BTCC teams granted extra testing

Traditionally, teams have been allowed unrestricted testing until the pre-season media day, which takes place at Brands Hatch on March 23, and then were barred from running outside official championship test days until the season's end.

However, series director Alan Gow will now allow teams to continue testing without limitation until March 31, after which in-season testing will be limited to one day at Rockingham on May 25 and one at Snetterton on July 22.

Gow said: "It is clear that some teams and drivers are facing the prospect of arriving at our first event with less testing than they would have preferred. In many cases this is simply due to not having been able to finalise their deals until very late and/or not being able to prepare their cars in good time for some meaningful testing.

"I am fully sympathetic to this issue and have no desire to see some teams and drivers arrive at our first event without having had as much opportunity to test as possible.

"We have therefore decided that the date for the start of the testing restriction should be extended by eight days, meaning teams can now test until 5pm on Wednesday March 31, when the restriction will then come into play."

The BTCC gets underway at Thruxton on April 4.