THE North Yorkshire circuit at Croft will stage twin rounds of next year's Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship, it was revealed today when the provisional calendar for the 1999 series was issued.

Croft, who ran touring car championship races last month, will host the championship on July 3 and 4 next year. The season will start on East Monday, April 5, at Donington and the season will consist of 26 races.

BBC Grandstand will again cover every round of the championship, with six of the races transmitted live.

The Oulton Park round for September 12 will mark the championship's first use of the 2.4 mile Island track layout.

Both of the Brands Hatch meetings will use the shorter Indy circuit rather than the 2.6 mile Grand Prix loop.

Spectator figures are up this year by an average of 20 per cent on last year after 14 of the 26 scheduled races.

The UK television viewership has gone up by 10.4 per cent and the worldwide television audience has rocketed by 78 per cent this season.

Alan Gow, chief executive of series organisers TOCA Ltd, said: "Our figures for last month's races from Donington Park eclipsed every other major international televised sporting event shown in Britain that week.

"Our figures were better than for Match of the Day, the major pre-Wimbledon tennis tournament from Queen's, and the England Test cricket. The World Cup was the only event to outpoint the BTCC."

Provisional calendar for next year's Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship: April 4-5 Donington Park; April 17-18 Silverstone; May 2-3 Thruxton; May 15-16 Brands Hatch; May 30-31 Oulton Park; June 19-20 Donington Park; July 3-4 Croft; July 17-18 Snetterton; July 31-August 1 Thruxton; August 14-15 Knockhill; August 29-30 Brands Hatch; September 11-12 Oulton Park; September 18-19 Silverstone.1999 Bathurst 1000: October 2-3, Bathurst, Australia.

After a couple of disappointing performances Harrogate driver John Bintcliffe is looking to get his season back in focus when this year's championship moves to Snetterton on Sunday, July 26.

Bridlington-born Bintcliffe and his Audi team colleague Yvan Muller will give a BTCC debut to a revised race engine in the Michelin/Mobil supported Audi A4s, which offers a slightly improved performance.

Switching from the four-wheel-drive quattro to the front-wheel-drive Audi A4 has proved difficult.

"I'm learning about the car every time I drive it as it requires totally different driving technique to the one I had to adopt for two years with the quattro," said Bintcliffe, who is joint 14th in this year's championship and whose best finish so far this campaign is eighth place at Oulton Park in round 10.

"Snetterton has not been kind to Audi when we raced the quattro and so hopefully for the team and myself we can come good on this occasion."

York's James Thompson, who claimed Honda's first victory in the Croft Sprint Race, goes into the Snetterton event standing fourth in the championship with 98 points, four behind third-placed Anthony Reid, five behind second-placed Alain Menu, with Rickard Rydell way out in front on 145.

Paula Cook, of Rotherham, better known as a Formula Three racer, has announced that she will be competing in the final round of the Touring Car Championship at Silverstone on September 20-21.

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