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2009 British Touring Car Championship

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2009 British Touring Car Championship

The 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 52nd British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season. It began at Brands Hatch on the Indy layout on 5 April and finished after 30 races over 10 events on the Grand Prix layout at Brands Hatch on 4 October. Colin Turkington won the championship for the first time, ahead of Jason Plato and Fabrizio Giovanardi.

The season also saw Airwaves BMW score their first win in the series when Rob Collard won the second race of the day at the opening meeting at Brands Hatch. The team seemed to have added a second win in race three as Jonathan Adam crossed the line first but he was demoted to second after making contact with Jason Plato handing Plato the win.

Andrew Jordan became the youngest driver to qualify on pole at Donington after team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi was excluded for failing technical checks.

Also, Stephen Jelley took his first win in the series at the first race at Rockingham. He followed this up with another victory in race 3, a race that saw Tom Chilton become the first driver to score a podium position in a Ford Focus following a collision between Plato, Turkington and Plato's team mate James Nash.

At the final meeting at Brands Hatch, Chilton took pole position becoming the first Ford driver to do so since 2000. All three races were won by Jason Plato, becoming only the second driver to do so following Dan Eaves' hat-trick at Thruxton in 2005; but this was not enough to win the title. Colin Turkington became British Touring Car Champion for the first time, coincidentally becoming the first Northern Irishman to do so.

Former British Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert contested the final three meetings in a Team Dynamics Honda Civic.

Triple 8 continued to run Vauxhall Vectras under the VX Racing banner, retaining the reigning double Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Neal but replacing Tom Onslow-Cole with Andrew Jordan. The Vauxhall Astra Coupe made a return after a two-year absence with Renault Clio Cup graduates Boulevard Team Racing with Martin Johnson driving an Astra previously run by Erkut Kizilirmak in the Turkish Touring Car Championship.

After SEAT withdrew at the end of 2008, Jason Plato made a last minute switch to an RML Group-run Chevrolet Lacetti under the Racing Silverline banner. As the season progressed, the team expanded to include 2008 Runner-up Mat Jackson and newcomer James Nash. Tempus Sport also entered a Lacetti for Harry Vaulkhard, a second entry was registered but never materialised and the team pulled out mid-season with Vaulkhard's entry taken over by Bamboo Engineering for the remainder of the season.

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