BTCC boasts full grid as 2016 line-up is launched at Donington Park
This year's Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship will boast a full grid of 32 cars, including models from eleven different manufacturers, as the full line-up was unveiled at Donington Park this morning.
In addition to 29 drivers already announced, three more drivers were revealed today. Emmerdale star Kelvin Fletcher will partner Hunter Abbott at Power Maxed Racing, while a new team, BKR, joins the championship with former Clio Cup racer Mark Howard partnering Aron Smith.
Today's additions bring the grid to a capacity 32 drivers, who will take to the track at Brands Hatch in Kent for the first race in 12 days time.
The range of cars grows further this season with Subaru joining the championship. Team BMR will be running four of the Japanese marque's Levorgs for Jason Plato, Colin Turkington, James Cole and Warren Sott.
Reigning champions Halfords Yuasa Racing expand to three Honda Civics, with Andy Neate joining Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal. Three more Hondas will be in the field, with Jeff Smith and Martin Depper at Eurotech and Matt Simpson at Speedworks .
Toyota is not far behind , with five of its Avensis model on the grid. Tom Ingram will be racing his for the third consecuive year at Speedworks, while Rob Austin moves to Handy Motorsport. Team Hard runs the other three, with Chris Smiley joined by Jake Hill and Michael Epps.
Jack Goff moves from MG to the IHG Rewards Club BMW, while two more of the West Surrey Racing-run BMW125s will be piloted by Rob Collard and Sam Tordoff. Jack's team mate from last year Andrew Jordan also moves to a new team. He'll race a Pirtek Racing Ford Focus alongside Mat Jackson at Motorbase Performance.
That means an all-new line-up at MG who bring in reigning Renault UK Clio Cup champion Ash Sutton and Josh Cook, racing in the BTCC for his second season.
Two more Fords will be on the grid, with Stewart :Lines behind the wheel for Maximum Motorsport and Alex Martin returning to Dextra Racing.
Adam Morgan at Wix Racing and Aiden Moffa at Laser Tools Racing mean there are once again two Mercedes A Class in the championship this season, while the field is completed by a returning Ollie Jackson in the AmDTuning.com Audi A3 and series veteran Dan Welch in the Proton Gen2.