[BTCC] BTCC predictions 2023

[BTCC frog]

The traditional five predictions (or as many as you like) for the 2023 BTCC season.

Here are mine:

1. Jake Hill wins his first BTCC championship.
2. Ash Sutton is the highest-placed FWD car in the championship.
3. There are fewer rounds where the first two races are won by the same driver than in 2022, but still at least four reversed-grid races won by the polesitter.
4. Rory Butcher will claim his strongest ever championship position.
5. Power Maxed will score fewer than ten points all season, but will have a new car and star driver for 2024.

[Evantra]

1. Hill is champion.
2. Thompson gets a race win.
3. Pearson gets at least three points finishes.
4. In at least one race, all six Cupras fail to finish.
5. Ingram scores over double the other three Hyundais combined.

[SSmith]

Titles:

1. Ash Sutton wins his 4th title
2. Josh Cook wins the Independents
3. Sam Osborne wins the JST
4. NAPA Racing UK win the Teams
5. BMW win the Manufacturers

Races:

1. Josh Cook wins all three races at Thruxton
2. 12 different drivers win a race this season
3. 21 dry and 9 wet races
4. Ball 12 gets drawn 5 times in the reverse-grid draw
5. Only 14 finishers in one race

Miscellaneous:

1. At least three drivers will get replaced during the season
2. 25 drivers score points
3. All 6 Team HARD entries retire from a race [apologies for borrowing this one Evantra]
4. Announcement during the summer break of a new manufacturer joining in 2024
5. A major name announces their retirement from BTCC at the end of the season

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Titles:

1. Ash Sutton wins his 4th title
2. Josh Cook wins the Independents
3. Sam Osborne wins the JST
4. NAPA Racing UK win the Teams
5. BMW win the Manufacturers

Races:

1. Josh Cook wins all three races at Thruxton
2. 12 different drivers win a race this season
3. 21 dry and 9 wet races
4. Ball 12 gets drawn 5 times in the reverse-grid draw
5. Only 14 finishers in one race

Miscellaneous:

1. At least three drivers will get replaced during the season
2. 25 drivers score points
3. All 6 Team HARD entries retire from a race [apologies for borrowing this one Evantra]
4. Announcement during the summer break of a new manufacturer joining in 2024
5. A major name announces their retirement from BTCC at the end of the season

Titles:
1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No (Andrew Watson)
4. Yes
5. No (Alliance/Ford)

Races:
1. Definitely no
2. No
3-4. I didn't keep a close enough eye on these! I'm sure someone has the stats for these
5. No (I think fewest finishers was 20 in Brands GP race 2)

Miscellaneous:
1. Yes
2. No - 28 drivers finished in the points although Halsteads went away due to engine penalties
3. Surprisingly no
4. Definitely no
5. No (for now...)

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Evantra

1. Hill is champion.
2. Thompson gets a race win.
3. Pearson gets at least three points finishes.
4. In at least one race, all six Cupras fail to finish.
5. Ingram scores over double the other three Hyundais combined.

1 - Nope
2 - Nope
3 - well yes (13), but not sure why I underestimated him so much so not counting that!
4 - Nope, to be fair I didn’t actually expect that one to happen!
5 - Yes (not counting Halstead’s negative, 97 (Chilton) + 69 (Pearson) x2 is 332.)

Terrible!

[Matt K]

1. Dan Lloyd will be highest-placed HARD driver
2. There will be no new winner
3. Tom Ingram will fail to defend the title
4. Jake Hill will be WSR's top performer again, possibly being a clear number one of the team in deciding phase of the season
5. Ash Sutton will not finish the season in the Top 3

[coffinpilot]

My predictions for 2023
1.At least two Team Hard drivers won’t have the budget to run every race
2.No Jack Sears eligible drivers will score a podium finish
3.Donington GP races will have highest percentage of safety car running
4.Ricky Collard will win a reverse grid race
5.Alan Gow will sell TOCA

[thetool]

Originally Posted by coffinpilot

5.Alan Gow will sell TOCA

He'd have to buy it first, assuming you are refering to BARC (TOCA) Limited? As there is no "TOCA" entity.

[coffinpilot]

Originally Posted by thetool

He'd have to buy it first, assuming you are refering to BARC (TOCA) Limited? As there is no "TOCA" entity.

Just a jest.
There was a few people saying that Ginetta leaving the TOCA package was down to the guy who owns Ginetta trying to buy Gow out and take control, but the price was too low.
But I wouldn't be surprised if the headmaster was thinking of doing a Bernie and calling it quits to go down under.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by coffinpilot

Just a jest.
There was a few people saying that Ginetta leaving the TOCA package was down to the guy who owns Ginetta trying to buy Gow out and take control, but the price was too low.
But I wouldn't be surprised if the headmaster was thinking of doing a Bernie and calling it quits to go down under.

Think on the media day TinTopTuesday he said something like “I’m going to do it for as long as I enjoy it, and I still do”, or words to that effect!

On a similar subject glad to see Steve Rider was back too, think there were a few rumblings of his retirement last year.

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by Matt K

1. Dan Lloyd will be highest-placed HARD driver
2. There will be no new winner
3. Tom Ingram will fail to defend the title
4. Jake Hill will be WSR's top performer again, possibly being a clear number one of the team in deciding phase of the season
5. Ash Sutton will not finish the season in the Top 3

1. Yes
2. Heck, yes!
3. Yes
4. Yes and partly yes as towards the end he was BMW's title hope even though without chances at the very last round
5. shameful how little faith I had in Ash and the whole team but for my defence it's probably because I tend to downplay chances of my favourite drivers/teams - probably not to disappoint myself with too high expectations; besides after 2022 I wasn't really sure if Fords can make any particular step forward

PS hope this game continues next year, it's the most fun of them all!

[Greem]

1. Final round will start with only 25 entrants
2. There will be a hybrid system that catches fire
3. Turkington will look like winning the championship again, until his closest contender wins races 1 and 2 at round 9 and he crashes in race 3
4. One of Team Tom (Chilton or Ingram) will be champion
5. Tim will repeatedly get the two Toms the wrong way round

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Greem

1. Final round will start with only 25 entrants
2. There will be a hybrid system that catches fire
3. Turkington will look like winning the championship again, until his closest contender wins races 1 and 2 at round 9 and he crashes in race 3
4. One of Team Tom (Chilton or Ingram) will be champion
5. Tim will repeatedly get the two Toms the wrong way round

A big fat zero for me. Unsurprisingly!

[CroftPilgrim]

1 Jake Hill will be champion
2 At least three of the Team Hard drivers won't complete the season
3 Gordon Shedden makes a guest appearance as a stand in driver at at least one meeting
4 Colin Turkington fails to finish in the top 6 in the driver's championship
5 Dan Rowbottom finishes as top Napa Racing driver in 2nd

[mick bennett]

1.Ash Sutton Champion.
2. Team Hard will close before the end of the season.
3. Jake Hill top scoring WSR driver if he does'nt crash first.
4.Josh Cook independents Champion.
5. Jelley replaced mid season by Gordon Sheddon.

[mf51]

1. Rory to be champion
2. Plato to make some sort of appearance this year, whether it be racing a round or commentating, even picking the ball
3. Morgan least performing BMW driver, and get replaced for next year
4. Tome Chilton to win at least 1 race
5. A new manufacture/vehicle to be announced

[mf51]

Originally Posted by mf51

1. Rory to be champion
2. Plato to make some sort of appearance this year, whether it be racing a round or commentating, even picking the ball
3. Morgan least performing BMW driver, and get replaced for next year
4. Tom Chilton to win at least 1 race
5. A new manufacture/vehicle to be announced

1. No
2. No, sadly.
3. No, Jelley 12th, Morgan 9th
4. Yes
5. No (well not yet).

Overall my predictions were pretty poor.

[sjb114]

1. Jake Hill to be champion
2. Pearson to be the second highest placed Hyundai
3. A Cupra to win at least one race
4. Two NAPA cars to clash at least once - but there will still be 3 of the 4 in the top 10 at the end of the season
5. 2 driver changes throughout the season

[rdjones]

1. A BMW driver will win the championship
2. Team Hard will a race
3. At least one qualifying session will have a red flag
4. Going in the final meeting at least 4 driver will be in with a chance of winning the championship
5. All 4 BMW drivers will win a race

[hen henths]

I love when we do these.

1. Ash Sutton will win the championship but with fewer 1st places and more top 2 finishes than last year.
2. Tom Chilton will do better than last year but will finish between 5th and 10th in the championship.
3. At least one of the top five in the championship will start from (very near) the back of the grid due to a penalty of some kind.
4. Jade Edwards will achieve her best race finishing position yet.
5. Hybrid or BoP will be altered again either during the season or ready for next season.

TenTenths forum predictions:

1. porsche962fan will complain about weak toe links.
2. Outside this thread someone other than me will bring up Plato with reference to future involvement in the BTCC.

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by hen henths

1. porsche962fan will complain about weak toe links.
2. Outside this thread someone other than me will bring up Plato with reference to future involvement in the BTCC.

Love it!

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by hen henths

TenTenths forum predictions:

1. porsche962fan will complain about weak toe links.

Race 2

[hen henths]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Race 2

Yup, saw that.

[hen henths]

Originally Posted by hen henths

1. Ash Sutton will win the championship but with fewer 1st places and more top 2 finishes than last year.
2. Tom Chilton will do better than last year but will finish between 5th and 10th in the championship.
3. At least one of the top five in the championship will start from (very near) the back of the grid due to a penalty of some kind.
4. Jade Edwards will achieve her best race finishing position yet.
5. Hybrid or BoP will be altered again either during the season or ready for next season.

1. Yes, he won it. No, he got four times as many 1st places and yes, one more top 2 than last year. So, incorrect.
2. No he was 14th but yes that was slightly better than 15th last year.
3. Yeah Tingram got that ride height disqualification in the wet again!
4. No not quite.
5. Not yet as far as I know. Anyone want to jump in and correct me?

Provisionally 1 out of 5!

Originally Posted by hen henths

TenTenths forum predictions:

1. porsche962fan will complain about weak toe links.
2. Outside this thread someone other than me will bring up Plato with reference to future involvement in the BTCC.

1. Oh yes!
2. No I don't think they did. Tim mentioned him being at the paddock one weekend.

1 out of 2.

Originally Posted by Matt K

PS hope this game continues next year, it's the most fun of them all!

Definitely!

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by hen henths

5. Hybrid or BoP will be altered again either during the season or ready for next season.

Originally Posted by hen henths

5. Not yet as far as I know. Anyone want to jump in and correct me?

Boost adjustments were carried out during the season - and The Lord of Gow has confirmed that hybrid will be adjusted over the winter to make it have a larger effect next season.