The top 10 BTCC drivers of 2017

The British Touring Car Championship has its critics, but the 2017 edition of the tin-top series delivered yet another varied mix of winners and thrust new names into the spotlight.

Thirteen drivers won races over the course of the season and a further four stood on the podium. Pole position was shared by seven drivers across 10 events and 34 of the 37 drivers to appear over the course of the campaign scored points.

But in a bumper season, in which the title was yet again decided at the final round at Brands Hatch, who were the star performers?

10. Rob Austin

Team: Handy Motorsport Toyota Avensis
Starts: 30
Wins: 1
Championship position: 11th

A second year using front-wheel drive should have brought real dividends, and it looked like it would at the start of the season.

Austin was competitive everywhere and drove with intelligence as the team grew in experience. But a truly dreadful run across the summer yielded just one point from nine races due to a mixture of contact (not always his own fault) and mechanical woes.

A case of what might have been, but his dominant victory at the final round at Brands was impressive. Handy Motorsport's plans to field an Alfa Romeo next year are exciting.

9. Andrew Jordan

Team: BMW (WSR)
Starts: 30
Wins: 3
Championship position: 9th

Switching to the WSR team was always going to be a journey for Jordan, because he was switching to a rear-wheel-drive car for the first time.

After testing, he said it wouldn't be a problem to drive the BMW quickly and it wasn't. A win at the opening meeting showed that.

But there was still a lot to learn in terms of set-up, and maybe that is what tripped him up. When he was in the sweet spot at Oulton and Snetterton (where he was cruelly robbed of a race-three win by electrical failure) he flew.

If he can string more of that together next year, he will be a threat.

8. Senna Proctor

Team: Vauxhall (Power Maxed Racing)
Starts: 30
Best finish: 6th
Championship position: 19th

This season was a huge jump for Proctor. He was straight out of the Renault UK Clio Cup, where he had finished eighth, and was driving a brand new car with a relatively young BTCC team.

There was an awful lot to learn and the teenager coped manfully alongside proven race winner Tom Chilton. He took 15 wins in the rookie class, but his performances have to be judged on his pace against all other runners and there he shone.

He became a regular threat to the top six over the latter meetings and raced superbly. Proctor is a driver with huge potential.

7. Matt Neal

Team: Honda (Team Dynamics)
Starts: 30
Wins: 2
Championship position: 7th

Neal had a real Indian summer to his career this year. By rights, he should be at the front of the pack in what is the most sorted chassis on the BTCC grid.

He is not on the ultimate pace of team-mate Shedden, but then again he joins every other driver on the grid in that regard. He took two poles (his first qualifying-topping performances for five years) and bagged two wins using his guile.

A damaging Croft weekend really knocked the stuffing out of his title campaign and he played the team game after that. Still one of the most accomplished performers out there.

6. Rob Collard

Team: BMW (WSR)
Starts: 26
Wins: 1
Championship position: 5th

If you take into account Collard's inability to drag a qualifying lap out of the car, his championship position is remarkable. If you also consider that he non-scored in the last six races, it's even more impressive.

He only lined up in the top 10 from qualifying twice from the nine weekends he competed in, but he's able to rescue this with racecraft and rarely makes mistakes.

A Silverstone crash ruled him out of the meeting and the following three races at Brands. His average points per meeting was 32, and, adding in that strike rate to the last two meetings, he would have finished third in the table.

5. Jack Goff

Team: Eurotech Honda Civic Type R
Starts: 30
Wins: 1
Championship position: 6th

After the opening half of the year, Goff was on the cusp of becoming one of the disappointments of the season.

The Eurotech Honda Civic Type R with the TOCA BTCC powerplant was one of the most potent out there but, Thruxton aside, it seemed like it had never really clicked in terms of race results as he was often muscled down the order.

Then, Goff became the king of Saturdays with three poles and banked his second career win at the Silverstone round. He made second place in the Independents' Trophy his own after his late flourish.

4. Gordon Shedden

Team: Honda (Team Dynamics)
Starts: 30
Wins: 3
Championship position: 4th

Coming into 2017, Shedden had his sights on a third straight title. He was in the best car on the grid with a superb chassis and things started well.

A win at Brands was followed by another triumph at Donington, but he was stripped of the trophy as the car was under the allowed ride height.

The second half of the year was just Shedden clinging on. He never said it outright, but the Team Dynamics car was giving away pace to others in a straight line. He bit his lip, but his title went begging after contact at Rockingham.

It was a year of huge frustrations. Remained a class act.

3. Colin Turkington

Team: BMW (WSR)
Starts: 30
Wins: 4
Championship position: 2nd

Captain Calm was at it again, picking up the points when he could. When not on the ultimate pace, he collected nine podiums.

Where Turkington would excel and hammer home his advantage was at exactly the same tracks that rival Sutton would be in his wheeltracks, so there was no room for manoeuvre for the BMW man.

His win in the penultimate race of the season at Brands, just when the title was slipping from his grasp, was his best yet in the series but he was sidelined by damage in the final reckoning.

His demeanour after defeat was a mark of the man.

2. Tom Ingram

Team: Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis
Starts: 30
Wins: 4
Championship position: 3rd

There was one criticism of Ingram's attack during the 2016 season, and that was his naivety in the heat of battle. He didn't quite know when to settle for a result.

That changed this season, and he was sitting pretty at the top of the points standings after the third meeting of the season, but then disaster stuck. There was contact at the next two rounds (not entirely his fault), which torpedoed his hopes.

The Independents' Trophy was a fitting reward, though, and he rebounded for third in the overall points table. Solid progress was made.

1. Ash Sutton

Team: Subaru (Team BMR)
Starts: 30
Wins: 6
Championship position: 1st

It was very hard to pick a weakness in Sutton's skills this year once he had got his head around how to drive the car, which only took one meeting.

He didn't leave any result on the table throughout the season, qualified well, overtook cleanly and didn't make mistakes.

The Subaru man was clearly rattled as the pressure ramped up with one race of the year to go, but this was his first time being involved in a BTCC showdown.

The only criticism could be his determination to take risks when he didn't need to, but that is just the sign of the pure racer inside him.

Full reviews of Sutton's BTCC success are available in this week's issues of Motorsport News (Wednesday October 18) and Autosport (Thursday October 19)