How the BTCC is making drivers rethink racing clashes

As a category designed to make the competition as close as possible, the British Touring Car Championship inevitably features a certain amount of contact and robust racing. That is a by-product of the level playing field deliberately created by the rulebook.

At Brands Hatch's opening meeting in early April, contact was an issue that was very high on the agenda as the chequered flag fell and it turned out the results were not all they had seemed to the trackside fans.

Race three winner Tom Chilton was penalised five seconds on his race time for a clumsy overtake on leader Matt Neal, where the Motorbase Ford Focus man nerfed the factory Honda Civic out of the way at Clearways at the midway stage of the event. That dumped him from the win to second place in the results.

Stephen Jelley had a similar incident with Neal further on in the race. The Team Parker Racing BMW 125i M Sport driver was recovering from a ruinous qualifying session where he had been booted out for failing a rideheight check, and was charging back through the pack.

He'd had the chance to score Team Parker's best result yet when he rocketed off the line and into the lead in the reversed grid race. He was later demoted by Chilton and Neal, but fought back at Neal going into Graham Hill Bend.

Jelley lunged for the inside at two-thirds distance and Neal closed the door. The BMW prevailed after contact, but stepped aside just two corners later to allow the opportunistic - and eventual winner - Rory Butcher into second and Neal to restore his position ahead of his combatant.

Although Neal was later slowed by suspension failure and dropped to eighth, Jelley's and Chilton's reactions showed two different approaches to contact.

There are robust rules in place to deal with drivers who overstep the mark in terms of contact with a rival, and they have been in force for the past two years.

If a driver does make contact with a car they are trying to overtake and it's their fault, that driver has the choice to put that right on-track by ceding a place voluntarily. Providing there are no other circumstances involved, no further action will be taken. If the driver doesn't, then the stewards will intervene afterwards.

Jelley, who eventually claimed third place, explains: "In the drivers' briefing, they had reiterated the rules and actually given us a document with driving guidelines written on it - which is the first time we've had that. I knew, because it was the first round, that they'd be hot on it.

"I'd spoken with my team boss, Stuart Parker, before the races about it and he underlined the situation about giving a position back. It was in the front of my mind. Stuart was on the control tower in the middle of the track and had seen the incident, and immediately got on the radio to tell me to give the place back.

"In my mind, I knew I had to. A driver knows when a move is fair and is not. And I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do to not risk a further penalty. In my mind, landing a good result at the front was worth more than risking it all to argue the case with the officials afterwards."

Arguing with officials afterwards is the usual approach - indeed, Jelley's decision to rectify the on-track positions was the exception rather than common practice.

Although the rules haven't changed over the past 24 months in terms of punishments for over-the-top moves, the fact that they were actually written in a document at Brands Hatch seems to have crystallised the facts in certain minds.

Excerpt from the BTCC Driving Standards document Contact:

1 A driver who gains an unfair advantage through contact caused by them will be penalised unless they surrender that advantage before a further lap is completed

2 A driver who does not surrender that unfair advantage may subsequently face a time/position penalty which may be greater than the advantage they initially gained on-track

3 Constant intimidation by pushing is not acceptable and renders the offender liable to punishment

For his part in the Neal contact, Chilton says he was aware of the rules but didn't think initially that he had done anything that warranted him returning the place to the Team Dynamics Civic racer.

Chilton said: "At the time, I felt it was a justified move because there was just the slightest of brushes going into Clearways when I got ahead of Matt, but when I looked back, I was wrong.

"It was what you could term a push to pass. I should have let Matt back ahead - even if it was just on the run to the line to let him lead that particular lap and then pass him again at Paddock Hill Bend.

"I've restored positions before when I was racing in the World Touring Car Championship if I thought I'd done something wrong. It's not something I don't know about, but I felt justified at Brands to stay where I was. I had seen the rules - I've been in this game for a long time, we all know them.

"Matt was on old softer tyres and he was struggling and the rest of the pack was catching us up. I'd put on my headlights to tell him, 'Hey, buddy, I'm going to make a move now'. If I'd been in his situation, I probably wouldn't have defended like he did, but I've learned my lesson."

British Touring Car Championship chief executive Alan Gow explains that there is nothing materially different in the rules this year, but the idea of handing out a document was one that he poached from another continent.

"Nothing we're doing this year is different to what we've told the drivers before," explains Gow.

"Of course, each incident will still be judged on its own merit because there could be other circumstances involved, but we have guidelines which every driver is fully aware of.

"Matt Neal came to us after he had contested the Bathurst 12 Hour earlier in the year and showed us what they had been issued with over there in terms of driving etiquette.

"It was a proper document, so that gave us the idea to do the same thing for the British Touring Car Championship. It's not changed what we do, it just means it's in black and white."

Gow says other elements of the guidelines should also make things easier for competitors to understand, such as the start procedure. At Brands, in the opening race, front-row starter Jason Plato was handed a drivethrough because the front of his Power Maxed Vauxhall Astra was ahead of the painted white line of his grid box - much to the driver's disgust.

Excerpt from the BTCC Driving Standards document Race start:

If any part of the car is observed to be either forward of its grid marking or is moving prior to the start signal, this will be deemed to be a false start

The BTCC Driving Standards guidelines also cover several other issues, with a firmly set-down roster for what a driver can do to defend a position, as well as the procedure in qualifying.

While nothing is new in the BTCC for this season, the onus has now been placed very firmly on the drivers, and the avenues for them to police themselves have been reinforced.

Gentlemen, it's over to you.