BTCC news: Tom Chilton fires title warning and names three key rivals – EXCLUSIVE
TOM CHILTON is targeting the British Touring Car Championship drivers’ title and has warned the rest of the grid that he will be ruthless in 2019.
Chilton is one of the favourites to scoop the overall honours this season after enjoying a consistent campaign with Motorbase in 2018.
The 34-year-old, who has earned 13 BTCC race wins during two spells in the series, finished third last year and also previously enjoyed similar success with Sebastian Loeb Racing in the 2017 World Touring Car Championship.
Chilton has remained with Motorbase for a second season and believes that this consistency could hand him an advantage over rivals who have switched teams or are running new machinery in 2019.
Speaking exclusively to Express Sport, Chilton said: “I’m not here to come third for the third year running, I’m here to win the championship.
“I’m going to keep telling everyone that because that’s why I’m here.
“We’ve put a lot of hard work into the car over the winter, and the team has been fantastic.
“I’m here to win it and I’m going to be taking no prisoners and giving it everything.”
Chilton amassed 266 points last year, outscoring team-mate James Cole by 199 and only finishing outside the top 15 four times all season.
In fact, the former Independents winner was even more consistent than champion Colin Turkington - who likewise stood on the top step of the podium just once all campaign but came home outside of the points on six occasions.
The West Surrey Racing star has been named as one of Chilton’s top picks to be challenging again at the end of the year, while a couple of other contenders have caught the eye.
“I think it’s going to be between myself Turkington, [Tom] Ingram, and I do think Matt Neal,” said Chilton.
“Their [Honda’s] new car looked a lot better than last year’s car around Brands.
“Dan [Cammish] beat him by four hundredths of a second, but Dan is a young hot-head with no experience! Matt Neal is a legend with tonnes of experience.
“As much as people like [Josh] Cook and [Chris] Smiley did well last year, they’ve got a new car. It’s a good car but it’s new to them and they’ve got to figure it out so I think they will have a lot to learn.
“[Rob] Collard and [Jason] Plato are legends but they’re in what is a new car to them so they will have to learn that.
“A lot of great drivers and great cars, but they’ve got to learn all this again. Everyone is going to be within those two-tenths, but trying to find those little bits is what takes time.”
The 2019 BTCC Championship gets underway on April 7 at Brands Hatch. Follow all the action live on ITV4 and online via the ITVHub and www.BTCC.net.