When it was announced in 2017 that a championship for TCR cars was coming to the UK the former promoters of the series sent out a mixed message, and different areas of the motor racing media grabbed two opposing angles. The noise that came from the new championship was on one hand telling fans that the new format would rival the BTCC, and on the other hand it was also giving the impression that it was a great place for BTCC teams to run a second operation, to bring in a bit of extra cash.
At any point over the last seven TCR UK championship seasons, if you walked into the paddock you would come across people, not just drivers, who have, or do work in the BTCC as well, but when the series finally launched at a wet Silverstone at the end of March in 2018, seven of the 13 drivers on the grid had at one point or another had a BTCC contract. The weekend was dominated by West Coast Racing, with their lead driver Dan Lloyd taking two wins from two races. The Huddersfield racer had a bit of BTCC experience behind him already, and he’d dovetail the latter part of that year with a dual campaign, so let us start with the 2018 TCR UK Champion.
1. Dan Lloyd
TCR UK Starts: 14 TCR UK Wins: 8
BTCC Starts: 135 BTCC Wins: 4
A dominant title campaign for Lloyd in TCR UK in 2018, eight years after his tin top debut, led to no BTCC opportunities. While claiming the first title in that series he also raced for BTC in the BTCC, taking his first win there, at Croft. A few wins in TCR Europe in 2019/20 forged a path back to the BTCC for 2021, with three race wins coming the following year at Excelr8.
2. Aiden Moffat
TCR UK Starts: 3 TCR UK Best Finish: 2nd
BTCC Starts: 330 BTCC Wins: 5
Two wins in 2017 in BTCC were finally a confirmation of the ability that Moffat had shown when he made his BTCC debut aged 16 just a few years earlier. TCR UK in an Alfa could have been a sideways step, but a second place in the first ever race for the championship was as good as it got. Thanks to reliability problems the project was ditched after two rounds, and he’s remained in the BTCC ever since, picking up wins with Infiniti and Toyota.
3. Stewart Lines
TCR UK Starts: 30 TCR UK Best Finish: 4th
BTCC Starts: 75 BTCC Best Finish: 16th
The ex-MotoCross racer was already in his fifties when he made his BTCC debut. After a couple of seasons of enjoying being a part of the circus, he was tempted over to TCR UK in that first season due to the cheaper running costs. With only three entries registered for 2019 it looked like TCR UK would fade from the British scene before Lines took control and began the rebuilding process to turn it into the championship we see today. Oh, and of those TCR UK starts, it includes two races in the TCT in a BTCC Astra!
4. Howard Fuller
TCR UK Starts: 4 TCR UK Best Finish: 3rd
BTCC Starts: 12 BTCC Best Finish: 11th
Aspiring single seater race Fuller came to Team HARD for two rounds towards the end of 2012, replacing American racer Robb Holland for two rounds. In an S2000 Civic a respectable pair of rounds at Rockingham and Silverstone showed promise, but it would only lead to a repeat for the following season. Two rounds, Rockingham and Silverstone as one of many revolving door pay drivers, the BTCC was over after that. A Brands Hatch podium in an older FK2 Civic in TCR UK was the highest point of his Touring Car appearances. A return to BTCC as a replacement driver in 2020 was halted by the Covid Pandemic.
5. Nick Halstead
TCR UK Starts: 6 TCR UK Best Finish: 3rd
BTCC Starts: 61 BTCC Best Finish: 7th
Formerly known as a tech entrepreneur but now christened as ‘Mr Crazy Cart,’ Halstead has had a wide-ranging taste in UK racing. Class wins in Ginettas, a win in British GT. Experience in Clios, ALMS and Britcar too, but Touring cars is where the passion is. A few rounds in the 2019 TCR UK championship in a Fox Motorsport Civic FK2 gave back a pole and a podium. In BTCC so far he topped out with a seventh in his fifth race in the series.
6. Max Coates
TCR UK Starts: 2 TCR UK Wins: 2
BTCC Starts: 3 BTCC Best Finish: 20th
If there is a driver who should have had a long fruitful BTCC career, but has just been outside of finalising that deal, it’s Max Coates. Popular across the board with BTCC fans thanks to his entertaining drives on the support bill in Clios, Minis and recently the Porsche Sprint series, the Yorkshire lad made a one-off appearance at his home circuit Croft in 2015. It didn’t lead to more opportunities, which in truth is a bit of a shocker. His one-off TCR UK appearance in 2019 gave two wins in a heavy DSG machine. He’s one of two TCR UK drivers with a 100% win record.
7. Derek Palmer
TCR UK Starts: 8 TCR UK Best Finish: 4th
BTCC Starts: 28 BTCC Best Finish: 15th
A single, tough season for Palmer in the BTCC in the Support Out Paras racing team in 2015 was as far as that adventure went. Unspectacular is one way to describe the year which gave up but a single point. After a couple of seasons away from Tin Tops Palmer gave four rounds of TCR UK a crack in 2018 with an Alfa Giulietta. Decent showings at Knockhill, Oulton Park and Castle Combe were as good as it got.
8. Chris Smiley
TCR UK Starts: 28 TCR UK Wins: 2
BTCC Starts: 192 BTCC Wins: 1
After a half-season in the BTCC it could have been game over for Chris Smiley, but then a relationship flourished with the Taylor family, which led to him joining their BTC racing team. They took a win at Rockingham in 2018 before he moved to Excelr8 in 2020. His BTCC tenure slipped and with the Taylor family they started Restart Racing for 2022 where with a big BTCC target on his back he took the 2022 TCR UK crown. After a tough 2023 they returned to the BTCC for 2024.
9. Jess Hawkins
TCR UK Starts: 11 TCR UK Wins: 1
BTCC Starts: 6 BTCC Best Finish: 20th
Jess is probably better known for her tenure in W Series, and as an ambassador and development driver for Aston Martin F1, but she is also known as being the first female winner in Touring Car racing in the UK. After racing the Snetterton BTCC rounds in both 202 and 2021, Hawkins jumped into TCR UK for 2022. A win in her second race was a highlight in a season where reliability seemed to hinder her every move.
10. Josh Price
TCR UK Starts: 6 TCR UK Wins: 1
BTCC Starts: 45 BTCC Best Finish: 9th
BMR junior Price was promoted to the Subaru BTCC team in 2017, where teammate Ash Sutton took the BTCC crown. Also on the roster was Jason Plato and James Cole, who would win a race that year. The 19-year-old was the fourth wheel and would never match his illustrious companions. After another half-season there he dropped out then tried some TCR UK with BMR before moving to JP racing where he won the final race of 2018 at a very wet Donington.
11. Adam Morgan
TCR UK Starts: 2 TCR UK Wins: 1
BTCC Starts: 380 BTCC Wins: 11
For most of his Touring Car career Adam Morgan has been a family man, as in he’s raced mainly for the family Ciceley team. With some decent levels of success for an independent outfit Morgan, surprisingly, has never topped seventh in the final standings, but one of the less stellar years was 2019. No wins and 12th in the final points. However, he finished sixth in TCR UK, despite only appearing at one meting. A win and a second place at the last round was part of a support role to help Ciceley racer James Turkington (brother of Colin) as he took the TCR UK crown for the squad.
12. Sam Osbourne
TCR UK Starts: 2 TCR UK Best Finish: Retired
BTCC Starts: 176 BTCC Best Finish: 3rd
Sam Osbourne has been around the BTCC for longer than I remember. He first appeared in 2019 with a nondescript team called Excelr8 (What happened to them?) running in a well worn MG. The following year he moved to MB motorsport alongside Jake Hill, and towards the end of this past season with a NAPA Ford Focus he’s become a regular top 10 points finisher, but back in 2020 he appeared in a Power Maxed Cupra at Donington for two non-finishes and a DNS in TCR UK.
13. Andy Wilmot
TCR UK Starts: 28 TCR UK Best Finish: 6th
BTCC Starts: 16 BTCC Best Finish: 18th
The car collector. Andy Wilmot has been a one-man TCR car salesman over the last few seasons. In 2023 he went through six, but only raced two of them! In the BTCC there was a one-off in 2013 and a part season in 2015. His last appearance came in 2021 as a last minute replacement for Jack Butel at Brands Hatch.
14. Will Powell
TCR UK Starts: 10 TCR UK Best Finish: 6th
BTCC Starts: 36 BTCC Best Finish: 18th
A TCR UK debut in 2021 looked promising, but Powell has greater success in taking the Britcar Endurance title before making the step up to the BTCC with HARD in 2022. A half season with One Racing in 2023 followed before a return to TCR in 2024, it was a season that was curtailed by a huge crash at Silverstone.
15. Mark Smith
TCR UK Starts: 28 TCR UK Best Finish: 7th
BTCC Starts: 23 BTCC Best Finish: 11th
A BTCC entry with an Alfa Romeo in the Independents S2000 class during the dual S2000/BTC-T era proved to be hard work in 2006. An almost full season was not repeated, and his next Touring Car appearances came in TCR UK. A few one-off rounds led to a full year in 2024, and the rumours are that he’ll return in 2025, with a new gen TCR machine.
16. Scott Sumpton
TCR UK Starts: 24 TCR UK Best Finish: 5th
BTCC Starts: 30 BTCC Best Finish: 11th
As a 17-year-old with Essex and Kent Motorsport in 2022 Sumpton started the process of learning his Tin Top trade alongside the Kent brothers in a Hyundai i30N. The season was bruising but the first lessons were learned for the young racer before a switch to Restart Racing alongside defending champ Chris Smiley. For 2024 the operation moved to the BTCC where Sumpton took an independent class win. Sumpton recently revealed a split with the squad.
17. Ash Sutton
TCR UK Starts: 2 TCR UK Wins: 2
BTCC Starts: 267 BTCC Wins: 42
If you don’t know who Ash Sutton is, what are you doing here??!! The four-time BTCC champ has a bit of a TCR history, and in the UK he is, alongside Max Coates, one of two drivers with a record of – started two, won ‘em both in TCR UK. After replacing Finlay Crocker to dominate the 2018 Oulton Park round Sutton dabbled a bit more in TCR, in Europe, where a podium at Catalunya and a fourth at Spa closed off the dalliance. He’s won a couple of BTCC races since then….
18. Ant Whorton-Eales
TCR UK Starts: 13 TCR UK Best Finish: 8th
BTCC Starts: 32 BTCC Best Finish: 6th
There should have been more from Whorton-Eales, but it is the same old tale – money. An equal to Ash Sutton before hitting the BTCC, Whorton-Eales raced for a season with AmD in an Audi. It returned a sixth-place finish at Silverstone in a car that didn’t have the right to be that far up the grid! His TCR UK tenure was loud. In the JamSport run Subaru WRX STI you knew when he was on track from the sound, unfortunately the car had a hell of a lot of reliability problems leading to a string of DNFs.
19. Rick Kerry
TCR UK Starts: 19 TCR UK Best Finish: 5th
BTCC Starts: 18 BTCC Best Finish: 11th
At a time when diesel was meant to be the saviour of the car industry (think Audi at Le Mans/Seat in Touring Cars) Kerry entered the BTCC with AFM-Racing in a BMW 120 diesel – no mean feat there. There were a few problems that beset the car, but Kerry didn’t embarrass himself in his only year in the series. After a decade and a half racing elsewhere, a return to Touring Cars in a Gen 1 Cupra in TCR UK in 2023 whetted the appetite for a full season in 2024 where he won the title for drivers in older cars.
20. Carl Boardley
TCR UK Starts: 35 TCR UK Wins: 9
BTCC Starts: 91 BTCC Best Finish: 10th
Double TCR UK Champion Boardley got off to a disastrous start in the BTCC. After success in Hot Rod and Ginetta racing a move to BTCC with HARD led to a triple DSQ. Three full seasons in three different cars didn’t give back quite the desired results, and after a one-off meeting in 2022 he plumped for TCR UK, for ‘a bit of fun’ in 2023. Across those two years he finished every race, took nine wins and a further 10 podiums on the way to two titles and the record for most TCR UK wins.
The two who didn’t quite make it:
21. Jac Constable
TCR UK Starts: 43 TCR UK Wins: 6
BTCC Starts: 0 BTCC Best Finish: –
The debut for Constable was supposed to be in the BTCC at Croft with Power Maxed Racing in 2020. After qualifying 21st Constable withdrew due to appendicitis, being operated on later that evening. The Power Maxed relationship saw him work as a development driver for the BTCC team from 2019, and he was close to entering the series in 2022. His first two TCR campaigns were with Power Maxed in a Cupra Leon before switching to Audi in 2023. In all three seasons he went into the last round in the championship battle.
22. Darelle Wilson
TCR UK Starts: 45 TCR UK Wins: 1
BTCC Starts: 0 BTCC Best Finish: –
Wilson has so far appeared in every season of TCR UK. His green, then green and red, Astra has been a permanent fixture whether raced by Wilson or other drivers since the championship kicked off in 2018. In that time he’s also appeared in the BTCC paddock, dovetailing his TCR racing with mechanic duties, but Wilson had a BTCC contract sorted in 2008, and even appeared at Media Day and on the ITV BTCC intro for a while. A deal with Team 48, run by footballer Luther Blisset was ready to go, but as is often the case in ‘Grand Plan’ motor racing – the money that was never there never appeared.
Touring Car Magazine 