This March we see the return of David Addison's monthly BTCC blog, as he weighs in on all the latest news ahead of the 2021 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship...

I had a flashback the other day. It involved copious quantities of Houblon Chouffe, a most excellent IPA-style Belgian beer, and a cucumber. It still haunts me… 

A better Flash back is the news that Gordon Shedden will be on the BTCC grid once more as the 2021 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship draws closer, and whilst one has to feel sympathy for Dan Cammish, there is no arguing that Shedden’s return to the championship is going to add a certain spark. In fact, when you add in the number of new cars and team/driver shuffles, it is a really interesting season that awaits us, albeit one in which continuity may well be key….WSR and Colin Turkington will be hoping so. 

For various reasons I seem to have been closer to discussions this winter about the driver market, but the Cammish news wasn’t one I had heard a whisper of and it certainly sent a shockwave through the paddock. The same was true of the parting of Tom Ingram from Speedworks/Toyota Gazoo Racing UK although the addition of Rory Butcher into the Corolla is an exciting one, while team-mate Sam Smelt is a better driver now than when we last saw him on a BTCC grid.  

The Laser Tools Racing/Team HARD relationship will be an interesting one, as will HARD’s endeavours with the new Cupra, while Motorbase has had a winter of change too, of course, with a change of ownership now falling under Shaun Hollamby’s management. This should be a good move given how well AmD/MB had moved forward in recent seasons, with old machinery, and hopefully this will move Motorbase up a level. We’ve seen the team can win but it has never been a consistent package, I don’t feel. Maybe now it can be a true BTCC force. 

Tom Chilton at Ciceley will be an intriguing one as well. Once Tom has been taught how to speak Norman, a language modelled by the team’s loquacious commercial director Norman Burgess, he should fit in just fine and he and Adam Morgan in the BMWs should be up at the pointy end of the grid. This should be a breakthrough year for the squad…and seeing Tom in a flat cap will be a highlight. Remember, Tom, when they ask what you want for dinner, they mean lunch. Dinner is tea. Tea is a brew. OK? 

We are a bit short of BTCC rookies, though, and it is great to see Rick Parfitt Jr joining the grid after a successful spell in GT racing. Granted, this is a very different discipline and you don’t have a co-driver to help you get a result, but Rick was always one of the best ams in British GT and should go well in a touring car once he gets his head around the ay one has to race. 

So, we are getting closer to a season beginning. The grid is almost all known with only a couple of seats to be announced and a championship that will be a corker. And best of all, by the summer hopefully, you can join us again trackside.  

Keep counting the days…!