BTCC

Tom Oliphant is to join the WSR team for the 2019 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season.

The Leamington Spa-based driver is the first of the team's three drivers to be announced for next year.

Following the news that Toyota is returning to the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship as a works team in 2019, ITV Motorsport takes a look at the marque's history in the championship.

Toyotas has been on the BTCC grid since the mid-1970s. In 1975 Win Percy, driving a Toyota Celica, finished the season level on points with Andy Rouse, missing out on the title only by having fewer race wins: 10 compared to 12.

Toyota is to return to the British Touring Car Championship as a manufacturer for the first time in more than two decades.

Team Toyota GB will enter the new Corolla in the 2019 season, and has announced 2018 Independent champion Tom Ingram to spearhead the attack.

Kwik Fit is to become the new title sponsor of the British Touring Car Championship. The news was announced by BTCC Series Director Alan Gow at last night's TOCA Night of Champions.

Goodyear Dunlop will remain tyre supplier to the BTCC under its current contract which runs until at least 2022.

Kidderminster-based racing driver Dan Rowbottom will join the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in 2019, in a Cicely Motorsport Mercedes Benz A Class.

Rowbottom was a triple race winner last season, on his way to fourth place in the Renault Clio UK Cup.

Successful one-make ‘tin top’ racer Rob Smith will achieve his long-held ambition of becoming a Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship driver in 2019 after being confirmed as the first signing for new BTCC squad Excelr8 Motorsport.

Smith, from Telford in Shropshire, is no stranger to the Excelr8 ranks having competed with the squad for the past four years in the Mini Challenge as part of the official Mini UK VIP Customer Team, where the 26-year-old has been a consistent front runner.

Michael Crees will realise a lifelong dream next season as he lines up on the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship grid after signing a deal with leading squad Team HARD for his debut campaign in the biggest race series in the UK.

Less than three years since the Kent racer was standing on the banks as a fan watching the BTCC in action, Crees is now seizing the chance to take on some of the best touring car drivers and teams in the world in only his third season of motorsport competition.

British Touring Car Championship organiser TOCA has ratified a number of minor amendments to its regulations following an end-of-season consultation with the championship's teams.