New for 2007 regulations announced.

Series director Alan Gow and his team have confirmed new regulations that will come into force for the 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season.

The BTCC will switch to Super 2000 regulations for the new season, with those cars the only ones eligible to fight for the outright championship title. However BTC-spec cars, such as the Honda Integra, MG ZS and Astra Sport Hatch that conform to the rules put in place when the Super Touring era came to a close, will still be able to compete and score points towards the Independents' titles.

In addition to those changes, only the leading car from an Independent team will be able to score points towards the Independents' team title - meaning multi-car teams such as Team Halfords and Team RAC will no longer have an advantage over single car entries like Eurotech and Kartworld.

In full, the new measures introduced following a meeting of the BTCC teams is as follows:

- The base weights of all S2000 cars will increase by 30kgs to bring them in line with FIA regulations.

- All BTC-T cars' base weights will also increase by a similar amount to maintain the weight differential between the two types of cars.

- Individual BTC-T cars/drivers may be subject to additional weight penalties during the course of the season, dependent on their outright performances.

- Entrants running BTC-T cars will still be eligible for the Independents Trophy's Drivers' and Teams' titles.

- Only an independent team's highest-finishing car in each race will score points towards the Independents Trophy's Teams' championship.

Gow said he was pleased to have been able to reach agreement with the teams on the new rules - and paid tribute to the larger Independent teams for allowing the change to the points scoring to come into place to benefit the smaller outfits.

"I'm very pleased with the teams' positive attitude in reaching a swift consensus on these important measures as the BTCC opens a new and exciting chapter in its history," he said.

"Much of it is common sense. For example, our decision to allow only one car to score in the Independents Trophy's Teams' championship will prevent the bigger, better funded multi-car outfits enjoying a lock-out and (importantly) also gives a greater spread of the prize fund to the other independent teams/drivers. The bigger teams should be thanked for agreeing to this - they have seen the bigger picture. Their generosity clearly reflects the goodwill that prevails down the BTCC pit lane.

"Also, it would have been nonsensical to apply a performance handicap to all BTC-T spec cars. However should a driver 'over-achieve' on an outright basis in a BTC-T spec car, then we have the opportunity to individually ballast those cars rather than to handicap all others running to BTC-T specification.

"The significant increase in our grid sizes over the last 18 months, plus the many new enquiries we are receiving for 2007 and beyond, is further testament to the fact that the BTCC is firmly on the right track - no other championship in British motor sport can even approach our level of media profile, audience numbers, marketability, public appeal and great racing."