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In just under a week's time it will finally be upon us, the 2014 British Touring Car Championship season, the most highly anticipated new season for over a decade!

After a staggeringly silly 'Silly Season' the series boasts no less than seven current or former BTCC champions (with 12 titles between them), ten champions of other series and 13 former BTCC race winners (and no Andy Neate!). With only DTM being able to claim as many champions, it makes the BTCC arguably the strongest national championship in the world this year. In fact it has a higher calibre of entry than a number of international and world championships do.

Entry list:
No   Driver               Nat  Team                            Car                    Cl
1    Andrew Jordan        ENG  Pirtek Racing                   Honda Civic 2KC        I
4    Matt Neal            ENG  Honda Yuasa Racing              Honda Civic Tourer     C
5    Colin Turkington     NIR  eBay Motors                     BMW 125i M Sport F21   I
6    Mat Jackson          ENG  Airwaves Racing                 Ford Focus ST MkIII    I
7    Fabrizio Giovanardi  ITA  Airwaves Racing                 Ford Focus ST MkIII    I
9    Alain Menu           SUI  CHROME Edition Restart Racing   Volkswagen CC          I
10   Rob Collard          ENG  eBay Motors                     BMW 125i M Sport F21   I
11   Simon Belcher        ENG  Handy Motorsport                Toyota Avensis T270    I
12   Dan Welch            ENG  STP Racing with Sopp + Sopp     Proton Persona         I
16   Aiden Moffat         SCO  Laser Tools Racing              Chevrolet Cruze 4dr    I
17   Dave Newsham         SCO  AmD Tuning.com                  Ford Focus ST MkIII    I
18   Nick Foster          ENG  eBay Motors                     BMW 125i M Sport F21   I
20   James Cole           ENG  United Autosports               Toyota Avensis T270    I
21   Glynn Geddie         SCO  United Autosports               Toyota Avensis T270    I
28   Chris Stockton       ENG  Power Maxed Racing              Chevrolet Cruze 5dr    I
30   Martin Depper        ENG  Pirtek Racing                   Honda Civic 2KC        I
31   Jack Goff            ENG  RCIB Insurance Racing           Vauxhall Insignia      I
33   Adam Morgan          ENG  WIX Racing                      Mercedes-Benz A-Class  I
39   Warren Scott         ENG  CHROME Edition Restart Racing   Vauxhall Insignia      I
40   Árón Smith           IRL  CHROME Edition Restart Racing   Volkswagen CC          I
43   Lea Wood             ENG  Houseman Racing                 Toyota Avensis T270    I
44   Jack Clarke          ENG  Crabbie's Racing                Ford Focus ST MkIII    I
48   Ollie Jackson        ENG  STP Racing with Sopp + Sopp     Proton Persona         I
52   Gordon Shedden       SCO  Honda Yuasa Racing              Honda Civic Tourer     C
54   Hunter Abbott        ENG  AlcoSense Breathalysers Racing  Audi A4 B8             I
67   Robb Holland         USA  Rotek Racing                    Audi S3 8V             I
80   Tom Ingram           ENG  Speedworks Motorsport           Toyota Avensis T270    I
88   Sam Tordoff          ENG  MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save        MG6 GT                 C
99   Jason Plato          ENG  MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save        MG6 GT                 C
101  Rob Austin           ENG  Exocet Racing                   Audi A4 B8             I
888  Marc Hynes           ENG  Quantel Bifold Racing           MG6 GT                 I

With such an entry list, it's not at all unreasonable to suggest that at least a third and perhaps as much as half of the field will have a shot at the championship, if not race wins.

The season will begin at the historic Brands Hatch Indy circuit in Kent and will visit each of the major circuits around the country, including the long-awaited return of the full Oulton Park International layout, before ending again at Brands Hatch, this time on the GP circuit. The main BTCC centrepiece will be joined by the usual travelling side-show of support categories, namely the Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, the Ginetta Junior Championship & GT4 Supercup, the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britian and the Renault UK Clio Cup.

Circuit length:               1.2079 miles
No. of laps:                  3x 24
Race distance:                3x 28.9896 miles
Races held:                   215
First race:                   26/12/1957
First race on current layout: 16/05/1999
Lap record:                   46.855, Jason Plato, Renault Laguna, 1999

2013 winners (Indy):
Race 1: Jason Plato
Race 2: Jason Plato
Race 3: Matt Neal

All-time winners:

Drivers:
23: Jason Plato
14: Matt Neal
12: Frank Gardner
8:  Tommy Sopwith, Andy Rouse
7:  Alain Menu
6:  James Thompson
5:  Brian Muir, Stuart Graham, Tim Harvey, Rickard Rydell, Fabrizio Giovanardi
4:  Jack Sears, Roy Pierpoint, Gordon Spice, Jeff Allam, Joachim Winkelhock, Gabriele Tarquini, Yvan Muller
3:  John Sprinzel, John Fitzpatrick, Richard Lloyd, Vince Woodman, Robb Gravett, John Cleland, Frank Biela, Anthony Reid, Colin Turkington, Rob Collard, Mat Jackson
2:  Geoff Williamson, Mike Parkes, Jim Clark, Jackie Oliver, Barrie Williams, Colin Vandervell, Pete Lovett, Steve Soper, Will Hoy, Laurent Aiello, Warren Hughes, Tom Chilton
1:  Tommy Bridger, Gawaine Baillie, Doc Shepherd, Roy Salvadori, Albert Powell, Bob Olthoff, Jack Brabham, Dennis Leech, Gerry Birrell, Bill McGovern, John Hine, Tony Dron, Nick Whiting, Win Percy, Tom Walkinshaw, Mike Smith, Tim Sugden, Paul Radisich, Simon Harrison*, Phil Bennett, Luke Hines, Rob Huff, Dan Eaves, Tom Onslow-Cole, Andrew Jordan, Árón Smith, Frank Wrathall, Gordon Shedden

Manufacturers:
50: Ford
24: Chevrolet
21: Vauxhall
17: BMW
15: Jaguar, Honda
11: MG
10: SEAT
9:  Rover
7:  Austin, Volvo
6:  Renault
4:  Alfa Romeo, Nissan
3:  Triumph, Audi, Toyota
1:  Borgward, Sunbeam, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, Peugeot*

* - Outright wins in production class (2001)

Timetable
Live Timing
Live Circuit Commentary
Live Stream

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Check out the Touring Car Driver Database! (if you'd be so kind)
Motorsport playlists on YouTube

Great opening post. I shall have to miss this one. My Sky Plus will be on record however!

WOO HOO!!

can't wait, looking forward to the new season

I'll be there, as usual. Really looking forward to this one!

Making the trip down for the weekend. A 5 hour drive but I'm sure it won't disappoint! It's been a couple of years since I've gotten down for one of the Brands Hatch rounds!

GIO FTW

Should be a good one

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"Many people ask me why I always sign off Till We Meet Again, because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon." -Marty Reid

I was tempted to go but I think I'll stay home and watch it on the TV. I like to take photos at the track and I imagine it'll be really busy on the Sunday. Good atmosphere, but not so easy to snap.

Thats what Saturdays are for.

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"Many people ask me why I always sign off Till We Meet Again, because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon." -Marty Reid

If I wasn't working.

Basically my thought process as well. Plus, even with Brands' good views, you can still see a lot more on TV.
Plus there's a load more motorsport I want to be watching as well as BTCC on the Sunday, should be a great weekend!

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My Flickr photography attempts.
My Youtube channel, with highly viewed (for some reason) NR2003 videos, car shows, motorsport.

Amazing super sunday of racing

Anyone know if ITV4 website will be covering qualifying on Saturday as usual in recent years?

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

I'm assuming so.

Are the official ITV4 streams available to non-UK viewers?

Not without a proxy.

Don't think so, but there's always someone on justin.tv who streams the entire day anyway.

Am assuming that Sunday will be rain affected at some point too, the way things are going atm.

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Apparently the weather is supposed to be OK. But saying that, just today in Kent, it started sunny, then we had a massive hail storm out of nowhere. Then it was fine again. So who knows.

_________________
My Flickr photography attempts.
My Youtube channel, with highly viewed (for some reason) NR2003 videos, car shows, motorsport.

Yes. Circuit commentary is available this year as well, so you'll be able to listen to the support races too.

_________________
Check out the Touring Car Driver Database! (if you'd be so kind)
Motorsport playlists on YouTube

Are the ITV streams better quality than Justin TV? It'd be worth it to me setting up a fake proxy to avoid the usual stream lag for this race.

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