Ah dear friends, the motorsport season is properly upon us again! While the rally mob have been doing their “4 left, tightens” since January, and the F1 lot are monotonously circling into their third meeting of the season, the BTCC nutters kick off this weekend. And not a moment too soon!

The smell of petrol, burning rubber, and proper door-to-door racing. Amazing crashes, spectacular saves, and singlehandedly keeping the manufacturers of gaffer tape in business, the BTCC is certainly one of the most exciting forms of racing around.

At most of the circuits, the pits are open to the public, so you can get up close to the drivers and cars as well as watching them spin, slide, crash, bash and generally do everything they can to avoid actually finishing a race.

The Championship has suffered some heavy blows in recent years, with the loss of manufacturer teams Seat and Vauxhall’s VXR entry, but fears for the future of the series have been allayed thanks to the return of Honda to the grid, and the introduction of Chevrolet.

That said, last year’s popular (despite being a dirty red) champion, and Autosport National Driver Of The Year, Colin Turkington hasn’t managed to fund another year with WSR, and he’ll be a great loss. Also missing from the grid this year is Scotsman Jonny Adam, who debuted for Motorbase last season, and helped nudge Jason Plato into that superb bit of driving in the clip above.

While the Kirkcaldy driver isn’t involved this time around, fellow Fifer Gordon Shedden returns for Honda after a frustrating time last year. Having left Team Dynamics after the first race last year to be replaced by James Thompson (himself later succeeded by Johnny Herbert), Sheds then signed up for Clyde Valley Racing, only to see the team’s sponsors fail to pay up leaving a funding shortfall that forced them out of action in double-quick time (he did manage a second place finish for them at Knockhill, though!).

At the moment there are fewer cars entered than last year, but the field still looks as strong as ever. The ever-reliable Jason Plato was a late entrant for Team Silverline last year, yet ended the season a close second to Turks, and he lines up for the team again this year, albeit with the backing of Chevy and a new car, the Cruze replacing the competitive Lacetti.

He’ll line up alongside Alex MacDowall, a graduate of the Clio Cup support series, who posted some quick times in the pre-season.

The biggest threat is likely to come from the rear-wheel drive BMWs of Airwaves and last year’s champions WSR (formerly Team RAC).

Although Turkington is no longer on the scene, WSR have brought their former driver Rob Collard back from Airwaves after an impressive 2009 campaign. He’s been paired with Andy Neate who last featured for Team Nuts in 2005, and who has come back from a broken neck suffered in a horrendous crash at Silverstone in the 2008 Britcar 24 Hours.

Replacing Collard at Airwaves is Mat Jackson, another fan favourite, who had a successful season alongside Plato at Silverline last time out. Ulsterman Stephen Kane makes a welcome return to the team and championship after a year out.

With Vauxhall having withdrawn their support of Team 888 at the end of last season, Team VXR is no more. 888 continue this year though, and have ensured feisty Italian stallion Fabrizio Giovanardi has a place on the grid this year. Never one to shirk a challenge, expect him to be near the front of the pack despite only signing up on the eve of the season.

Two-time Champion Gio will be joined by last year’s Clio Cup Champion Phil Glew in the black-liveried Vectra’s of Triple Eight.

There will be another two Vectras on the grid, with Triple Eight having sold cars to the enthusiastic Dave Pinkney, a former chairman of Luton Town Football Club, and who will run his own Pinkney Motorsport team in ever distinctive colours.

The other Vectra has gone to former works driver Andrew Jordan, driving for Pirtek Racing. Pirtek are an established name in the Australian V8 Supercar, and will support Jordan’s independent entry while father Mike, a former BTCC driver and team-mate of Andy in 2008, will provide advice from the sidelines.

Having run the Honda Integra and Civic over the past five years, Team Dynamics this year have backing from Honda UK, and welcome back a brace of drivers to the team. The aforementioned Shedden will be partnered by Matt Neal, who he partnered in years of yore. Neal is making a return to his father Steve’s team after a largely frustrating spell with Triple Eight/VXR.

Team AON return for a second season in the Ford Focus, with Tom “Sonic” Chilton leading once more, alongside former VXR man, Tom Onslow-Cole. AON were coming good towards the end of last year, and will be running the only brace of LPG cars this year, so will be hoping to be further up the order. AON will have the backing of Ford .

Tom Boardman is another man returning to the grid having made his debut as the youngest-ever BTCC driver in 2001 when, aged just 18, he drove privately entered Peugeot. Tom will be entering this year’s BTCC under the family-run Special Tuning banner.

Martin Johnson (no, not that Martin Johnson) will be running the Astra Coupé formerly run by Arkas with Tech-speed, for a second successive year, while Tech-Speed have integrated John George’s JAG Racing to their team, John pairing up with the ever-popular Paul O’Neill, the pair both racing ex-Dynamics Integras.

Keeping the Honda theme going, Matt Hamilton returns with his independently entered Civic Type R. Matt debuted at Rockingham last year, and the Derby University student will be looking to build on his performances since. Matt will be racing with TH Motorsport, who looked after John George in recent years.

In another Honda will be Lea Wood, running an ex-Gareth Howell Integra. Wood has previous experience in the Clio Cup, but steps up in another family-run team.

Finally we come to two new entries this season. First, lets tackle the new BMW pairing from Forster Motorsport. More used to the Mini Challenge, Arthur Forster and Martin Depper will have to get used to the RWD 320si but with the success of Airwaves and WSR in recent years, they may just make their way towards the front of the grid.

The final entry, thus far, is AmDMilltek. Running a Mk5 Golf, Team owner/driver Shaun Hollamby hopes to add a second car during the season, with Simon Shaw expected to pick up the second seat. It was 1989 when the BTCC last encountered a Golf, so it will be interesting to see where the Golf places come the end of the season.

There’s a BTCC fantasy league running at http://www.fantasydrivers.com/ Get yer team sorted!