How 2020's newest national series and championships fared

Like everything else in 2020, club motorsport was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and it wasn't until July that some normality resumed and competitiors took to racing again.

Yet despite this, and to the credit of organisers, some new national UK series and championships were also still able to successfully launch last year even with the world in the grip of coronavirus. Here's how Autosport ranked them.

PLUS: The verdict on how COVID impacted club racing in 2020

Britcar Trophy (4.5 stars)

Created to cater for production cars and offer them a spot in the limelight away from the faster GT machinery, the Britcar Trophy was open to cars from classes 5-7 based on the Britcar Endurance Performance Indicator (BEPI).

Five rounds took place in 2020, which generally consisted of two 50-minute races on the same weekends as the main Endurance Championship. While the opening round at Croft attracted only 11 Trophy entries, which were merged with the Endurance races, the remaining rounds of the campaign were all standalone events.

Grid numbers steadily improved, with a season-high of 32 cars for the penultimate round on the Silverstone Grand Prix layout, as a plethora of machines and competitors were attracted to the successful fledgling championship.

Porsche Sprint Challenge (4 stars)

With official backing from the German manufacturer, the new-for-2020 Porsche Sprint Challenge GB was seen by many competitors to be the perfect step below the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, and was aimed at up-and-coming young drivers as well as gentleman racers.

A total of 12 races were held across the condensed six-round season - the same number as was planned pre-COVID - and it featured on the support bill of a number of high-profile events, including TOCA and British GT. Grids, which consisted of a Pro and an Am element, averaged 14 cars across the year, with a season-high of 17 at the final meeting of the campaign at Silverstone.

Well-known Porsche squads such as Redline Racing, In2 Racing and Valluga Racing were represented on the grid, while established drivers including British GT4 racer James Dorlin, who won the inaugural Sprint Challenge title, three-time Carrera Cup GB runner-up Dino Zamparelli and W Series driver Sarah Moore all appeared during the year.

All in all, with a reliable car in the form of the 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport, it was a successful maiden season for Porsche's newest championship despite the adversity of the pandemic.

PLUS: How a Porsche King became 2020's breakout star

Equipe Libre (4 stars)

Equipe Classic Racing has a history of organising popular series, and added more new categories to its portfolio during 2020.

The first was Equipe Libre, which, as the name suggests, caters for a wide range of pre-1966 Appendix K cars. It spawned from Equipe's 3-Hour Relay, which is also open to larger-engined cars than the GTS division. As well as allowing a different group of machines to race, it enables other drivers to have a second race over an Equipe weekend.

Two rounds took place in 2020 and it proved a hit, attracting more than 25 entries and a diverse range of cars, from an MGA to a Ford GT40.

The other new series was Equipe 50s and this had a more modest start. It was paired with the existing Pre-'63 class for two events and featured up to a dozen cars. A potential tie-up with the Fifties Sports Car Racing series could be the perfect route to larger grids in the future.

Slicks Series (3 stars)

It wasn't just the COVID-19 pandemic that the Slicks Series had to contend with in 2020, but also the British weather. The Classic Sports Car Club's newest series was open to saloon, hatchback, sports and GT cars with doors - excluding Radical-like sportscars and Seven designs - and equipped with racing slick or wet tyres.

In a rescheduled calendar, just three meetings were planned, but a healthy grid of 15 cars took part in the first event at Thruxton once UK motorsport resumed in July. That number had dropped to single figures for the following round at Snetterton just a month later, though the race was called off due to a deluge at the Norfolk circuit.

The season ended on a more promising note, with 21 cars entered for the final round at Donington Park in September, and currently five events are scheduled for the 2021 season, including a trip to Spa in June.

CityCar Cup (3 stars)

Launching a completely new category during the middle of a pandemic is not the easiest of tasks, but the British Racing & Sports Car Club seems to have struck gold with the CityCar Cup.

It may feature the same base car as the C1 Challenge, but the CityCar Cup machines are very different beasts. The Citroen C1s, Peugeot 107s and Toyota Aygos are significantly modified for the track, including a remapped ECU and adjustable suspension. Donor cars can be converted by individuals or machines can be bought ready to race.

It got off to a sensibly modest start, beginning as a class within the Clubsport Trophy, before 15 cars took part in a standalone race at Croft. The series is set to boom this year, with an estimated 50 cars either already built or in construction.

Other launches

A number of other categories were set to feature soft launches in 2020 ahead of possible full campaigns this year but, understandably, plans for these new series became more tentative as the pandemic worsened.

The Historic Sports Car Club sought to add some newer cars to its racing programme with the Geoff Lees Trophy catering for a variety of up to two-litre single-seater machines constructed in the late 1970s and 1980s, along with the Production Car Challenge for 1980s tin-tops.

But, in the end, just a handful of cars turned up for shared races in 2020 on the Classic Formula 3 and Historic Touring Car grids respectively. Plans are afoot for more action from these series this year. The Geoff Lees Trophy will form part of the Aurora Trophy grid, while interest is encouraging in three standalone Production Car Challenge (below) events.

It's a similar story with the British Racing & Sports Car Club's Mazda MX-5 Mk4 Trophy, where just a couple of the machines ended up running within the Clubsport Trophy last year.