2004 British Touring Car Championship season

2004 BTCC season
Previous: 2003	Next: 2005

The 2004 Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 47th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season.

Contents 1 Changes for 2004 1.1 Teams and drivers 1.2 Other changes 2 Teams and Drivers 3 Race calendar and winners 4 Championship results

Changes for 2004

Teams and drivers

With the admittance of Super 2000-spec cars into the championship, the BTCC welcomed with it a new manufacturer, with SEAT Sport's UK division entering a pair of Toledos identical to those used in the European Touring Car Championship. At the wheel were Jason Plato, returning to the championship for the first time since his title victory in 2001, and youngster Rob Huff, who earned his drive through winning the inaugural SEAT Cupra UK Championship, for which Plato had acted as a mentor to young drivers. They were joined by reigning champions of the last three seasons Vauxhall, with Triple 8 Engineering again running a trio of Astra Coupes, 2003 champion Yvan Muller and 2003 runner-up and 2002 champion James Thompson remained alongside Luke Hines, who replaced Paul O'Neill on the back of claiming the Production class title in his debut season the previous year. Honda cut its Arena Motorsport-run Civic Type-R campaign down to a single car for the returning Tom Chilton, but the Civic challenge was augmented by a pair of cars entered by Team Dynamics for Matt Neal, returning to his family team from the works Honda set-up, and Dan Eaves, who brought with him Halfords sponsorship after the withdrawal of Vic Lee Racing. Proton completed the line-up of works teams, its two Impians now driven by two newcomers to British motorsport, experienced South African Shaun Watson-Smith and young Malaysian Farique Hairuman. Financial trouble forced MG Rover to pull its works backing from West Surrey Racing's MG ZS assault, but the team returned as an independent with young Colin Turkington and veteran Anthony Reid staying on board. Ex-works Vauxhall Astra Coupes were a popular choice amongst the other independents, with Michael Bentwood stepping up from the Production ranks in a 'VXR Junior' team prepared by Tech-Speed Motorsport, 2003 independent champion Rob Collard continuing to campaign an Astra for his self-run team, while GA Motorsport (now under the 'Team Sureterm' banner) continued to run a pair of Astra Coupes for the returning Paul Wallace and Renault Clio Cup graduate Charlie Butler-Henderson, while a Super 2000-spec Alfa Romeo 156 was also entered for Carl Breeze. Wallace was soon replaced by experienced BTCC driver Kelvin Burt, then later Irishman Gavin Smith and Stefan Hodgetts (son of ex-BTCC champion Chris), who then stepped in to replace Butler-Henderson when his funds ran out. Hodgetts then swapped cars with Breeze, who himself was replace by Gavin Pyper for the final round. Synchro Motorsport again returned with an ex-works Honda Civic Type R for former works driver James Kaye, Jason Hughes stepped up from the Production class, racing an ex-WSR MG ZS for his Kartworld Racing team, and John Batchelor's 'Team Varta' also stepped up, running Richard Marsh from the second round onwards in first a Super 2000 Civic Type-R, then an ex-Vic Lee Racing Peugeot 307. Marsh was replaced by Jay Wheals for the final round, for which the team returned to the Civic. Mardi Gras Motorsport had an abortive campaign, entering a Super 2000 Civic and later an ex-works Peugeot 406 Coupe, both LPG-powered, for businessman John George, and Edenbridge Racing briefly entered a Super 2000 BMW 320i for Justin Keen.

Other changes

• The number of total races was increased from 20 to 30 by holding three races at each meeting instead of two
• The grid for the second race of each meeting was decided by the results of the first but with the top ten reversed; the grid for the third race was simply the finishing order of the second race
• Cars built to Super 2000 specification were allowed, with an equivalency formula designed to ensure that they would have similar performance to their BTCC counterparts
• Points penalties for engine changes now apply only to the team, not the driver
• The "production class" and its associated championship was abolished

Teams and Drivers

M = Manufacturer team
I = Independent team
E = Car built to Super 2000 regulations

No.	Driver	Cl.	Team	Car	Spec	Notes
1	Yvan Muller	M	VX Racing	Vauxhall Astra Coupé
2	James Thompson	M	VX Racing	Vauxhall Astra Coupé
3	Matt Neal	I	Computeach Racing with Halfords	Honda Civic Type-R
4	Dan Eaves	I	Computeach Racing with Halfords	Honda Civic Type-R
6	Anthony Reid	I	West Surrey Racing	MG ZS
8	Colin Turkington	I	West Surrey Racing	MG ZS
9	Tom Chilton	M	Team Honda	Honda Civic Type-R
10	Rob Collard	I	Collard Racing	Vauxhall Astra Coupé
11	Jason Plato	M	SEAT Sport UK	SEAT Toledo	E
12	Robert Huff	M	SEAT Sport UK	SEAT Toledo	E
14	Michael Bentwood	I	VXR Jr Tech-Speed Motorsport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé		Rounds 1-18 & 22-30
15	Fariqe Hairuman	M	Team PSP	Proton Impian
16	James Kaye	I	Synchro Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R
17	John George	I	Mardi Gras Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	E	Rounds 1-9
				Peugeot 406 Coupé		Rounds 16-30
20	Shaun Watson-Smith	M	Team PSP	Proton Impian
21	Paul Wallace	I	Team Sureterm	Vauxhall Astra Coupé		Rounds 1-6
22	Charlie Butler-Henderson	I	Team Sureterm	Vauxhall Astra Coupé		Rounds 1-12 & 16-18
23	Carl Breeze	I	Team Sureterm	Alfa Romeo 156	E	Rounds 1-21
				Vauxhall Astra Coupé		Rounds 22-27
24	Kelvin Burt	I	Team Sureterm	Vauxhall Astra Coupé		Rounds 7-12
25	Gavin Smith	I	Team Sureterm	Vauxhall Astra Coupé		Rounds 13-15
26	Stefan Hodgetts	I	Team Sureterm	Vauxhall Astra Coupé		Rounds 13-18
				Alfa Romeo 156	E	Rounds 22-30
40	Richard Marsh	I	Team Quest/Varta	Honda Civic Type-R	E	Rounds 4-21
				Peugeot 307		Rounds 22-27
41	Jay Wheals	I	Team Quest/Varta	Honda Civic Type-R	E	Rounds 28-30
44	Gavin Pyper	I	Team Sureterm	Vauxhall Astra Coupé		Rounds 28-30
46	Justin Keen	I	Edenbridge Racing	BMW 320i	E	Rounds 4-12
57	Luke Hines	M	VX Racing	Vauxhall Astra Coupé
77	Jason Hughes	I	Kartworld Racing	MG ZS

Race calendar and winners

Round	Circuit	Date	Winning driver	Winning team
1 2 3	Thruxton	11 April	James Thompson Jason Plato Yvan Muller	VX Racing SEAT Sport UK VX Racing
4 5 6	Brands Hatch (Indy)	25 April	Matt Neal Luke Hines James Thompson	Computeach Racing with Halfords VX Racing VX Racing
7 8 9	Silverstone (International)	9 May	Matt Neal James Thompson Tom Chilton	Computeach Racing with Halfords VX Racing Team Honda
10 11 12	Oulton Park (Island)	23 May	Yvan Muller Dan Eaves Yvan Muller	VX Racing Computeach Racing with Halfords VX Racing
13 14 15	Mondello Park	13 June	Yvan Muller Jason Plato Colin Turkington	VX Racing SEAT Sport UK WSR
16 17 18	Croft	25 July	Anthony Reid Jason Plato Jason Plato	WSR SEAT Sport UK SEAT Sport UK
19 20 21	Knockhill	8 August	Anthony Reid Jason Plato Anthony Reid	WSR SEAT Sport UK WSR
22 23 24	Brands Hatch (Indy)	22 August	Matt Neal Jason Plato Rob Huff	Computeach Racing with Halfords SEAT Sport UK SEAT Sport UK
25 26 27	Snetterton	5 September	James Thompson Luke Hines Rob Huff	VX Racing VX Racing SEAT Sport UK
28 29 30	Donington Park (National)	26 September	Jason Plato Tom Chilton Yvan Muller	SEAT Sport UK Team Honda VX Racing

Championship results

Driver's championship Position Driver Points 1 James Thompson 274 2 Yvan Muller 273 3 Jason Plato 224 4 Anthony Reid 213 5 Matt Neal 181 6 Colin Turkington 173 7 Robert Huff 148 8 Dan Eaves 148 9 Tom Chilton 116 10 Luke Hines 115 11 James Kaye 49 12 Rob Collard 44 13 Michael Bentwood 42 14 Shaun Watson-Smith 28 15 Carl Breeze 14 16 Kelvin Burt 11 17 Jason Hughes 5 18 Stefan Hodgetts 4 19 Justin Keen 2 20 Gavin Smith 2 21 Paul Wallace 1 22 Charlie Butler-Henderson 1 23 Fariqe Hairuman 0 24 John George 0 25 Richard Marsh 0 26 Jay Wheals 0 27 Gavin Pyper 0

Independent's championship Position Driver Points 1 Anthony Reid 312 2 Colin Turkington 300 3 Dan Eaves 254 4 Matt Neal 253 5 James Kaye 164 6 Rob Collard 152 7 Michael Bentwood 131 8 Jason Hughes 89 9 Carl Breeze 75 10 Charlie Butler-Henderson 33 11 John George 27 12 Richard Marsh 27 13 Kelvin Burt 22 14 Justin Keen 18 15 Stefan Hodgetts 17 16 Paul Wallace 9 17 Gavin Smith 8 18 Jay Wheals 7 19 Gavin Pyper 5

Manufacturer's championship Position Make Points 1 Vauxhall 732 2 Honda 548 3 SEAT 421 4 Proton 96

Team's championship Position Team Points 1 VX Racing 536 2 SEAT Sport UK 360 3 WSR 325 4 Computeach Racing with Halfords 303 5 Team Honda 111 6 Synchro Motorsport 54 7 Collard Racing 50 8 Team Sureterm (GA Motorsports) 44 9 VXR Jnr c/o Tech-Speed Motorsport 26 10 Team PSP 11 11 Edenbridge Racing 3 12 Mardi Gras Motorsport 0 13 Team Quest/Varta 0 14 Kartworld Racing -3

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