The 1997 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship was won by

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 tw ...

of the Williams Renault Dealer Racing team, driving a

Renault Laguna The Renault Laguna is a large family car that was manufactured and marketed by Renault for 21 years in three body styles: hatchback, coupé, and estate. The first generation Laguna was launched in 1994, the second generation was introduced in 200 ...

. Menu dominated the year, setting a record of 12 wins during the season. The runner up was

Frank Biela Frank Stanley Biela (born 2 August 1964 in Neuss) is a German auto racing driver, mainly competing in touring cars and sportscar racing. He has raced exclusively in cars manufactured by the Audi marque since 1990. Career Biela started his care ...

of Audi Sport UK in an Audi A4 Quattro. Third place was Menu's teammate,

Jason Plato Timothy Jason Plato (born 14 October 1967) is a British racing driver who last competed in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for BTC Racing. He has twice been BTCC Champion, in 2001 for Vauxhall and 2010 for Silverline Chevrolet. He ...

. In the independent class the championship was won by

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 ...

in a

Honda Accord The , also known as the in Japan and China for certain generations, is a series of cars manufactured by Honda since 1976, best known for its four-door sedan variant, which has been one of the best-selling cars in the United States since 1989. ...

Season Review 1997

Defending manufacturers champions Audi retained the same driver line up for 1997, with defending drivers champion

again partnering John Bintcliffe. Pre-season was not without controversy for Audi as had been announced that due to their dominance of much of 1996, a further weight penalty would be applied to both of their A4 Quattro's, a penalty that would subsequently be relaxed by 30kg at Oulton Park. Biela would secure 5 victories during the season to finish runner up to eventual champion Menu although he was never a serious threat for the title such was the Renault drivers dominance. Bintcliffe again finished 7th overall, scoring his first victory at Knockhill, repeating the feat at Thruxton. Williams Renault, now into their third season running the Laguna, had a new driver in the form of future double BTCC champion

, replacing 1991 Champion

Will Hoy William Ewing Hoy (2 April 1952 – 19 December 2002) was an English racing driver and the 1991 British Touring Car Champion, the highlight of a 20-year career in motor racing. Biography Born in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, Hoy did not begin racing ...

. Plato would drive alongside Swiss ace

, three times a runner-up in the BTCC and now into his fifth year with Renault. Plato made history by taking pole position in his first 3 races but it was Menu who would go on to dominate the season with 12 victories, leading the standings throughout and wrapping up the title at Snetterton with 6 races to go. Plato's first victory came in that Snetterton race, the second coming in the final race of the year at Silverstone. The team wrapped up the manufacturers and teams championships. The TWR backed Volvo squad, after an ultimately disappointing 1996 despite 5 wins, introduced a new car for 1997, replacing the

850 ''For codepage, see CP850.'' __NOTOC__ Year 850 ( DCCCL) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * February 1 – King Ramiro I dies in his palac ...

model with the sleek new S40. 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 Cham ...

, again drove alongside former Ford driver

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 ...

. The sole victory came for Rydell at Brands Hatch in August whilst Kelvin Burt scored just one podium in the opening race of the year

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

, now having their pair of Accords run by the

Prodrive Prodrive is a British motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races cars for companies and teams such as Aston Martin, Bahrain Raid Xtreme and Team X44. Its advanced technolo ...

team, had arguably the most exciting driver line-up for '97. Hard charger James Thompson, having joined from

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

, and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

BTCC champion/ex-F1 driver

Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 3, 1987. He scored a single championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He h ...

would drive for the Japanese marque, who had had a resurgence towards the back end of 1996. Ultimately the season was a disappointment with just a single victory for each driver. After a limited effort in 1996 Nissan re-entered the championship with a full blown manufacturer backed team. RML, who had run Vauxhall's effort since 1994, fielded a pair of brand new Primeras for David Leslie and Anthony Reid, the latter making his debut in the championship. Reliability was an issue but 5 podium finishes hinted at what was to come in 1998.

, after a difficult 1996 with just a solitary win for James Thompson, replaced the outgoing Yorkshireman with

Derek Warwick Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick (born 27 August 1954) is a British former professional racing driver from England, who lives in Jersey. He raced for many years in Formula One, collecting four podiums but never winning a Grand Prix. He did, however, ...

, who joined both as a driver and team manager of the new-look Triple Eight Vectras after a somewhat low-key first BTCC season with Alfa in 1995. Double champion

John Cleland John Cleland (c. 1709, baptised – 23 January 1789) was an English novelist best known for his fictional '' Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'', whose eroticism led to his arrest. James Boswell called him "a sly, old malcont ...

would drive for

for the ninth straight year in the BTCC. The team started the season with 1996 cars re-engineered by Triple Eight before being replaced by the new cars at Knockhill. The car suffered after a miscalculation with the aerodynamics that meant it lacked down force and did not work its tyres hard enough. BTCC rules meant that unlike in

STW STW is an Australian television station owned by the Nine Network that is based in Perth, Western Australia. ''STW'' broadcasts from a shared facility transmitter mast located in Carmel. The station callsign, ''STW'', is an acronym of Swan Tel ...

this was unable to be rectified.

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

elected to introduce the latest shape Mondeo, and the driver line-up looked formidable on paper, with 1991 champion

joining twice winner of the Touring Car World Cup New Zealander

Paul Radisich Paul Radisich (born 9 October 1962, in Auckland) is a retired New Zealand racing driver and businessman of Croat origin. He has competed in saloon cars for many years — both European-style tourers and the V8 Supercars of Australia and New ...

. The cars were again built by

Reynard Motorsport Reynard Motorsport was the world's largest racing car manufacturer in the 1980s. Initially based at Bicester and latterly at Reynard Park, Brackley, England the company built successful cars in Formula Ford 1600, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Vau ...

and run by

West Surrey Racing West Surrey Racing is a UK-based motorsport team run by New Zealander Dick Bennetts. He is responsible for masterminding the careers of such names as Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen, Jonathan Palmer, Rubens Barrichello, Maurício Gugelmin and Eddi ...

. Whilst results were better than 1996 the cars continued to suffer from poor reliability and Ford finished the season 7th in the manufacturer standings. After two seasons running the Honda factory effort Motorsport Developments (MSD) joined forces with

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

, now into their second season running the 406. They maintained the experienced duo of

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 sti ...

and 1992 champion

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 rac ...

and proved to be significantly more competitive than the previous season with Harvey taking a pair of 2nd places in wet conditions at Thruxton and Donington. The independents championship was one of the most keenly contested for years. Defending independents champion Lee Brookes switched from a Toyota to a Peugeot, whilst rookie Jamie Wall drove the Mint Motorsport

Vauxhall Cavalier The Vauxhall Cavalier was a large family car that was sold primarily in the UK by Vauxhall from 1975 to 1995. It was based on a succession of Opel designs throughout its production life, during which it was built in three incarnations. The fir ...

used by Richard Kaye in 1996.

Matt Neal Matthew Neal (born 20 December 1966) is a British motor racing driver. Neal is a triple BTCC Champion having won the British Touring Car Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2011. Neal is also a record 6 time BTCC Independents Champion having won the ...

would again enter in his

Team Dynamics Team Dynamics Motorsport is a UK-based motor-racing team based in Droitwich, Worcestershire; best known for their successes in the British Touring Car Championship, including winning the Overall Drivers title in 2005, 2006 and 2011 with Matt Ne ...

built Mondeo, however the team looking to have closer ties to a manufacturer switched to a Nissan Primera mid season. Neal won the class six times, as many as eventual champion Gravett and was often mixing it with the works cars however inconsistency meant he was never in the championship battle.

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

Champion

, having run selected rounds in 1996, returned with a Honda entered by Graham Hathaway and went on to secure the title, Whilst Scot Colin Gallie ran a 1994 BMW 318i entered by Dave Cook. Ian Heward again entered his 1993 ex RML Vauxhall Cavalier but often failed to qualify.

Swedish Touring Car Championship Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) was a touring car racing series based in Sweden, but also with rounds in Norway. They began operating in 1996, heavily influenced by the British Touring Car Championship and the success of BTCC racing on Sw ...

regular Jan Brunstedt entered the early rounds at Silverstone but was lapped in both races.

Tourist Trophy

On October 18/19 the 1997 Tourist Trophy took place at Donington Park featuring an all-new format. One qualifying session on Saturday set the grid for the first of two 20-lap qualifying heats with the grid for the second race a reverse of the first. The grid for the 25 lap final was then decided by each driver's aggregate performance in the two heats.

Entry List

RAC Tourist Trophy

Calendar

All races were held in the United Kingdom. ¹Qualifying cancelled. Grids set by championship standings.
²Qualifying cancelled. Grid set by fastest times in Sunday warm-up.
³Qualifying cancelled. Grid set by fastest laps in race 1.

Championships Results

Drivers Championship

Note: bold signifies pole position (1 point awarded all races), ''italics'' signifies fastest lap.
Drivers top 20 results count towards the championship.

Privateers Championship

Manufacturers Championship

Teams Championship

RAC Tourist Trophy Results

References

External links

BTCC Pages

Touring-Cars.net

Super Touring Register

{{Super Touring championships Touring Car Championship British Touring Car Championship seasons