The 330i M Sport will replace the British Touring Car Championship-winning 125i M Sport in 2019. West Surrey Racing, the series’ reigning team champions, will field 330s for drivers’ champion Colin Turkington, Tom Oliphant, and Andrew Jordan. BMW Pirtek racing will also run the new car in BTCC competition.
WSR, which has partnered with BMW since 2007, designed and built the car; it is based on the seventh-generation 3-Series. WSR team principal Dick Bennetts said, “We are really pleased to be bringing the BMW 3 Series back to the BTCC. We achieved a great deal of success with the fifth-generation model between 2007 and 2012, so we are hugely excited to see what the latest version is capable of. A lot of hard work and countless hours lie ahead, but we are all confident of turning this car into a winner and hopefully reinstating it in its rightful place—at the front of the field in Britain’s premier motorsport series.”
The 125i M Sport, the car that the 330i is replacing, made its debut in BTCC competition in 2013. It propelled Turkington to two drivers’ championships, WSR to four team titles, and BMW to three manufacturers’/constructors’ titles. On the way to the titles the car scored 36 race wins and 116 podium finishes.
The 2019 BTCC season begins at Brands Hatch on April 6-7.—Brian Morgan
[Images by Nick Moss Design via West Surrey Racing Ltd.]