of the top guys in those cars.

Not that I think this will be the case at all though, it'll be some fairly underwhelming drivers and I think the best we can hope for is Ollie Jackson sticking in one.

[btccbloke]

Ok so as conspiracies go - One of the complications I understand with Hill not being allowed to leave Hard was that a sponsor had paid Team Hard for the season and they wouldn't entertain a mid season refund..
what if that sponsor was actually Trade Priced Cars? who have now left Hard to go it alone,
Hill attempted to affiliate himself with AMD who now happen to be running these cars for TPC, so would it be too far fetched to assume Hill could be lined up as the first driver?

[Robin Marriott]

Good shout that

[btccbloke]

Hill also has brief experience of the Audi standing in at Brands a few seasons back

and in fact, to add fuel to that idea, looking at Trade Price Cars blog, all of their articles relating to BTCC are very much Jake Hill focused rather than any other Hard drivers for 2018 .. http://blog.tradepricecars.com/page/3/

[Alfisti]

So maybe it is the Norlin cars that Shaun has lined up to replace the MGs. It would fit TBL wise, though as has been said the revived MG was way better than the Audi this year.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by btccbloke

looking at Trade Price Cars blog, all of their articles relating to BTCC are very much Jake Hill focused rather than any other Hard drivers for 2018 .. http://blog.tradepricecars.com/page/3/

Not really surprising thought. PR tends to focus on the best / most successful / most well known driver, and Hill definitely fits the bill compared to his team-mates.

[btccbloke]

Originally Posted by redshoes

Not really surprising thought. PR tends to focus on the best / most successful / most well known driver, and Hill definitely fits the bill compared to his team-mates.

As opposed to Bushell who had just won the Clio Cup? id say their following was about on par at that stage, and with all due respect to the Team Hard drivers, none of them are really headline acts, its not like we have a proven winner or title contender they would have pushed above the others.

Maybe your right, but read through and have a look at the blog headlines:

PROMISING DAY FOR TEAM HARD. AND HILL AT SNETTERTON TEST
JAKE HILL REACTION TO BTCC SEASON LAUNCH
HILL WINS GOODWOOD SPRING SPRINT ON HIS DEBUT
JAKE HILL: THE FAN FAVOURITE
HILL READY FOR THRUXTON BTCC BLAST
HILL SHOWS FIGHTING SPIRIT AT THRUXTON

Others are only mentioned in lip service (i.e "Hill's team mate"), and no BTCC blog posts after Snetterton where they put Dan Welch in the car, even then the article was more focused on Hill leaving the team than their performance or expectations moving forward. After this is when I understand it all kicked off when it became more clear Hill wouldnt be getting another outing this year...

No mention of TOC testing the car after Jake left -a real superstar!
No mention of Bushells upturn in form and good results at Rockingham or Silverstone
No mention of new drivers
No mention the season ended!

This is no coincidence that their interest ended when Hill left the team