Alliance Racing is planning to replace its Ford Focus STs and bring a fresh manufacturer to the British Touring Car Championship in 2026.
The squad, which under the NAPA Racing UK banner clinched its third successive BTCC teams’ title at Brands Hatch last weekend, introduced the fourth-generation ST during its former incarnation as Motorbase Performance in 2020.
An intensive winter of development in 2022-23 led to Ash Sutton claiming a record-equalling 12 wins from the 2023 season on the way to his fourth BTCC title, and combining with Dan Cammish and Dan Rowbottom to sweep nine of the 10 pole positions.
But the relative progress made by the rival Hyundai and BMW machinery last winter has led to questions over the aerodynamic properties of the squat Focus hatchback.
“We’ll run the Focus next year, but something will hopefully happen for 2026,” Alliance owner Pete Osborne told Autosport.
“Hopefully our last year in the Focus will be next year.”
When asked whether the new car would be a front-wheel-drive saloon, as suggested by BTCC insiders, Osborne replied: “Correct. And the good thing about it is that it’ll fetch a new manufacturer into the paddock.
“That’s the exciting thing for the BTCC as a championship – it shows that they can use it as a platform.”
Sutton’s engineer Antonio Carrozza, who led the revamp for 2023 on the Focus, is already working on the new project along with James Mundy, Paul Ridgway and Rich Townsend, the engineers of Cammish, Rowbottom and Osborne’s son Sam respectively.
“They’ll cook up something good for sure!” said Osborne.
“‘Tony’ is leading the project, as he does – we tried to do it for next year, but in realistic terms we ran out of time a month or a month and a half ago, and I’m not prepared to risk not doing it right.”
In parallel, the technical team will work on developments to the Focus, which Sutton says was already much improved for the final three rounds of 2024.
“Our boys will be working on it this winter so it goes out with a bang,” added Osborne, who is open to supplying customer teams with the Ford in 2026.
Although the current NGTC car regulations will be replaced with a new formula for 2027, Osborne sees no problem with what is effectively an evolution of the cars, with BTCC boss Alan Gow stating that current machinery can continue into the new era with modifications.
“We’ve got no worries about that,” he said.
“It’s the right thing to keep the costs down and not try to reinvent the wheel.”
Osborne’s public aim of eventually expanding into GT3 competition with a target of competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours could be a knock-on from the new programme.
“The manufacturer that we’re talking to would like us to do a GT3 car and take it to Le Mans,” he said.
“If we can prove to them that we can do it with a touring car, then the door could be open to that project as well.”
