Steve Rider and Louise Goodman will continue to present ITV’s extensive coverage of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in 2012.
Both will front ITV4’s comprehensive live Sunday broadcasts from all ten events of Britain’s biggest motorsport championship, spanning seven hours between 11am and 6pm.
Every BTCC race will be shown live on the channel, as well as action from the support championships, including the Porsche Carrera Cup and Renault Clio Cup.
Rider (above left) has been one of television’s most respected sports presenters over the past 30 years, while Goodman has also become a hugely popular face among millions of viewers watching motorsport on TV in the UK since she first appeared as ITV’s Formula 1 pit-lane reporter in 1997.
Toby Moody, who replaces Ben Edwards as ITV’s lead commentator for this year, will join 1992 BTCC champion Tim Harvey (above right) in the commentary box, completing the channel’s on-screen line-up for the 2012 season.
A long-time fan of the BTCC, Rider helped the championship in securing regular mainstream TV coverage via the BBC’s flagship sports programme Grandstand in the mid-1980s.
The presenter’s BTCC commitments will not clash with his work for the new Sky Sports F1 channel, where he will interview some of the sport’s legendary figures throughout the year.
He is as excited as ever about the forthcoming season, which begins at the world-famous Brands Hatch circuit in Kent on the weekend of March 31-April 1.
“Given ITV’s incredibly strong commitment to the championship, this year’s BTCC is going to make for compelling viewing on television sets up and down the country,” Rider told the championship’s official website.
“Viewers not only have a wide variety of cars to look forward to but also, in 2012, the increased spectacle that the latest Next Generation Touring Car regulations will bring with turbocharged engines and flaming exhausts.
“In some ways it’s taking an element of the iconic RS500 days with their turbos and performance in the early Nineties – an era which people still recall with great affection – and adding it to the modern-day BTCC with its many great different makes and models.”
Rider also paid tribute to ITV’s continued commitment to the championship, which is the only four-wheel motor racing championship outside of Formula 1 to receive live coverage on a mainstream terrestrial station.
“It’s terrific that ITV remains a genuine alternative for people looking beyond Formula 1 for another form of highly professional and exciting motor sport in Britain.
“The network’s coverage of the BTCC is something of a perfect marriage between high street motoring and the high octane end of motor sport. The championship always comes with a great noise and fury and this will likely be even more so the case under the new regulations.”
Louise Goodman first joined ITV’s BTCC coverage in 2007, and her role will now extend to the paddock, pit lane and grid interviews.
She told BTCC.net: “I always look forward to the start of the new BTCC season when we can start getting stuck into producing the shows – and, looking at the car and driver line-ups for 2012, this season promises to deliver all the drama, excitement and action that we’ve come to expect from the BTCC.
“It’ll be a pleasure working alongside Steve once more – he’s the ultimate professional – as it will the drivers, although one can never quite anticipate just what some of them might do on camera as I discovered last year!
Goodman is also excited by the prospect of working with new commentator Toby Moody.
“Having Toby on-board is also excellent news. He is a class act in the commentary booth and he and Tim will make for a great pairing.”
ITV will cover its eleventh BTCC season in 2012, and the new season marks ten years since the series made its debut on the channel in 2002.
Tony Pastor, Head of Production for ITV Sport, said: “Steve, Louise, Toby and Tim surely make for one of TV’s most popular and professional presenting teams of any sport.
“That will prove invaluable in our coverage of the BTCC in 2012 bearing in mind that our live race day broadcasts contain close to seven hours of non-stop action for viewers.”
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British Touring Car Championship 2012 – Calendar All races LIVE on ITV4 April 1 – Brands Hatch April 15 – Donington Park April 29 – Thruxton June 10 – Oulton Park June 24 – Croft August 12 – Snetterton August 26 – Knockhill September 23 – Rockingham October 7 – Silverstone October 21 – Brands Hatch GP .
