Civic Cup works to equalise classes for ’17

The Civic Cup will run for a single class from next season after handing performance breaks to its Class A field.

The 750 Motor Club championship currently uses a two-tier format, with Class A running for the older 1600cc Civics, and Class B for the more modern 2000cc machines.

For next season series bosses have tweaked the regulations to equalise both classes and make it a single category championship.

From next season the 1600cc cars will be allowed an additional 8bhp, bringing their output to 203bhp against the 2000cc’s 230bhp. Older cars will also be given a 40kg weight break.

Civic Cup managing director Steve Laidlaw said: “We want everybody to be able to fight for the win, and the rise in popularity of Class B has threatened to put the older cars in the shade, so equalising the two will even out the competition.

“The Class B cars have inherently better suspension as they run a double wishbone design and they also have a better centre of gravity as well as being lighter. The early cars were actually over-engineered, so they’re great race cars.

“The Class A cars are easily a match for the newer two-litre cars on shorter circuits, and we’ll look at standardising gear ratios too to help them on the longer tracks.”

Series bosses are also confident of bumper grids next term. “We have an extra 20 cars in build, so we’re hoping for a grid average of 45 cars for next season,” added Laidlaw.

Plans are also being discussed to run up to four Britishtouring Car Championship drivers during a future round of the championship.

West Surrey Racing BMW 125i M-sport driver Sam Tordoff was the most recent to join the field, scoring a podium finish at Croft back in May in his only outing in the series this year.