There are quite a few causes for Tremendous Touring being upheld because the British Touring Automobile Championship’s zenith over 20 years on. Shut racing between automobiles that appeared and sounded completely different, whereas bearing a similarity with these you may discover within the grocery store automotive park, is definitely an element.
However one other is the glut of big-name drivers who had confirmed their value all around the globe and introduced actual status. For a couple of quick years, the BTCC amounted to a world calibre nationwide sequence because the likes of Roberto Ravaglia, Frank Biela and Laurent Aiello – who had already gained their home championships and lots of extra apart from – came to visit to check themselves in opposition to the perfect that Britain needed to provide.
The announcement that Raffaele Marciello would turn into the eighth manufacturing unit driver on the British GT grid this 12 months makes me ponder whether that is the championship’s Tremendous Touring second. Marciello, who joins John Ferguson at RAM Racing, will go up in opposition to fellow Mercedes ace Jules Gounon – the pair forming two-thirds of the successful lineup in final 12 months’s Spa 24 Hours and claiming the GT World Problem Europe Endurance Cup for good measure – in what can solely be described as an enormous coup for British GT.
That Gounon, so efficient with RAM in choose outings final 12 months, has switched to rival Mercedes squad 2Seas with defending champion Ian Loggie will add a further subplot to what’s certain to be a captivating narrative.
German McLaren ace Marvin Kirchhofer additionally returns after ending second on his sole British GT outing final 12 months at Silverstone with Storage 59. He’s paired up as soon as extra with Alexander West, himself an completed novice in GTWCE.
Add them to the host of home-grown manufacturing unit skills racing McLaren (Rob Bell), Lamborghini (Sandy Mitchell), Aston Martin (Ross Gunn) and BMW (Dan Harper) equipment this 12 months and it’s little marvel that Aston works ace and four-time sequence champion Jonny Adam – who will contest the vast majority of the season alongside James Cottingham in a 2Seas Merc – tells Autosport “the championship has turn into actually critical now”.
After all, there have been manufacturing unit weapons within the sequence earlier than – take 2018 when Aston Martin fielded Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Maxime Martin alongside Adam and Darren Turner. And with Yelmer Buurman, who edged Marciello to win that 12 months’s Blancpain GT Endurance title, additionally on the grid, sharing with Lee Mowle, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say the sector has a extra worldwide flavour than ever both.
The presence of defending Spa 24 Hours winners Marciello (left) and Gounon (proper) is a large coup for British GT that underlines its competitiveness
Picture by: Mercedes AMG
“I might say it’s much like ’18 and ’19,” displays Adam when requested to check it to this 12 months.
However whereas again then the inflow could possibly be largely defined by a British producer that was eager to help clients of its venerable V12 Vantage GT3 in its remaining season on dwelling soil, now the unfold is extra even throughout the producers – some extent Adam acknowledges.
“I believe it does assist the championship whenever you’ve bought worldwide drivers coming over they usually all adore it as a result of the circuits are so distinctive within the UK,” he says.
For Gounon, at the moment in restoration after an enormous Nurburgring Nordschleife crash final weekend, the circuits are a core a part of the enchantment.
“This 12 months when Ian requested me if I needed to do British GT once more it was not even a query, it was an absolute pleasure” Jules Gounon
“This 12 months I used to be actually fortunate to decide on the programme I needed with Stefan [Wendl, Mercedes head of customer racing]. And the course I went is to return to these tracks that I really like,” says the Frenchman, who can also be contesting a full IMSA Sportscar Championship GTD Professional marketing campaign in 2023.
“Doing British GT with Ian was one thing I loved a lot final 12 months. Ian is an distinctive man and I actually get pleasure from spending time with him. So this 12 months when Ian requested me if I needed to do British GT once more it was not even a query, it was an absolute pleasure. I get pleasure from being on these tracks and within the automotive with him a lot.”
And the manufacturing unit aces are solely the tip of the iceberg. Adam is impressed not simply by “the energy of not simply the Professional aspect with eight manufacturing unit drivers, however the guys that aren’t” on the 18-car GT3 grid (the healthiest since 2014). There’s high quality in abundance together with 5 earlier race winners, a previous GT4 champion and European Le Mans Collection title-winner.
Gounon is again for extra this 12 months with 2Seas having been captivated by the UK circuits in 2022
Picture by: JEP / Motorsport Images
As Adam Carroll confirmed final 12 months together with his stout defence in opposition to Gounon at Oulton Park, not being within the automotive each week isn’t at all times a barrier to success. So don’t go pondering the manufacturing unit drivers may have all of it their very own means.
“The variety of manufacturing unit drivers is massively spectacular however there’s a lot of guys as effectively who aren’t a full manufacturing unit driver however are nonetheless bloody good,” agrees Bell, who will share an Optimum machine with Mark Radcliffe.
“Sure, manufacturing unit drivers are fairly stacked, however the remainder of them are fairly useful. Each automotive has bought a menace in it.”
Is it higher than it’s ever been?
“It’s phenomenally robust and I don’t bear in mind seeing fairly so many Execs who’re at a prime, prime line doing it,” reckons Bell. “I’d say it’s in all probability essentially the most aggressive season I’ve seen in whole.
“British GT has at all times been aggressive. And typically underrated, truly. When you return to when GT3 was first beginning out correctly, you continue to had Nick Tandy, [Richard] Westbrook, Phil Eager, Allan Simonsen, there’s at all times been good guys in it. The highest, prime sharp finish hasn’t bought higher or worse, there’s simply extra quantity of high quality drivers. That then does have extra kudos for us drivers as a result of we need to beat different good drivers.”
“I do suppose this shall be a particular 12 months and I’m actually wanting ahead to racing in opposition to different manufacturing unit drivers as I’ve completed previously,” says Adam. “It’s nice for the championship that there’s so many good tales which have been launched by way of British GT in the previous few months. The standard of these tales with the motive force lineups has positively introduced one thing additional.”
British GT has had abroad skills earlier than – right here Thiim is chased by Dennis Lind in 2019 – however the depth on this 12 months’s grid is especially spectacular
Picture by: JEP / Motorsport Images
And don’t overlook that in pro-am racing each drivers share the accountability of attending to the end first. With the Execs normally evenly matched, the largest distinction will, as ever, be based on who can extract potential from their novice co-drivers.
“It would boil all the way down to how one can get the perfect out of your Am driver, actually. That would be the key and at all times has been,” says Bell.
It’s this emphasis that has been a key consider Adam’s unparalleled success down the years, every of his titles coming with a special co-driver.
“[Cottingham’s] tempo is simply as vital as mine and that’s one thing I’ve at all times dialled into,” he says. “It really works so effectively in British GT as a result of the Am has to drive 62 minutes in a two-hour race and it’s a mixed qualifying in numerous locations.”
“The highest, prime sharp finish hasn’t bought higher or worse, there’s simply extra quantity of high quality drivers” Rob Bell
One exception to that’s the two Oulton Park sprints, the place grids are set by the Am and Professional respectively. So this Saturday, all eyes shall be on the battle for the race two pole – maybe essentially the most eagerly-anticipated quali session in years between a number of the best GT3 drivers on the earth giving it the beans.
Nevertheless lengthy this peak interval lasts, let’s get pleasure from it. A Tremendous Touring Pageant at Manufacturers Hatch in July is concentrating on a number of the greatest names of yesteryear, however UK-based spectators shall be handled to the modern-day equal six occasions this 12 months. No matter you do, don’t miss it.
Abba Mercedes racer Sam Neary (left) shall be eager to benchmark himself in opposition to Aston manufacturing unit driver Gunn and works BMW ace Harper
Picture by: Motorsport Images
