1996 British Touring Car Championship season
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The 1996 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship season marked the arrival of
Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...
to the sport with their four wheel drive A4s. The title was won by Frank Biela, with Swiss driver
Alain Menu Alain Menu (born 9 August 1963) is a Swiss racing driver who is currently working for Team BMR as a driving coach. He was one of the most successful touring car drivers of the 1990s, winning the prestigious British Touring Car Championship twice ...
again finishing in second place and Swede
Rickard Rydell Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Champ ...
in third.


Season review

After seeing the success that rivals BMW and Alfa Romeo had achieved in the series, and wanting to expand their successful touring car programme, Audi entered a works team for the season, headed up by
Audi Sport UK Apex Motorsport, formerly known as Audi Sport UK, was a British auto racing team founded in 1996 by former racing driver Richard Lloyd in partnership with the Volkswagen Group. Formed to bring Audi into the British Touring Car Championship, the ...
's Frank Biela. Biela had won multiple touring car championships and the 1995 Touring Car World Cup for the Four Rings. The Audi A4 proved the class of the field from the get go, helped considerably by its four wheel drive system. This led to an argument between the manufacturers throughout the season, and a weight penalty was added to the Audis. It did not help much; Biela dominated the season and won the title with 4 races to run, one of 7 titles won by the Audi A4 Quattro in 1996. Joining Biela at Audi was rookie
John Bintcliffe John Simon Bintcliffe (born 7 February 1966 in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England) is a motor racing figure. He has been involved in the British Touring Car Championship as both driver and team owner. He won the Renault Clio Cup in ...
, winner of the 1995 Ford Fiesta championship and the 1994 Renault Clio Cup. The Yorkshireman would finish seventh in the standings. Williams Renault were seen as the team to beat before the start of the year after a strong finish to 1995, with
Alain Menu Alain Menu (born 9 August 1963) is a Swiss racing driver who is currently working for Team BMR as a driving coach. He was one of the most successful touring car drivers of the 1990s, winning the prestigious British Touring Car Championship twice ...
title favourite. Early season reliability issues meant that the Swiss driver was never really in title contention but a strong second half of the year allowed him to take runners up spot for the third year in a row. Team mate Will Hoy endured a tough season despite starting strongly, finishing 2nd to Biela in the opening two rounds. He would visit the podium just once more on his way to 9th overall and the following season would move to the Ford team. Volvo, run by Tom Walkinshaw Racing, developed the 850 further, allowing
Rickard Rydell Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Champ ...
to challenge for wins throughout the year and the Swede was Biela's closest challenger for most of the season. His new team-mate
Kelvin Burt Kelvin Burt (born 7 September 1967 in Birmingham) is a British auto racing driver. After attending the Jim Russell Racing Drivers' School in 1987 he turned to Formula Ford racing, battling hard against David Coulthard for the championship. He wo ...
, switching from Ford, took a single victory at Silverstone in May. During the following round at Oulton Park he was involved in a vicious accident, knocking him unconscious and having to be cut free from the car. He was taken to Chester Hospital suffering from severe concussion. Burt would miss the next round at Snetterton and was due to be replaced by
British Formula 3 The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seate ...
driver Jamie Davies, however Davies crashed the car heavily in testing, destroying it and also suffering a concussion, but was otherwise unharmed. As a result Volvo entered just one car for Rydell and Burt would return at the following meeting. Vauxhall retained their title winning driver line up of John Cleland and James Thompson driving the new Vectra. The new car had a difficult development and was not as mechanically suited to racing as the Cavalier was. Thompson took the team's only win of the season, while Cleland would only finish 8th in the driver's championship. Ford switched from
Andy Rouse Andrew Rouse (born 2 December 1947) is a British racing driver, most notably in the British Saloon Car Championship. He won the BSCC in 1975, 1983, 1984 and 1985. Andy Rouse is one of the most successful drivers ever to appear in the BSCC. His ...
to West Surrey Racing to run the Mondeo in cooperation with race car engineering specialist Reynard and Schubel Engineering who built the Mondeo for the equivalent Super Tourenwagen Cup in Germany. The season was a complete disaster with the car proving to be off the pace and unreliable. Paul Radisich suffered 13 retirements in 24 races while his new team-mate Steve Robertson scored just two points all season. Honda continued their promise of 1995 despite a slow start David Leslie took three wins during the second half of the season, including the
British Grand Prix The British Grand Prix is a Grand Prix motor race organised in the United Kingdom by the Royal Automobile Club. First held in 1926, the British Grand Prix has been held annually since 1948 and has been a round of the FIA Formula One World C ...
support race. He was once again joined by
James Kaye James Kaye (born 18 February 1964 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire) is a British auto racing driver. He has been a stalwart competitor of Hondas in various championships since 1995, and has had 2 lengthy spells in the BTCC. He won the BTCC indepe ...
, although he was unable to match Leslie’s results. After a disappointing 1995, BMW factory outfit
Team Schnitzer Schnitzer Motorsport was a motorsport team based in Freilassing near Munich, Germany. From the early days of its establishment, the team has operated an automobile racing squad for BMW, and has remarkable results in touring car and sports car rac ...
returned to the series with 1993 champion
Joachim Winkelhock Joachim Winkelhock (born 24 October 1960) is a German motor racing driver. The younger brother of the late Manfred Winkelhock, Winkelhock was born in Waiblingen, near Stuttgart. The youngest brother, Thomas Winkelhock, and Manfred's son Markus ...
and multiple touring car title winner Roberto Ravaglia leading the team, with Peter Kox running in a third car in selected races. Winkelhock took several wins during the year but was too inconsistent to challenge his compatriot for the title, whilst Ravaglia only won a single race and was mostly remembered for a string contentious moments with the likes of Radisich and Menu during the season. Total Team Peugeot entered the new 406 model, but
Tim Harvey Tim Harvey (born 20 November 1961) is a British racing driver, best known for being the 1992 British Touring Car Champion, and the 2008 and 2010 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain champion. A household name in the 1990s, Harvey won sixteen race ...
and
Patrick Watts Aubrey Patrick Watts (born 21 November 1955 in Farnborough, Kent) is a British auto racing driver. He excelled in single make series in the eighties and competed in saloons in the nineties, mainly in the British Touring Car Championship. He stil ...
struggled for pace and suffered poor reliability throughout the season. Having been dropped by Ford, Andy Rouse ran a semi-works Nissan team, running Primeras for
Gary Ayles Gary Ayles (born September 25, 1964) is a Racecar driver born in the United Kingdom. Ayles raced in the British F3 championship in the late 1980s before making the switch to touring car racing. He competed in the British Touring Car Championship ...
and
Owen McAuley Owen McAuley (born 5 October 1973 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a British auto racing driver. Racing career He started karting in his native Northern Ireland, becoming national champion three years running from 1988 to 1991. After his succe ...
, but results were limited. McAuley left the team after the British GP support rounds when it became clear the team were only going to get one new 1996-spec car and that would be driven by his team-mate. The team entered just one car thereafter until the final round at Brands Hatch where
Jamie Spence James Stephen Spence (born 26 May 1963) is an English professional golfer. Career Spence was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He turned professional in 1985 and has finished in the top 100 on the European Tour Order of Merit more than a dozen tim ...
drove the 1995 spec car. In the Total Cup for Independents 1995 Renault Clio Cup champion
Lee Brookes Lee Brookes (born 22 February 1968) is a British retired auto racing driver, who is still involved within motorsport, where he presently runs the Total Control Racing team. He is best known for his time racing in the British Touring Car Champio ...
entered a 1995 TOM's built Toyota Carina and would secure the title in his debut season beating
Richard Kaye Richard Kaye (born 30 September 1967 in Harrogate, Yorkshire) is a British former auto racing driver. He comes from a family heavily involved in motor-sport. His older brother James is a driver and his father Peter, worked as his engineer and t ...
's Mint Motorsport Vauxhall, the last RML built Cavalier. The combination was fastest of the non-works teams and Yorkshire-man won the class 16 times but lost out to Brookes on consistency. Having lost out in their bid to win the Ford works deal Team Dynamics developed their own Ford Mondeos for Matt Neal and
Robb Gravett Robb Gravett (born 10 May 1956 (sometimes noted as 2 May 1956) is a British retired racing driver and team owner from London. He started his motorsport career on two wheels, racing Moto Cross at the age of 12. By 15, he was already British cha ...
. Success was limited with Neal finishing a distant 3rd in class. He later described the car as the worst he's ever driven and kissed the ground after the final round as he'd never have to drive the car again.
Ian Heward Ian James Heward (born 3 July 1962 in Leeds) is a British former auto racing driver. He was best known as entering the prestigious British Touring Car Championship in the mid-nineties as an under-funded driver. He started racing as a rally drive ...
entered selected rounds in an ageing Vauxhall Cavalier but the car lacked competitiveness and was a long way from the pace of the other independent runners.


Entry List


BTCC

* Rouse Sport were neither a works nor an independent entry. * Jamie Davies would have stood in for Kelvin Burt at Round 6 (Snetterton) but was sidelined by a testing accident prior to the event.


RAC Tourist Trophy


Manufacturers Championship


Teams Championship


References


External links


BTCC Pages

Touring-Cars.net
{{Super Touring championships British Touring Car Championship seasons Touring Car Championship