TOCA
Organiser of the British Touring Car Championship and its support package.
TOCA, which does business as BARC (TOCA) Ltd, runs motorsport events across the UK. It manages the British Touring Car Championship, the country’s largest racing series, along with its supporting races. These support events, held over a full weekend, are called the TOCA Tour or TOCA Package, with the BTCC as the main attraction.
Quick Facts
- Founded
- 1990
- Founder
- Alan J. Gow
- Current company formed
- 2003
- Btcc rounds per season
- 30 (10 events, 3 races each)
- Engine specification
- 350+bhp two-litre turbocharged
- Technical regulations introduced
- 2011 (NGTC)
Facts from the source article.
History
BARC (TOCA) Ltd manages the championship from regulations to event direction and marketing, with Alan J. Gow serving as series director and administrator of the BTCC and managing director of the company. Gow formed TOCA Limited in 1990, purchasing the rights to the BTCC in 1991 and transforming it into the largest championship of its type worldwide. In 2000, he sold TOCA to Octagon Motorsport, part of the Interpublic group, and took a break from management. Octagon relinquished ownership in 2003, leading to the formation of BARC (TOCA) Ltd, with Gow appointed managing director to rebuild the championship after it had floundered under previous management. TOCA Australia, an offshoot headed by Gow, ran the Australian Super Touring Championship during the 1990s but ceased operating in the early 2000s.
TOCA Package
The TOCA package is built around the BTCC and five main support series that appear at nearly every event, with a few smaller club championships joining one or two weekends. All support series are either single-make championships or formula racing. Since 2004, the BTCC season has run ten events, each with three races, for a total of 30 rounds across the UK. From 2011, every car follows Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) rules, which cut design, build, and running costs by using shared parts, giving independent teams a fairer chance against manufacturer-backed squads. Teams can choose TOCA’s unbranded NGTC engine or build their own, as long as it comes from the same car model family; all are 350-plus-bhp two-litre turbocharged units. The British Formula Ford Championship returned full-time in 2013, became MSA Formula in 2015 under FIA Formula 4 rules, and was renamed the F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford in 2017, using Mygale chassis and Ford EcoBoost engines. The Ginetta GT4 SuperCup is a dual-class pro-am series with Ginetta G55 sportscars, appearing at most TOCA events with two or three races per weekend. The Ginetta Junior Championship, for drivers aged 14 to 17 in identical Ginetta G40J cars, supports every BTCC event with two or three races each.
More in Motorsport Organisations in the United Kingdom
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced