TOCA has released the list of confirmed entries for the 2019 British Touring Car Championship season, electing to hold back on loaning out its two licences to teams, despite ‘serios applications’ from several teams.
Most notably, HMS Racing will not be on the grid next year after encountering ‘hurdles’ which meant the outfit was unable to submit an entry before the required deadline.
The only new team on the grid is Exceler8 Motorsport, who acquired wo MG cars from AmD Tuning at the end of the 2018 season.
Teams must hold a TOCA BTCC Licence [TBL] in order to enter the championship. TOCA also retains two licences for its own use, and in 2019 it has elected not to loan these out to teams as it has done in the past.
It forms part of series promoter Alan Gow’s desire to see the grid numbers reduced slightly from the capacity 32 cars which had been seen in recent seasons.
TOCA claims to have received “serious applications from no fewer than three new teams wishing to participate in the forthcoming campaign”.
Further announcements regarding driver line-ups, cars and liveries will continue in the coming weeks, with the official entry list published in March.
2019 BTCC Entries:
Aiden Moffat Racing, 1
AmD / Cobra Exhausts, 2
AmD / Trade Price Cars, 2
BTC Racing, 2
Ciceley Motorsport, 2
Excelr8 Motorsport, 2
Motorbase Performance, 3*
Power Maxed Racing, 2
Simpson Racing, 1
Speedworks Motorsport, 1
Team Parker Racing, 1
Team BMR, 2
Team Dynamics, 2
Team HARD, 4
West Surrey Racing, 3
*including one TBL on loan from HMS Racing