Talk:1998 Rejects Touring Car Championship season

Old page for reference during re-structuring, if the time ever comes...

The 1998 Rejects Touring Car Championship season was the inaugural season of the RTCC, featuring cars used in the British Touring Car Championhip from the same year. The series was formed by a breakaway group from the BTCC, with shady German businessman Hermann Mann at the helm. Hermann is also known for being the driving force behind the 1989 F1 Team Onyx, holding lavish parties (with plenty of Jagermeister) and having the same name as successful F1RWRS drivers Douglas and Pippa Mann. The series was to visit tracks across Europe and Australia, with non-championship 24 hour race at the Manx TT and a Touring Rockingham 200 endurance race. However, the series collapsed after just four races into the season when Mann was arrested due to various drug and bribery charges (the latter apparently to cover-up and allow the then WMSC-suspended Robert Anderson to race).

Teams and Drivers
Out of the 9 Marques avaialable, only 3 marques fielded works teams. Audi, on the back of a successful 1997 BTCC season, entered the RTCC with their non-4WD A4, the team being run by Spanish squad Phoenix Motorsports. Theo Lutz, Rafael Modena and Jody Radcliffe were signed for the drives. Racing conglomerate Il Barone Rampante attracted works status from Nissan, the team trading under the name Martini Nissan Racing, hiring BTCC champion John Cleland, young Italian Fabrizio Giovanardi, and the talented Rickard Rydell. Renault announced they would be represented in the RTCC by Twinings Earl Grey Racing, the cars decked out in the black and cream corporate colours of Twinings Tea. Englishman Percival "Porky" Carrington-Smythe attracted some controversy by establishing his seat in the upstart squad with hefty Twinings Sponsorship money. Porky, as he is jokingly known in the club racing community, claimed that he was not as slow as he might seem and was not going to be a touring car version of hapless Swissman Jean-Denis Deletraz. Twinings also secured the services of promising Englishman Paul Jenkins. Despite being hailed as 'the next big thing in Touring Cars', doubt has been cast over him after a series of under-par performances and several write-off crashes.

Of the 3 Constructors, Equipe de Course Belge looked promising, acheiving semi-works status from Peugeot and attracting several Belgian sponsors, notably telecoms supplier Belgacom. Belgians Aurelien Moll and Thomas De Bock were signed to drive for the Belgian outfit, with the team proudly stating that they would be "Racing for Belgium". English team Prism Motorsports announced that they would be receiving some support from Nissan. Prism, with Title sponsorship from Greggs and the services of Englishmen Mike Burns and Robbie Thorne. Team Ultimate, fielding two Ford Mondeos for French-German Michael Prost and American Cave Johnson, managed to attract big-name sponsorship to the series with the presence of insurance firm Norwich Union and looked confident for the year ahead.

Drivers Championship Standings
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