2012 British Touring Car Championship
It is one of the most popular domestic motor racing series in the United Kingdom, with an extensive program of support categories built up around the BTCC centrepiece.
Reigning Independent Drivers' champion James Nash didn't defend his title after graduating into the World Touring Car Championship.
Gordon Shedden claimed his first BTCC Drivers' title at the penultimate race of the year, Round 29 at the Brands Hatch GP circuit.
[6] Prior to the event, Thorney Motorsport announce that, due to lack of funds for both racing and development of their new NGTC Insignia, they were not going to take part at Thruxton.
By the final race of the day, the condition had significantly improved, but it was still Shedden at the front leading home his teammate for a Honda one-two.
[9] A circuit with damp patches made for an exciting qualifying session with several cars drifting and sliding off the track as they went round Cascades.
That left the door open for Matt Neal to take the race one win after passing the fast starting Rob Collard.
The second race of the day, saw Neal's Honda teammate take top honours ahead of Pirtek's Andrew Jordan, with a recovering Plato, who started at the back of the field, finishing third.
[11] In the buildup to Croft, Paul O'Neill announced he would make a one-off return to racing in Speedworks Toyota Avensis, substituting for Tony Hughes.
[13] Again, as at Oulton Park, Jason Plato was pushed off the grid in an exciting race one which saw Neal recover from a poor start to take his fourth win of the season ahead of eBay Motors BMW of Rob Collard and the second Honda Yuasa Civic of Gordon Shedden.
Liam Griffin brought out the safety car, after crashing his Redstone Racing Focus into the wall, causing an engine fire.
announced that Tony Gilham would step aside to allow American SCCA World Challenge driver Robb Holland to make his series debut with the team.
[16] Liam Griffin pulled out of the meeting due to business commitments linked to the 2012 Summer Olympics,[17] whilst a final surprise was the unveiling of a new NGTC Ford Focus ST, built by Motorbase Performance, to be driven by Mat Jackson.
This promoted Pirtek's Andrew Jordan to his first win of the season and Gordon Shedden up to second with Plato and Neal finishing third and fourth respectively.
[23] In the run up to the BTCC's only Scottish round, Paul O'Neill announced he would deputise at Speedworks Motorsport, once again substituting for Tony Hughes.
[24] Robb Holland again replaced Tony Gilham at Team HARD., whilst Thorney Motorsport, Rob Austin Racing, AmD Tuning.com and Liam Griffin announced they would not be making the trip north of the border, each citing different reasons.
[25] Jason Plato took the pole position after a wet qualifying session, with the eBay Motors BMW of Rob Collard starting alongside.
[26] Race one saw Rob Collard use his fast starting BMW to take the lead into turn one, with Jason Plato, Árón Smith and Tom Onslow-Cole fighting for second.
This paved the way for eBay Motors to score their first one-two result since 2009 with Collard and Onslow-Cole taking the top two positions from home favourite Gordon Shedden.
Plato suffered turbo issues on the formation laps meaning he failed to take the start, whilst Shedden retired early on with front end damage, caused by a trip across the grass, in avoidance of an incident between Árón Smith and Paul O'Neill.
announced that VW Cup driver Howard Fuller would make his BTCC debut, replacing Robb Holland,[28] whilst Welch Motorsport said they would miss Rockingham due to budget issues.
[29] Matt Neal's championship defence was made a little trickier, after it was announced that due to a motorcycle accident whilst on the road, he would have to compete with a broken right hand.
[30] Plato took an easy pole position after setting early in the session, a new qualifying lap record and a time which was 0.636 seconds faster than his nearest rival Gordon Shedden.
Jordan had initially led the race, but after an early safety car, to recover the stranded MG of Andy Neate, he overshot the turn two hairpin during the restart.
Árón Smith continued to lead after the restart, but was unable to hold off the hard charging Honda duo, finally finishing in fourth.
[35] Elsewhere on the grid, Dave Newsham, Rob Austin and Will Bratt had their fastest times disallowed after race stewards deemed the drivers guilty of exceeding the track limits and gaining an advantage.
[36] Race one saw an early safety car after Chris James, Liam Griffin and Andrew Jordan retired after separate incidents.
Plato led the way early on, whilst a hard charging Mat Jackson in his NGTC Focus moved swiftly through the field and eventually into the lead.
Rob Austin Racing changed its name to www.wixracing.co.uk following sponsorship from Wix Filters,[40] whilst Thorney Motorsport sold its Vauxhall Insignia's to Team HARD.
