British Touring Car Championship organiser TOCA has switched the layouts to be used in this year’s Brands Hatch rounds of the series, whilst also taking the opportunity to ditch the option tyre for 2020.
The second round of the championship, set to take place at Brands Hatch in August, will run on the Grand Prix circuit, whilst the November round will now take place on the Indy circuit.
The move has been made due to the reduced daylight hours in November, when sunset is set to be at 16:10 on the day of the season finale on 14 – 15 November.
The change allows for additional flexibility in scheduling the BTCC weekend. It means that the Grand Prix circuit will have a summer BTCC raceday for the first time since 1996.
With August set to be a busy month for BTCC teams, TOCA has also taken the decision to delete the Goodyear option tyre for 2020, with the medium compound being used at all events except Thruxton, where the harder compound will be utilised.
The moves were agreed at a recent teams’ meeting in the context of the additional workloads and reduced staffing faced by teams in the four-month nine-round revised calendar, forced by the lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.