Opinion: Why Unpredictability has Benefited the BTCC

As the British Touring Car Championship heads to Brands Hatch for the 2018 season finale, with the driver’s title still up for grabs Colin Turkington holds a 34-point lead over Tom Ingram.

The 2018 season has seen 16 different race winners in 27 races, defending champion Ash Sutton winning five races and championship leader Colin Turkington only winning one race. The championship has had six first time race winners, but is this good for the championship?

It’s definitely what championship director Alan Gow wanted when he introduced the success ballast in 2004 and reverse grids in 2006.

The number of winners of course brings both good and bad points. It is good to see new faces at the front of the grid battling for wins and podiums. It shows how competitive the British Touring Car Championship is, including amongst the small teams with smaller budgets, who can still compete with the manufacture teams. A showcase of how unpredictable the series is.

With the success of the rules within the reverse grid and success ballast, how much is that to blame for the results? The Silverstone meet was a prime example, Tom Ingram started 19th on the grid in race one carrying 66kgs of weight. On the harder slower tyre, he only managed to make his way to 15th by the end of the race. However, in race two carrying no weight and on the faster tyre Ingram managed to win the race by 6.412 seconds.

Do you want to see the championship winner with the most wins or being rewarded with consistency, like the current championship leader Colin Turkington?

I asked the members of the ‘British Touring Car Talk’ Facebook group what they think of it all. Most have the same opinion, they like the unpredictability of the race weekends and the newer younger drivers getting reward for all the hard working getting sponsorship.

“It’s great to see the reward of the teams and driver’s efforts and close racing. Downside in my opinion, is a lot of this is down to ballast and reverse grids and sometimes it is unjustified on the out and out fastest cars. This has taken away the thrill and excitement of an underdog winning a race, where now it’s possible for virtually the entire field to win”. – Gary Dawson

It would be a sentiment shared by many;

“The multitude of race winners this year is a tribute to the success of the BTCC. As a race series, the regulations call for close racing and that exactly what it has given us.” – Lewis Glynn

The closeness of the championship is a credit to the regulations, with the order determined by how good the current crop of drivers are and who can perform on a level playing field. Surely the BTCC has found a winning blue print that other motor racing series could follow?