The top 10 BTCC drivers of 2014

The 2014 British Touring Car Championship season was eagerly awaited. Seven champions and a near-capacity grid of 31 cars meant drama was almost guaranteed.

And so it proved. The season had a bit of everything, from great battles to runaway wins, via new victors and controversial clashes.

It said something for the level of the series - and the unique challenges of the now-ubiquitous NGTC - that returning double champions Alain Menu and Fabrizio Giovanardi didn't score a win or get into title contention.

Instead, the stars of 2013 came to the fore once again, with Colin Turkington running out the BTCC's most dominant championship winner since Giovanardi in 2008.

There was controversy over the advantage he might have had with rear-wheel-drive, but there's no doubt Turkington and WSR did a great job.

Here's AUTOSPORT's take on the top drivers of 2014.

1. COLIN TURKINGTON
WSR BMW 125i M Sport
Champ pos: 1st (434 points)
Wins: 8
Poles: 3
Fastest laps: 11

So he was driving the best package, but what more could Turkington do than win the most races and take the crown? And he did so in some style too.

Turkington rarely made mistakes, delivered in qualifying, and was generally a hard-but-clean fighter.

There were set-up issues at Donington Park and an atypical Saturday at Thruxton, when he managed two spins, but he still came away with good points.

The last-corner clash with Gordon Shedden at Donington was probably 50-50, but the incidents with Jason Plato at Knockhill and Brands Hatch were not Turkington's fault.

Doubles at RWD-friendly Oulton Park, Croft and Rockingham - as well as three podiums at the FWD domain of Snetterton - took him clear of the rest in the table.

Without the dubious Knockhill grid penalty - for contact with a defensive Matt Neal at Snetterton - and the Brands GP Plato punt, Turkington would probably have finished the season with 11 victories.

As it was, his Knockhill drive from 27th to fourth in race two, and savvy racecraft in the reversed-grid Silverstone encounter, were two of the standout drives of the season.

2. JASON PLATO
MG (Triple Eight) MG6
Champ pos: 2nd (399)
Wins: 6
Poles: 4
Fastest laps: 2

Turkington contact (and odd clash with Menu at Croft) aside, this was a fine season from Plato.

Accidentally hitting the speed limiter button at the start of race two at Donington cost him a likely victory, but the points lost at Brands Indy (engine going into limp-home mode) and Thruxton (innocent victim of contact) were outside of his control.

After that, he was normally Turkington's main rival, underlining the Triple Eight MG's pace with four poles. Things were a tad tougher in the races against the RWD BMW and its kind tyre use, but Plato managed to overtake Turkington at Snetterton and Silverstone (twice) on his way to six victories.

Plato was fortunate to avoid getting a grid penalty (for three punishable offences) until the Brands finale, given that he could have got his third strike at Knockhill - either for firing Turkington off in race one or hitting Rob Austin in race three. But he was the only driver who prevented the title being decided a meeting early.

He would have been more popular had he not kept mentioning the RWD advantage, but he probably had a point.

3. ANDREW JORDAN
Eurotech Honda Civic
Champ pos: 5th (310)
Wins: 4
Poles: 2
Fastest laps: 4

The reigning champion might only have ended up fifth, but if you look at the pacesetters at each weekend, he was really the only one to break the Turkington-Plato domination.

Two wins at the Brands opener and a fine performance at Thruxton suggested the Eurotech driver had a good chance of retaining his crown.

Three moments dented his challenge. The first one came when a premature end to qualifying at Oulton limited him to 13th, but the big blow came at Snetterton.

A crash at Riches in free practice meant he missed qualifying and Jordan could only score a single point on raceday.

The final blow came when Shedden didn't seem quite willing enough to give Jordan room at Knockhill. The contact sent Shedden into a spin, and the Civic Tourer collected Jordan at Scotsman, forcing the hatchback out.

That all meant Jordan didn't score anything like the number of points he should have, but he still showed great ability to move forward in races, usually without resorting to the robust moves employed by some of his colleagues.

4. GORDON SHEDDEN
Honda (Dynamics) Honda Civic Tourer
Champ pos: 3rd (349)
Wins: 3
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 3

With a new car to get to grips with, Shedden wasn't often able to show the startling pace he has possessed over the last couple of years. He was, however, able to put together a canny, consistent campaign picking up points, much like friend and team-mate Neal has done in the past.

His charge prior to the clash with Turkington in the Donington reversed-grid race was electrifying, while he beat the slightly heavier Jordan fair and square in race two at Thruxton.

On the downside, there were a few too many borderline moves, partly due to the Honda squad's frustration at a lack of turbo boost under the regulations.

Shedden kept himself in the hunt until Rockingham in September, when a race-one off and race-three clash allowed Plato to jump him in the points.

He nevertheless got the chance to demonstrate his wet-weather prowess in the last race of the year at Brands GP. In a class of his own, it would have been interesting to see what his winning margin could have been without the safety car intervention.

5. MAT JACKSON
Motorbase Ford Focus ST
Champ pos: 4th (316)
Wins: 2
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0

After a tough 2013, Jackson was back to his usual high level this season, and he even started qualifying well.

Having Giovanardi in the squad was a good motivator, as was the fact Motorbase seemed more on top of its hitherto tricky Ford Focus.

The result was that Jackson blew his entertaining team-mate into the weeds and scored two wins, his first since October 2012.

Turkington was perhaps fortunate that there were a number of times in the second half of the season when he found himself with Jackson right behind. The Ford man had the desire - and ability - not to clash with one of the title contenders.

Jackson remains one of the best racers, invariably moving forward from his grid slot, so it was a surprise to see him throw away two potential victories at Oulton and Brands GP with errors.

Notwithstanding those, he enhanced his reputation in 2014.

6. SAM TORDOFF
MG (Triple Eight) MG6
Champ pos: 7th (255)
Wins: 1
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 1

Had he not put in such a fine rookie campaign in 2013, Tordoff's performance might have attracted more attention. But as it was, he didn't really seem to move forward in his sophomore season.

On his good days, Tordoff could match Plato and was a threat at the front, but for much of the season he was a little bit off his team leader, either in terms of finding the last little bit of pace or making the soft Dunlop tyre last.

Tordoff also suffered several technical gremlins, including a brake problem at Snetterton, electrical issue at Knockhill and engine failure at Silverstone, though he might have contributed to the latter.

Relations with Triple Eight were strained by the end of the year - a move is likely for 2015 - but Tordoff still played the team game at the Brands GP finale to allow Plato to win race one, and was an important part of MG's manufacturers' title success.

7. MATT NEAL
Honda (Dynamics) Honda Civic Tourer
Champ pos: 8th (207)
Wins: 1
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 3

Rarely is a BTCC driver's performance so badly reflected in his results as Neal's 2014 campaign. He really wasn't as far off team-mate Shedden as 142 points and five championship places suggest.

Neal rarely looked quite quick enough to win, but what really hurt his points score was a string of dramas that were largely outside of his control.

He was disqualified from third in race two at Croft when his Civic Tourer failed the rideheight test, taken off in a daft incident in the following race, got a drivethrough penalty for a jumped-start at Knockhill, and had fuel pick-up problems at Rockingham.

Not long after the halfway mark, Neal had pledged his support to Shedden's championship challenge.

Ending the season with a trip to hospital - after a multi-car accident triggered by a clash ahead of him - pretty much summed up his 2014 luck.

8. ARON SMITH
BMR Volkswagen CC
Champ pos: 9th (201)
Wins: 2
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 2

Many eyes were on double champion Menu's return to the championship, thanks to a big push by Warren Scott's BMR squad. But greater experience of the idiosyncratic NGTC machinery helped Smith and he ended up pipping his more illustrious team-mate in the drivers' standings.

Smith sometimes attracted too much drama. His Clearways move on Jackson at the Brands opener could generously be described as optimistic, and he crashed in free practice at Thruxton.

On the other hand, he showed great composure when presented with reversed-grid opportunities to win at Oulton and Snetterton.

The Oulton success was particularly noteworthy. Not only did Smith hold off a group of cars (led for the most part by Shedden) he did so on a drying track that was changing all the time.

A mistake in such circumstances would have been understandable, but Smith held firm. The next challenge for him - and the BMR squad with which he has already signed for 2015 - will be to win a non-reversed-grid encounter.

9. ADAM MORGAN
Ciceley Mercedes A-class
Champ pos: 10th (185)
Wins: 1
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 1

Morgan and the Ciceley squad's switch from Toyota Avensis to Mercedes A-class for 2014 proved a good move. The smaller car was agile from the off and Morgan became a thorn in the side of the bigger teams.

Without some frustrating glitches, Morgan would have been higher up the points table. There was a slow puncture at the Brands opener, a rideheight-check failure during Donington qualifying, radiator problems at Rockingham, alternator failure at Silverstone...

There was the odd error, most notably his crash at Druids during Oulton qualifying, but when it came to contact during the races, Morgan was usually the victim.

Morgan provided one of the passes of the year when he outfumbled battling BMR stablemates Menu and Smith in one move at Snetterton, and then came race two at Brands GP.

Having superbly overcome Tordoff, Plato and Rob Collard to lead, Morgan finally looked set to take his first BTCC victory. Then he went off at Sheene, allowing Plato back by.

Morgan got the win when Plato was penalised for earlier contact with Turkington, and it would not be a surprise to see the Mercedes challenging for victories on the road in 2015.

10. ROB AUSTIN
Rob Austin Audi A4
Champ pos: 12th (147)
Wins: 1
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 1

Now an established and popular part of the BTCC, Austin also seems to be consistently inconsistent.

On the bad days, of which there were a few in 2014, Austin is either involved in someone else's incident or creates his own. Or has technical problems with his Audi A4.

The Croft round, in which he had offs in practice and clashes in the races, was one example, and there were several run-ins with works Hondas over the course of the season (though some, it has to be said, were not Austin's fault).

But on the good days, Austin looks every bit one of the top drivers on the grid. The increased level of competition in 2014 meant he couldn't quite repeat his pole and race-two victory of 2013, but he still had fine moments.

Chief among those were the superb defence against Plato at Oulton that bagged his first 2014 podium, and the reversed-grid win at Rockingham, beating Menu.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Of those not to make it into the 10, Rob Collard and Tom Ingram probably have the right to feel most aggrieved.

Collard put in some exciting charges, but too often he didn't get the job done in qualifying and was usually well behind team-mate Turkington. There was also the occasional mistake, such as spinning out of third at Donington Park.

Standout rookie Ingram was often in the top-10 mix in qualifying. A combination of bad luck - ranging from fuel system problems at Oulton to a wheel falling off at Snetterton - and being elbowed back in races meant he didn't get the results he deserved.

The returns of Menu and Giovanardi grabbed much attention, but both were overshadowed by their team-mates. Menu did show impressive pace, but found far too many things to hit.

Ex-British Formula 3 champion Marc Hynes got faster as the season progressed, but found wheel-to-wheel tin-top racing a tough challenge.

This week's AUTOSPORT magazine - available in shops and digital form - features a full 2014 BTCC review packed with exclusive content reliving a hard-fought season