2003 BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

(Redirected from 2003 BTCC season)

The '2003 Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship season' was the 46th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season.

Contents

Changes for 2003

Teams and drivers

Other changes

Teams and Drivers

Race calendar and winners

Championship results

Changes for 2003

Teams and drivers

For 2003 all three main manufacturers in the premier Touring class ran three cars. Reigning champions Vauxhall cut down to three Astra Coupes by axing its Egg Sport squad and entering three VX Racing-liveried cars run again by Triple 8. 2002 champion James Thompson and runner-up Yvan Muller remained, and Paul O'Neill moved across from Egg Sport to take the third seat. MG expanded to three West Surrey Racing-run ZSs with Colin Turkington joining 2002 drivers Anthony Reid and Warren Hughes after impressing in his debut season with the Team Atomic Kitten MG squad, also run by WSR. Arena Motorsport ran three Civic Type Rs for Honda, with only Irishman Alan Morrison remaining from the 2002 line-up, Matt Neal replaced Andy Priaulx (who left to contest the European Touring Car Championship with BMW) after moving from Vauxhall, and teenager Tom Chilton filled the third seat after an impressive debut year in the Barwell Motorsport-run Astra. Proton again returned as a fourth manufacturer team, retaining both David Leslie and Phil Bennett in its two Impians. Vic Lee Racing again served as Peugeot's representative on the grid (although the marque pulled its factory support at the end of 2001), entering two newly built 307s for Dan Eaves, who had contested both 2001 and 2002 for the team, and Carl Breeze, who joined the team mid-way through 2002. Production class champions Synchro Motorsport made the step up to the top class with champion driver James Kaye running an ex-works Honda Civic Type R, as did Rob Collard with his self-run team, entering an ex-works Vauxhall Astra Coupe, and GA Motorsports with Gavin Pyper racing a similar machine. Pyper ran out of funding mid-way through the season, resulting in Breeze being poached from VLR to replace him and Paul Wallace being called up from GA's Production class squad to run a second Astra, previously raced as a one off by Gareth Howell, who later appeared in another ex-Triple 8 Astra for Team Dynamics. Renault Clio Cup driver Daniel Buxton took over Breeze's driving duties at VLR.
Barwell Motorsport headed the Production class field after stepping back down from the Touring class and acquiring Synchro Motorsport's title winning Honda Civic Type Rs, with young debutant Luke Hines and Alan Blencowe, moving from GA Motorsports, at the wheel. Edenbridge Racing cut down to a single BMW 320i for single seater convert Michael Bentwood, causing Tom Boardman to switch to John Batchelor's team (now known as Team Varta) in a new Peugeot 307, Jim Edwards Jnr returned in a Honda Accord as the team's second driver. A Peugeot 306 GTi and a second 307 joined the line-up mid season together with drivers Jay Wheals and Richard Marsh. GA Motorsport campaigned Alfa Romeo 156s for a fourth year, with Chris Ryan and Paul Wallace driving. However, Ryan withdrew after an expensive crash in the second round at Brands Hatch, and Wallace was called up to the team's Touring class assault mid-season. Mark Fullalove entered mid-season in the Peugeot 306 he had previously raced for Tech-Speed Motorsport with his self-run team, as did Jason Hughes with a Nissan Primera run by his own Kartworld Racing team.

Other changes

★ Dunlop were confirmed as the sole tyre supplier, replacing BF Goodrich

★ The series included a race meeting at Rockingham for the first time, replacing Knockhill

★ Qualifying sessions at each race meeting lasted 20 minutes (compared to the 43 minutes of 2002) and only determined the starting grid for the first race

★ The finishing positions of race 1 determined the grid for race 2

★ Mandatory pit-stops were introduced for all Touring class cars in both races

★ Alan Gow returned as series administrator midway through the season, replacing Richard West

Teams and Drivers

M = Manufacturer Team


I = Independent Team


P = Production Class Team

Touring Class
No.	Driver	Cl.	Team	Car	Notes
0	Dan Eaves	I	Team Halfords	Peugeot 307
1	James Thompson	M	VX Racing	Vauxhall Astra Coupé
2	Yvan Muller	M	VX Racing	Vauxhall Astra Coupé
3	Matt Neal	M	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R
4	Anthony Reid	M	MG Sport & Racing	MG ZS
5	Colin Turkington	M	MG Sport & Racing	MG ZS
6	Warren Hughes	M	MG Sport & Racing	MG ZS
7	Tom Chilton	M	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R
8	Paul O'Neill	M	VX Racing	Vauxhall Astra Coupé
9	Alan Morrison	M	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R
10	Carl Breeze	I	Team Halfords	Peugeot 307	Rounds 1-10
			GA Motorsports	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	Rounds 11-20
30	Danny Buxton	I	Team Halfords	Peugeot 307	Rounds 11-20
11	James Kaye	I	Synchro Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R
15	David Leslie	M	Team PSP	Proton Impian
20	Phil Bennett	M	Team PSP	Proton Impian
21	Rob Collard	I	Collard Racing	Vauxhall Astra Coupé
44	Gavin Pyper	I	GA Motorsports	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	Rounds 1-10
45	Gareth Howell	I	GA Motorsports	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	Rounds 7-8
			Team Dynamics		Rounds 13-20
46	Paul Wallace	I	GA Motorsports	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	Rounds 11-20
Production Class
52	Luke Hines	P	Barwell Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R
53	Alan Blencowe	P	Barwell Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R
54	Paul Wallace	P	GA Motorsports	Alfa Romeo 156	Rounds 1-10
55	Chris Ryan	P	GA Motorsports	Alfa Romeo 156	Rounds 1-4
60	Mark Fullalove	P	Mark Fullalove Racing	Peugeot 306	Rounds 13-20
69	Jim Edwards Jr	P	Team Varta	Honda Accord	Rounds 1-12
				Peugeot 307	Rounds 13-20
70	Tom Boardman	P	Team Varta	Peugeot 307
71	Richard Marsh	P	Team Varta	Peugeot 306	Rounds 11-12
				Honda Accord	Rounds 13-20
72	Jay Wheals	P	Team Varta	Peugeot 306	Rounds 13-20
77	Michael Bentwood	P	Edenbridge Racing	BMW 320i
99	Jason Hughes	P	Kartworld Racing	Nissan Primera	Rounds 11-20

Race calendar and winners

Round	Circuit	Date	Touring class winner	Production class winner
1 2	Mondello Park	21 April	James Thompson James Thompson	Chris Ryan Michael Bentwood
3 4	Brands Hatch (Indy)	5 May	Matt Neal Yvan Muller	Michael Bentwood Michael Bentwood
5 6	Thruxton	26 May	Yvan Muller Yvan Muller	Tom Boardman Tom Boardman
7 8	Silverstone (International)	8 June	James Thompson Yvan Muller	Luke Hines Luke Hines
9 10	Rockingham	22 June	Matt Neal Yvan Muller	Tom Boardman Luke Hines
11 12	Croft	13 July	Matt Neal Anthony Reid	Tom Boardman Luke Hines
13 14	Snetterton	9 August	Paul O'Neill Matt Neal	Luke Hines Tom Boardman
15 16	Brands Hatch (Indy)	25 August	Warren Hughes Colin Turkington	Michael Bentwood Tom Boardman
17 18	Donington Park (National)	7 September	Matt Neal Yvan Muller	Luke Hines Luke Hines
19 20	Oulton Park (Island)	21 September	James Thompson Matt Neal	Alan Blencowe Tom Boardman

Championship results

{| style="border:0"
| valign=top |
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%"
! colspan=3 | Driver's championship-Touring
|-
! Position
! Driver
! Points
|-
! 1
| Yvan Muller
| 233
|-
! 2
| James Thompson
| 199
|-
! 3
| Matt Neal
| 148
|-
! 4
| Paul O'Neill
| 138
|-
! 5
| Alan Morrison
| 125
|-
! 6
| Anthony Reid
| 121
|-
! 7
| Warren Hughes
| 98
|-
! 8
| Colin Turkington
| 97
|-
! 9
| Tom Chilton
| 70
|-
! 10
| Rob Collard
| 42
|-
! 11
| David Leslie
| 28
|-
! 12
| Gavin Pyper
| 24
|-
! 13
| Carl Breeze
| 22
|-
! 14
| James Kaye
| 16
|-
! 15
| Dan Eaves
| 15
|-
! 16
| Phil Bennett
| 14
|-
! 17
| Gareth Howell
| 14
|-
! 18
| Daniel Buxton
| 1
|-
! 19
| Paul Wallace
| 0
|}
| valign=top |
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%"
! colspan=3| Independent's championship
|-
! Position
! Driver
! Points
|-
! 1
| Rob Collard
| 160
|-
! 2
| James Kaye
| 151
|-
! 3
| Carl Breeze
| 141
|-
! 4
| Dan Eaves
| 126
|-
! 5
| Gavin Pyper
| 80
|-
! 6
| Gareth Howell
| 80
|-
! 7
| Daniel Buxton
| 38
|-
! 8
| Paul Wallace
| 37
|}
| valign=top |
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%"
! colspan=3| Driver's championship-Production
|-
! Position
! Driver
! Points
|-
! 1
| Luke Hines
| 243
|-
! 2
| Alan Blencowe
| 193
|-
! 3
| Michael Bentwood
| 186
|-
! 4
| Jim Edwards Jr
| 96
|-
! 5
| Tom Boardman
| 57
|-
! 6
| Paul Wallace
| 46
|-
! 7
| Richard Marsh
| 46
|-
! 8
| Mark Fullalove
| 39
|-
! 9
| Jay Wheals
| 27
|-
! 10
| Chris Ryan
| 15
|-
! 11
| Jason Hughes
| 6
|}
|-
| valign=top |
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%"
! Colspan=3 | Manufacturer's championship
|-
! Position
! Make
! Points
|-
! 1
| Vauxhall
| 528
|-
! 2
| Honda
| 318
|-
! 3
| MG
| 243
|-
! 4
| Proton
| 75
|}
| valign=top |
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%"
! colspan=3| Team's championship-Touring
|-
! Position
! Team
! Points
|-
! 1
| VX Racing
| 438
|-
! 2
| Honda Racing
| 299
|-
! 3
| MG Sport & Racing
| 216
|-
! 4
| Team Petronas
| 70
|-
! 5
| Collard Racing
| 45
|-
! 6
| Team Halfords
| 26
|-
! 7
| GA Motorsports
| 18
|-
! 8
| Synchro Motorsport
| 10
|-
! 9
| Team Dynamics
| 9
|}
| valign=top |
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%"
! colspan=3| Team's championship-Production
|-
! Position
! Team
! Points
|-
! 1
| Barwell Motorsport
| 417
|-
! 2
| Team Varta
| 196
|-
! 3
| Edenbridge Racing
| 182
|-
! 4
| GA Motorsports
| 56
|-
! 5
| Mark Fullalove Racing
| 39
|-
! 6
| Kartworld Racing
| 6
|-