The North American Touring Car Championship was a

touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move ...

series using the

Supertouring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

formula that raced in North America in 1996 and 1997. The series was funded in part by IndyCar team owner

Gerald Forsythe Gerald is a male Germanic given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and Iri ...

with input from

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

series supremo

Alan Gow Alan Gow (born 9 October 1982) is a Scottish former footballer. As a player he played as either a striker or an attacking midfielder. Gow started his senior career with his hometown club Clydebank, and continued with Airdrie United after th ...

. He appointed his Vice-President of Business Operations, Canadian Roger Elliott to run the operation headquartered in Tampa, Florida. The

Dodge Stratus The Dodge Stratus is a mid-size car that was introduced by Dodge in December 1994 and was based on the 4-door sedan Chrysler JA platform. The Stratus, Plymouth Breeze, and Chrysler Cirrus were all on ''Car and Driver'' magazine's Ten Best list ...

factory team A works team (sometimes factory team, company team) is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business. Sometimes, works teams contain or are entirely made up of employees of the supporting company. Association footb ...

engineered and crewed by

PacWest Racing PacWest Racing was a Champ Car racing team owned by Bruce McCaw founded in 1993. The team's first full-time season was the next year, 1994, with drivers Dominic Dobson and future Indy Racing League co-champion Scott Sharp. In 1995, the team swi ...

and

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. ...

factory team operated by TC Kline Racing dominated the series as they were one of the only truly professional outfits to contest the championship. The series ran as a support series to

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed tr ...

road and street course races. While popular with fans, the series struggled to attract teams, with most races in the 1996 season only having 11 or 12 entrants. 1997 saw even fewer entrants with only 9 or 10 cars on track for most of the races. The series was not continued for 1998.

Champions

Notable drivers

Jeff Andretti Jeff Andretti (born April 14, 1964) is a former American race car driver. He competed in CART, and was the series' Rookie of the Year in 1991. Personal life Jeff is the youngest son of Dee Ann (Hoch) and legendary Italian-born 1969 Indy 500 C ...

(7th in 1996) *

Neil Crompton Neil Crompton (born 30 July 1960) is a well-known Supercars presenter and commentator. Racing career Highlights According to the official V8 Supercars website, Crompton has competed in 357 various motor racing events, finishing in the first ...

(3rd in 1997; 7 wins, 14 podiums) * Peter Cunningham (5th in 1996, 2nd in 1997; 8 wins, 19 podiums) *

Dominic Dobson Dominic Dobson (born September 14, 1957) is a German-born former CART and Craftsman Truck Series driver who made 7 starts in the Indianapolis 500 with a best finish of 12th in 1992, over 60 starts in the CART (Championship Auto Racing Series), wi ...

(2nd in 1996, 4th in 1997; 6 wins, 17 podiums) *

David Donohue David Donohue (born January 5, 1967 in Morristown, New Jersey) is an American race car driver formerly active in the Grand-Am's Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype class for Action Express Racing and participant in the Pikes Peak races. Care ...

(3rd in 1996, 1997 champion; 6 wins, 18 podiums) *

Rod Millen Rodney K. "Rod" Millen (born 22 March 1951) is a New Zealand racing driver, vehicle designer, and business owner. He has competed in numerous genres of motorsports, including rally racing, off-road racing, hillclimbing, drifting, and super touring ...

(1 podium) *

Randy Pobst Randy Franklin Pobst (born June 26, 1957, in Dayton, Ohio), also known as "RFP" or "The Rocket," is an American race car driver and journalist for ''Motor Trend'' magazine. Active in the SCCA World Challenge GT series and the Grand American s ...

(1996 champion, 5th in 1997; 5 wins, 18 podiums) *

Darren Law Darren Law (born April 4, 1968) is a Canadian-born American racing driver. At age 14 Law was the International Kart Federation national champion, and shortly thereafter began racing cars in various amateur classes on the west coast of the United ...

(8th in 1996 and 1997; 1 win, 2 podiums)

References

External links

North American Touring Car Championship on Racing-Reference
Champ Car Touring car racing series Auto racing series in the United States Auto racing series in Canada {{Motorsport-stub