WSR to run as constructor in 2015 British Touring Car Championship

Fielding a trio of BMW 125i M Sports, Dick Bennetts' team won four titles in 2014, with Colin Turkington's drivers' championship and outright team honours accompanied by both independents' crowns.

WSR has now been classified a constructor by the series, rather than independent, due to its customer relationship with BMW, and will run Andy Priaulx, Sam Tordoff and Rob Collard in the manufacturers'/constructors' class.

Last month, as part of AUTOSPORT's look into the importance of manufacturer entries to the BTCC, Bennetts said it would be unfair to classify WSR alongside Honda and MG because it was "100 per cent independent".

Series director Alan Gow, though, believes WSR sits in a "limbo" between manufacturer and independent and that the championship needed to recognise that.

"They are certainly not an independent team as far as I'm concerned," he told AUTOSPORT. "I use the duck theory. If something walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

"With WSR having a long-time BMW works driver, some BMW signage on the car, the guys driving around in cars supplied by BMW, I can't see how you could ever describe that as an independent team."

WSR will no longer be eligible for the prize money available to independent entries.

One of Bennetts' concerns was WSR being reclassified but other teams, such as Motorbase and Ciceley Racing, that have built and sold NGTC cars will not miss out.

The championship regulations are such that those teams could run as constructors if they chose to, but it is understood there are no plans to force them to do so.