Triple Eight Race Engineering has announced its intentions to build and race cars that conform to the new Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) regulations in the British Touring Car Championship for 2012 onwards.
The team, who took their first win of the season last time out at Rockingham, have admitted that they have had to bring forward their plans to use the new rules. It also means that their final outing with the Vauxhall Vectra, which they have raced since the 2007 season, will be at this year’s season finale.
“Its fairly obvious now that the NGTC regulations are the future of the British Touring Car Championship,” said Triple Eight Team Chairman Ian Harrison. “It’s quite clear too that the future has already arrived, perhaps a bit sooner than we expected.”
Since they made their debut in the BTCC in 1997, Triple Eight have always competed with Vauxhall cars. However the make and model of car that they will use for the 2012 season has yet to be confirmed. “While our complete plans have yet to be finalised, we’re announcing the switch from S2000 to NGTC now as a clear sign of our support of the BTCC going forward and where we have competed successfully since 1997,” added Harrison
“The NGTC cars look the part and will undoubtedly become more reliable and cost effective over time giving the BTCC a solid technical platform from which to grow the on track aspect of the series.”