Today btcc.net continues with Motorsport News Editor Matt James’ top ten memories from the last ten years of the British Touring Car Championship. James today discusses the 'next generation' of drivers which entered the championship between 2015 and 2019, including the unwitting role Jason Plato has played in their careers.

When: 2015-2019

Where: All over the UK

While the British Touring Car Championship has always enjoyed a host of household names – think of Matt Neal, Jason Plato, Gordon Shedden, Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan – there is always a hunger to find the next generation.

The latter part of the decade saw the emergence of several, but there are arguably two stand-out talents that will be mainstays in the BTCC for many years to come.

Plato probably regrets it now, but he launched Tom Ingram into the successful BTCC driver that he is today.

Plato, with backing from Tesco’s energy drinks brand KX, had a war chest to go and find the next generation of talent through an academy scheme, and the two-time BTCC champion took his role very seriously. It was a scheme which would provide off-track education and support as well as on-track budget.

He gathered together a panel of judges to assess the initial applications, and I was fortunate enough to be among them. Ingram’s application stood out: the then Ginetta Junior racer had started on his career but was always battling a lack of funding. Plato gave him the leg-up he needed and, after claiming three titles in the Ginetta nursery slopes, he finally made the step up to the BTCC in 2014. It was the start of a fruitful relationship with Speedworks which took the cusp of the crown in 2018 and he is now a fully-fledged works driver in the Team Toyota GB Corolla.

Plato is also intrinsically linked to the career of Ash Sutton too. The 2015 Renault UK Clio Cup winner graduated to the BTCC with MG in 2016 and was a winner immediately, but he really hit his stride when partnered with Plato at the Team BMR Subaru squad in 2017. He made a disastrous start with a crash in testing at Pembrey and another at Brands Hatch during the opening event of the season. His engineers had told him he had to avoid getting the nickname “CrAshley Sutton”…

He left Kent following the opening weekend with zero points on the board. But then he really turned it on and six wins propelled him to the crown in just his second year in the top flight. His star had truly begun to shine, and seven wins since then has cemented him as a BTCC fan favourite.

In addition to his Round 19 win at Thruxton, our next #WinItWednesday victor also took the second most pole positions of any other driver in the 2019 campaign.

Despite not taking part in the final three events of the season, Cobra Sport AmD with AutoAid/RCIB Insurance Racing's Sam Tordoff finished an impressive 13th overall at the conclusion of the season.

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Continuing with Motorsport News Editor Matt James' top ten memories from the last ten years of the British Touring Car Championship, today we consider the exciting 'Magnificent Seven' in the 2014 BTCC roster. 

When: 2014

Where: All over the UK

January is always a busy month for the British Touring Car Championship. The teams beavering away to fettle cars for the forthcoming season – or, indeed, create brand new ones. It is also a frantic time for the team managers too as they scour the landscape for any likely drivers for the forthcoming campaign. In January 2014, the headlines almost wrote themselves.

Andrew Jordan went into the season as the reigning champion, and he stuck with his family-run Eurotech Racing team to race a Honda Civic Type R. The factory Team Dynamics Honda pairing of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden remained too. Jason Plato, a two-time titleholder, was back in the line-up with the Triple Eight Race Engineering-run MG6.

Colin Turkington, who was fifth on his return to the BTCC in 2013 with a WSR BMW 125i M Sport, was also set for a second term with the German machine.

Taking that crop of talent into account, five champions going door handle-to-door handle was lip-smacking enough, but then the attention ramped up even more.

At that time, Alain Menu was fifth equal in the list of overall race winners with 36 victories. He had been a familiar face in the BTCC paddock in his role as driver advisor with BMR Racing, but when team boss Warren Scott decided to give the then 50-year-old a full-time race drive in a VW CC for 2014, the fans were delighted. The Swiss racer, who had claimed the crown with Renault in 1997 and with Ford in 2000, brought the title-winner count to six.

And then came the real curveball with Italian Fabrizio Giovanardi, who had been forced out of the BTCC following Vauxhall’s withdrawal at the end of 2010, announcing his return. The 2007 and 2008 victor, then 47 years old, inked a deal with David Bartrum’s Motorbase Performance team to handle a Ford Focus. Make that seven champions.

In the end, it was the younger brigade who prevailed with Turkington taking a second title for WSR ahead of Plato and Shedden. The old guard struggled, but Menu made a spectacular return to the podium at Rockingham and that followed that up with another Silverstone. The pace might not have been there for either Menu or Giovanardi, but it was a hugely popular cameo from them both.

As the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship kick-started its 2020 season at Autosport International last week with myriad driver and team announcements, BTCC caught up with Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat and Ashley Sutton as they unveiled the updated livery for the squad’s pair of Infiniti Q50 touring cars.

“It’s by far the most excited I’ve been at the start of a season,” said Moffat. “Now that we’re building two brand new Infiniti Q50s, expanding Laser Tools Racing to a two-car team, and working with Ash Sutton, it’s all coming together. Ash is bringing his race engineer Tony Carrozza to the team and I’m staying with my race engineer Federico Turrata, so it’s going to be a very exciting year for everyone.

"Engineering-wise, we’ve been working very hard over the winter on building the two new Infinitis and redesigning them literally from the ground up. We’ve much-improved weight distribution and stiffness in the shell, and after a session in the wind tunnel at MIRA in December, the aero is substantially modified and improved.

“Personally, my goal this year is to get back on the top step, to be winning races. Obviously I’m still learning rear-wheel-drive — I haven’t done a full season in rear-wheel-drive yet, so there are tracks this year that I will be driving a rear-wheel-drive car for the first time.

"Ash Sutton, with his experience and the fact that he’s a great person to work with, means that he’s a great person to learn from. But at the same time I’m very confident in my own ability and I’m feeling at home with rear-wheel drive, it feels very suited to me. Deep down, I’m quietly confident I’ll get back up to the front and we’ll have two Laser Tools Racing cars at the front of the grid.

“The advantages of a two-car team are obvious: having a team-mate to work with is going to be a massive help. Knowledge and experience are key — Ash has done three years in the rear-wheel-drive Subaru and won the championship. His engineer Tony Carrozza brings a different way of looking at things for myself and Federico, and for us all to come together it speeds up the process of developing the new Infinitis.”

Fellow Laser Tools Racing driver Sutton also expressed his excitement regarding the development of the two new cars currently being built.

“The car that Aiden ran in 2019 was first brought into the championship in 2014,” said the 25-year-old. “Although Laser Tools Racing updated it to the current NGTC specs, it is, shall we say, a little bit out of date. With the build of the two new cars behind the scenes, a lot of what we have learned with the Subarus, which was a constant evolution, has been carried over into the design of the new Infinitis. That is going to be a key part of pushing this car onto the next level.

“The challenge that we will be up against this year will be understanding and finding our feet with the two new cars. We fully intend to take the fight up to the likes of the BMWs and the Hondas, but there are new names on the grid, as well as drivers in different teams this year, so we don’t really know what to expect for this upcoming season.

“However, I haven’t been this excited since 2017, the year we won the championship. I feel the puzzle is coming together nicely for us to be in the title picture by the end of the season. The key thing for me is to be consistent — yes, everyone wants race wins, but we’ve got to pick points up. Points mean prizes and we’re after that big prize at the end of the year.

“We’ve already made quite an impact, with the expansion of Laser Tools Racing and me joining the team. You’ve got two young drivers that are both very fiery, that’s a combination bound to turn some heads and it seems to be doing that already. I’m all about playing the team game, working together is what makes us grow and will push us further up the grid, bouncing information back and forth, learning from one another and making sure that we look out for each other on the circuit. Touring car racing is very close, rough and tough — to have a team-mate that you can rely on for backup is crucial.”

As we continue to look back at the previous decade, Motorsport News Editor Matt James reveals his top ten memories from the last ten years of the British Touring Car Championship. Today’s episode reviews the re-introduction of estate/tourer cars into the UK’s biggest championship, stirring memories of the famous Volvo 850 Estate from the mid-nineties...

When: 2014 and 2016-2019

Where: All over the UK

The idea came from three-time champion Matt Neal initially. Having raced the hatchback-shaped Honda Civic Type R, he wanted to raise the profile of the factory-backed campaign for 2014 and took a radical decision. Neal and his Team Dynamics team-mate Gordon Shedden would pilot newly built Honda Civic Tourers for 2014.

The team’s technical director Barry Plowman was tasked with creating the estate-shaped machine. He remembers: “I thought Matt was joking when he first told me about the plan. But it soon became clear that he wasn’t. I took a deep breath.”

The challenges with the size of the Tourer meant that the engineers were always trying to work out how best to overcome the difficulties of having all the weight high up over the rear of the car. However, they chipped away and Shedden took three wins, including at the final round of the season at Brands Hatch, and finished third in the points while Neal was a race winner at Knockhill on his way to eighth in the category. Honda was runner up in the Manufacturer-Constructors competition.

Team Dynamics’ off-the-wall thinking wasn’t alone, as the ambitions BMR Racing squad revisited the idea a couple of seasons later.

BMR Racing’s initial plan for 2016 was to use the Subaru WRX, the hatchback shape which had upheld the Japanese firm’s honour in its last years in the World Rally Championship. Boffins at BMR drew up plans for the machine which had an inherent advantage in terms of its dynamics – the low-slung boxer engine meant that the weight distribution of the chassis was always likely to be advantageous. Also, as it is sold as an all-wheel-drive car, it meant the engineers could opt for rear-wheel-drive in its racing version.

Subaru came on board as a manufacturer entry, but it changed the focus a little. It asked BMR Racing to run the Levorg model instead as it tried to spruce up the image of the estate-shaped car.

BMR built a superb machine and it went on to take 21 wins, making it the fifth most successful NGTC-spec car of all time, and it also claimed the overall drivers’ championship with Ash Sutton at the controls in 2017. Subaru was runner up in the manufacturers contest during that season.

Michael Crees will race under the BTC Racing team banner in the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, completing the Brackley-based outfit’s extended three-car squad line-up for the campaign.

Kent-based Crees fulfilled his lifelong dream of making the BTCC grid last season after a rapid ascent through the ranks from karting to the UK’s premier motorsport series in only his third year of competitive racing.

Taking two Championship titles in his first two seasons of competition in the Ginetta Racing Drivers’ Club and Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup, where he notched up an incredible eleven class victories and eight further podium finishes, the 36-year-old’s story has been highly impressive.

Crees’ arrival on the BTCC grid last year was met with huge interest, with the ‘Creesy’ name gathering a loyal and ever-increasing fan following. An impressive debut race during the season opener at his home-circuit, Brands Hatch, netted the Broadstairs-racer a top 12 finish on the Indy layout and opened up his point-scoring tally.

Following up with a best-ever ninth-place finish in race three at Silverstone later in the season, Crees surpassed any expectations he had coming into the series, ending the year as the highest-placed rookie driver from the seven newcomers to the BTCC grid.

Having worked hard over the winter to secure the necessary sponsorship, Crees joins experienced, multi-race winning drivers Josh Cook and Tom Chilton as part of the BTC Racing line-up in the squad’s third Honda Civic Type R FK8.

“I couldn’t believe I was even on the BTCC grid last year to be fair! It was a dream come true,” said Crees. “My goal all along was to finish the year as the top rookie, and I achieved that. Getting a 12^th place finish in my first ever BTCC race was incredible, and then following up with a ninth at Silverstone and making it into the top ten in my first year of touring cars racing was really special.

“I’ve been working non-stop to secure a strong budget to be able to secure a deal this year. A week ago it didn’t look like I’d even have a drive. To go from no seat at all, to signing for a front-running team in only my fourth season of racing is amazing.

“I still have a huge amount to learn and to develop my race-craft. Steve [Dudman] and Bert [Taylor] have taken a calculated risk on me, and we’re going to make it work. Last year was a great steppingstone but coming into the FK8 is going to be a hell of a drive. I’m not going to put myself under too much pressure.

“Josh [Cook] and Tom [Chilton] are seasoned pros. I rate Josh highly and Tom is a fantastic driver who’s been around for a long time. I’m just going to be like a sponge and take in as much as I possibly can from them both.”

“I think this is an exciting signing for BTC Racing. Michael joining us completes what I believe is a very strong line-up for 2020,” said joint Team Principal Bert Taylor. “It’s a great opportunity to give a rookie driver the chance to come and learn his craft in a top-flight team and car. 

“Although he’s relatively new to the grid, he brings great energy to the team and willingness to improve. He should learn a lot from Josh and Tom and will benefit greatly from working with them. I feel sure that the three of them will work well together and we can look forward to lots of success as a team.”

BTCC race winner Senna Proctor will join forces with Excelr8 Motorsport as the team’s first driver announcement for the 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.

The 21-year-old has been a regular in the UK’s premier Touring Car series for three seasons. During that time, he’s raced in two different cars and outfits, bringing a range of experience to Excelr8 as the team embark on its new adventure with the Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance.

Since being founded in 2009, the Excelr8 name has secured 22 motorsport titles and is now looking for success at the highest level of national touring car racing, as the squad prepares for its second season of competition. 2019 saw them secure a top ten finish in the Independent Teams’ Championship, helped by overall points finishes from both drivers.

Proctor is the team’s first signing to be announced following the turn of the decade, as both parties engage for a new chapter of their BTCC careers. 

"I am incredibly excited to be joining Excelr8 Motorsport and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the new Hyundai BTCC car,” said Proctor. "When Excelr8 contacted me back in September about the possibility of leading a new car development for them I have to say I was honoured.

"Having met the team at Excelr8, it was clear that they share the same ambitions as me of one day lifting the BTCC crown and with my past experience of front-wheel drive we can grow together and make this become a reality over the next few seasons.

"But it’s one step at a time and we are under no illusion that there will be a lot of hard work ahead for 2020, it will be top ten and hopefully podiums finishes to get the ball rolling.

"I am heading into my fourth season in the BTCC and along with the expertise of Excelr8 Motorsport I think we could be a force to be reckoned with in 2020 and beyond.”

“We are delighted to have attracted Senna to our team,” said founder and team owner Justina Williams. “He is proven in BTCC and will now help lead our new Hyundai i30 development. This will ensure that we continue on our journey towards the sharp end of the BTCC grid and in the longer term to be challenging for BTCC titles together.” 

Team Principal Oliver Shepherd followed up; “2019 was a year of learning for Excelr8 in BTCC, whereas 2020 is the year where the squad we will show that we are not just in BTCC to make up the numbers. Senna joining the team is a massive step towards this aim and we are certain that his raw speed and experience in BTCC will be key ingredients in helping us to make this step up. We are looking forward to working together with Senna to take the fight to the established teams, bring it on!”

The 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship will see Ciceley Motorsport field an unchanged driver line-up, as Adam Morgan and Daniel Rowbottom remain with the Lancashire-based team for its upcoming BTCC campaign.

Morgan, a seven-time race winner in the BTCC, has been with his family-run squad since 2013 and took his maiden victory in the series one year later at Brands Hatch.

The 31-year-old scored four podiums last season on his way to 12th in the standings, while series newcomer Rowbottom was 28th in the table with four points-scoring outings.

Rowbottom confirmed the unchanged line-up at the Autosport International Show at the NEC in Birmingham while team-mate Adam Morgan was contesting the Dubai 24 Hours in a Ciceley Motorsport-run Mercedes-Benz-AMG GT4 alongside Jack Butel, Jon Minshaw, Katarina Kyvalova and Jake Giddings.

Rowbottom said that the team was busy undergoing an extensive rebuild of the cars over the winter period ahead of the fresh campaign, which kicks off at Donington Park on March 28-29.

Former Renault UK Clio Cup racer Rowbottom said: “Last year was a tough one for us as I was getting to grips with the championship and there was a lot to learn for me personally.

“Ciceley is a team I feel very comfortable with and Adam is a great team-mate to have. We worked well together and we identified areas where we can improve the car over the closed-season, so there will be no rest for the team.”

The second-season driver said that he had targeted success in the Jack Sears Trophy, which is contested between racers who have not scored a BTCC podium at the beginning of the campaign, as his goal for 2020.

“I want to be in a position where I am regularly challenging inside the top 10 and looking towards the podium and I want to able to back up the results that Adam has to move the entire team forward,” added Rowbottom. “I think that is we get some luck with reversed grid draws, we could look for results which are even better than that. It is a really important season for me to build on the progress I have already made.”

Over the first fortnight of the decade, Motorsport News Editor Matt James will continue to reveal his top ten memories from the last ten years of the British Touring Car Championship. The last showdown in James' 'Perfect 10' was the dramatic finale of 2019, where the action, exhilaration and heartache on-track made for one of the most unforgettable finales of the decade.

When: October 13, 2019

Where: Brands Hatch

Fourteen corners and just over three miles. The British Touring Car Championship season in 2019 was that close to its conclusion when the entire picture changed.

The sight of Dan Cammish’s Team Dynamics-run Honda Civic Type R pirouetting into the tyre wall is the overriding image of the year. All the Yorkshire man needed to do was to register a handful of points to claim an unlikely crown, one that would have been won by a dint of hard work and never giving up in the face of extremely long odds.

By rights, Cammish shouldn’t even have been in this position. The WSR BMW 330i M Sports of Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan had been the class of the season, sharing 11 wins between them.

But Cammish had hung on grimly to their coattails. A succession of podium finishes had kept him in the picture, and when Turkington was in contact with Matt Neal’s Civic in the penultimate race at Brands, the pendulum took an almighty swing. Turkington felt aggrieved that Cammish’s team-mate had been the cause of his delay in race two, claiming it had been a “professional foul”. Emotions were running high in the heat of the battle.

Gone was the BMW man’s advantage and Cammish assumed command of the points. Sure, it was only by eight marks, but he was in control. Turkington started the third race in 25th spot and had it all to do. Cammish could be the master of his own destiny.

Except he wasn’t, as the brakes on his Honda were running hot from the off. He managed the problem as best he could and that even allowed him to let the flying Turkington ahead on lap 12 so the BMW ran in sixth spot. It still wasn’t enough for Turkington if Cammish could hold on. He could, but his brakes couldn’t and they shattered with just a handful of miles remaining.

Cammish was dignified in his defeat and immediately paid credit to his victorious rival. Turkington, who had gone into a title-winning season behind in the points going into the final race for the first time, knew he had driven the race of his life to win, but admitted that he had been fortunate. 

“That was the hardest title I have won,” said the Northern Irishman. “For sure, I thought it was gone after race two. But, in this championship, you just never know what is going to happen. You have to believe, and your hard work reaps rewards. But that was one hell of a race.”

In the unforgettable finale of the 2019 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, Colin Turkington took his fourth Drivers’ Championship, making him a record-equalling BTCC titleholder.

Turkington’s start to the 2019 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship was less than ideal; he left the first event of the year at Brands Hatch 11th in the standings, with teammate Tom Oliphant three points in arrears.

Following this, his climb to the top of the table began, clawing his way to third at the series left Donington Park and joint first by the conclusion of the third weekend of racing.

From this point, at the end of each event, it was the Northern-Irishman leading the title fight. Despite his domination of the standings at the end of each race weekend, it wasn’t an easy road keeping hold of the top spot.

This was never truer than during the 2019 Brands Hatch finale; where his 25th place finish in race two saw rival Dan Cammish overtake the BMW driver’s points tally. This brought the title fight down to the wire as it all rode on the final race of the year.

In what Turkington describes as ‘the race of [his] life’ the 37-year-old fired through the pack, making up ten places in the first lap of the race and proving his determination to not go quietly.

During the final lap of the contest, as a second-place overall finish seemed inevitable for Turkington, Cammish’s Honda suffered brake failure. In the blink of an eye, his Championship dreams were over and the #1 BMW driver’s despair turned to ecstasy.

Turkington’s 2019 season saw an impressive 27 points-finishes, five wins, eight podiums and the top average qualifying – fourth on the grid – all of which paved the way to his record-equalling fourth Championship title.

 “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would get close to Andy Rouse’s record [of four titles] – that’s amazing and very special. This has been my hardest championship yet by a long shot – to win it two laps from the end of the season is completely different to the other ones. I was in shock when I crossed the finish line and was told I was champion. It was just pure elation – nothing else in life gives you that feeling. I really do feel for both Andrew and Dan – it’s a bitter pill to swallow. You put in a full year’s work to try to win this, and I honestly thought it had got away from me after race two.”

 - Colin Turkington

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