BTCC entries/rumours that never came to be

[AnonymityRules]

TTR Motorsport in 2004.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

From https://www.motorsportforums.com/arc...p/t-31506.html but edited.

For 1995, Tim Harvey was touted as a possible driver alongside Peter Hardman in an independent BMW team — Metal Composite Technologies (MCT)? Harvey said pre-season that he was either going to drive for that team or Volvo. It also says later in the thread that Justin Bell was in the frame.

Efforts were made by TOM's in the wake of Toyota canning their works effort to run a pair of Carinas independently in 1996 — drivers touted as Tim Sugden and Flavio Figueiredo?

Talk in the 1999-2000 close season of Arena running a pair of current-spec Accords for Peter Kox and Will Hoy in 2000.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Nononsensecapeesh

From https://www.motorsportforums.com/arc...p/t-31506.html but edited.

For 1995, Tim Harvey was touted as a possible driver alongside Peter Hardman in an independent BMW team — Metal Composite Technologies (MCT)? Harvey said pre-season that he was either going to drive for that team or Volvo. It also says later in the thread that Justin Bell was in the frame.

Efforts were made by TOM's in the wake of Toyota canning their works effort to run a pair of Carinas independently in 1996 — drivers touted as Tim Sugden and Flavio Figueiredo?

Talk in the 1999-2000 close season of Arena running a pair of current-spec Accords for Peter Kox and Will Hoy in 2000.

The MCT team ran Harvey and Bell in the end of season Asian events in '94. From memory BMW needed additional presence, and/or were evaluating MCT as a further works team for '95.

Think one of the principals was Peter Thompson.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Nononsensecapeesh

Anything in Class A that wasn't a Sierra was a bit of a lame duck once the Rover Vitesses and the Holden Commodore were no longer a match for them.

The UK Supra effort was underfunded and underdeveloped. They had no chance. Possibly why Chris Hodgetts bailed out very early on.

Tom's got them going fairly well in JTCC but that was with full factory level support.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by AnonymityRules

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/a...ull-team-ahead - This article says at the bottom that there were rumours linking Alfa Romeo to a 1993 entry. If that had happened, I wonder if their drivers would still have been Gabriele Tarquini and Giampiero Simoni? Or maybe Nicola Larini would have had a chance to go for the BTCC title instead of the DTM one?

From memory the French 155 was linked to a partial programme but not necessarily with Phillipe Gache driving.

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by Nononsensecapeesh

From https://www.motorsportforums.com/arc...p/t-31506.html but edited.

For 1995, Tim Harvey was touted as a possible driver alongside Peter Hardman in an independent BMW team — Metal Composite Technologies (MCT)? Harvey said pre-season that he was either going to drive for that team or Volvo. It also says later in the thread that Justin Bell was in the frame.

Efforts were made by TOM's in the wake of Toyota canning their works effort to run a pair of Carinas independently in 1996 — drivers touted as Tim Sugden and Flavio Figueiredo?

Talk in the 1999-2000 close season of Arena running a pair of current-spec Accords for Peter Kox and Will Hoy in 2000.

That'll be the Hondas that ended up going to Sweden no doubt.

[S griffin]

I'm not sure they were put to better use in Sweden!

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by chunterer

The UK Supra effort was underfunded and underdeveloped. They had no chance. Possibly why Chris Hodgetts bailed out very early on.

Tom's got them going fairly well in JTCC but that was with full factory level support.

Phil Dowsett probably would have faired even worse in 1990.

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I'm not sure they were put to better use in Sweden!

Well, a pair of Hondas that Arena looked into running in 2000 were at least supposed to be going to Sweden, I know so from reading past threads.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by KA

According to the race result on Wikipedia, Gache was a DNF in the World Cup race with accident damage, so I wonder if his Mondeo wasn't repairable in time? I was there, but don't remember the circumstances of Gache's accident, was he part of the various first-lap shunts that took out Alain Menu, Keith O'Dor, Jan Lammers, and David Leslie amongst others, and led to the race being red-flagged?

My programme is buried in the loft somewhere, but IIRC there was a bit of chopping and changing of the Shoot-Out entry list after the WC race - vague and unreliable memory suggests a few additional entries were announced, not all of which actually took the start, and a bit of car-swapping went on- Steve Soper seems to have used Winkelhock's car for the Shoot-Out for some reason?

That'll explain why Steve Soper was car #6 when that should have been for Joachim Winkelhock.

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by Nononsensecapeesh

From https://www.motorsportforums.com/arc...p/t-31506.html but edited.

For 1995, Tim Harvey was touted as a possible driver alongside Peter Hardman in an independent BMW team — Metal Composite Technologies (MCT)? Harvey said pre-season that he was either going to drive for that team or Volvo. It also says later in the thread that Justin Bell was in the frame.

Efforts were made by TOM's in the wake of Toyota canning their works effort to run a pair of Carinas independently in 1996 — drivers touted as Tim Sugden and Flavio Figueiredo?

Talk in the 1999-2000 close season of Arena running a pair of current-spec Accords for Peter Kox and Will Hoy in 2000.

That poses an interesting question, who would have partnered Rickard Rydell if Harvey hadn't joined Volvo? Maybe Jan Lammers would have stayed?

[S griffin]

It's an academic question, but yeah, there weren't really many other top line drivers available. Lammers was ok, but wouldn't have done as well as Rydell and Harvey did

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by S griffin

It's an academic question, but yeah, there weren't really many other top line drivers available. Lammers was ok, but wouldn't have done as well as Rydell and Harvey did

Who knows? Some people think Lammers would have faired a lot better - https://gprejects.com/centrale/lists/rejects-of-the-btcc

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Was Lee Brookes even meant to race in 1998? I know he made a one-off appearance that year.

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I think Trackstar might have been planning to run them

Yes, a 3-car effort was planned, the drivers would have been Robb Gravett, Mike Smith and Jonathan Palmer.

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by chunterer

The TWR entry was the blue and yellow Herbie Clips liveried Commodore. It ran in qualifying at least.

Yes, Tom Walkinshaw in the Holden Commodore, Nick Whale in the Toyota Corolla and also would have been the sole outing in the #34 BMW M3 for James Weaver if the 1988 Birmingham race had gone ahead.

John Clark was denied his BTCC debut as a result of Andrew Jeffrey failing to make the start of the 1988 Donington 1 Hour Endurance race as they were due to share Jeffrey's Volkswagen Golf.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by AnonymityRules

Yes, Tom Walkinshaw in the Holden Commodore, Nick Whale in the Toyota Corolla and also would have been the sole outing in the #34 BMW M3 for James Weaver if the 1988 Birmingham race had gone ahead.

John Clark was denied his BTCC debut as a result of Andrew Jeffrey failing to make the start of the 1988 Donington 1 Hour Endurance race as they were due to share Jeffrey's Volkswagen Golf.

John Clark did race a BMW M3 in 1989 and 1990 with Jeffrey as his co-driver in the former year's Donington 1 Hour Endurance race.

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by Nononsensecapeesh

From https://www.motorsportforums.com/arc...p/t-31506.html but edited.

For 1995, Tim Harvey was touted as a possible driver alongside Peter Hardman in an independent BMW team — Metal Composite Technologies (MCT)? Harvey said pre-season that he was either going to drive for that team or Volvo. It also says later in the thread that Justin Bell was in the frame.

Efforts were made by TOM's in the wake of Toyota canning their works effort to run a pair of Carinas independently in 1996 — drivers touted as Tim Sugden and Flavio Figueiredo?

Talk in the 1999-2000 close season of Arena running a pair of current-spec Accords for Peter Kox and Will Hoy in 2000.

That thread also claims JSM wanted to run as many as 10 Alfa Romeos, 6 Touring, 4 Production. Gosh, John Shields sure was aiming high for the 2001 Season, not to mention the intention to continue in 2002.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

David Leslie was denied his one opportunity to race the Ford Sierra RS500 as a result of Chris Hodgetts failing to qualify for the 1989 Donington 1 Hour Endurance race.

[S griffin]

It didn’t do David any harm did it though? That said, it was a shame seeing Hodgetts switch teams so often in his final 3 seasons in the series between 88-90

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by Nononsensecapeesh

David Leslie was denied his one opportunity to race the Ford Sierra RS500 as a result of Chris Hodgetts failing to qualify for the 1989 Donington 1 Hour Endurance race.

Yes, Johnny Dumfries was supposed to be co-driver to Guy Edwards in that race but Win Percy took over instead after Andy Rouse retired, resulting in a disqualification for the #10 Sierra.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by S griffin

It didn’t do David any harm did it though? That said, it was a shame seeing Hodgetts switch teams so often in his final 3 seasons in the series between 88-90

Not saying it did, just meant Leslie never got to race the Sierra, that's all.

If Rickard Rydell and Volvo had come back in 2002 then I wonder if James Hanson would have been his team-mate as he would be in the ETCC?

[S griffin]

Certainly would have been interesting to see how Leslie handled the Sierra

How close was the Volvo deal to happening? Rydell seemed quite happy where he was in the short lived ETCC, as did Volvo, but I guess someone might have persuaded them to consider it?

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Certainly would have been interesting to see how Leslie handled the Sierra

How close was the Volvo deal to happening? Rydell seemed quite happy where he was in the short lived ETCC, as did Volvo, but I guess someone might have persuaded them to consider it?

Well, this is going back to the 2000-2001 off-season when Rydell was supposed to be going to Vauxhall then back to Volvo, that's where I was coming from. I just wondered if his team-mate would still have been either Hanson or Sandro Sardelli?

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by Nononsensecapeesh

From https://www.motorsportforums.com/arc...p/t-31506.html but edited.

For 1995, Tim Harvey was touted as a possible driver alongside Peter Hardman in an independent BMW team — Metal Composite Technologies (MCT)? Harvey said pre-season that he was either going to drive for that team or Volvo. It also says later in the thread that Justin Bell was in the frame.

Efforts were made by TOM's in the wake of Toyota canning their works effort to run a pair of Carinas independently in 1996 — drivers touted as Tim Sugden and Flavio Figueiredo?

Talk in the 1999-2000 close season of Arena running a pair of current-spec Accords for Peter Kox and Will Hoy in 2000.

This thread also claims John Batchelor was intending to convert his 2 Production Class Peugeot 307s to Super 2000 specification for 2004.