BTCC 2024 News & Rumours

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by v8supes

I agree, this can only be a good thing. Just wish they'd leave the streaming on after qualifying so we can watch the support races. They film them to show on the Sunday already anyway so it cant be that much work to stream it?

They only do this on the final weekend of the season, and that is streamed. The rest of the season they go back to rigging after qualifying.

[InYourMirrors45]

Will be interesting to see how Huff does. I’ve personally wanted to see him do a full season since his one off at Silverstone, however I hope people don’t expect to much to soon. With seen several other world champions come back after a while away and not achieve an awful lot, Menu, Gio and Priaulx etc. I’d expect him to win some races and if he places top 5/6 in the championship come the end of the year I think that will be a pretty good effort. Worth remembering he’s probably not driven competitively round Thruxton, Croft, Oulton park for a long time and prior to last year knockhill. A lot to learn in a short space of time but I believe he’s versatile enough. Exciting news for fans and the championship, especially after quite a negative winter.

[Pit Lane Lurker]

Originally Posted by InYourMirrors45

Will be interesting to see how Huff does. I’ve personally wanted to see him do a full season since his one off at Silverstone, however I hope people don’t expect to much to soon. With seen several other world champions come back after a while away and not achieve an awful lot, Menu, Gio and Priaulx etc. I’d expect him to win some races and if he places too 5/6 in the championship come the end of the year I think that will be a pretty good effort. Worth remembering he’s probably not driven competitively round Thruxton, Croft, Oulton park and prior to last year knockhill. A lot to learn in a short space of time but I believe he’s versatile enough. Exciting news for fans and the championship, especially after quite a negative winter.

It’s only been a negative winter for those with a negative outlook on things.

Many other folk have been commenting on how healthy the numbers are looking and how much promise the season has.

[antnee]

Huff confirmed at Toyota Gazoo

https://www.btcc.net/2024/03/28/form...zoo-racing-uk/

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Racing Harz

Huff confirmed.
https://www.btcc.net/2024/03/28/form...zoo-racing-uk/

Excellent boost for the series, will be nice to have another name in championship contention (we hope!) Very, very strong line-up from Toyota.

[Matt K]

Curious how they managed to get him and pay him but it's fantastic to see Huff in the BTCC full time! The likes of Priaulx or Giovanardi and Menu (after their comebacks in 2010s) show that it's not that easy to come back to the BTCC and be ultra competitive even if you're the world champion so expect the season will be challenging for Huffy, at least in the beginning. Depending of course on Toyota's competitiveness, I think some podiums and a win or two should be possible to achieve.

[crmalcolm]

2024 TBL	2024 Team	Car	Driver	Status
Excelr8 Motorsport-1	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8	Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	Pearson	Confirmed for 2 years in press release (24&25)
Excelr8 Motorsport-2	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8	Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	Ingram	Confirmed in Press Release
Excelr8 Motorsport-3	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8	Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	Chilton	Confirmed in Press Release
Excelr8 Motorsport-4	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8	Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	Halstead	Confirmed in Press Release
Alliance Racing-1	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	Sutton	Confirmed in Press Release
Alliance Racing-2	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	Cammish	Confirmed in Press Release
Alliance Racing-3	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	Rowbottom	Confirmed in Press Release
Alliance Racing-4	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	Osborne	Confirmed in Press Release
West Surrey Racing-1	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	Turkington	Confirmed in Press Release
West Surrey Racing-2	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	Morgan	Confirmed in Press Release
West Surrey Racing-3	???	BMW 330e M Sport	???
West Surrey Racing-4	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	Hill	Confirmed in Press Release
Speedworks Motorsport-1	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	Watson	Confirmed in Press Release
Speedworks Motorsport-2	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	Huff	Confirmed in Press Release
Speedworks Motorsport-3	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	Cook	Confirmed in Press Release
Speedworks Motorsport-4	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	Moffat	Confirmed in Press Release
Power Maxed Racing-1	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	Taylor-Smith	Confirmed in Press Release (24&25)
Power Maxed Racing-2	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	Doble	Confirmed in Press Release
Power Maxed Racing-3	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	???
Restart Racing-1	Restart Racing	Cupra León	Smiley	Confirmed in Press Release
Restart Racing-2	Restart Racing	Cupra León	Sumpton	Confirmed in Press Release
Aiden Moffat Racing-1	Team HARD.	Cupra León	DeLeon	Confirmed in Press Release
Aiden Moffat Racing-2	Team HARD.	Cupra León	???	Confirmed in Press Release
CBM Racing-1	???	???	???
One Motorsport-1	N/A	N/A	N/A	Taking a ‘pause’ for 2023
One Motorsport-2	N/A	N/A	N/A	Taking a ‘pause’ for 2023
One Motorsport-3	N/A	N/A	N/A	Taking a ‘pause’ for 2023
Other Rumours
???	???	???	Hamilton	Spoke to ITV stating he is working on a deal
???	???	???	Thompson	Stated he is confident of being on the grid, and supported by Team Dynamics

Key:
Green/Bold – Confirmed in a press release since the start of 2023 season
Green – Confirmed in a press release prior to 2023 season
Amber – Indicated as happening by comments from official sources
Blue – Rumoured in multiple sources

[TinTopGrumpy]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

And with all respect I bet they are all nearer to 50 than 20. As the BBC has demonstrated this week the Live Tv model is withering to the on demand model

I'm talking sport not TV in general. I watch everything on demand apart from sport which I always watch live whenever possible.

Same goes for all my extended family and friends regardless of age. Seems weird to not watch a sport live if you can.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Matt K

Curious how they managed to get him and pay him but it's fantastic to see Huff in the BTCC full time!

With reference to his "pay", without being privy to his contract, there is no way to know how he is or isn't being paid for his season. For all we know it may well be done in the same way that Plato used to fund himself, i.e. by selling hospitality availability, or by being able to bring sufficient sponsorship that will generate an income for himself. This may or may not be the reason why the announcement has come fairly late.

At the end of the day, what does it matter to us spectators, as long as it ensures there is another car and driver on the grid.

[billy bleach]

Disappointing livery

[antnee]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

With reference to his "pay", without being privy to his contract, there is no way to know how he is or isn't being paid for his season. For all we know it may well be done in the same way that Plato used to fund himself, i.e. by selling hospitality availability, or by being able to bring sufficient sponsorship that will generate an income for himself. This may or may not be the reason why the announcement has come fairly late.

At the end of the day, what does it matter to us spectators, as long as it ensures there is another car and driver on the grid.

Given it is a car with Toyota backing, it could well be that its a deal that consists of the 'drive' is funded by Toyota/Gazoo - if Huff wants a wage out of it, then he brings along his own sponsors as well

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by TinTopGrumpy

I'm talking sport not TV in general. I watch everything on demand apart from sport which I always watch live whenever possible.

Same goes for all my extended family and friends regardless of age. Seems weird to not watch a sport live if you can.

I don't tend to watch BTCC live - I usually have other things to do at the weekend, I do try and catch up with it in the week following the event. The problem I had last year was that ITVX was so bad I'd give up - it keeps on crashing and forgetting where I'd got to in the 7 hour broadcast so would start again from the beginning. Infuriating! It's by far the worst catchup app - hopefully it'll have been updated before the new season starts (they may have done something about it already to be fair - I don't watch anything else on ITV so haven't used it for months).

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Disappointing livery

Isn't that Toyota's corporate livery though? Didn't really expect much different if I'm honest

[CroftPilgrim]

Originally Posted by Pit Lane Lurker

It’s only been a negative winter for those with a negative outlook on things.

Many other folk have been commenting on how healthy the numbers are looking and how much promise the season has.

Agreed. The quality on the grid is the highest it has been for some time.

[pimmy]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Disappointing livery

Probably not the final design with the Fuchs logo just slapped on like that.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by pimmy

Probably not the final design with the Fuchs logo just slapped on like that.

I assumed it was just an interim version using last year's livery with a few sponsor logos swapped out. There is a very slight difference in the red on the bonnet compared to last year but that just be that it was hastily applied rather than a deliberate design change.

[DoMw94]

Originally Posted by Pickles

Isn't that Toyota's corporate livery though? Didn't really expect much different if I'm honest

All of Toyota's other factory programmes have switched to a black livery this year though. I, for one, thought that the BTCC programme might follow a similar route.

[touringlegend]

Originally Posted by CroftPilgrim

Agreed. The quality on the grid is the highest it has been for some time.

Also agreed.

Out of the confirmed drivers so far I only see 4/5 who aren’t race winners, and out of them probably only 1 (Halstead, sorry) I don’t see having the potential to win a race.

[InYourMirrors45]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Also agreed.

Out of the confirmed drivers so far I only see 4/5 who aren’t race winners, and out of them probably only 1 (Halstead, sorry) I don’t see having the potential to win a race.

If we’re gonna be at 20/21 entries then I think reducing the points to maybe the top 10-12 again like in the past is probably needed.

[porsche962fan]

Huff is another passed his prime driver

don't expect much from him , maybe the occasional podium

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by InYourMirrors45

If we’re gonna be at 20/21 entries then I think reducing the points to maybe the top 10-12 again like in the past is probably needed.

Honestly I wouldn't say so. Supercars gives points to all the drivers that finish the race and that's fine IMO. Leaving it at Top 15 is ok. What I'd reduce though is the reverse grid window to 8 cars.

[mick bennett]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

Huff is another passed his prime driver

don't expect much from him , maybe the occasional podium

Points in the lower orders of BTCC team/drivers are really totally irrelevant, does it matter either way if they have a few at the end of the season. Unless they are worth money to the Team as in Formula One.

Why not give every position some ?

[S griffin]

Glad to have Huffy back in the series. Big boost to the grid and hopefully he can show he's still got it and why he's a world champion

[touringlegend]

Interesting to note on Jake Hills latest youtube video what appears to be the 4th BMW was sat bare of sponsors except for the BMW M colours.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Interesting to note on Jake Hills latest youtube video what appears to be the 4th BMW was sat bare of sponsors except for the BMW M colours.

A Steve Soper return?