BTCC Season Review – Turks at the Triple

As always seems the case with the British Touring Car Championship, the latest instalment was more competitive and unpredictable as always. Made clearer by the eventual champion winning just one race all year as a record 17 different drivers stood on the top step of the podium in another memorable year of the BTCC.

Despite the unpredictability of the 2018 season, it was a familiar name atop the standings come the conclusion of the 30th and final race of the year as Northern Ireland’s Colin Turkington wrapped up his third BTCC title, eventually winning by 12 points ahead of Speedworks’ Tom Ingram, who gets ever closer to the title he has shown the speed for, in the past three seasons.

These two were the class of the field with Turkington’s consistency proving the difference along with his sole win at Oulton Park. ‘Tingram’ won three races in 2018 but suffered more mechanical DNFs that hampered his weekends, despite this, he still fought brilliantly to finish second in the standings.

A further 26 points back from the two ahead of him was Tom Chilton of Motorbase who surprised everyone with his consistent top 10 finishes and one race win at Knockhill as he wrestled his Ford Focus to an astonishing third place finish in the standings ahead of defending champion Ash Sutton’s BMR-ran Subaru Levorg. The champ won more races than any other over the course of 2018 with six visits to the top step, but ultimately fell victim to yet another slow start to the season for the BMR squad. Rounding out the top five in the championship was Turkington’s teammate Andrew Jordan who, like Chilton, took his only race win at Knockhill but couldn’t keep up with the fearsome consistency of his WSR compatriot.

Six-to-ten saw the proper emergence of the young guns as Josh Cook (Power Maxed), Adam Morgan (Ciceley) and Jack Goff (Eurotech) recorded positions six through eight and all took race victories and battled hard at the front all year long in a great season for all three. Ninth sat Matt Neal who disappointed all year as the brand-new Honda Civic Type-R (FK8) got its first season of racing under its belt with Neal winning two races in 2018, including the Diamond Double at Snetterton as he held off a charge from Goff in the 20-lap race.

Neal’s teammate, rookie and Jack Sears champion Dan Cammish followed his fellow Dynamics teammate home in tenth overall after showing strong pace all year. He struggled initially to get used to the rough-and-tumble nature of touring car racing, but he took two much deserved race wins at the finale at Brands Hatch to round off a positive first year.

More than the Driver

Arguably team of the year were BTC Norlin, who acquired two Honda Civic Type-R’s and made good use of the championship-winning machinery, to look more competitive than ever with Chris Smiley’s fabulous year having the icing on the cake with victory at Rockingham. Meanwhile Dan Lloyd – who joined at Oulton Park following the departure of James Nash – also tasting victory at Croft.

Matt Simpson also impressed as he teamed up with Eurotech for most of the year before eventually splitting to run his own car. Oulton Park saw Simpson take a dominant pole position and the win in race one to the delight of much of the paddock, but he then couldn’t take part in races two and three after a terminal engine issue that had developed on the road to victory.

Two veterans of the series didn’t fare so well in 2018, as Rob Collard suffered injuries in a crash at Silverstone to be ruled out for the year, after a really poor run of form. Jason Plato was the most disappointing driver of 2018 by a long way as he struggled to 27th in the standings with just one podium (2nd at Croft) and 4 points finishes in total for the 2-time champion.

There’s no guarantee that BMR will be on the grid in 2019 with money issues forcing them to cut back and shut down their speedway team (Rye House Rockets) as money gets tighter but I don’t think Plato will want another year as dismal as this one.

But at the end of the day, the table doesn’t lie. Turkington was the most consistent across the whole year and despite only the solitary race win, I don’t think anyone can argue with the result.

2019 will be very interesting with driver and team shake ups already beginning to take shape with Eurotech dropping out, leaving Jack Goff a free agent and I think he’ll be a great addition to any team in the paddock. The 2019 season kicks off as always at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit on the 6-7th April.