The final-race twist that capped a decade of BTCC drama

The British Touring Car Championship practically legislates against the title being settled before the final race weekend of each campaign.

There is a raft of rules in place to make sure that no one driver, or a particularly dominant car, runs away with the big prizes. Reversed-grids, turbo boost alterations, option tyres and, most importantly of all, success ballast, all play a part.

Over the course of the last 10 seasons, there have been some epic twists and turns on the final day.

Andrew Jordan rescuing his championship assault in the final race of the day at Brands Hatch was one that stood out. He powered his Eurotech Racing Honda Civic Type R from 24th on the grid (following a points-sapping race two shunt) to ninth place and his maiden title was locked away.

Gordon Shedden, vanquished by Jordan in 2013, was forced to haul himself from 19th on the grid to fourth in '15 to grab the second of his three crowns in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R.

Despite those last-day rollercoasters, the one that will live longest in the memory is the 2019 showdown.

There were five drivers in the hunt going to the traditional venue for the curtain-closer, the Brands Hatch Grand Prix track, but only three - BMW drivers Jordan and Colin Turkington, and Team Dynamics's Dan Cammish - were in contention come race three.

Turkington is an old-hand at this pressure-cooker environment. The Northern Irishman was, after all, chasing a record-equalling fourth title to stand level with benchmark BTCC racer Andy Rouse.

But there was still new territory for him to explore in 2019. Having held top spot in the points since the third meeting of the season in May, it all fell apart in the second race at Brands following a controversial collision with Cammish's Honda team-mate Matt Neal.

Turkington clearly felt it was deliberate and said it had been a "professional foul" to assist Neal's sister car.

It meant that, for the first time in his championship showdowns, Turkington would have to come from behind in the points to claim the trophy. What had been a 16-point buffer going into the last meeting had suddenly turned in to an eight-point deficit.

Cammish's despair was matched in equal measure by Turkington's delight

Jordan was very much in the mix too. After a fractious race between Turkington and his WSR team-mate at the previous round at Silverstone, there would clearly be no love lost between this pair either, especially as Jordan, at that stage, faced an uncertain future in the category and knew it might well have been his last race at BTCC-level. He went into the final 15-lapper 13 points adrift of new table-topper Cammish.

With no success ballast in the BMW 330i Sport, Turkington made up a stunning 10 positions on the opening 2.43-mile tour. Cammish, who was hauling 12kg of extra weight, was content to run in seventh place.

Even when Turkington eventually appeared on Cammish's bootlid and overtook him on lap 12, so long as second-year BTCC racer Cammish kept the BMW in sight, he would be crowned.

It appeared all hope was lost for Turkington. That was until three miles from the final chequered flag of the 30-race campaign.

The front brakes on Cammish's Civic had been running super-hot, and eventually shattered as he was heading into the fastest corner on the track, Hawthorns. The Honda pirouetted into the gravel trap and went hard into the tyre wall, and his dreams were over in an instant. He sat in the car for a while, barely able to believe his bad fortune.

Cammish had clung on to the coattails of the dominant BMWs all through the middle of the season, banking podiums when he could and bemoaning the fact he was leading "Class B" amid the onslaught from WSR.

A mid-year technical tweak had given him hope, but he had been forced to cling onto his championship assault by his fingernails.

Over the second part of the campaign, he had comprehensively outscored Turkington to get that last-gasp shot. To have it snatched away just 14 corners from home was the cruellest of blows.

Cammish's despair was matched in equal measure by Turkington's delight. He had been hunted all season and just when it seemed like the hard work would land the crown, the biggest prize seemed to have been snatched from his grasp.

The emotion he showed inside his car on the slow-down lap was extreme.

The usually level-headed, calm and placid personality was thumping the steering wheel and screaming with delight - so much so that he barely had a voice left when he conducted his post-race television interviews.

"I really thought that one was gone," Turkington said afterwards.

"That was the hardest race of my life, and it has been the hardest championship to win. The margins in this competition just get smaller and smaller each season. That's also why it is such an amazing feeling to win it."