1992 British Touring Car Championship season
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| 1992 BTCC season | |
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| Previous: 1991 | Next: 1993 |
The 1992 British Touring Car Championship was fought over 15 rounds with regular manufacturers BMW, Toyota and Vauxhall being joined by entries from Mazda, Nissan and Peugeot.
The early season form seemed to favour the Vauxhall of John Cleland and reigning champion Will Hoy who had switched to Toyota for 1992, while the BMW of Tim Harvey would also fight for the title in the later stages, the 1992 season would climax at the final round at Silverstone in a memorable sequence of events.
The 1992 series saw the championship branch out across Britain, with races at Knockhill in Scotland (which still hosts BTCC races) and Pembrey in Wales being added to the calendar.
The 1992 season was arguably one of the hardest fought and memorable championships in the history of the British Touring Car Championship.
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[edit] Rounds 1 & 2 - Cleland's early claim
The championship of 1992 began at Silverstone where stringent winter testing appeared to have paid off for Vauxhall as Cleland dominated the proceedings, taking with him the victory and a new lap record.
In the second round of the championship at Thruxton, Cleland produced the same result in his Cavalier, while behind Andy Rouse took second for Toyota and Jeff Allam for Vauxhall came home in third.
For reigining champion manufacturer BMW, their first appearances with the new 318is had been less than memorable, their best result being two fifth places in the first two rounds, at Silverstone for Tim Sugden and at Thruxton for guest driver Steve Soper who was competing in the BTCC whenever his commitment to his DTM drive did not clash.
[edit] Round 3 - Problems for both Cleland & Hoy
The championship moved on to Oulton Park where Hoy was now beginning to show progress in the front-wheel drive Toyota Carina by setting pole position, with Cleland alongside him on the front row.
Cleland made a quick start and jumped into the lead ahead of Hoy on the first lap, but the two Toyotas of Hoy and Andy Rouse were also quick off the line and had jumped ahead of the rest of the pack and were now beginning to pressurise leader Cleland.
Cleland was in trouble, clearly proven when his Cavalier dramatically twitched at the newly built Foulston's chicane, nearly going through sideways as the Toyotas kept the pressure on the championship leader.
Moments later at Druids, Cleland ran wide and lost control of his Vauxhall, hitting the barrier at 120mph and bouncing back into the path of the running field, Cleland was able to recover and finished 11th.
Ahead, the pressure was off the Toyotas, they were way ahead of the remaining pack and with their main challenger of Cleland out of the equasion, it was now a matter of which of the two Carinas would win the race. Hoy took advantage of Cleland's misfortune to lead with Rouse not far behind.
At half distance, Hoy suddenly began to slow, letting Rouse through into the lead. The mysterious electrical fault did not put Hoy off though as he fought back and re-took the lead into Old Hall before Rouse, on the inside line took it back off Hoy.
The 1991 champion Hoy then repeated the manoeuvre on the next lap, this time keeping the lead before the electrical problems that had besieged him earlier in the race returned, Rouse re-took the lead and stayed there for the rest of the race to win.
Rouse now led the championship from Cleland after a win and two second places in his first three races.
[edit] Rounds 4 & 5 Toyota win... then self-destruct
Round 4 moved to Norfolk, at the Snetterton circuit, where Will Hoy finally took his first win of the season with an impeccable drive from pole position.
John Cleland was second, while series debutant Alain Menu came third in the ever improving BMW 318is, Tim Harvey had also proven the potential quality of the 318is by qualifying the car third on the grid ahead of the two Vauxhalls, although he retired in the race with a puncture.
At Brands Hatch for Round 5, The Toyotas once again locked out the front row of the grid with Cleland in third, the Toyotas took an early lead with Cleland not far behind, the Scotsman got past Rouse for second and began to put leader Hoy under pressure.
At Surtees corner on the second lap, Hoy buckled under pressure when he missed a gear, allowing Cleland to take the lead.
Suddenly, as the Toyotas began to chase Cleland round Westfield corner, both of them collided and veered into the barrier at full speed, both Toyotas were wrecked and out of the running, both Rouse and Hoy's enthusiasm to catch Cleland had got the better of them and the race was handed to the Vauxhall on a plate.
Cleland won with ease, with his team-mate Allam in second and Steve Soper third in the BMW, the fact that Soper had to start the race from the pit lane makes his podium significant and showed that the 318is was emerging into a potential race winner, Soper shattered the lap record by a margin of two seconds in the process.
[edit] Rounds 6, 7 & 8 - Hoy, Harvey & Allam taste victory
The first double-header of the season took place at Donington Park with Will Hoy putting the misery of Brands Hatch behind him to record a dominant win in the first race, with Cleland in second after a daring move on Andy Rouse at Goddards corner in the closing stages of the race.
After a ten minute break, the second race began in chaos as the fast moving Peugeot 405 of Robb Gravett lost control and hit the pit wall, taking Jeff Allam and Rouse out with him in the process.
Tim Harvey took advantage of an error by Cleland at the Old Hairpin to put the pressure on the Vauxhall, but while the two were dueling, race one winner Hoy and the Vauxhall of David Leslie joined in the battle for the lead, with Leslie initially leading before Hoy nipped past at the Esses, with Harvey following through.
On the sixth lap, Harvey took the lead under braking at the Melbourne hairpin and stayed there despite the best efforts of the reigning champion.
Cleland finished fourth to add to his championship lead, he was on 104 points, while race winner Harvey was far behind in fifth place and only on 39 points. Cleland, Hoy, Rouse and Allam looked like they were the four to battle it out for the crown.
At Silverstone for the British Grand Prix support race, and round 8 of the championship saw Jeff Allam stake a claim for the championship with his first win for Vauxhall. Allam made his move on team-mate Cleland at Becketts to take the lead and win, a struggling Cleland eventually finished third behind Hoy.
Allam's victory had moved him into third place in the championship after Andy Rouse was plagued by engine problems early in the race.
[edit] Rounds 9, 10 & 11 - Harvey dominates in new territory
The Knockhill circuit played host to its first BTCC rounds, though heavy rain was to spoil the parade, the event was to prove memorable.
Later WRC champion Colin McRae made a guest appearance for BMW, finishing eighth in race one before being disqualified in the second race for a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre on the BMW M3 of Matt Neal. McRae's BMW team-mate for the event, Alain Menu did not start at all after breaking his leg when he fell off a paddock quad bike after qualifying had taken place, his place for the rest of the season was taken by Kris Nissen.
David Leslie led away, but was soon under pressure from the fellow Vauxhall of Jeff Allam, the works Vauxhall of the Silverstone winner was handling better and an uncharacteristic error from Leslie allowed Allam to take the lead.
in progress
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