A championship points table never tells the full story. Our man on the ground rates his top 10 drivers of the BTCC season just gone! TOP 🔟 👇
Tom Ingram and Excelr8 Motorsport were victorious at the end of the first campaign under the new hybrid regulations. Their Hyundai i30 N was a winner in the opening race of the season, and Ingram remained in the title hunt throughout before an invincible performance on finals weekend at Brands Hatch.
Elsewhere it was slim pickings, and it’s for Lloyd’s genuine pace in the two northern English events that he edges Morgan here: Croft was obvious, but it’s easy to forget that he was on for top results at Oulton had a wrong decision to fit new brake pads not been made – without that, he arguably wouldn’t have been having the battle in race three that triggered his crash.
That said, it remains the class act on high-speed curves: at Croft, team-mate Dan Rowbottom scored his only podium finish of the season, while Shedden was forced to fight back after a clash with Sutton in the first race broke his suspension before waltzing to victory in the finale; at the second Thruxton, he was battling Sutton in the podium positions. The Scot was also in the mix at Silverstone.
Did the M-Sport engine hamper Speedworks? The team was far less vocal about it than main rival BTC Racing, but it was possible to read between the lines of frequent utterances that “well, the chassis is working really well”. Whatever, Butcher clearly has a proper BTCC title attack in him. Only Cook matched his record of 29 points-scoring finishes out of 30, and for Butcher it’s a run of 29 consecutive after a DNF in the first race of the season.
At Brands in greasy conditions, Hill clearly had the pace as Turkington struggled before triumphing with a full-wet set-up on when the rain increased in intensity for race three. At the second Thruxton event, Turkington went off twice at the Complex before qualifying 15th, while Hill lined up third on a day when no other rear-wheel-drive car was in the top 13.
Even before the first race of the year, the Kentishman was getting sick of people asking about the transition to rear-wheel drive – after all, it was no problem for him in a Capri at Goodwood.And by the end of the year, the Hill/BMW combination was the season-long fastest combination, witness his securing of the Goodyear Wingfoot award for qualifying points. But it was team-mate Turkington in second place in this classification, indicating that the BMW played a large part in this.
“It’s been incredible,” enthused Hill. “I love this team so much and I love everything that we work towards. I just hope that we can come back and do it all again next year. I would rather retire from touring car racing than drive anywhere else – it feels like home, lovely rear-wheel-drive car, and I love the tie-up with BMW.” The smart money is on him doing exactly that.
In the races Sutton was absolutely superb, not only in attack but in defence that stayed just the right side of legit: grumbles from Hill and Morgan came his way at the Brands GP finale, where the car just wasn’t quick enough, but no action was taken. Winning the title in 2022 was a step too far, but not a very big step…
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