BTCC Motorsport Programme
British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) Sponsorship and Marketing Brochure
Introduction
02
BTCC Motorsport Programme
“When AmDTuning.com joined the BTCC grid back in 2010, we knew we were taking on the challenge of one of the most competitive tin top series in the world. “Since then, we have grown as a team and firmly established ourselves on the grid, with the 2017 season having been arguably our best campaign to date. “When the series introduced the current NGTC regulations, we knew that it provided smaller teams like ours with a platform on which to continue to compete at the highest level. “Throughout 2017, the development work on our Audi S3 only served to strengthen what was already a very promising package and has shown that we are more than capable of challenging inside the top ten. “There is little doubt that we can head into 2018 and the BTCC’s 60th anniversary season feeling confident about our chances on the back of a year that saw us score more points in the Teams’ Championship than ever before. “With the Audi a regular points scoring car, and with two drivers who we know can run at the front of the field, exciting times lie ahead and we are hugely optimistic about our chances of success.” Shaun Hollamby Team Principal
03 AmDTuning.com
AmDTuning.com is a highly respected and long-standing tuning company based in West Thurrock, Essex. Although primarily known for its work with vehicles from the Volkswagen Audi Group, AmDTuning.com specialists in performance tuning and upgrades for all European vehicles, using leading performance products from some of the major companies in the tuning world – including Cobra, Eibach, Millers Oils, Bilstein, Airtec, SuperPro, Milltek, Brembo and Dunlop. AmDTuning.com has been involved in motorsport for over 25 years, during which time it has developed the resources, personnel, capabilities and experience necessary to reach the pinnacle of the sport. The story of AmDTuning.com is one of tireless effort and dedication, ignited by the passion of the team that has been put together as the team has moved up the motorsport ladder. AmDTuning.com now operates at the highest level of British Motorsport, running a multi-car programme in the British Touring Car Championship, and has also successfully campaigned cars in both the British GT Championship and the Le Mans Cup; including fielding a car on the support package for the famous Le Mans 24 Hours.
Sponsorship and Marketing Brochure
What is the BTCC
The British Touring Car Championship is one of the most popular motorsport series’ to be found anywhere in the world and also one of the oldest; celebrating it’s 60th anniversary season in 2018.
04 BTCC Motorsport Programme
The battle for top honours in the series is fought out across ten meetings at nine of the top circuits across the UK. Each race weekend features two 40 minute practice sessions and a half hour long qualifying session on Saturday, with three races of equal length then taking place on Sunday. On track results are crucial during race day, with the result from race one being used to determine the starting grid for race two, and the final race including a reverse grid draw where anything from the top six to the top ten from race two is switched on its head. The exception in 2018 will be at Snetterton, with race three being run over an extended distance of 60 miles as part of the series’ 60th anniversary. Since being founded back in 1958, the BTCC BTCC has always been universally popular with race fans who are drawn in by the action-packed racing, the accessibility to the stars, and the fact they can relate to the cars competing on track; all of which are based on some of the most popular models seen on UK roads. Trackside attendance figures continue to rise on a yearly basis, whilst the series has a free-to-air TV package that is unrivalled by any other form of motorsport thanks to a long-standing partnership with ITV.
That partnership includes live coverage of each event on ITV4 HD, with a highlights package following all ten rounds that airs on both ITV and ITV4. It means the series benefits from more than 200 hours of broadcast coverage, with race highlights also available to fans on demand via the dedicated BTCC section of the ITV website. Those factors combined have helped make the BTCC a hugely attractive option for teams, drivers and manufacturers, with the likes of Ford, Vauxhall, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Volvo and Honda amongst those to have used the series to showcase their latest models over the years. Since the advent of the NGTC regulations, cars representing no fewer than 14 different brands have appeared on the grid, giving the BTCC the kind of variety not seen anywhere else in the world. Busy race days include support race action from Porsche, Ginetta, Renault and British F4, as well as a popular pitlane walkabout – providing huge value for money for spectators. Free admission for children at most venues means families play a major part in creating a friendly atmosphere in the grandstands and on the spectator banking.
BTCC Championship Dates 2018 Round Date
Circuit
County
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Brands Hatch (Indy) Donington Park Thruxton Oulton Park Croft Snetterton Rockingham Knockhill Silverstone Brands Hatch (GP)
Kent Leicestershire Hampshire Cheshire North Yorkshire Norfolk Northamptonshire Fife Northamptonshire Kent
07-08 April 28-29 April 19-20 May 09-10 June 23-24 June 28-29 July 11-12 August 25-26 August 15-16 September 29-30 Sept
05
Technical
06 The BTCC has long been a leader when it comes to technical innovations, and the current era is no different after the introduction of the Next Generation Touring Car Regulations. NGTC-spec cars are larger than the Super 2000-spec cars they replaced and feature a series of standardised parts – including the turbo, gearbox, subframe, suspension and brakes – that helps to reduce the costs involved in competing in the sport. The move to a fresh set of regulations saw the introduction of a new engine formula, with teams now running a two-litre turbo-powered unit as opposed to the normally-aspirated engines that had previously been the norm.
BTCC Motorsport Programme
The new engines have been designed to be cheaper to run than S2000-spec units and while teams can develop their own engines - as long as it is from the same family as the car they are using - there is the option of running an unbranded engine provided by series organisers TOCA. Larger brakes and larger tyres also mean improved performance on track, with the series having been open only to NGTC-spec machinery since 2014. The decision to develop the new regulations, at a time when teams and sponsors alike were dealing with challenging economic times, has proved to be something of a masterstroke by series organisers. Rather than seeing grid numbers fall, the series has instead welcomed new manufacturers, new teams and new cars as part of capacity grids, with smaller teams that would previously have been unable to develop their own cars, now in a position where they can produce a machine capable of challenging at the front of the field.
The 2014 season marked the start of a new era for AmDTuning.com in the series as it moved to an NGTC-spec car for the first time, firstly with a Ford Focus before switching to the Audi S3 it now campaigns. Having expanded to a two-car team in 2017, the team is now firmly established as a contender for regular top ten finishes, with the ever-improving Audi having become one of the most competitive packages on the BTCC grid.
07 Sponsorship and Marketing Brochure
Sponsorship A walk up and down the BTCC paddock provides a clear indication of the profile that the series holds with sponsors, with a number of blue chip companies making use of the series to promote their brands in recent years. Tesco, eBay Motors and Halfords have all seen the benefit of the series in recent years, with their involvement in Britain’s top racing series putting their product in front of a TV audience of well over 20 million in the UK alone. That’s alongside the hundreds of thousands of people who follow the action trackside across the ten race weekends that make up each season. The series is about much more than making the most of the advertising space available on a car to promote a product to the consumer market, with an increasing number of companies using their involvement in the championship to entertain clients and make the most of the B2B (Business-to-business) opportunities that are available. For others, the ability to work alongside a team competing in the most competitive form of motorsport in the UK helps to push forwards with technological advances that it can then take to the marketplace. Title sponsor Dunlop is a prime example, having long used its involvement in the BTCC to develop new technology that it can then offer to its customers.
08 BTCC Motorsport Programme
Sam spent a successful five year stint racing in karts before making the move into car racing for the first time at the start of the 2017 campaign. Initially competing in the Volkswagen Racing Cup, Sam took a best finish of eleventh at the wheel of his VW Polo before taking the decision to make the move to British F4 for the second half of the year.
Sam Smelt Nationality: British Date of Birth: 23/08/1996 Sam Smelt will make the move into touring cars for the first time in 2018 as he seeks to maintain a rapid rise through the motorsport ranks.
Despite running with one of the smallest teams on the grid, and against rivals who had completed at least half a season in the single-seater series, Sam would show his potential with four top ten finishes in the highlycompetitive junior championship. Eager to now make a return to tin-top competition, Sam has already impressed in testing and will head into his maiden season in touring cars keen to try and challenge for regular points finishes.
09 basis - in 2009. After a solid debut season, he dominated the A1 class in 2010, winning eleven of the 20 races to secure the class championship and a top six overall finish. The 2011 season saw Ollie move into the
British GT Championship, but having had his first opportunity to sample touring cars with two outings in a Triple Eight-run Vauxhall Vectra, Ollie put together a deal to join AmDTuning.com for 2012.
Ollie Jackson Nationality: British Date of Birth: 26/04/1984 Ollie Jackson rejoined AmDTuning.com at the start of 2016 and heads into the 2018 season keen to build on the progress made during the past two years. Having started his career in Caterhams, Ollie has been a firm fixture in the touring car paddock since making the move into the Porsche Carrera Cup GB – on a full-time
Regularly challenging for points, Ollie secured three top ten finishes en-route to 18th in the championship standings. Switching teams to sample NGTC-spec machinery for the first time in 2013, Ollie finished 20th in the standings but a tough 2014 with an uncompetitive and unreliable car saw him elect to take a year out of the series in 2015 – instead racing in the Ginetta GT Supercup and finishing eighth in the standings. Having agreed terms on a return to AmDTuning. com for 2016, Ollie would enjoy a solid season on track and ended the year as a regular contender for points finish; something he repeated throughout 2017 in arguably the most competitive season of his BTCC career to date.
TV and Media
Understandably, the BTCC commands huge media coverage around the UK, including a TV package that virtually unrivalled by any series outside Formula One. An ever-increasing commitment from ITV has now given the championship a platform of which rival series can only dream, with well over 200 hours of coverage being provided by the broadcaster over the course of the year. That includes extensive live programming on both ITV4 and ITV4 HD alongside highlights shown on ITV1, ITV4 and ITV4 HD. Qualifying is also available live via the ITV website, with races available online and on demand following each race weekend Crucially, that means all coverage of the BTCC is available on a free-to-air basis, while an average of seven hours of live
coverage on race day puts all other forms of motorsport – including F1 – firmly in the shade. Outside the UK, highlights air in each of the six continents meaning potential audience figures running into the billions. In other forms of the media, national press coverage sits alongside extensive reporting in the traditional motorsport media – both on and off-line. At a time when the face of the media is changing, both the BTCC and its competitors have embraced the use of social networks, with the series invariably trending on Twitter on a race weekend as fans seek to keep up to date with the insider news being provided by those in the paddock.
10 BTCC Motorsport Programme
Statistics
2017 BTCC Global Television Coverage Country
Network
Australia Portugal Thailand USA. Canada
Speed Sport TV Grand Prix CBS Sports
Transmissions Homes
30 30 30 20
1,000,000 650,000 19,500,000 60,000,000
52-minute international highlight programmes from all ten BTCC rounds
BTCC Trackside Attendance Year Total
2006 255,000 2007 275.000 2008 295,000 2009 310,000 2010 320,000 2011 366,000
2012 371,000 2013 373,000 2014 378,000 2015 382,000 2016 384,500 2017 385,100
11
Trackside spectator numbers grew for the fourteenth consecutive year in 2017. Totals are cumulative three-day attendance at all ten BTCC meetings.
Graph to compare ITV BTCC coverage with the number of UK TV viewers 300
20
UK TV Airtime
UK TV Airtime (hrs)
15 200 10 100 5
0
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
0
Year
* Cumulative audience number/hours weighted according to programme duration hours, which reflects sustained viewing of more than three minutes.
Total UK TV Audience* (million)
Total UK TV Audience
AmD Tuning
Unit 6 Cliffside Trade Park Motherwell Way West Thurrock Essex RM20 3LE Tel: +44 (0) 1708 861827 www.amdtuning.com
BTCC Motorsport Programme