Thirty-two cars will take part in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) in 2013, twenty-six of those in NGTC-spec.

The grid includes 13 different models from 11 different marques, including both Honda and MG as official Manufacturer teams. New to the grid will be eBay Motors’ BMW 125i M Sport, prepared by West Surrey Racing and driven by 2009 champion, Colin Turkington and his team mate Nick Foster.

2012 champion, Gordon Shedden together with Matt Neal return in their all-conquering Honda Yuasa Racing Team, while Jason Plato continues his campaign to put the MG KX Momentum Racing team on top.

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  • BTCC-grid-2013_G1

Other changes for 2013 include a new ‘soft compound’ Dunlop tyre, designed as in F1 to add a new tactical element to each team’s race weekend.

As well as the four BTCC champions on the grid (Turkington, Shedden, Neal and Plato), a growing contingent of future champions will be looking to claim their place in the record books. These include former runner-up Mat Jackson in his Airwaves Racing Ford Focus and last year’s Independents’ Champion, Andrew Jordan, in his Pirtek Racing Honda Civic.

This year’s championship will comprise again of 30 races across ten events, with the season commencing at Brands Hatch on 30/31 March. Also don’t forget the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) featuring returning champion Rob Huff, Yvan Muller, Tom Coronel and Tom Chilton – the series kicks off this weekend (22-24 March) at Monza.