2010 British Touring Car Championship



The 2010 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 53rd British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season. It began at Thruxton Circuit on 4 April and finished after 30 races over ten events at Brands Hatch on 10 October.

RML Chevrolet driver Jason Plato claimed the championship with a win in the penultimate race of the season leading home season long rival, Honda Racing Team's Matt Neal. On his way to his second BTCC crown, Plato claimed seven victories through the course of the season (equalling Andy Rouse's all-time record of 60) compared to Neal's five wins. The final victory margin was 31 points. Neal's teammate Gordon Shedden also had a shot at the title heading into the final round but a broken driveshaft immediately prior to the start of Race 2 at Brands Hatch left him too far adrift and he finished the title 42 points behind Plato.

Despite finishing fourth in the outright points chase Arena Motorsport Ford driver Tom Onslow-Cole lost the Independents' Trophy to team mate Tom Chilton. Chilton ended up eight points clear of Onslow-Cole with Motorbase Performance BMW driver Steven Kane finishing just two points behind Chilton.

The combined performances of Neal and Shedden won for the Honda Racing Team the Teams' title. It was the third title for Team Dynamics and the first time they had won the manufacturers crown for long-time partners Honda. The combined performances of Chilton and Onslow-Cole allowed Arena Motorsport to claim the Independent Teams' trophy, breaking a three-year stranglehold on that trophy by West Surrey Racing.

Changes for 2010
The loss of RAC sponsorship after four seasons meant WSR were forced to release both reigning Champion Colin Turkington and Stephen Jelley. Rob Collard returned to the team he'd previously driven for in 2005 and 2006 while Andy Neate embarked on his first full season after a couple of one-off appearances and having missed on out on a WSR seat in 2008. Motorbase Performance continued to compete as Airwaves BMW with Mat Jackson replacing Collard and Steven Kane returning in place of Jonathan Adam. A third entry for former ASCAR Champion Ben Collins appeared at the final meeting of the season on the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit. Forster Motorsport also entered a pair of BMWs for Martin Depper and Arthur Forster.

After their impressive performance with Independently-run Lacettis in 2009, the RML-run Racing Silverline team received works support from Chevrolet and upgraded to a pair of Cruzes for Jason Plato and Clio Cup graduate Alex MacDowall.

With Vauxhall pulling out at the end of 2009, Triple 8 became an Independent team and entered a pair of Vectras with Fabrizio Giovanardi set to continue as lead driver and reigning Clio Cup Champion Phil Glew as his team-mate. However, the team's new sponsor Uniq pulled out after the season-opener at Thruxton, forcing them to release both drivers. For the remainder of the season, the team ran James Nash in one car with the second car making three further appearances, each time in the hands of a newcomer (Daniel Lloyd at Croft, Jeff Smith at Knockhill and Sam Tordoff at Brands Hatch Indy). Andrew Jordan returned to his father Mike's team, now competing as Pirtek Racing and David Pinkney returned with his own team, both of whom also driving Vectras but running the new NGTC engines. Boulevard Team Racing continued to run Martin Johnson in what was to be the Vauxhall Astra Coupe's BTCC swansong.

Team Dynamics received support from Honda, becoming the first Honda works team since 2004. Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden returned to the team while their old Integras were still represented by Tech-Speed. Paul O'Neill was now partnered by John George in place of Martyn Bell with a third Integra entered by Lea Wood from the Brands Hatch GP meeting onwards (although the team sat out Knockhill as did Forster Motorsport). Former Independent's and Production Class Champions Barwell Motorsport and James Kaye returned with a 4th Integra for the final two meetings. TH Motorsport ran Matt Hamilton in a Civic Type-R for the first four meetings before pulling out.

Team Aon continued to run their Ford Focuses with Tom Onslow-Cole now partnering Tom Chilton full-time. The Focuses were converted to run on Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) before the season started.

Tom Boardman and his family-run team returned under the Special Tuning UK banner, driving a SEAT Leon. The team ran Phil Glew in a second Leon with an NGTC engine at Silverstone with Boardman running the NGTC engine at Knockhill.

For the first time since 1989, a Volkswagen was entered in the BTCC with AMD Racing running Shaun Hollamby in a Super 2000 Golf.

Teams and drivers
The official entry list was announced at the series' Media Day at Brands Hatch on 23 March 2010.

Team changes

 * Vauxhall withdrew their manufacturer support from Triple Eight Race Engineering due to the economic crisis and the lack of official manufacturers in the BTCC. However, continued as a privateer team. RML gained the backing of Chevrolet to run a Works team in the series, while Honda returned as a manufacturer team with Team Dynamics.

Driver changes
Changed teams
 * Rob Collard: Airwaves BMW → WSR
 * John George: TH Motorsport → sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed Motorsport
 * Mat Jackson: Racing Silverline → Airwaves BMW
 * Andrew Jordan: VX Racing → Pirtek Racing
 * James Nash: RML → Uniq Racing with Triple Eight
 * Matt Neal: VX Racing → Honda Racing Team
 * David Pinkney: Team Dynamics → Pinkney Motorsport

Entering/re-entering BTCC
 * Tom Boardman: World Touring Car Championship (SUNRED Engineering) → Special Tuning UK
 * Ben Collins: Le Mans Series (RML) → Airwaves BMW
 * Martin Depper: Mini Challenge (Forster Motorsport) → Forster Motorsport
 * Arthur Forster: Mini Challenge (Forster Motorsport) → Forster Motorsport
 * Phil Glew: Renault Clio Cup UK (Team Pyro) → Uniq Racing with Triple Eight & Special Tuning UK
 * Shaun Hollamby: Dunlop SportMaxx Cup (AmD Millteksport) → AmD Milltek Racing.com
 * Steven Kane: FIA Formula Two Championship (test driver) → Airwaves BMW
 * Alex MacDowall: Renault Clio Cup UK (Total Control Racing) → Silverline Chevrolet
 * Andy Neate: Sabbatical (injury) → WSR
 * Jeff Smith: Renault Clio Cup UK (Team Pyro) → Uniq Racing with Triple Eight
 * Sam Tordoff: Renault Clio Cup UK (Total Control Racing) → Uniq Racing with Triple Eight
 * Lea Wood: Welsh Sports and Saloon Car Championship (Team Wood Racing) → Central Group Racing

Leaving BTCC
 * Jonathan Adam: Airwaves BMW → unknown
 * Martyn Bell: Sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed → Sabbatical (injury)
 * Dan Eaves: Clyde Valley Racing → unknown
 * Johnny Herbert: Team Dynamics → Superstars Series (Motorzone)
 * Stephen Jelley: West Surrey Racing → Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain (Team Parker Racing)
 * Adam Jones: Clyde Valley Racing → unknown
 * Nick Leason: AFM Racing → unknown
 * Liam McMillan: Maxtreme → unknown
 * Alan Morrison: Team AON → unknown
 * Anthony Reid: West Surrey Racing → Grand Prix Masters/World Sportscar Masters
 * James Thompson: Team Dynamics → European Touring Car Cup & World Touring Car Championship (Hartmann Racing)
 * Colin Turkington: West Surrey Racing → World Touring Car Championship (West Surrey Racing)
 * Harry Vaulkhard: Bamboo Engineering → World Touring Car Championship (Bamboo Engineering)

Mid-season changes
 * Phil Glew signed to race for Triple Eight shortly after the media day, but after competing at Thruxton he lost his drive when Uniq withdrew sponsorship from the team. He returned to the series in a second SEAT León run by Tom Boardman's Special Tuning UK team, under the YourRacingCar.com banner, at Silverstone, but the deal was for the single weekend.
 * Fabrizio Giovanardi competed in the opening round for Triple Eight but left the team ahead of Rockingham due to lack of sponsorship.
 * James Nash was signed by Triple Eight to be their sole representative from Rockingham onwards.
 * Daniel Lloyd joined Triple Eight in a second car at Croft.
 * Matt Hamilton withdrew from the round at Croft due to financial difficulties and missed the rest of the season. However he is looking at finding the funds to return in 2011.
 * Jeff Smith joined Triple Eight in a second car at Knockhill.
 * James Kaye returned to the series for the final two rounds after four years away, racing a Honda Integra under the 'WRC Developments with Barwell' banner.
 * Sam Tordoff joined Triple Eight in a second car at the final round at Brands Hatch.
 * Ben Collins joined Airwaves BMW in a third car at the final round at Brands Hatch.

Calendar
All races were held in the United Kingdom. The calendar was announced by the championship organisers on 7 October 2009, with no major changes from 2009.

Championship standings

 * No driver may collect more than one "Lead a Lap" point per race no matter how many laps they lead.
 * Race 1 polesitter receives 1 point.

Drivers Championship
(key)
 * Note: bold signifies pole position (1 point given in first race only, and race 2 and 3 poles are based on race results), italics signifies fastest lap (1 point given all races) and * signifies at least one lap in the lead (1 point given all races).