Our Brand Ambassador Colin Turkington Confirms 20th BTCC Season
Motorsport Showroom are excited to announce that once again the four time BTCC Champion will be our brand ambassador for the upcoming 2024 season. Below is the press release announcing Colin's upcoming campaign.
COVERS COME OFF ‘UPGRADED’ TEAM BMW 2024 BTCC CHALLENGER
COVERS COME OFF ‘UPGRADED’ TEAM BMW 2024 BTCC CHALLENGER
- Four-time BTCC Champion Colin Turkington has today confirmed his 20th BTCC campaign with Team BMW.
- Alongside teammate Adam Morgan, the pair will take to the track in the iconic BMW colours of their 330e M-Sport WSR-run race cars.
- As well as revealing the new-for-2024 livery, the team also released information on their new engine in addition to chassis, cooling and aero upgrades.
- Colin was impressed with the team’s winter development programme and is excited by the enhancements to his #20 BMW.
- Tweaks to the BTCC rules have also been announced throughout the off-season including a Saturday shake-up for qualifying and an increase in hybrid boost.
- The team commence their pre-season testing tomorrow (Wednesday 27th March) at Snetterton.
CHECK OUT THE NEW BITS!
Can you spot the new aero and styling upgrades to the bodywork of the BMW 330e M-Sport?
HEAR FROM COLIN
“I’m extremely pleased to be a part of Team BMW for the 2024 season and to race the BMW 330e M Sport. This will be my 20th BTCC campaign, and I couldn’t be happier with the team I’ll have around me. There has been some serious work going on over the winter in WSR to enhance the overall performance of our BMW and as always, I’m focused on being the best, most competitive version of myself that I can be. You never quite know what the pecking order will be until that first qualifying session of the year, but I’m hopeful we can put ourselves right in the hunt for podiums and wins from the season-opener at Donington.
It’s exciting for everyone involved to get the cars out on track tomorrow and kick off the pre-season programme planned for the next four weeks. Let’s just hope the UK weather is kind to us!”
2024 BTCC RACE DAY CALENDAR
It’s coming round quickly… so get the race day dates in your diary!
GET UP TO SPEED ON CHANGES
It’s out with the old and in with the new for Saturday’s BTCC Qualifying session. A new format has been confirmed for this year with a limited number of cars out on track at any given time – Qualifying Quick Six.
- After Free Practice Two (FP2) the cars will be divided into two groups.
- Those that finished FP2 in odd position numbers (one, three, five and so on…) go into one group and those that finished FP2 in even position numbers (two, four, six and so on…) go into the other group.
- Qualifying 1: Each of those two groups contest a separate ten-minute session. The fastest six cars from each group advance to Q2 ‘Top 12’.
- Qualifying 2: The ‘Top 12’ cars qualify together in a ten-minute session. The fastest six cars advance to the Q3 ‘Quick Six’ final qualifying.
- Qualifying 3: The ‘Quick Six’ qualify in a ten-minute session to set the top six grid positions.
DOUBLE HYBRID
BTCC series organiser TOCA also confirmed a doubling in power boost from the hybrid deployment in the 2024 season. Aiming to spice up the show with a greater success penalty; this change will undoubtedly bring a larger disparity between those with full capacity of hybrid deployment and those with very little to none.
The Hybrid Energy Management System (HEM) provides drivers with the ability to deploy the hybrid-turbo for a dedicated amount of time per lap in qualifying and for a number of laps in the races – depending on their championship position (for qualifying) and their race finishing position on race day.
Now, from 2024 that same push of the button will have double the amount of power output.
HEAR FROM COLIN
“I think it’s the biggest shake up in many years. We’ve got the bigger steps of (hybrid) deployment, bigger steps of boost, so a bigger discrepancy between those the front and the back. I think the racing will be going back to that way we were previously used to.
I think that the idea behind hybrid, is to use it to go forward, not just to defend or go backwards, it’s about trying to go forward and race to the front.
I had a brief look into it last year at the mid-season test at Snetterton, there were a few of us that got to try out the theory, and for sure you can feel a big increase in deployment from what we’ve been using.
There’s also the qualifying shakeup, I’m sure we’re all still trying to get our heads around it. It could either go for you or go against you, but I think it’s going to be a lot more exciting on a Saturday for fans.
There’ll be lots to learn about how best to maximise every session on a Saturday and that creates opportunity. Change is good!”
2024 Team BMW race car imagery: Declan Dawkins Media
