In what is a major blow to the British Touring Car Championship, Vauxhall today announced VX Racing will not return to the BTCC in 2010. The Luton-based manufacturer, the most successful in modern touring cars history, will continue to campaign three cars this year, driven by Fabrizio Giovanardi, Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan.
The decision to withdraw from the BTCC in 2010 was influenced by the absence of other manufacturer-backed teams and financial prudence in the current global economic downturn. While the company regrets having to leave the BTCC for 2010, it will keep an option open for a possible return to the sport in future years.
The timing of today’s announcement has been carefully considered in order to allow Vauxhall’s key BTCC partner, Triple Eight Race Engineering, as much time as possible to develop its future plans.
Triple Eight has been a successful partner with Vauxhall over the last 13 years, with the team recently celebrating its 100th win with VX Racing earlier this month, having taken Vauxhall to seven manufacturer titles in the last eight years, with the Astra Coupé, Astra Sport Hatch VXR and the Vectra VXR.
The company’s BTCC race programme was rebranded from Vauxhall Motorsport to VX Racing in 2003, with the introduction of the VXR brand to the portfolio the following year.
JM