How 2021's TOCA support titles were won

Between the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, Ginetta GT4 Supercup, Ginetta Junior, Mini Challenge and British Formula 4, the British Touring Car Championship's regular support series provided the usual mix of action and excitement.

Left without a seat at the BTCC table, Dan Cammish returned to Porsches in search of a third title against 2020 dominator Harry King, while Matthew Rees faced a strong field of second-year drivers in British F4. The 2018 Ginetta Junior champion, Adam Smalley, faced a scramble just to stay on the GT4 Supercup grid.

All triumphed, in addition to returning Ginetta Junior driver Aston Millar and serial Mini contender Dan Zelos - who had the highest tally of podiums in 2020 without scoring a win - in a thrilling season of twists and turns as all five championships went down to the wire.

It was also the end of an era for the Ginetta G55 GT4, which is to be replaced by the new G56 for next year, and the venerable Ford-powered Mygale M14-F4 that will be swapped for Abarth and Tatuus respectively, while national governing body Motorsport UK takes over from long-time promoter RacingLine as British F4 organiser.

Here's how the championships played out.

Porsche Carrera Cup GB: Cammish sees off surprise contender

Cammish showed a champion's mentality to win often without the fastest car

Photo by: Porsche

From the moment Dan Cammish lost his Team Dynamics British Touring Car drive and elected to return to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, many were eagerly anticipating a thrilling battle with last year’s series dominator Harry King. But, away from the spotlight, another driver was aiming to steal the duo’s thunder.

And Lorcan Hanafin did exactly that by qualifying his JTR-run Porsche on pole for the Snetterton opener by 0.4 seconds.

“It set the tone, showed my intentions and showed the world I’m not here to mess around and the focus shouldn’t be just on Harry and Dan,” recalls Hanafin, who hadn’t been able to challenge King in 2020 but stepped up a gear for this term.

Yet, sadly for Hanafin, Snetterton also set the tone for other elements of his season. Stunning pace yes, but also misfortune. He had seemingly converted pole into a maiden win but he received a penalty for being out of position at the start. He was then fifth in the reversed-grid race, battling a slow puncture.

Cammish continued to notch up the points, despite battling a lack of straightline speed, and took an important win at Croft, which was followed by Hanafin striking a tyre stack – an error that ultimately cost him the title

That opening weekend was not just a microcosm of Hanafin’s campaign, as he ultimately missed out on the crown by seven points, but also of the season as a whole. King could only qualify his Team Parker machine sixth, battling a gearbox problem. He then fought from fifth to win race two, only to push too hard and cop a track-limits penalty. Meanwhile, Redline racer Cammish – while not being the fastest – inherited race-one spoils and was promoted to second in race two, while charging rookie Kiern Jewiss took the other victory.

Hanafin did net that first win at Brands Hatch, but his reversed-grid race was ruined by a track-limits infringement. Similarly, at Oulton Park, he won the opener but was taken out in the second race. All the time, Cammish continued to notch up the points, despite battling a lack of straightline speed, and took an important win at Croft, which was followed by Hanafin striking a tyre stack – an error that ultimately cost him the title.

“I was struggling so much this year with car performance but I’ve still had 12 podiums out of 16 races,” says Cammish. And that experience of knowing what it takes to win a title was more useful than ever for the BTCC exile.

Ginetta GT4 Supercup: Smalley gets it done, eventually

Smalley was the standout driver in the GT4 Supercup, but Hibbert put up a stiff fight

Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images

Two races played a key role in Adam Smalley not securing the Ginetta GT4 Supercup title sooner. Retirement in the third contest at Snetterton after unfortunate contact with main rival Tom Hibbert and also being stripped of a win in the Oulton Park opener, due to track-limits penalties received while battling the distraction of a door that would not stay shut, proved costly for Smalley. Especially as Hibbert took full advantage of those bad races.

“We both always had the pace to be in the top four or five so, if he was having a bad day, he would be finishing fourth and the points difference wasn’t that big,” explains Smalley. “We had that disaster at Oulton Park with the 12th and sixth and I was thinking, ‘How am I going to claw it back from here?’ It was just so frustrating championship-wise.”

Smalley departed Cheshire 36 points behind Rob Boston racer Hibbert, but he did not stay that far behind his rival for long.

“From Knockhill onwards, we had an amazing rest of the season,” recalls Smalley.

And that amazing run included double victories at Knockhill and Thruxton, along with a triple Croft podium and two more rostrums at Donington Park, to put him in a commanding position for the Brands Hatch finale.

Admittedly he was helped by Hibbert having a nightmare at Donington, where yellow flags meant he was unable to set a representative time in qualifying and left him on the back foot. But for Smalley to turn his 36-point deficit into an eventual 51-point winning margin was some achievement and showed he was a worthy champion.

Hibbert’s end-of-season woes also meant he was cruelly denied runner-up in the standings after a strong campaign, having been usurped by Smalley’s ever-improving Elite team-mate Josh Rattican.

Ginetta Junior: Second-year turnaround gives Millar the edge

Millar was a stronger force in his second season, finding the consistency he lacked in 2020

Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images

Aston Millar knew the areas he needed to focus on for his sophomore Ginetta Junior season. His rookie campaign demonstrated he had the speed, regularly qualifying inside the top five, but he was unable to consistently remain there in the races.

“The biggest thing has been I just tried to enjoy it this year and was so much more relaxed,” he says. “I was working on my racecraft and that helped me because the racing was so much better. I could predict what the other drivers were going to do.”

That shift in approach and pre-season preparation clearly paid off. The 2021 version of Millar was unrecognisable compared to the 2020 edition as he only finished outside the top six in the final race, by which time he had already comfortably won the title. And even his R Racing team was taken aback by the transformation.

Millar did not have the strongest of starts to the campaign but kept notching up the top-sixes until the “turning point” of Knockhill, where he took his first two victories. He never looked back from there, bagging five more wins in an impressive display

“How he kept his head and bagged points – it’s surprising someone of that age can be that consistent,” says team boss Jamie Ross.

Millar did not have the strongest of starts to the campaign but kept notching up the top-sixes until the “turning point” of Knockhill, where he took his first two victories. He never looked back from there, bagging five more wins in an impressive display.

The only driver who could come close to Millar’s consistency was Fox Motorsport racer Liam McNeilly. He too grew stronger as the year wore on, having taken a maiden win at Snetterton.

“At Snetterton, I qualified second and the pressure was unreal being at the front,” McNeilly admits. “That pressure came off once I got the win.”

Callum Voisin was the star of the early rounds but a 70-point deduction for a technical infringement and a few other incidents dropped him back, as the resurgent Millar and McNeilly took control.

Mini Challenge: Bird just falls short as Zelos hangs on

Zelos kept his cool in tense Brands Hatch finale

Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images

With two events to go, Dan Zelos looked the most comfortable of the British Touring Car support series leaders, enjoying a 71-point advantage prior to dropped scores being applied – the next highest being 42.

That he only secured the title on the last laps of a nervy Brands Hatch finale is therefore testament to how his Excelr8 team-mate Max Bird hunted him down.

“I can’t ignore how well Max Bird did over the last few rounds,” admits Zelos. “I went into the Donington Park weekend with quite a big points gap but he didn’t give up and I’ve no doubt Max will get that championship [in the future] because he’s very determined.”

Bird’s flightpath to grab a three-point lead heading into that dramatic final race was aided by Zelos battling a damper problem at Donington Park that led to his worst weekend of the season. But, despite the threat of Bird, Zelos did not let the close battle overwhelm him.

“I went into Brands feeling surprisingly calm, which I think is massive when battling for a championship,” says Zelos.

And he certainly kept his cool in that deciding race, when he and Bird were among six cars ferociously scrapping for the leading places throughout. Zelos, mindful of the points situation, estimates he was only racing at “80%” but that did not stop him making a brave move on Max Coates.

“At one point in the final race, I wasn’t going to win the championship,” he says. “It was a good spectacle to look back on and very exciting for everyone involved. That final lap was almost in slow motion – I’ve never worked so hard to get every apex right and it never felt so difficult!”

Ultimately, it was Zelos’s consistency that allowed him to conclude his three-year Mini Challenge journey with title glory, as he finished every race of 2021 inside the top eight. Bird, however, was left reeling when guest team-mate Jack Mitchell unceremoniously took him out of the race-two lead of Brands in June and meant he had to fight from the back in the third contest. Without that, it could have been a different story, such were the fine margins that settled this championship’s destiny.

British Formula 4: Rees ends era on top

Rees beat fancied second-year opposition as rivals Hedley and Zagazeta slipped back

Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images

Any championship where all 20 drivers take a podium during the season and there are 11 different race winners, sounds like a difficult title to win.

At times, you could even say it felt like no one really wanted to take British Formula 4 glory – particularly at a Silverstone event where all the frontrunners were involved in scrapes. Yet Matthew Rees was able to surprisingly seal the crown with a race to spare.

The car racing rookie had a tricky spell during the middle of the year but emerged from that in style at the penultimate Donington Park weekend, grabbing two wins and storming from a pitlane start – after a clutch failure – to seventh in the reversed-grid contest. Those results propelled him back into the points lead and, when closest rival Matias Zagazeta spun off in the opening race of the Brands Hatch finale, two fifth places were enough for JHR driver Rees to become champion.

"To go to the first race and put it on pole was a confidence boost for the rest of the year" Matthew Rees

The Welshman announced himself on the single-seater scene by taking five of the first six qualifying-based poles of the season.

“To go to the first race and put it on pole was a confidence boost for the rest of the year,” says Rees, who had merely been targeting the rookie title pre-season. But, after his strong start, Rees feels the slump was down to a loss of focus.

“We spent too much time thinking about other things rather than ourselves,” he admits. “We were focusing too much on the championship.”

He was not the only one to suffer a mid-season dip. James Hedley was the early star but a tricky Knockhill and a disastrous move from Fortec to Carlin left him battling at the back – he slipped to fifth in the standings. While he was struggling, Argenti driver Zagazeta was growing ever stronger until he made that crucial Brands error and allowed Rees to end the Ford-backed, RacingLine-managed F4 era on top.

Autosport's top 10 drivers

In his first year out of single-seaters, Jewiss impressed to take the Porsche rookie title and beat champion team-mate King

Photo by: Porsche

10. Kiern Jewiss

There were plenty of contenders for the final spot, but British F4 runner-up Matias Zagazeta carelessly throwing away his title hopes and Ginetta Junior star Callum Voisin’s mixed second half of the season meant Jewiss just gets the nod. Considering he was adapting to the Carrera Cup from single-seaters and was up against some talented drivers, he made the switch seamlessly. Beating team-mate Harry King to third in the standings was a strong result, and he defended well en route to four reversed-grid wins.

9. Tom Hibbert

Moving to title-winning Rob Boston Racing and a switch to a fiery livery were signs of Hibbert’s burning desire to step up a level this year, and he was unlucky to miss out on runner-up in the final GT4 Supercup standings. Did not quite have the outright pace of Smalley – as shown by two front-row starts compared to Smalley’s six – but, whenever the Elite driver erred, Hibbert was there to pounce, creating an intriguing title fight. That was until a disappointing Donington allowed Smalley to finally pull clear.

8. Max Bird

This was a coming-of-age year for Bird in the Mini Challenge, who joined his third different team since moving to the series for 2019 and seemed to find his home at Excelr8. Impressively kept pace with team-mate Zelos and never gave up on the crown. Took advantage of Zelos’s difficult Donington and nudged himself ahead going into the decider. It could easily have ended differently when so many cars were battling so closely but someone has to lose out in those circumstances, and that proved to be Bird.

7. Dan Zelos

Someone must be the lowest-ranked champion and, unfortunately for Zelos, that happens to be him. But that should not detract from what was a very strong season. A large part of his lower ranking is because, despite being the pacesetter for much of the year, it all came down to a tense finale. And he just drops behind Rees because this was his third season in Minis compared to it being the F4 champion’s first. Zelos added standout results to consistency to be a deserving victor, keeping his cool in that Brands decider.

Rees took four wins on his way to the F4 title with JHR

Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images

6. Matthew Rees

Out of all the drivers on this year’s British F4 grid, congratulations to anyone who picked out Rees as the champion pre-season. The second-year drivers started as favourites and, for much of 2021, proceedings went as expected. But Rees proved his double Thruxton pole in May was no fluke and continued to stay in the mix, digging himself out of a tricky run of events mid-season to coolly take the spoils when Matias Zagazeta clumsily threw it all away at the Brands Hatch finale – no mean feat for a rookie.

5. Liam McNeilly

In a normal Ginetta Junior season, a driver who did not have a single DNF, whose lowest finish was 10th, who took a giant leap forward from an average rookie campaign and was involved in some thrilling lead fights would be heaped with praise. But, sadly for McNeilly, this was a distinctly abnormal Ginetta Junior year and Millar took many of the plaudits. Ultimately, a tricky opening Thruxton event proved costly for McNeilly in his battle with Millar but there were still plenty of positives from Snetterton onwards.

4. Adam Smalley

Smalley’s greatest battle this season was, arguably, getting on the GT4 Supercup grid at all. Only a late deal with a new sponsor secured his place but, from then on, he was always favourite to triumph. And that is exactly what he did, despite the narrow points gap to Tom Hibbert for much of the year disguising Smalley’s superiority. Has the highest win percentage (30%) of all the champions and is only not further up this list because some of his fellow title winners had more top-quality opposition.

3. Lorcan Hanafin

In many ways, Hanafin should have beaten his more illustrious rivals to this year’s Carrera Cup title. He was the quickest – never qualifying lower than third – and won the most non-reversed-grid races of all. Clearly, his focus on simulator work in the off-season paid off, notching up plenty of preparation – including between his lockdown school lessons. But a mixture of bad luck and tiny errors ultimately cost him both in this top 10 and in the final standings. Nevertheless, he should still be proud of a brilliant season.

Cammish showed his class on his way to third Porsche title

Photo by: Porsche

2. Dan Cammish

Incredibly tough call between Cammish and Hanafin for the number two ranking but it just goes to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion. Compared to Cammish’s other titles – which featured domination from the start – this was won in a very different way. Did not always have the fastest car but drove with maturity in a competitive field to keep bagging points. Had the highest podium percentage of all the champions as his decision to step back to Porsches was vindicated with historic third crown.

1. Aston Millar

Ginetta Junior racers do not usually head this top 10, but it’s hard to ignore Millar’s performances this season. Finishing all bar the final race inside the top six in a category renowned for its unpredictability is an outstanding achievement and one that Millar deserves recognition for. You certainly would never have guessed consistency was his weak point last year as he ended the season with the second-highest win percentage of the five champions. And it was a truly family celebration with his dad as his mechanic.

Millar was a deserving Ginetta Junior champion, and learned from his 2020 shortcomings

Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images