Who is the greatest? That’s a question often asked in all areas of sport, including Formula 1.
The naysayers argue you can never have a definitive answer and they’re right, but that’s not the point. It’s a chance to highlight some of the best performers in any given pursuit.
Autosport has turned its attention to the British Touring Car Championship, or British Saloon Car Championship as it used to be known. This list isn’t simply about the best drivers to have competed in the series. It’s also about their success, longevity and impact. We’re looking at the drivers who set the benchmark in the BTCC and/or helped make it what it is.
Prior to 1991, the BTCC had many star performers in the smaller-capacity classes behind the battles up front. Such drivers have been considered, but emphasis has been placed on outright success, which helps to explain the absence of three-time champion Win Percy and multiple class topper John Fitzpatrick, both of whom were rightly regarded as among the finest touring car drivers in the world.
10. Matt Neal
Years: 1991-2020
Wins: 63
Titles: 3 (2005-06, 2011)
There have been better drivers in the BTCC but few have had the impact Neal managed over three decades. With more than 700 starts, Neal is the most capped driver in series history and his 63 wins puts him third on the all-time list.
Before becoming a contender for outright titles, Neal was the king of the Independents during the Super Touring era, taking four crowns. He also created one of the BTCC’s greatest moments when he won £250,000 by winning the second 1999 race at Donington Park against factory opposition.
Having contested the European Super Touring Championship, Neal returned to the BTCC in a Triple Eight Vauxhall Astra Coupe in 2002. He took three wins and third in the points, though couldn’t quite match Vauxhall aces James Thompson and Yvan Muller.
He took six wins and was third again in a Honda Civic Type R in 2003 before rejoining his family Dynamics team. And in 2005, Neal got his hands on the Integra Type R.
The coupe was controversial, not being available in the UK, but it was rapid. Neal stormed to five wins in the first half of the season and later added another as he outscored Muller to the title.
Both Neal and SEAT’s Jason Plato scored eight victories apiece in 2006 but Neal’s greater consistency made him the first person to successfully defend the crown since Chris Hodgetts in 1987.
A rivalry and animosity developed between Neal and Plato that often cost both points but that also added to the BTCC’s box office appeal.
Neal rejoined Triple Eight to drive its Vectra for 2008-09. There were two wins, but Neal was overshadowed by team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi, who took 10 victories and a title in the same period.
For 2010, Neal returned to father Steve’s Dynamics operation, which was now the works Honda team. The Civic was competitive and Neal took second in the standings behind RML Chevrolet driver Plato.
The Civic chassis and turbocharged NGTC engine proved potent in 2011, Neal narrowly leading friend and team-mate Gordon Shedden to a Honda 1-2 to secure his third BTCC crown.
Neal also has the distinction of being the first driver to win a BTCC race in the NGTC FK2 version of the Civic, a car that went on to be one of the most successful in the history of the championship, but thereafter it was usually Shedden who led the Honda attack.
Neal was second to his team-mate in 2012, fourth in 2013 behind fellow Honda drivers Andrew Jordan and Shedden, and finished in the top three for the final time in 2015.
Appropriately given his long service, Neal won the special, longer race at Snetterton that celebrated 60 years of the championship in 2018. That win turned out to be his last, Neal retiring in 2020 though remaining a figure in the BTCC paddock.
9. Fabrizio Giovanardi
Year: 2006-10, 2014
Wins: 24
Titles: 2 (2007-08)
Giovanardi was already a multiple touring car champion around Europe when he landed in the BTCC with Triple Eight’s factory Vauxhall squad in 2006. The Astra Sport Hatch was not the team’s best tool and Giovanardi had a tough start – “you need a year of driving school to race in England!” – but the Italian finished the campaign with two wins and fifth in the points.
The new Vectra was a different beast and Giovanardi took 10 wins in 2007, including a superb double at the Thruxton finale to snatch the title from under Plato’s nose.
There were ‘only’ five wins the following year but 10 other podiums and an incredibly consistent campaign left Giovanardi’s rivals trailing.
Giovanardi almost made it three titles in four years in 2009. There were another five wins and he comfortably defeated team-mates Neal and Jordan, but lost out to Colin Turkington and Plato in a hard-fought Brands Hatch showdown.
Vauxhall withdrew its works support ahead of 2010 and Giovanardi was only able to contest the opening meeting at Thruxton. He underlined his class with two wins, which would have been a more fitting way for his BTCC career to end than the winless 2014 season he contested in a Motorbase Ford Focus.
Without that tricky campaign at the age of 47, when he was thrashed by team-mate Mat Jackson, Giovanardi’s win rate would have been 20% higher than the other 21st century drivers on this list. Even with it, his strike rate is a match for Plato and Ash Sutton, and many would agree he was the BTCC benchmark in his pomp.
8. Yvan Muller
Years: 1998-2005
Wins: 36
Titles: 1 (2003)
Another tin-top legend, who would go on to take four World Touring Car crowns, Muller was a spectacular entertainer in the UK. He arrived in 1998 with the front-wheel-drive Audi A4 that was not a match for the opposition, setting up some fine underdog drives but no wins. The works Vauxhall Vectras of 1999-2000 were a little better and Muller got off the mark with four victories.
His best chances of the BTCC title came after the demise of Super Touring as he found himself in the Astra Coupe that was well clear of the opposition. But he also had strong team-mates, most notably Plato and James Thompson.
The Muller-Plato rivalry of 2001 became a bitter one. Muller had a marginal edge in qualifying and the races but never got away in the championship chase and lost out when he suffered an engine failure after an off in the soaking Brands finale.
Thompson was Muller’s main rival in 2002 and again the Frenchman lost out to his team-mate, who also scored more victories.
Muller finally got his crown in 2003, when he turned the tables on Thompson with a remarkable campaign in which he only finished off the podium three times in 20 races.
The duo were neck and neck in 2004, Thompson taking the title in a dramatic Donington Park showdown. His fastest lap beat Muller by a single point.
The new Astra Sport Hatch was not a match for the Honda Integra that took Neal to the 2005 crown, but Muller was the star performer. He brilliantly took six wins to finish as runner-up for the fourth time and comfortably beat rising star Turkington before heading to the WTCC.
If anything keeps Muller from climbing higher here it’s that he was beaten to the crown three times by team-mates, albeit very good ones. But he was one of the undisputed stars throughout his time in the BTCC and his 36 wins (18%) put him equal seventh on the all-time list, with Alain Menu and Thompson.
7. Jim Clark
Years: 1963-66
Wins: 8
Titles: 1 (1964)
The two-time F1 world champion and Indianapolis 500 winner is almost certainly the greatest driver to have raced in the BTCC.
Clark won his first race in the series, after a battle with fellow Ford Galaxie driver (and strong candidate for this list) Jack Sears, who hit trouble while they were battling for the lead. But it’s his Lotus Cortina exploits that get Clark this spot.
Colin Chapman’s supersaloon, which Clark helped develop, was the car in its class. Clark won the 1301-2000cc category in all eight rounds of 1964 to take the overall title – and managed three outright wins.
Clark was the only driver to win a round outright in a Cortina. It was a feat he managed seven times and he was all but unbeatable in his class whenever he appeared between 1963 and 1966.
PLUS: When an F1 champion ruled the BTCC
So, why isn’t he higher on this list? Largely it’s because his time in the series was relatively short compared to the other drivers here. It amounted to a little more than 20 races, fewer than now take place in one BTCC season.
His opposition was also limited, certainly compared to the championship’s peak in the Super Touring era, and it’s probably worth pointing out that his overall wins usually came after Sears hit trouble with his Galaxie.
Nevertheless, there can be little doubt that Clark’s presence gave the championship a boost and that in tin-tops, as with every other category he tried, the Scotsman excelled.
6. Frank Gardner
Years: 1963-65, 1967-73
Wins: 35
Titles: 3 (1967-68, 1973)
This no-nonsense Australian proved his worth in single-seaters and endurance competition but also made a huge impact on British saloon car racing. As well as being a three-time champion, he was often the driver to beat in the top class, which he won three more times in addition to his overall crowns.
After being a class frontrunner in John Willment-prepared Cortinas across 1963-65, Gardner really made his mark with a supercharged Alan Mann Racing Ford Falcon Sprint. He had a car advantage and used it well, winning seven times on his way to his first title in 1967.
Gardner stepped back to the two-litre class with Alan Mann for 1968, initially in a Cortina Mk2 before the works-blessed Escort Twin Cam was ready. He crushed minimal class opposition to become the first driver to successfully defend the overall crown and underlined his pace by taking two outright victories against the V8s.
The Twin Cam was supercharged for 1969, putting Gardner directly up against the Falcons and Chevrolet Camaros. Three wins and super consistency meant he took the class crown, but such was the competition that he was third overall, behind 1000cc class dominator Alec Poole and Chris Craft’s 1300cc Escort.
Gardner moved to a Ford Mustang Boss 302 for 1970. He probably should have been overall champion but a tyre failure at Silverstone handed the points initiative to Bill McGovern’s 1000cc Imp and Gardner had to be content with another class title.
For his final three years in the championship, Gardner piloted a Camaro Z28. He didn’t contest the full season in 1971 but picked up two wins. He defeated Muir for big-class honours in 1972 and was so dominant the following year – six wins from nine rounds – that he finally secured his third overall crown.
Gardner made a successful return to Australia having racked up 35 series wins, a mark that remained unsurpassed until Andy Rouse’s domination in the late-1980s.
5. Alain Menu
Years: 1992-2000, 2007, 2014-15
Wins: 36
Titles: 2 (1997, 2000)
This list could have been filled with drivers from the competitive Super Touring era, but we wanted to spread the joy. Menu’s place, however, was never in doubt.
The Swiss became a BTCC regular after his single-seater career came to an end and took his first win in the dreadful Renault 19 of 1993. Armed with the ever-improving though sometimes unreliable Laguna from 1994, Menu proved himself as one of the fastest drivers in the championship’s history, seeing off title-winning team-mates Tim Harvey and Will Hoy.
He was runner-up for three consecutive seasons, each time defeated by better machinery, but got hold of the benchmark in 1997. The Williams-built Laguna dominated the campaign in the hands of Menu and rookie team-mate Plato. Menu took 12 wins from 24 races to beat Audi’s Frank Biela by 110 points, an unprecedented margin in the BTCC.
Renault’s star faded in 1998, though Menu still pipped Plato in the standings, before a switch to the Prodrive Ford team. After a difficult first season the Mondeo was the pacesetter in 2000.
Menu beat team-mates Anthony Reid and Rickard Rydell 6-2-3 in terms of wins and in the points table to secure his second BTCC crown. He then left the series as Super Touring concluded to compete in the DTM.
He completed one mediocre season in 2014, driving a Team BMR Volkswagen CC, but it’s his first BTCC stint that comfortably gets him here. Menu was the only driver to take two titles during Super Touring and his 36 wins put him 15 clear of fellow period ace Rydell.
4. Jason Plato
Years: 1997-2001, 2004-19, 2021-22
Wins: 97
Titles: 2 (2001, 2010)
More than any other BTCC driver, Plato understood the value of playing a character and creating drama. He arguably made more headlines for the championship than anyone else and made over 600 starts.
Having famously harangued Frank Williams into giving him a drive, the 1996 Renault Spider champion burst into the BTCC with three consecutive poles in the 1997 Laguna. That was something of a false dawn as Plato struggled to match experienced team-mate Menu, though he did take his first series win at Snetterton in August and third in the points.
Plato was closer to Menu in 1998 and led the Renault squad when the Swiss moved to Ford the following year.
Plato joined the Triple Eight Vauxhall team for the final year of Super Touring and narrowly missed out to team-mate Muller, despite being unhappy at what he saw as team orders. The rivalry stepped up a notch in 2001, when they were armed with the dominant Astra Coupe in the first season of the BTC-T regulations.
In a tempestuous contest, which included Plato being penalised for a clash at Silverstone, Muller won more races but Plato took the crown when the Frenchman’s engine cried enough at the final round, both having suffered offs in horrible conditions.
After a spell away, Plato returned with SEAT in 2004. That started a string of seasons in which he was consistently a race winner and championship threat but missed out on the overall laurels.
Finally, after being runner-up three times and third twice since his 2001 crown, Plato took RML’s Chevrolet Cruze to the 2010 title. At the start of 2011 he surpassed Rouse’s BTCC wins record of 60 and was unfortunate to lose out to the turbocharged Hondas of Neal and Shedden in the championship.
Plato, engineer Carl Faux and Triple Eight worked wonders with the NGTC MG6 GT across 2012-14, taking 20 wins but missing out on the title each time.
He then spent two years alongside Turkington at BMR. Plato underlined his mastery of FWD by beating Turkington in the VW in 2015, losing out to Shedden by four points, while Turkington turned the tables when they switched to the RWD Subaru.
Not for the first time, Plato had been instrumental in bringing the deal together, but with the Subaru he was soon overshadowed by rising star Sutton. Plato became less competitive and left the team at the end of 2018.
His final victory came in a Power Maxed Astra in 2019 and further seasons, in 2021 with the same team and 2022 with a BTC Racing Honda, failed to provide the success needed to get Plato to his wins century.
The main thing preventing Plato from climbing higher up this list is his relatively poor conversion rate when it came to titles. Sometimes he was injured (2007), unlucky (2008) or hamstrung by rules (2011), but he also got into scrapes, often with Neal. Nevertheless, Plato’s wins tally of 97 is still away ahead of anyone else.
3. Colin Turkington
Years: 2002-09, 2013-present
Wins: 68
Titles: 4 (2009, 2014, 2018-19)
The quiet Northern Irishman is one of the most clinical drivers when it comes to putting a championship campaign together and has won the title a number of different ways.
Turkington first appeared in the BTCC with a West Surrey Racing MG ZS in 2002 and took his first victory the following year. He became more and more of a factor, though did struggle alongside Muller with the tricky Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch in 2005.
For 2006 Turkington rejoined WSR, finishing third in the standings with the ageing MG before the team switched to a BMW 320si. In the coming years Turkington became the leading RWD protagonist and in 2009 brilliantly pipped former champions Plato and Giovanardi to the crown.
Turkington’s ‘reward’ was not to have a BTCC drive the following year as WSR lost its RAC sponsorship. He made sporadic outings in World Touring Cars and completed a season in Scandinavia before returning to the BTCC with WSR’s new BMW 125i M Sport in 2013.
Turkington was impressive in the underdeveloped car, taking five wins and giving himself an outside chance of the title before finishing fifth. In 2014, with the car now the class of the field, he reeled off eight wins on his way to the crown and would have won more but for the actions of others.
Amazingly, funding issues meant he had to leave WSR once again, joining BMR alongside (among others) Plato. Four wins kept him in the mix but Plato seemed stronger in the FWD VW, scoring six wins and finishing two spots higher in the table. The reverse was true in the RWD Subaru in 2016, Turkington taking five wins and fourth in the points to Plato’s one victory and seventh.
A move back to WSR and the 125i M Sport resulted in the runner-up spot for the first time in his career. And, with the ageing BMW, Turkington put in an incredible campaign of consistency to secure his third crown despite only one victory in 2018, beating team-mate and 2013 champion Jordan in the process.
Equipped with the new 330i M Sport, Turkington and Jordan set the pace early in 2019. The BMWs were pegged back, Jordan won more races and Honda’s Dan Cammish came on strong, but Turkington took the title by two points after the Civic suffered a brake failure at the finale.
Turkington finished as runner-up to Sutton in 2020-21 and was in the mix in 2022-23 but the performances of team-mate Jake Hill, nearly 12 years his junior, suggests the chances of taking a fifth crown could be diminishing.
Turkington rarely takes unnecessary risks but can charge when needed, his drive from 27th to fourth at Knockhill in 2014 being a fine example. He might now be past his considerable best but Turkington has finished in the top four every year since 2014; it would not be a surprise to see him feature in further title showdowns.
2. Ash Sutton
Years: 2016-present
Wins: 39
Titles: 4 (2017, 2020-21, 2023)
It says a lot about Sutton’s incredible ability that he is so high on this list despite having completed just eight BTCC seasons. He is the only driver to have taken the title in both FWD and RWD machinery, and his win rate (16%) is better than anyone else in the current era.
Sutton’s single-seater career was cut short by a road accident before BMR picked him up for the 2015 Renault Clio Cup, which he won. He graduated into the BTCC with the old Triple Eight MG6, taking a victory at Croft though being narrowly beaten in the standings by friend and team-mate Josh Cook.
Back with BMR for 2017, Sutton recovered from a terrible Brands opener to take six wins and beat Turkington to the crown. Team-mate Plato was 12th.
The unusual Levorg GT was subsequently reined in more and more, though Sutton still scored another six wins across 2018-19. But it was arguably with the Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50 that Sutton’s ascendency as a BTCC great gathered momentum.
The RWD car had achieved little but had potential when Sutton and ace engineer Antonio Carrozza got their hands on it for 2020. Five wins matched Turkington’s WSR BMW and Sutton did the unthinkable: he outscored the four-time champion across the other races to take the crown.
It was a similar story the following year, only this time Sutton finished a comfortable 51 points clear of runner-up Turkington. And then came the move that propelled Sutton up this list.
The Motorbase Ford Focus had always been an occasional race winner rather than a title contender and Sutton wasn’t its biggest fan. But he dragged the FWD car to three race wins in 2022, his combination of speed, racecraft and consistency falling just 12 points shy of champion Tom Ingram.
With extra time for Carrozza and co to fine-tune things, the Focus became the car to beat in 2023. Sutton put race-winning team-mates Cammish and Dan Rowbottom in the shade to record 12 victories, a tally unmatched since the very different days of Super Touring.
PLUS: How the Focus became a BTCC dominator
A FWD title to go with his three RWD crowns, scored with three different cars, and a runner-up spot is a hell of a record in just eight seasons. Sutton deserves a shot on the international stage but, if he doesn’t get one, there’s a chance he could add more titles and seriously start to make a case for being number one on this list…
1. Andy Rouse
Years: 1973-76, 1978-94
Wins: 60
Titles: 4 (1975, 1983-85)
As Sutton proves, the driver-engineer relationship is crucial, but Rouse was both. There have been faster racers in the BTCC, but nobody has had his impact over such varied eras in such different machinery.
A Broadspeed engineer and tester – “preparing the car and getting the best out of it was my focus” – Rouse topped his class at the first time of asking in 1973, driving a Ford Escort RS1600. But he really started to make his mark with the Broadspeed Triumph Dolomite Sprint.
PLUS: How the Dolomite became an unlikely Capri-slayer
Rouse’s first outright wins came at Mallory Park and Snetterton in 1974, when the classes were split and he defeated his 2.5-litre rivals. He won the class title and narrowly missed out on the outright crown but made amends by winning the 1975 championship in a dramatic Brands finale, ending the year tied on points with Percy and Stuart Graham from other classes.
The following year was less successful and in 1977 Rouse became part of the Broadspeed Jaguar XJ12C programme, an international chance lost when the project was prematurely canned.
Rouse joined the Ford Capri ranks and was one of the main rivals to the king of the coupe, Gordon Spice. Rouse was rarely off the podium, particularly when part of Spice’s team, but went his own way for 1983.
Rouse prepared an Alfa Romeo GTV6 for Peter Hall, who then stepped aside after three rounds. Rouse dominated the 2.5-litre class thereafter and then inherited the overall crown when Steve Soper and the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Rovers were thrown out following much off-track controversy during 1984.
By then, Rouse and his team had moved to the big class with their own Rover Vitesse. He’d already won the title twice and been class champion on a further three occasions but now became a fixture at the front of the grid.
Rouse won seven of the 11 races in 1984 with the Rover, then developed the turbocharged Ford Sierra XR4Ti and took nine victories from 12 rounds in 1985 to secure his third consecutive overall title.
There now began a period when Rouse was invariably the pacesetter but lost out to those dominating the smaller-capacity classes.
Rouse was the master of the Ford RS500, winning the top class in 1986, 1988 and 1989 as well as preparing many of the cars. He even defeated the works Eggenberger Ford team twice in four 1988 BTCC clashes, plus the Silverstone TT. He was the man to beat when the TV coverage of the series was increasing.
PLUS: The story of the BTCC's greatest ever car
Rouse was finally knocked off his perch by Robb Gravett and the Trakstar operation, which got hold of RS500s from Australian legend Dick Johnson. Armed with Yokohama tyres that proved superior to Rouse’s Pirellis, Gravett not only won the top class in 1990 but walked away with the overall crown.
But while Gravett’s time at the front was brief, Rouse – already 43 – proved his versatility again at the beginning of the two-litre era. Rouse was one of the architects of the ruleset that would come to be known as Super Touring and developed the Toyota Carina.
He won three races in 1991, as many as anyone else, and finished third in the standings. He was a winner the following year, too, though fights with team-mate Hoy cost them both and Hoy finished ahead in the standings.
Rouse’s final two years in the BTCC came in the Ford Mondeo but there were no more wins and Paul Radisich established himself as the on-track team leader long before Rouse hung up his helmet at the end of 1994.
Only Gardner has a higher strike rate on this list and it’s fair to say that, had there been as many races in Rouse’s day as there are now, he would have taken rather more than his wins tally of 60, which was the record for nearly two decades.
