- SEAT Cupra Championship
The SEAT Cupra Championship is a one make series which runs as a support package to the
British Touring Car Championship . The championship began in 2003 and joined theTOCA support tour a year later in 2004. The series will not continue for 2009, due to SEAT UK ending its racing activities. This announcement was made with just one 2008 round left, leaving many drivers at a loose end and with large amounts of useless equipment - undoubtedly causing many to be unable to race at all in 2009.Originally the prize for winning the championship was a drive for the Seat works team in the BTCC. From 2005 and onwards this changed to a £100,000 cheque. All races are shown live on
Setanta sports andITV4 as part of their all day coverage of theBTCC . The present format is 20 races in total, with 2 races at each of the 10 meetings throughout the year.Throughout the championship's six years, 78 drivers competed. It established itself as one of the main routes into topline Touring Car racing, and drivers went on to do well in either the BTCC or
World Touring Car Championship . Past contenders such asRob Huff ,Mat Jackson ,James Pickford ,Emmet O'Brien andGordon Shedden mean that tin top fans keep a close eye on these cars and drivers for the next big racing talent.The Cars
Cars driven are the
Seat Leon Cupra. Engine sizes moved from a 1.8 L (first generation Cupra R) to the second generation Leon with a 2.0 L engine in 2007. The engines use an inline four cylinder layout and are paired with a six speed gearbox. Prices for new entrants are £40,000 plus VAT directly from Seat. Seat estimate the total budget for running a car to be between £60,000 and £100,000.History
2003 Season
The Inaugural meeting for the Holiday Inn sponsored Seat Cupra Championship was held at the
Croft Circuit , with a strong 17 car grid (including three female drivers). All cars were being prepared by one team to make racing more even.Stefan Hodgetts claimed the first ever victory. Eventual championship winnerRob Huff went on to win race two. Both these drivers would battle it out to the fifth and final championship meeting of the season atThruxton along withGordon Shedden who finished second, andGavin Smith who came in fourth place behind Hodgetts. Huff's prize was a full works drive in theBTCC for Seat sport UK. A prize which launched a very successful career in the world of touring cars.2004 Season
Again, first prize would be a drive in the 2005 BTCC season.
James Pickford andGavin Smith shared wins in the first races atBrands Hatch .Tom Boardman and Gavin Smith run races 3 and 4 atSilverstone , giving Smith an early championship lead. It was James Pickford who was consistently finishing in high positions including 2 more wins atOulton Park andCroft who won a closely fought championship with 151 points.A late surge in the standings saw
Oli Wilkinson finish second, just 5 points off Pickford with 146.Tom Boardman was third with 133 points,Gordon Shedden fourth with 123 andGavin Smith fifth with 98 points.2005 Season
2005 saw the season have an expansion to 18 rounds compared to last years 12 rounds plus a new name, the
Smartnav Seat Cupra Championship. Cars were now entered by independent teams rather than SEAT themselves, meaning less performance parity but involving more people in the seriesThis was
Tom Boardman 's year, as he made a good start to the season winning both opening rounds at Donington, and going on to get 7 race wins in total for the year.Mat Jackson got a total of 8 wins including some superb performances atSnetterton andKnockhill . In the end he was always playing catch up to the more consistent finishing of Boardman, who won overall on 260 points. Jackson finished in second on 245 points. third wasTom Ferrier on 219 points, fourth wasCarl Breeze on 191 points and fifth wasAlan Blencowe who finished on 116.2006 Season
Despite the Seat Cupra champion
Tom Boardman not getting the works drive for 2005, the rules remained unchanged meaning he was not allowed to stay and defend his title. There was still a healthy grid with 22 entrants for 2006 and a new sponsorship deal withBlaupunkt . It wasMat Jackson , who carried on his good form and show of ability by winning the first three races. He went on to dominate the championship winning 11 out of the 18 rounds.With a lot of new faces for 2006, the nearest any one got to Mat's total of 273 points was
Alan Blencowe with 225. Following them in the final points standing were new boys,Jonathan Adam in third with 218 points,Fulvio Mussi in fourth with 169 points andBen Winrow in fifth with 166 points. Jackson used his £100,000 prize to buy the WTCC winning car used byAndy Priaulx to enter his ownJackson Motorsport team as an independent in theBTCC for 2007.2007 Season
This year saw a restructuring of the championship, with the introduction of the new model
Seat Leon . This created a two tier system incorporating the new cars with the old ones running in a Cupra R class. A total of 28 drivers entered.The championship was dominated by Scottish driver
Jonathan Adam , who won winning 9 of the 20 races. An exciting first race of the year saw a win forCarl Breeze with Adam right behind him at the line. A good start to race 2 and a very comfortable victory for Adam followed. His impressive driving continued, winning 4 out of the next 6 at Rockingham, Thruxton and Croft.One of the more interesting meetings were rounds 11 and 12 at Donington, where the drivers were greeted with terrible weather conditions. Victims included Carl Breeze and
Oli Wilkinson . The race was red flagged and restarted, but by round 12 we had a very depleted grid of 14 cars. Champion Adam ended the season with a huge total of 302 points.Fulvio Mussi was half a point ahead of third placedCarl Breeze with 204.5 and 204 respectively. Behind them wereNeil Waterworth fourth with 177.5 points andDaniel Welch ending the season strong to finish fifth with 153.5 points.The Leon Cupra R class was won by
Harry Vaulkhard with 267 points.Ian Churchill was second on 263 points ahead of older brother Adrian on 248.5 points.Freddy Nordstrom was fourth with 222 points andMike Doble fifth with 171.5 points.2008 Season
The field was much smaller for 2008, with the R Class gone and only 12-14 cars entering most meetings.
Robert Lawson and reigningRenault Clio Cup championMartin Byford were notable additions who were immediately on the pace. A change of rules meant that Adam was allowed to defend his title, although Mussi and Waterworth did not return. Lawson dominated the first half of the season, but Adam came back at him to lead the standings going into the final round. Adam finished the season with the most points, but the result remained provisional as Lawson awaited the result of an appeal. He was thrown out of qualifying at Silverstone for an illegal toe camber angle, which he claimed had been bent out by an earlier escapade across the kerbs. [ [http://www.driverdb.com/press-releases/lawson-back-to-winning-ways-at-silverstone-national-948694607.html Silverstone report from driverdb.com] ]Previous Champions
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
+Previous Champions
-!width="85"|Year!width="140"|Driver!width="160"|Team!width="85"|Points
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2003 ||Rob Huff ||Northern South || 122
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2004 ||James Pickford ||Northern South || 151
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2005 ||Tom Boardman ||Special Tuning UK || 265
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2006 ||Mat Jackson ||Jackson Motorsport || 273
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2007 ||Jonathan Adam ||Total Control Racing || 309
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2007 Cupra R ||Harry Vaulkhard || Volkis Boozers/Triple R || 267
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