Although being ineligible for the outright championship, there was still a healthy group of BTC-spec cars entered, led by Mike Jordan in the Eurotech Integra. He was joined by fellow Honda racers Simon Blanckley and John George, while Jason Hughes and Fiona Leggate teamed up as Kartworld expanded to two cars. Turkish racer Erkut returned for a full season under the Arkas Racing banner with his Astra Sport Hatch – completing a healthy field of 26 cars entered for the campaign.
First blood on Media Day went to Vauxhall, as Giovanardi set the pace during the afternoon test session ahead of Jordan and Turkington before the field headed to
Brands Hatch for the opening three races of the year…
Despite the fact that the car was completed late, and hadn’t done much pre-season running, it was Turkington who claimed the first pole position of the season after edging out Plato and Turner around the short Indy Circuit – putting a
BMW on pole for the first time in more than ten years. Giovanardi and Chilton were fourth and fifth, but the new Civics were down in ninth (Neal) and 14th (Gordon Shedden).
However, Turkington couldn’t make the most of the fast-starting BMW as the opening race of the season went the way of Plato. The SEAT man jumped into the lead at the start and survived two Safety Car periods to lead the Team RAC man home to the finish, while Jackson took a fine third on his debut – although he would then be excluded for ignoring a black flag. It meant Neal inherited third ahead of Jordan, Onslow-Cole and Chilton. Giovanardi meanwhile could manage only tenth place after an incident at the start and a problem on a restart dropped him as low as 16th.
