THE PASSING OF THE BATON AT THE HEART OF THE BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP
After three decades, BTCC technical guru Peter Riches is stepping down for 2023. Matt James finds out more
As a member of the British Touring Car Championship’s backroom staff, Peter Riches will be a figure much-missed at the forefront of the tin-top series next season. The technical guru, who has overseen myriad different sets of rules in the category since he joined the paddock as a regular in 1993, will take a step back and hand over the reins.
Riches, now 70, will be superseded by his son Sam, who has been a regular fixture by his father’s side in the pitlane for 20 years, absorbing all the information he can and learning along the way.
Riches Sr, who previously worked with Lotus, won’t completely walk away as he will be retained in a consultancy role to assist the handover.
But why is now the right time for the poacher-turned-gamekeeper to step down? “My original plan had been to stop when I was 65, but that never happened for all sorts of reasons,” he explains. “Because we had been through a major regulation change [with the introduction of hybrid systems on the BTCC cars for 2022], it felt like now the time was right.
“We had been talking about introducing the hybrid systems a while ago but, of course, Covid got in the way and that set us back a couple of years. So that meant I hung on because I wanted to see that added to the series. However, at some point, you do have to stop because there is a life other than the BTCC, as hard as that might be to imagine.
“Also, whenever you have done a major regulation change, the workload declines – now, for example, the regulations are fixed until the end of 2026. That will also represent the end of the current five-year cycle with the Motorsport UK contract with TOCA and the British Automobile Racing Club.”
Riches, even though he will now be in the background, is looking ahead and is urging Motorsport UK and the rulemakers to consider the tender process for the category’s promotion, because he can foresee a wholesale change to the regulations coming for beyond 2026. His experience tells him that these alterations will need a long lead-in time.
He should know. He joined when Super Touring was in its pomp, but the high-spending high-tech regs were already on a journey to self-destruction in 2000 given some of the eye-watering budgets that were being spent.
Change was needed, and with Riches’hand on the BTCC tiller, as well as his work on the FIA’s Touring Car Technical Working Group, meant he was right at the heart of the cost-cutting revolution at the turn of the millennium.
The BTC-Touring class was introduced in the UK in 2001 and it mandated several controlled parts and restricted technology to get a handle on the out-of-control costs in tin-top racing. While BTC was a UK-only set of regulations, it oh-so-nearly became a global hit in the same way that Britain had led the journey to Super Touring in the 1990s.
“BTC-Touring was trying to achieve something. Super Touring had died [because of the costs] and the global governing body, the FIA, did nothing. There was a gap there. I used to sit on all of the working groups and I kept pointing out that we couldn’t be left with nothing. Nobody wanted to go to Super Production rules – as it was – as the main formula.
“We created a set of rules which the FIA came very close to buying in to. The FIA’s stipulation was that it needed four manufacturers and we got three who were onboard. The biggest problem was the culture change from all these motorsport engineers who sit on the FIA group because they had been used to complete freedom in
Super Touring to then not having so much freedom.
“One of the sticking points was ‘well, you can’t make us all use the same gearbox’– even though in Super Touring days, there were only two people supplying the internals for the gearboxes. But then, of course, in Super Touring days the engineers would design their own gearbox casings. In 1999, they were paying £35,000 for a gearbox plus an average £50,000 tooling costs plus the design every year. However, we brought in a [BTC] gearbox the following year for £10,000...”
While Alfa Romeo, Seat and Nissan all agreed to Riches’ initiative on a worldwide scale, there was resistance from BMW which scuppered the plan to introduce the cut-price category on a widespread basis. What it also meant was that tin-top racing was in limbo. “That meant we simply had to go ahead [in the BTCC],” says Riches. “You can say that BTC was, in a way, the forerunner of the [current] NGTC rules [which were phased in from 2011]. It was cost-capped and controlled, but perhaps not costcapped to the level of NGTC. You could even say that we learned from our mistakes in BTC and then applied them to NGTC.”
When the FIA woke up and introduced the Super 2000 rule set for tin-tops, they were absorbed alongside the BTC regs in the UK in 2004 and the two classes ran together, but Riches cleverly oversaw the introduced national homologation for S2000 cars to allow domestic firms like Vauxhall to remain involved.
The NGTC rules, when they were introduced, were another step change and included a bespoke engine, which was initially tended by Swindon Powertrains and is now tended by M-Sport. Riches used the lessons from BTC-Touring and NGTC has now been bestriding the BTCC for 12 years and has included the introduction of the hybridassisted powerplants this year.
So with all the revolutions that Riches has been responsible for, which one is Riches the most proud of when he reflects?
“I think it was getting a handle on costs,” he answers. “If you go back, it is clearly documented that in the year 2000, with 10 Super Touring cars on the grid, the budget was £27 million – including the drivers’ wages. I think the Ford budget for that season was something like £10 million for three cars.
“We are running on under half a million per car now – although I am sure there are several leading team managers who would tell you that they want much more than that. There are some teams that maybe try to do it too cheaply. But look, we are 22 or 23 years on from the Super Touring days and we are at less than 20% of the cost of touring car racing in this country than we were.”
Riches will still sit on the working group panels, be responsible for eligibility training and have a role at the British Grand Prix. But if the BTCC teams now think it is carte blanche on the technical front, Riches Jr has the ultimate resource to refer to: his dad.
“What won’t I miss about the BTCC?” says Peter Riches.
“It is the stupid phone calls and the bullshit, but one or two teams have been trying to trick Sam already. The [team bosses] haven’t quite realised that he then sends it all to me! There are people emailing him about boost for next year and moaning. Sam has back up and I’ll be there as a safety net, and don’t forget that [BTCC chief executive] Alan Gow will be around too. It will be business as usual.” ■
“It’s still going to be business as usual”
Peter Riches