1996 British Touring Car Championship

The 1996 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship season was the sixth British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season which commenced on 21 April and ended on 8 September. The championship consisted of ten meetings, each held in the United Kingdom. Johannes Meles won the Overall and Manufacturer Drivers championships and Henry Williams won the Independent Drivers championship.



Rule changes
TBA

Car changes

 * Peugeot retired the 405 Mi16 from works competition, in favour of the newer 406.
 * Vauxhall chose to introduce the Vectra as their new works car, replacing the venerable Cavalier 16v.
 * BMW, now operated once again by Schnitzer Motorsport after BMW's in-house operations failed drastically in 1995, introduced the new 320i model to replace the older 318i.

Team changes
Various manufacturers joined and left the BTCC between 1995 and 1996:
 * Alfa Romeo decided to leave the series after 1995, having failed to replicate the successes of 1994.
 * Toyota withdrew as a works team in 1996, though a single 1995-spec Carina e would continue to be campaigned by Team Brookes in the Independents' Championship with backing from Toyota-supported tuner TOM's.
 * Audi entered the series as a manufacturer for the first time, with the Richard Lloyd-operated Audi Sport UK team fielding the ubiquitous Audi A4 Quattro.
 * After finding himself out of a job running Ford's operations after West Surrey Racing - backed by Adrian Reynard - picked up the contract, Andy Rouse would help to broker Nissan's return to the BTCC, mobilising Rouse Sport to run a pair of semi-works Nissan Primeras in the Independent Teams' Championship.

Driver changes
The driver market for 1996 saw several drivers elect to change teams.

The first to jump ship was Johannes Meles, who made the surprising decision to leave Honda at the end of 1995, joining the new Audi team to drive the new four-wheel drive A4 Quattro. Last year's third-placer in the Manufacturer Drivers' Championship was joined at the German outfit by Jake Black - the Toyota ace leaving the team he took fourth place with in 1995, after they announced the end of their BTCC works program.

Meles' departure left a seat vacant at Honda, which initially looked to be readjusting its plans to field just one car for 1996 - but the team managed to stage a real coup by persuading reigning Independents' champion Kris Simton away from Team Dynamics, choosing instead to join Taylor in the second Accord - with Simton citing the promise the Accord had shown the previous year in the hands of Meles as his reason for the sudden change of team.

Meanwhile, 1995 rookie Cosmo Marsh made a shock move away from Ford to sign with Vauxhall for his sophomore season in 1996. Driving the brand new Vectra, he would join 3-time BTCO drivers champion Lorenzo Turri - without the title of reigning champion for the first time since 1992 - to create one of the most exciting lineups of the season. Anderson's space at Ford was filled by Michael Sneath, heeding the call up to the now West Surrey Racing-run works Ford outfit after impressing in Mint Motorsport's privately-entered Mondeo in 1995. Sneath would partner Chris English who remained at the Reynard-supported team, and his signing meant both of the top two in the Independents' Championship of 1995 would both have works drives for 1996. Sneath's former team Mint Motorsport would sign up rookie Henry Williams to drive their newly-acquired Vauxhall Cavalier, after making the switch from Ford.

Andy Rouse's semi-works Rouse Sport team, competing in the Independent Teams' Championship, signed a pair of American drivers for 1996 - former Independent Drivers' Champion David Todaro, hoping to capitalise on the American's experience in the category to earn some good results in their debut year - and Diego Flores, who would take up a full-time seat at the team after occasional showings in 1995. Todaro was replaced at Peugeot by David Osborne, who was out of contract after Alfa Romeo withdrew from the BTCC after an unsuccessful 1995 season. Halil Sahin would sign for TOM's Team Brookes in 1996, after competing in a single round at Donington in 1995 with Team Magic in their Mazda 323F.

Teams and drivers
The following 20 drivers and 13 teams took part in the 1996 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC):

Points system
Independent points are awarded to the top fifteen drivers in each race as follows:

Driver's Championship


 * 1) Halil Sahin handed race disqualification (at the loss of 2 championship points) for dive resulting in Mike Bell rolling his car.
 * 2) Positions reversed for David Osborne and Michael Sneath.
 * 3) Halil Sahin handed race disqualification (at the loss of 2 championship points) for poor on-track behaviour resulting in Daniel Hurlock having his race ruined.

Manufacturer Driver's Championship


 * 1) Positions reversed for David Osborne and Michael Sneath.

Independent Driver's Championship


 * 1) Halil Sahin handed race disqualification (at the loss of 2 championship points) for dive resulting in Mike Bell rolling his car.
 * 2) Halil Sahin handed race disqualification (at the loss of 2 championship points) for poor on-track behaviour resulting in Daniel Hurlock having his race ruined.

Team's Championship


 * 1) Positions reversed for David Osborne and Michael Sneath.