The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998
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Continued from News BTCC UNVEILS 2009 ENTRY LIST Leading the list is Italian superstar Fabrizio Giovanardi who, having won the last two BTCC crowns, will be aiming to become the first driver since Andy Rouse in the early Eighties to make it three titles in a row. But with a wealth of other top line touring car names such as Neal, Turkington, Chilton and Shedden - among others - also on the grid, he faces a monumental task if he is to achieve this historic feat. Meanwhile, three of the drivers entered - Jonathan Adam, Liam McMillan and Martin Johnson - will make their BTCC debuts as will four new teams, namely Tempus Sport, Cartridge World Carbon Zero Racing, Boulevard Team Racing and Maxtreme. Adam's inclusion is of particular excitement - he has previously won both the BTCC's supporting Renault Clio and SEAT Cupra titles and joins the front-running Motorbase squad just as it has attracted major title sponsorship from Wrigley's 'Airwaves' brand. McMillan (Maxtreme) will line up for his first BTCC race - at the season's opening round at Brands Hatch, Kent on 5 April - still aged only 18. There are also some notable returns; Arena International, the team that previously ran Honda's factory effort in the 2002 and 2003 seasons, is back with its new, self-developed Ford Focus ST under the Team Aon banner. So, too, is Dan Eaves - the only man in BTCC history to win all three races in a day (at Thruxton in 2005) as well as experienced 'veteran' David Pinkney who, at 56, will be the oldest driver on the grid. There will also be an enhanced Manufacturers'/Constructors' championship, eligible for manufacturers and/or teams who have designed, built and developed their own cars. It will also be the first motor racing championship in the world to introduce regulations enforcing a limit on the CO2 emission levels of its competing cars BTCC Series Director Alan Gow commented: "Of course the current economic climate is also putting our sport through a very tough time, for everyone and at all levels. So it makes the entry of 21 cars, which is only a couple down on last years average grid size, particularly pleasing and impressive. I'm immensely proud of every entrant we have this year... there wouldn't be a single team that didn't go through a huge effort to put together their BTCC programme. In my book, that already makes them all 'winners'. "Yet the competitiveness and professionalism of the BTCC in 2009 remain the envy of many other high profile forms of our sport. With six different marques represented, the variety on our grid is awesome. "Our pioneering new CO2 emissions programme is music to the ears of potential new manufacturers and teams and, in an ever 'greener' world, also important to companies assessing where next to market their brand within a major sporting environment. "2009's BTCC will do what the championship does best - provide one of the most exciting, dramatic and unpredictable sporting spectacles anywhere in the UK."
OFFICIAL ENTRY LIST: 2009 HiQ MSA BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP
* Eligible for Manufacturers'/Constructors' Championship
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