The golden age of the British Touring Car Championship will be featured at the 74th Goodwood Road Racing Club Members’ Meeting, scheduled for March 19-20, 2016 at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex, England. Sixteen cars, spanning Super Touring’s most outstanding years, will play a starring role with a colourful high-speed demonstration on each day of the event.
The ‘Super Touring’ name came into being in 1995 and was applied to the set of touring car regulations that became the BTCC’s sole class in ‘91 that centered around two-litre, normally-aspirated saloons such as the Vauxhall Cavalier and Nissan Primera.
The 2016 Goodwood Members Meeting track activity will focus on the spectacular winged machines of 1995-2000 that resulted in championship successes for John Cleland, Frank Biela, Alain Menu, Rickard Rydell and Laurent Aiello.
Two-time BTCC Champion Cleland and podium finisher Patrick Watts — both of whom race in the HSCC’s Super Touring Championship — will take part in the Goodwood demonstration in, respectively, their own 1997 Vauxhall Vectra and ‘98 Peugeot 406.
The 2000 Honda Accord in which Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen won the last BTCC race held to Super Touring rules, the Ford Mondeo in which Rickard Rydell won three times the same season, and Jo Winkelhock’s 1994 BMW 318i are also confirmed.
So are an ex-works Audi A4 Quattro like the one in which Frank Biela won the 1996 title, one of the Volvo S40s used by Rydell in his title-winning campaign of ‘98 and David Leslie’s Nissan Primera, in which the Scot finished second in the championship the following season.
Another Leslie car, the RML-run Ecurie Ecosse Cavalier in which the he took his maiden BTCC success at Thruxton in 1993, will take part, as will the ex-Jean-Christophe Boullion Renault Laguna from the 1999 season, with more names added in due course.
The Super Touring high-speed demos join those for sensational ground-effect Formula 1 cars and monstrous five-litre Group 5 sportscars on the Members’ Meeting line-up.
Goodwood also announced the names of all 11 races that will be held over the weekend. New events include the Hailwood Trophy for two-stroke grand prix motorbikes of 250 and 350cc, and the Alan Mann Trophy for Ford GT40s.
2016 Goodwood Members Meeting – Full Race List
- Gerry Marshall Trophy – For Group 1 touring cars of a type that raced up to 1982 (two-driver race with ‘sprint’ race to decide grid for main event)
- Graham Hill Trophy – For GT cars of a type that raced at Goodwood from 1960-66
- Peter Collins Trophy – For sports racing cars of a type that raced from 1948-55
- Hailwood Trophy – For two-stroke 250cc and 350cc grand prix motorcycles of a type that raced from 1970-82
- Bruce McLaren Trophy – For Can-Am and Group 7 sports prototypes of a type that raced up to 1966
- Parnell Cup – For grand prix, Formula 2 and voiturette cars of a type that raced up to 1953
- Whitmore Cup – For saloon cars of less than 2-litre capacity of a type that raced from 1960-66
- Brooks Trophy – For 2.5-litre, front and rear-engined Formula 1 cars of a type that raced from 1954-60
- Derek Bell Cup – For one-litre ‘screamer’ Formula 3 cars of a type that raced from 1964-70
- Alan Mann Trophy – For Ford GT40s Mk1s of a type that raced pre-1966
- Sunbeam Trophy – For Edwardian racing specials of a type that raced up to 1923
- Additional Events – High-speed demonstrations featuring ground-effect Formula 1 cars, five-litre Group 5 sportscars and Super Touring Cars of the mid-1990s will also take place each day
Members of the Goodwood Road Racing Club can secure their spots at the event now with those on the Club waiting list able to purchase from 2 November 2015. A small number of tickets will go on general sale on 1 January 2016, subject to availability.
For further information, visit Goodwood Members’ Meeting.
[Source: Goodwood]
