2000 British Touring Car Championship

Sports season

The 2000 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship season featured 24 rounds across 12 meetings, it commenced at Brands Hatch on 9 April and concluded at Silverstone on 16 September. 2000 marked the final year for Super Touring specification cars in the championship. The champion was Alain Menu driving a Ford Mondeo, his teammates Anthony Reid and Rickard Rydell finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. The Michelin Cup for Independents was won by Matt Neal driving a Nissan Primera. The newly introduced Class B, for Super Production specification cars, was won by Alan Morrison driving a Peugeot 306 GTi.

There were several changes of driver for the 2000 season. Nissan, Renault and Volvo retired their works teams because of the rising costs of staying competitive in the BTCC, thus leaving only three manufacturers with factory supported entries: Ford, Honda and Vauxhall. 1999 Drivers' Champion Laurent Aïello did not return to defend his title; the Frenchman tested for Honda, however he instead joined Audi to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race and the newly revived Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters championship in Germany. His place was taken by 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans co winner and former Super Tourenwagen Cup driver Tom Kristensen. 1998 series champion Rickard Rydell joined that year's runner up Anthony Reid and 1997 overall winner Alain Menu at the Prodrive Ford team following Volvo's departure. At the Vauxhall team, Yvan Muller was partnered by Jason Plato and Vincent Radermecker, having joined from Renault and Volvo respectively. After a difficult 1999 season, former double champion (1989 and 1995) John Cleland announced his retirement from the BTCC. Independent driver Matt Neal drove a 1999 Nissan Primera fielded by Team Dynamics, who had semi works support from the manufacturer and running with updated 2000 body work. A second Nissan was entered by PRO Motorsport for rookie Colin Blair. David Leslie would race the car at selected rounds later in the season following Blair's withdrawal halfway through the season. Lee Brookes appeared on the entry list but his plans of competing in the championship in 2000 did not come to fruition.

The Prodrive Ford Mondeo’s would prove to be the class of the season, and it would be their three drivers who would battle for the championship. Alain Menu had been the favourite going into the year, but despite being arguably the best all rounder out of the trio, a handful of non finishes meant he entered the final race of the year behind Anthony Reid in points. Reid’s season was based mostly on consistency, taking until round seventeen to win a race and only winning two all season, but he still led the championship going into the final race of the year. The Scot was doing all that he needed in the finale and looked to be on course for the title, until a collision with Vincent Radermecker on the penultimate lap put him out of the race and handed the crown to Menu. Team newcomer Rickard Rydell also went to Silverstone with a chance of the title. The Swede claimed a season best nine pole positions throughout the year, but a number of retirements, both crashes and mechanical, would ultimately prove to be his downfall. Indeed, it would be a car problem which would deny him a chance of competing with his teammates in the final race, as a water leak left him unable to take the start. Vauxhall’s season started well, both Yvan Muller and Jason Plato won races early on and the Frenchman even lead the points for a time. But the team could not sustain that form, and along with an intra team rivalry building between Muller and Plato, they were forced to settle for best of the rest behind the Fords. Third driver Radermecker had a poor season, scoring only one podium and being the only full time main class driver to not win a race during the year. Honda’s season would be one of frustration. James Thompson went into the season planning a title challenge, but those hopes were dashed by a crash at the opening round at Brands Hatch which forced him to miss the next two meetings. He would win a race on his return, but any hopes of the championship were gone, and come the end of the season he found himself combining his British campaign with DTM drives for Audi. The returning Gabriele Tarquini would ultimately end the season as top Honda, picking up three race wins but only finishing sixth in the standings. British championship rookie Tom Kristensen would also pick up three race wins, including a double at the Silverstone finale (the final races of the Super Touring era), to end the year just behind Tarquini. Independent king Matt Neal would once again compete admirably with the works teams. He would finish eighth in the standings with a race win late in the season at Brands Hatch. He won the independents class in every race he finished (21 out of 24 races).

Michelin, now the series' control tyre supplier, developed new compounds of tyres for the drivers but an intermediate option would no longer be available. The only choice for drivers was slick dry tyres or full wet compounds which meant tyre choices in greasy or changeable conditions were more crucial than before. To make matters even more difficult, tyre warmers were no longer allowed in advance of the race. As a result, the drivers had to take to the track on ill handling cold tyres at the beginning of all races and after the mandatory pit stops. All teams were restricted to 28 sets of dry tyres for all race meetings and test sessions to lower operating costs but no limitations existed for wet weather compounds. Success ballast to help the championship have close and competitive racing and to prevent any team from dominating the series was introduced for the 2000 season. The top three finishers of the sprint and feature race at a meeting were allocated a ballast to be applied at the next meeting. It was distributed as for a winner, for second place and for third place, with the ballast capped at
From 1 March 2000, a complete ban of private testing at any licensed motor racing circuit in the world was enforced, except for official test sessions organised by the series promoter TOCA that lasted for half a day and were held before each race weekend. The ban was enacted to greatly reduce operating costs for all teams and to restrict the amount of available time for drivers to set up their cars for each track to ensure a greater variation in performance and less predictable racing. Furthermore, test cars were barred from all official sessions unless they had been driven in the preceding race meeting. To allow for suitable grid sizes, Class B entries were accepted on a "first come, first served" basis from teams who could commit to competing in the BTCC full time. TOCA subsequently formed a partnership with the British Racing Drivers' Club organised PowerTour series in January 2000, so that the two championships could work closely with race dates, regulations and marketing and promoting of Class B.

The entry fee for the Independents' Championship was abolished; teams would receive a starting money fee of £5,000 for each race meeting they entered, tyres would be given to teams at no extra cost and the champion of the category would receive £10,000 in prize money.

Team Car No. (Car number) Drivers Rounds Manufacturers Redstone Team Honda with JAS Motorsport Honda Accord 2 David Leslie 3 4 James Thompson 1, 4–12 7 Peter Kox 2 18 Gabriele Tarquini All 77 Tom Kristensen All Ford Team Mondeo Ford Mondeo 3 Rickard Rydell All 11 Alain Menu All 12 Anthony Reid AllVauxhall Motorsport Vauxhall Vectra 5 Jason Plato All 6 Yvan Muller All 8 Vincent Radermecker All IndependentsPRO Motorsport Nissan Primera GT '00 2 David Leslie 9, 12 45 Colin Blair 1–7 Team Dynamics Max Power Racing Nissan Primera GT '00 9 Matt Neal 1–11 Nissan Primera GT '98 12 Class B Touring Car V. I. P. Club Peugeot 306 GTi 13 Alan Morrison All 14 Will Hoy 6 24 Lee Linford 9 25 Toni Ruokonen 10 26 Dan Eaves 11–12Gary Ayles Motorsport Alfa Romeo 156 16 Tom Ferrier 10–12 44 Gavin Pyper 10–11 Bintcliffe Sport Nissan Primera 20 Marc Nordon 1–3, 5–12 21 Rob Collard 2–3, 5–12 Barwell Motorsport Honda Integra Type R 23 Mark Lemmer 1 11 33 James Kaye 4 Honda Accord 23 Mark Lemmer 12 33 James Kaye 1 3, 5 12 Kermit Racing Proton Compact 43 Richard Cuene Grandidier None Arnold James Sport Honda Integra Type R 48 Nick James 6–12 RJN Motorsport Nissan Primera 50 Andy Middlehurst 11 51 Bryce Wilson 12 David Pitcher Honda Integra Type R 69 David Pitcher 1 GR Motorsport Ford Focus 71 Simon Harrison 11 81 Gareth Howell 11 Geoff Kimber Smith Toyota Carina E 74 Geoff Kimber Smith 12Sources:

Richard Cuene Grandidier appeared on the official entry list but did not race. (https://www. autosport. com/btcc/news/bumper line up for 2000 btcc 5039306/5039306/

Pos. Driver BRH DON THR KNO OUL SIL CRO SNE DON BRH OUL SIL Pts 1 Matt Neal 10 Ret 8 8 7 Ret 4 5 6 9 4 Ret 3 3 5 8 2 2 1 9 7 7 5 7 339 (360) 2 Colin Blair 11 8 9 10 10 6 10 7 8 Ret 9 10 144 3 David Leslie 7 10 6 Ret 36 Pos. Driver BRH DON THR KNO OUL SIL CRO SNE DON BRH OUL SIL Pts