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The new car that could shake up the BTCC pecking order

Following the runaway success of West Surrey Racing's new BMW last year, Motorbase Performance has produced an all-new BTCC weapon based on the latest Ford Focus for 2020, which lead driver Rory Butcher is confident it will give him a title shot

Matt Kew Apr 30, 2020, 3:10 PM

Age is just a number, so the saying goes. While it's often a throwaway comment muttered to play down the frequency with which birthdays come and go, it does ring somewhat true in the British Touring Car Championship.

Jason Plato extended his series record to a staggering 97 race wins with victory in the Brands Hatch finale last season. A day short of his 52nd birthday, he became the BTCC's oldest race winner.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.