1997 British Touring Car Championship

The 1997 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship was won by Alain Menu of the Williams Renault Dealer Racing team, driving a Renault Laguna. Menu dominated the year, setting a record of 12 wins during the season. The runner up was Frank Biela of Audi Sport UK in an Audi A4 Quattro. Third place was Menu's teammate, Jason Plato. In the independent class the championship was won by Robb Gravett in a Honda Accord.

Defending manufacturers champions Audi retained the same driver line up for 1997, with defending drivers champion Frank Biela again partnering John Bintcliffe. Pre-season was not without controversy for Audi as had been announced that due to their dominance of much of 1996, a further weight penalty would be applied to both of their A4 Quattro's,^[1] a penalty that would subsequently be relaxed by 30kg at Oulton Park. Biela would secure 5 victories during the season to finish runner up to eventual champion Menu although he was never a serious threat for the title such was the Renault drivers dominance. Bintcliffe again finished 7th overall, scoring his first victory at Knockhill, repeating the feat at Thruxton.

Williams Renault, now into their third season running the Laguna, had a new driver in the form of future double BTCC champion Jason Plato, replacing 1991 Champion Will Hoy. Plato would drive alongside Swiss ace Alain Menu, three times a runner-up in the BTCC and now into his fifth year with Renault. Plato made history by taking pole position in his first 3 races but it was Menu who would go on to dominate the season with 12 victories, leading the standings throughout and wrapping up the title at Snetterton with 6 races to go. Plato's first victory came in that Snetterton race, the second coming in the final race of the year at Silverstone. The team wrapped up the manufacturers and teams championships.

The TWR backed Volvo squad, after an ultimately disappointing 1996 despite 5 wins, introduced a new car for 1997, replacing the 850 model with the sleek new S40. Swede Rickard Rydell, again drove alongside former Ford driver Kelvin Burt. The sole victory came for Rydell at Brands Hatch in August whilst Kelvin Burt scored just one podium in the opening race of the year

Honda, now having their pair of Accords run by the Prodrive team, had arguably the most exciting driver line-up for '97. Hard charger James Thompson, having joined from Vauxhall, and 1994 BTCC champion/ex-F1 driver Gabriele Tarquini would drive for the Japanese marque, who had had a resurgence towards the back end of 1996. Ultimately the season was a disappointment with just a single victory for each driver.

After a limited effort in 1996 Nissan re-entered the championship with a full blown manufacturer backed team. RML, who had run Vauxhall's effort since 1994, fielded a pair of brand new Primeras for David Leslie and Anthony Reid, the latter making his debut in the championship. Reliability was an issue but 5 podium finishes hinted at what was to come in 1998.

Vauxhall, after a difficult 1996 with just a solitary win for James Thompson, replaced the outgoing Yorkshireman with Derek Warwick, who joined both as a driver and team manager^[2] of the new-look Triple Eight Vectras after a somewhat low-key first BTCC season with Alfa in 1995. Double champion John Cleland would drive for Vauxhall for the ninth straight year in the BTCC. The team started the season with 1996 cars^[3] re-engineered by Triple Eight before being replaced by the new cars^[4] at Knockhill. The car suffered after a miscalculation with the aerodynamics that meant it lacked down force and did not work its tyres hard enough.^[5] BTCC rules meant that unlike in STW this was unable to be rectified.

Ford elected to introduce the latest shape Mondeo, and the driver line-up looked formidable on paper, with 1991 champion Will Hoy joining twice winner of the Touring Car World Cup New Zealander Paul Radisich. The cars were again built by Reynard Motorsport and run by West Surrey Racing. Whilst results were better than 1996 the cars continued to suffer from poor reliability and Ford finished the season 7th in the manufacturer standings.

After two seasons running the Honda factory effort Motorsport Developments (MSD) joined forces with Peugeot,^[6] now into their second season running the 406. They maintained the experienced duo of Patrick Watts and 1992 champion Tim Harvey and proved to be significantly more competitive than the previous season with Harvey taking a pair of 2nd places in wet conditions at Thruxton and Donington.

The independents championship was one of the most keenly contested for years. Defending independents champion Lee Brookes switched from a Toyota to a Peugeot, whilst rookie Jamie Wall drove the Mint Motorsport Vauxhall Cavalier used by Richard Kaye in 1996.

Matt Neal would again enter in his Team Dynamics built Mondeo,^[7] however the team looking to have closer ties to a manufacturer switched to a Nissan Primera mid season. Neal won the class six times, as many as eventual champion Gravett and was often mixing it with the works cars however inconsistency meant he was never in the championship battle.

1990 Champion Robb Gravett, having run selected rounds in 1996, returned with a Honda entered by Graham Hathaway and went on to secure the title, Whilst Scot Colin Gallie ran a 1994 BMW 318i entered by Dave Cook. Ian Heward again entered his 1993 ex RML Vauxhall Cavalier but often failed to qualify. Swedish Touring Car Championship regular Jan Brunstedt entered the early rounds at Silverstone but was lapped in both races.

On October 18/19 the 1997 Tourist Trophy took place at Donington Park featuring an all-new format. One qualifying session on Saturday set the grid for the first of two 20-lap qualifying heats with the grid for the second race a reverse of the first. The grid for the 25 lap final was then decided by each driver's aggregate performance in the two heats.^[8]

Team	Car	No.	Drivers	Rounds
Manufacturers
Audi Sport UK	Audi A4 quattro	1	Frank Biela	All
		7	John Bintcliffe	All
Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Renault Laguna	2	Alain Menu	All
		22	Jason Plato	All
Volvo S40 Racing	Volvo S40	3	Rickard Rydell	All
		11	Kelvin Burt	All
Vodafone Nissan Racing	Nissan Primera GT	4	David Leslie	All
		23	Anthony Reid	All
Vauxhall Sport	Vauxhall Vectra	8	John Cleland	All
		88	Derek Warwick	All
Team Mondeo with Reynard	Ford Mondeo	9	Will Hoy	All
		15	Paul Radisich	All
Team Honda Sport	Honda Accord	10	James Thompson	All
		20	Gabriele Tarquini	All
Esso Ultron Team Peugeot	Peugeot 406	12	Tim Harvey	All
		14	Patrick Watts	All
Independents
Brookes Motorsport	Peugeot 406	17	Lee Brookes	All
Janco Motorsport	Opel Vectra	18	Jan Brunstedt	2
Team DCRS	BMW 318i	19	Colin Gallie	All
Mint Motorsport	Vauxhall Cavalier	25	Jamie Wall	All
ProMotor Sport	Vauxhall Cavalier	28	Ian Heward	6, 9–10, 12
Rock-It Cargo	Honda Accord	29	Robb Gravett	2–12
Team Dynamics	Ford Mondeo	77	Matt Neal	1–5
	Nissan Primera eGT			6–12

Team	Car	No.	Drivers
Manufacturers
Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Renault Laguna	1	Alain Menu
		3	Jason Plato
Audi Sport UK	Audi A4 quattro	2	Frank Biela
		7	John Bintcliffe
	Audi A4	18	Yvan Muller
Volvo S40 Racing	Volvo S40	4	Rickard Rydell
		14	Armin Hahne
Vodafone Nissan Racing	Nissan Primera GT	8	David Leslie
		11	Anthony Reid
		17	Paula Cook
Vauxhall Sport	Vauxhall Vectra	12	John Cleland
Team Mondeo	Ford Mondeo	15	Paul Radisich
		16	Will Hoy
Team Honda Sport	Honda Accord	21	Aaron Slight
		22	Jonny Kane
Independents
Abt Sportsline	Audi A4 quattro	23	Christian Abt
		24	Kris Nissen
Mint Motorsport	Vauxhall Cavalier	25	Tim Sugden
Janco Motorsport	Opel Vectra	27	Jan Brunstedt
Linnerud Racing	Opel Vectra	28	Tord Linnerud
Team Dynamics	Ford Mondeo	77	Matt Neal
	Nissan Primera eGT	78	Kari Mäkinen

All races were held in the United Kingdom.

Round		Circuit	Date	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning Driver	Winning Team	Winning Independent
1	R1	Donington Park (Grand Prix), Leicestershire	31 March	Jason Plato	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Colin Gallie
	R2			Jason Plato	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Colin Gallie
2	R3	Silverstone Circuit (International), Northamptonshire	20 April	Jason Plato	Jason Plato	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Robb Gravett
	R4			Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Robb Gravett
3	R5	Thruxton Circuit, Hampshire	5 May	Alain Menu	James Thompson	Frank Biela	Audi Sport UK	Matt Neal
	R6			Alain Menu	James Thompson	Gabriele Tarquini	Team Honda Sport	Matt Neal
4	R7	Brands Hatch (Indy), Kent	18 May	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Robb Gravett
	R8			Gabriele Tarquini	Alain Menu	James Thompson	Team Honda Sport	Robb Gravett
5	R9	Oulton Park (Fosters), Cheshire	26 May	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Colin Gallie
	R10			Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Lee Brookes
6	R11	Donington Park (National), Leicestershire	15 June	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Frank Biela	Audi Sport UK	Lee Brookes
	R12			Alain Menu	Gabriele Tarquini	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Lee Brookes
7	R13	Croft Circuit, North Yorkshire	29 June	Alain Menu1	Gabriele Tarquini	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Matt Neal
	R14			Alain Menu1	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Lee Brookes
8	R15	Knockhill Racing Circuit, Fife	3 August	John Bintcliffe	Frank Biela	John Bintcliffe	Audi Sport UK	Robb Gravett
	R16			Frank Biela	Frank Biela	Frank Biela	Audi Sport UK	Robb Gravett
9	R17	Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit, Norfolk	10 August	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Lee Brookes
	R18			Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Jason Plato	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Matt Neal
10	R19	Thruxton Circuit, Hampshire	25 August	Rickard Rydell	Gabriele Tarquini	John Bintcliffe	Audi Sport UK	Lee Brookes
	R20			James Thompson	Frank Biela	Frank Biela	Audi Sport UK	Lee Brookes
11	R21	Brands Hatch (Indy), Kent	7 September	Frank Biela2	Anthony Reid	Frank Biela	Audi Sport UK	Lee Brookes
	R22			Anthony Reid3	Rickard Rydell	Rickard Rydell	Volvo S40 Racing	Lee Brookes
12	R23	Silverstone Circuit (International), Northamptonshire	21 September	Jason Plato	Anthony Reid	Alain Menu	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Matt Neal
	R24			Alain Menu	Alain Menu	Jason Plato	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Matt Neal

¹Qualifying cancelled. Grids set by championship standings.
²Qualifying cancelled. Grid set by fastest times in Sunday warm-up.
³Qualifying cancelled. Grid set by fastest laps in race 1.

Note: bold signifies pole position (1 point awarded all races), italics signifies fastest lap.
Drivers top 20 results count towards the championship.

Pos. Driver DON SIL THR BRH OUL DON CRO KNO SNE THR BRH SIL Pts 1 Alain Menu 1 1 1 1 3 3 1 (4) 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 Ret 1 2 17 2 3 (3) 1 2 281 2 Frank Biela Ret 3 7 Ret 1 Ret 9 6 3 Ret 1 3 4 17 2 1 3 9 2 1 1 5 8 15 171 3 Jason Plato 2 Ret 10 3 Ret 7 3 5 2 4 4 Ret 2 4 Ret 5 4 1 7 6 2 Ret 3 1 170 4 Rickard Rydell Ret 2 2 2 5 5 7 16 6 3 5 7 3 9 4 7 5 5 Ret 7 15 1 18 7 137 5 James Thompson Ret 6 Ret 9 6 Ret 2 1 Ret 2 6 11 5 2 6 Ret 2 4 3 3 Ret Ret 7 4 132 6 Gabriele Tarquini 7 4 5 15 2 1 6 2 Ret Ret Ret 6 Ret Ret 7 3 Ret 3 4 4 Ret 7 4 3 130 7 John Bintcliffe 5 5 Ret Ret 4 8 Ret 12 4 5 3 4 9 6 1 2 12 11 1 5 4 11 11 Ret 119 8 David Leslie 4 11 3 Ret 7 11 4 3 10 6 9 Ret Ret 3 11 Ret 9 6 8 10 6 8 6 6 87 9 Tim Harvey 10 Ret 11 4 9 2 Ret 10 Ret 8 7 2 10 7 14 9 8 15 6 13 5 9 13 Ret 66 10 Kelvin Burt 3 9 4 Ret Ret 13 8 8 9 Ret 8 Ret 12 12 8 4 Ret 8 Ret 16 14 6 5 8 60 11 Anthony Reid Ret Ret Ret Ret 8 4 5 14 7 Ret 11 Ret Ret 8 5 Ret Ret 10 13 Ret Ret 2 2 Ret 56 12 John Cleland 11 Ret 6 6 14 9 11 9 5 12 12 8 6 5 10 6 7 16 19 11 13 12 12 11 44 13 Paul Radisich 6 7 Ret Ret 10 10 Ret 7 8 7 Ret Ret Ret 11 Ret Ret 6 Ret 14 12 Ret 4 10 5 41 14 Derek Warwick 9 8 8 5 15 6 10 11 11 Ret Ret 10 7 10 9 13 11 Ret 9 8 Ret Ret Ret Ret 33 15 Will Hoy Ret DNS 12 7 11 12 DSQ 17 DNS DNS 13 9 8 Ret 12 14 10 7 5 9 7 Ret Ret 10 27 16 Patrick Watts 8 Ret 9 8 12 Ret Ret Ret Ret 15 10 5 11 16 18 8 Ret Ret 12 Ret 8 10 9 9 26 17 Lee Brookes Ret Ret 14 11 Ret DNS 13 15 16 9 14 12 NC 13 17 15 13 Ret 10 14 9 13 15 16 5 18 Robb Gravett 13 10 16 16 12 13 14 13 17 Ret 15 14 13 10 14 13 16 Ret 10 14 16 14 3 19 Colin Gallie 12 10 15 12 17 15 DNS DNS 12 10 15 15 16 15 15 11 15 14 15 17 11 15 17 13 2 20 Jamie Wall 13 Ret 16 13 18 17 14 Ret 13 11 18 14 14 Ret 16 12 Ret DNS 18 15 12 17 19 17 0 21 Matt Neal Ret 12 Ret DNS 13 14 15 DNS 15 14 16 13 13 Ret Ret DNS Ret 12 11 Ret Ret 16 14 12 0 22 Jan Brunstedt 17 14 0 23 Ian Heward Ret 16 DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 0 Pos. Driver DON SIL THR BRH OUL DON CRO KNO SNE THR BRH SIL Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

Pos.	Driver	DON		SIL		THR		BRH		OUL		DON		CRO		KNO		SNE		THR		BRH		SIL		Pts
1	Robb Gravett			13	10	16	16	12	13	14	13	17	Ret	15	14	13	10	14	13	16	Ret	10	14	16	14	236
2	Lee Brookes	Ret	Ret	14	11	Ret	DNS	13	15	16	9	14	12	NC	13	17	15	13	Ret	10	14	9	13	15	16	225
3	Colin Gallie	12	10	15	12	17	15	DNS	DNS	12	10	15	15	(16)	15	15	11	15	14	15	17	11	15	(17)	13	225 (241)
4	Jamie Wall	13	Ret	16	13	18	17	14	Ret	13	11	18	14	14	Ret	16	12	Ret	DNS	18	15	12	17	19	17	168
5	Matt Neal	Ret	12	Ret	DNS	13	14	15	DNS	15	14	16	13	13	Ret	Ret	DNS	Ret	12	11	Ret	Ret	16	14	12	166
6	Jan Brunstedt			17	14																					12
7	Ian Heward											Ret	16					DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ			DNQ	DNQ	6
Pos.	Driver	DON		SIL		THR		BRH		OUL		DON		CRO		KNO		SNE		THR		BRH		SIL		Pts

Pos.	Driver	DON
		H1	H2	F
1	Alain Menu	4	1	1
2	Jason Plato	2	14	2
3	Rickard Rydell	3	5	3
4	Frank Biela	6	6	4
5	Yvan Muller	9	4	5
6	Anthony Reid	1	17	6
7	Will Hoy	12	3	7
8	Armin Hahne	15	13	8
9	John Bintcliffe	10	7	9
10	Kris Nissen	8	8	10
11	Matt Neal	Ret	10	11
12	Christian Abt	13	9	12
13	Paula Cook	17	12	13
14	Jonny Kane	11	11	14
15	Tim Sugden	14	15	15
16	Kari Mäkinen	16	Ret	16
17	Jan Brunstedt	19	16	17
–	David Leslie	7	2	Ret
–	John Cleland	18	Ret	Ret
–	Paul Radisich	5	Ret	Ret
–	Tord Linnerud	Ret	Ret	DNS
–	Aaron Slight	Ret	DNS	DNS
Pos.	Driver	H1	H2	F
		DON

• BTCC Pages Archived 2019-11-15 at the Wayback Machine
• Touring-Cars.net
• Super Touring Register
• 1997 Teams Championship Results