[BTCC] BTCC 2022 season review

[BTCC frog]

The 2022 season has ended with Tom Ingram becoming the first Front-Wheel-Drive champion since 2016, and well-deserved it was too. He overcame a fierce battle with Ash Sutton and Jake Hill to clinch the title, making up for years of trying and coming close, with 2018 his finest season in the BTCC. It means that he will not join the likes of Gordon Spice, Steve Soper, Paul Radisich, Anthony Reid and Mat Jackson as being a great driver never to win a BTCC title.

With it, Ingram gave Excelr8 their first drivers’ championship in just their fourth year in the championship, an incredible climb through the field, while Hyundai joined a longlist of manufacturers with one title in the modern era that includes Alfa Romeo, Audi, Renault, Volvo, Nissan, Ford, Chevrolet and Subaru, while Infiniti have two and BMW, Honda and Vauxhall seven apiece. Whilst Ingram was impressive all season, his qualifying session at Brands Hatch has to be the defining moment, as setting four lap-times good enough for pole was an outstanding effort, almost unheard of in the BTCC.

There were four main protagonists to the title battle in 2022, with Josh Cook’s challenge fading after mid-season. It was an interesting dynamic between the two BMW drivers, in what was surely the best car but with Turkington struggling for outright pace and Hill making mistakes, up against Tom Ingram in the Hyundai, probably the best Front-Wheel-Drive Car, and Ash Sutton whose Ford looked not to have the pace of the other top cars, but some fantastic driving, and maybe slightly better luck, kept him in title contention.

The season was also notable for the retirement of the BTCC’s most successful driver, in terms of race wins, Jason Plato. A true legend of the championship, I have written a tribute to him here. Sadly, his final season was very underwhelming.

It was also the first season of the hybrid era in the BTCC, and hybrid boost replaced success ballast as the performance-balancer in the championship. Ultimately, the hybrid was quite ineffective, meaning there effectively was no success ballast, and so the hybrid can’t really be classed as a success if it didn’t do what was intended, although it did give a different spin on the title battle, with the contenders able to fight for wins at every round. Overall, I would consider 2022 to be a much better season than its predecessor, but not quite on the level of some of the years previous to that as the individual races weren’t as exciting and it is too difficult to fight through the pack from the back of the grid.

Next year, I would suggest that the return of success ballast, and the return of the option tyre, would be a good way of making the races more exciting, as although it would make it more impure, I personally like to watch Formula 1 for ‘best driver/team wins every time’ and BTCC for exciting racing, so don’t mind this. However, I think success ballast should be used only in qualifying and race two, because it would allow title contenders to make up positions in race one lost by the ballast in qualifying, and also wouldn’t make it too easy to win from reversed-grid pole, with the reversed grids a far greater gimmick than either success ballast or the option tyre.

The off-season was an exciting one for the championship, as last season’s relatively dominant champion Ash Sutton left the Laser Tools Infiniti squad in order to join Motorbase, driving his less-favoured Front-Wheel-Drive Ford. This immediately made the championship situation look more exciting as it would be difficult for Sutton to run away with the title again, and Motorbase made their driver lineup even more exciting by announcing the return of Dan Cammish, who came so close to the title in 2019, as Sutton’s teammate. The team very much had a feel of the BMR squad of 2015 with Colin Turkington and Jason Plato. Ollie Jackson and Sam Osborne raced the third and fourth cars.

Meanwhile, last season’s lead Ford driver, Jake Hill, moved to WSR to replace Tom Oliphant who had moved to Australia, and brought the MB Motorsport team with him. It was an equally strong lineup as he was teamed with Colin Turkington, four-time champion, and race winner Stephen Jelley.

Excelr8 retained lead driver Tom Ingram as well as Jack Butel, but brought in two more strong drivers over the off-season, Dan Lloyd who had taken podiums for Power Maxed in 2021 and Tom Chilton, returning to his favoured Front-Wheel-Drive after a difficult season with BMW in 2021.

The main disappointment of the off-season was the false hope of extra TBLs for Team Dynamics, BTC Racing and Speedworks which were initially awarded but ultimately given back. As a result, Team Dynamics retained Gordon Shedden and Dan Rowbottom, and there was no return for Matt Neal in the third car. BTC Racing kept Josh Cook and Jade Edwards, but signed Jason Plato to drive the third Honda as Senna Proctor left the series. At Speedworks, Rory Butcher stayed and Sam Smelt was replaced by Ricky Collard, who had been on the podium with WSR in 2018.

Ciceley Motorsport kept Adam Morgan, stalwart of the team, as their first driver while Tom Chilton was replaced by rookie George Gamble. At Power Maxed, the loss of Plato and Lloyd hit the team badly, but they were able to sign the 2020 Jack Sears Trophy winner Michael Crees and Renault Clio Cup runner-up of 2015, Ash Hand, who had pushed Sutton hard that season. Laser Tools signed Dexter Patterson as a replacement for Ash Sutton, while Team HARD brought in Bobby Thompson as a replacement for Jack Mitchell, while a late withdrawal for Jack Goff led to Will Powell driving the fourth Cupra, and Rick Parfitt also raced an Infiniti run by Team HARD.

The season started at Donington Park, with Jake Hill and Colin Turkington locking out the front row. The season immediately started with some of the best racing in a long time as the BMWs clashed on the second lap and allowed Ingram and Sutton to challenge them, with the four running almost side-by-side for an entire lap and Ingram eventually taking the lead and the first win of the season. Turkington was second, while Hill was excluded from third, the position given to Shedden. Round two was also eventful and Gordon Shedden impressively fought his way to the front to take victory, with Ingram second and George Gamble a sensational third in his first weekend in the championship. Hill had recovered to ninth and converted that into a race three victory, with Sutton and Cook completing the podium after Cook found his way past Dan Lloyd on the final lap.

At Brands Hatch, it was BMW territory once again in qualifying with Turkington beating Hill and Jelley to pole. But the first race was wet and the BMWs struggle in the wet, so Josh Cook fought through to the lead and won, with Tom Ingram second and Dan Cammish third, following an awful meeting at Donington. Further back, Rory Butcher was the only driver to race on slick tyres and he carved through the pack in the closing laps. Race two was enthralling, one of the best of the season, as Josh Cook put up a stoic defence against Jake Hill, the BMW driver ultimately spinning and gifting Cammish and Butcher the final two spots on the podium. Tom Chilton was on pole for the reversed-grid race but seemed to have an issue and went backwards, with Turkington and Hill coming through for first and second and Bobby Thompson driving exceptionally well to take a podium for Team HARD, only the fourth in their history.

The next round was Thruxton, and Josh Cook reasserted his position as the proverbial ‘King of Thruxton’ with pole positions and great victories in race one and two, both requiring outstanding overtakes on Jake Hill for the lead as the BMW got off the line well but struggled on cold tyres. The podium was completed by Hill and Sutton on both occasions. Jason Plato was on pole for race three but fluffed the start, allowing Morgan through to lead from Turkington and Sutton, and that was how it remained to the end, with Plato spinning out of fourth. Further back, Power Maxed had a strong weekend with Hand and Crees taking points in all three races. Tom Ingram recovered well from contact in race one to get some points, but both Dan Cammish and Gordon Shedden had horrendous weekends that looked to put them out of title contention already. Cook’s great weekend and four wins in two rounds gave him the championship lead.

Round four was at Oulton Park and Ingram claimed pole ahead of Butcher and won the first and second races, followed by Sutton both times while Butcher took a third and a fourth and Turkington the opposite. Cook struggled for pace while Jake Hill had an off-weekend. Stephen Jelley took pole for the final race and led Moffat from the front, while contact between Dan Lloyd and Ricky Collard behind caused a huge shunt for Lloyd, as he was collected by Turkington, and Sutton and Ingram were also caught up in it. As a result, Jelley won his first race in three years from Moffat, who had been having a poor season in the struggling Infiniti, while Cook made up for the disappointing first two rounds with third.

After fears that his season would be curtailed by the Oulton Park accident, Dan Lloyd was just about able to race in Croft and had a fairy-tale weekend with a win in race one after a great first lap that saw him pass Rowbottom and Turkington, and then hold the BMW driver at bay for the remainder of the race. Rowbottom completed the podium, but in race two, Ingram moved forward to third ahead of Turkington, but still couldn’t beat the brilliant Lloyd, who won his second race of the day. Gordon Shedden drove from the back to finish 12th, which was rewarded with pole for the final race, converted into another win, while Cook and Butcher completed the podium.

The BMWs returned to the front at Knockhill, locking out all bar one of the first six places on the grid, that being Ash Sutton in second. He passed polesitter Jake Hill to lead race one and, having been repassed by Hill, pulled off the overtake of the season at turn one to retake the lead, before Hill eventually broke through to win, with Turkington finishing third. Hill made a mistake in race two, running wide and allowing Sutton through into a lead he would not lose, while Hill lost a further place to Turkington before a mistake from the multiple champion allowed Hill back through into second. George Gamble then led from the front in race three while Ingram dropped back following contact with Shedden. Jake Hill had another impressive charge through the pack to finish second, with Turkington allowing him through, and Rory Butcher finishing third, but it was Gamble who won his first race in the championship, as a rookie. Josh Cook dropped away from title contention with another poor weekend.

At swelteringly hot Snetterton, the BMWs thrived once again and Turkington took pole position from Jake Hill and Stephen Jelley, before the latter was penalised, and Turkington held off Hill to win race one, with Ingram third. The result was repeated in the second race, but Turkington and Hill had a thrilling opening lap in which they ran side-by-side for almost half the lap. Ash Sutton was drawn on reversed-grid pole after earlier contact with his teammate, but was outdragged by Dan Rowbottom on the run to Riches. The Honda made a mistake further around the lap and went backwards, leaving Jason Plato to chase down Sutton. Sutton held on to win, but with second, Plato had his best weekend of the season, and Ingram completed the podium after Ricky Collard was penalised for an over-aggressive move on the final lap. The championship battle now clearly looked to be between Ingram, Sutton, Hill and Turkington.

The series returned to Thruxton for a second time, a pattern that will be broken from next year as a return to the long circuit at Donington will mean we will once again race on ten different track layouts, a positive move. Dan Cammish took pole position and the first race victory after contact between Cook and Sutton ruined the Honda driver’s race, and Gordon Shedden got between the Fords to take second. Sutton got back ahead of Shedden in the second race and then was allowed through to victory by teammate Cammish, now out of title contention. Shedden was third, while Hill had been fourth in both rounds and Ingram and Turkington were further back in the top ten. The final pole belonged to Jelley, but he and Turkington were overpowered by Josh Cook in the race, who kept up his great winning record at Thruxton, while Turkington was second and Jelley third.

Next came Silverstone, the only round I attended in person this year, and Rory Butcher repeated his pole position from 2021 and converted it into a first Toyota win of the season in race one ahead of BMW drivers Hill and Morgan. An incident for championship leader Colin Turkington seemed to derail his title hopes. In the second race, Jake Hill got himself right into title contention with an impressive win, powering past Rory Butcher who finished second, and Gordon Shedden was third. Behind them, Sutton and Ingram had scored good points in both races, and after Cook and Morgan both went wide on cold tyres in race two they moved into first and second and held those positions to the end, Ingram with a much-needed victory ahead of Sutton and Butcher. This meant that Sutton went into the final round with a narrow points lead over Hill and Ingram, while Turkington now looked to be the outsider.

It was all set up for a classic finale, and Tom Ingram put himself in prime position with an outstanding run in qualifying to take pole by four tenths, having set four laps good enough for pole. In the first race, Ingram converted pole into victory ahead of Rory Butcher, while Ash Sutton ran third in a turbo-less car and held off a long train of cars with some outstanding driving, ultimately being overpowered by Hill. Ingram won again in the second race as Hill and Turkington in the BMWs moved forward to second and third, and the Ford just didn’t appear to have the pace. Ingram had an eleven-point lead going into race three and got ahead of Hill on lap one after more time side-by-side, while they closed onto the back of the struggling Sutton. After surviving an incident ahead between Morgan and Cammish, Ingram was repassed by Hill. Dan Lloyd won the race from pole ahead of Cook and Butcher, while Bobby Thompson had an engine failure while running second, and Ingram passed Hill at Paddock Hill Bend on the final lap, but would comfortably have taken a deserved championship anyway, although the move cost Jake Hill second to Sutton.

Tom Ingram was the drivers’ champion, ahead of Ash Sutton, Jake Hill and Colin Turkington completing the top four. Next was Rory Butcher, beating Josh Cook, Gordon Shedden, Dan Cammish, Adam Morgan and Dan Lloyd, who rounded out the top ten, and the other winners were Stephen Jelley and George Gamble. BMW won the manufacturers’ championship and NAPA Racing the teams’ championship. Josh Cook and BTC Racing were the winning independents, Bobby Thompson won the Jack Sears Trophy and Jake Hill the Goodyear Wingfoot Award.

The teams in review:

Motorbase won the teams’ championship despite arguably having the weakest car of the main contenders, based on the relative results of Cammish, Jackson and Osborne to previous seasons and the weekends where the car looked to have a lack of pace. But they were dragged into contention by the outstanding driver lineup of Ash Sutton and Dan Cammish. Sutton was probably the strongest driver across the season, while Cammish had a lot of bad luck and didn’t hit the heights of his previous time in the championship with Team Dynamics. Ollie Jackson and Sam Osborne had poor seasons in the other two cars, but were closer in performance to each other than the points suggests. They may switch to Rear-Wheel-Drive for 2023, which could make them the team to beat.

Team BMW were the team with the other extremely strong lineup of Jake Hill and Colin Turkington, and produced the strongest car over the season, dominating the front of the grid in Brands Hatch, Knockhill and Snetterton. Hill/BMW looked the fastest overall package but made a few too many mistakes, while Turkington wasn’t as quick as he has been in the past. Jelley also improved on last year and won at Oulton Park. They may have had some restrictions, but I think WSR will look back on this season as a championship chance missed.

Excelr8 continued their inexorable climb through the grid, from backmarkers in 2019 to champions in 2022 as Tom Ingram won his first championship after an outstanding season, and the team probably produced the best Front-Wheel-Drive car on the grid. Dan Lloyd also had a lot of success, with more wins than anyone bar Ingram and Cook, including a famous double at Croft, while Tom Chilton had an awful season with poor pace at the start and terrible luck whenever he went well. Jack Butel showed little signs of progress in his third season, with substitute James Gornall performing better at Croft.

Team Dynamics were arguably the disappointment of the season, as I expected them to challenge for the title but they instead failed to make the top six. Gordon Shedden drove well with two fine wins at Donington and Croft, but had too many low-scoring weekends, while Dan Rowbottom was strangely off-the-pace with just one podium following his brilliant 2021 season. They should be stronger next year.

BTC Racing were equally disappointing although, unlike their Honda counterparts, it seemed more a case of the engine depriving them of a chance to win the title, following lead driver Josh Cook’s excellent early season form. However, it probably wasn’t just the car that caused him to slide down the table as Jason Plato clearly outperformed Cook at Snetterton with a brilliant weekend, but the only one for him in his final season, and Jade Edwards drove better than last year but was still among the backmarkers.

Ciceley Motorsport, also running BMWs, often backed up the WSR cars in their strong tracks and Adam Morgan was much more competitive than last season, winning a race and generally being among the quicker cars on the grid. However, he did often lose good points due to incidents and bad luck, with Oulton Park and Knockhill two costly missed opportunities. George Gamble was the first teammate of Morgan to have a strong season, with his outstanding podium at Donington and win at Knockhill the highlights. Every team that Tom Chilton had departed since his return to the BTCC has had a much stronger following season!

The Toyota seemed to be on a similar level to last season with Butcher competitive but unable to mount a title challenge, although he scored consistent points all season and took five podiums in the final six races with two great weekends to finish fifth overall. Ricky Collard did not live up to expectations but was a considerable improvement on Sam Smelt, and was denied a podium at Snetterton by a penalty, but departs the championship at the end of one full season.

Team HARD had their best season in the championship since 2017, with the Cupra much improved compared to last season, particularly in the hands of Bobby Thompson who was outstanding, and comfortably outpaced his teammates all year. Aron Taylor-Smith on occasion but still didn’t look like the same driver who was won races in the past, and Nic Hamilton and Will Powell were among the backmarkers all year. Rick Parfitt also had a difficult season in the HARD Infiniti.

From champions in 2021, Laser Tools had a miserable season this year, struggling badly without Ash Sutton and his engineers and sliding to the lower midfield, with a solitary podium for Aiden Moffat at Oulton Park. His rookie teammate, Dexter Patterson, scored very few points but showed potential with some great racecraft, and the team looks to have ditched the Infiniti from next season.

Power Maxed also had a very poor season, although without a top driver in the cars this was perhaps expected. Both Michael Crees and Ash Hand performed relatively well, with Crees looking far stronger than when he left the championship and Hand showing flashes of great potential, while the car was very good at both meetings at Thruxton.

Driver Rankings:

1. Ash Sutton – He may have lost his championship, but Sutton is still the best driver on the grid, dragging a Ford that just didn’t look as good as the Hyundai or BMW into title contention, and showing outstanding defensive racecraft at Knockhill and Brands Hatch, while he totally outperformed Dan Cammish.

2. Tom Ingram – A very deserving champion, beating the faster BMWs and winning six races, with his Brands Hatch weekend the most impressive of the season, while he also won twice at Oulton Park, and the season opener at Donington. His championship victory was a wonderful moment for the championship.

3. Jake Hill – Armed with probably the best car on the grid in the BMW, Hill lost the championship because of too many costly mistakes, but was involved in many great battles across the season and looked the fastest overall package, most notably at Donington and Knockhill. Clearly faster than Turkington.

4. Colin Turkington – As usual, he was the master of banking points, but didn’t appear to be quite as fast as previous seasons, being outpaced by Hill and ended up the outsider after bad luck at Silverstone. His double win at Snetterton was the highlight of his season.

5. Josh Cook – After two double wins at the start of the season including a defensive masterclass at Brands Hatch and some amazing overtakes at Thruxton, his season fell apart with the second round at Thruxton his only competitive weekend after that, partly down to poor straightline speed.

6. Bobby Thompson – The biggest surprise of the season was the outstanding performance of Thompson in the Cupra, totally dominating Aron Smith at every round and taking a well-deserved podium at Brands Indy, while he was probably denied another one in the season finale, his best overall meeting.

7. Rory Butcher – For most of the season he was banking points without being hugely impressive, but did comfortably outperform Collard and was outstanding in the final two rounds to take a clear fifth in the championship, and the lack of obvious mistakes edge him ahead of Shedden.

8. Gordon Shedden – Had a disappointing season, but compared to Rowbottom he looked very strong so perhaps the car was the main weakness, and his wins at Donington and Croft were very strong. His ranking is hurt by too many low-scoring weekends.

9. Adam Morgan – The BMW was probably the best car, but he was always among the fastest drivers out there. His season was also hurt by getting caught up in too many incidents, and great pace at Oulton Park and Knockhill was wasted in terms of results.

10. Dan Cammish – Couldn’t live with the pace of teammate Sutton, and also had some horrendous luck, while he sometimes struggled for pace, but seemed to correct that towards the end of the season by winning at Thruxton and gifting race two to his teammate.

11. Dan Lloyd – One of the feel-good stories of the season was his incredible double victory at Croft, following a huge crash which almost ended his season at Oulton Park. He scored consistent points at the start of the year, but struggled in the races just after the summer break.

12. George Gamble – The first driver to have a strong season in the second Ciceley car, with a podium at Donington in his first weekend perhaps the most impressive result, even though he later won at Knockhill. A great rookie season.

13. Stephen Jelley – Also helped by having the best car on the grid, Jelley put in his best season since his return with many strong point-scoring weekends, not far behind his teammates, and he also took a win at Oulton Park.

14. Dan Rowbottom – After incredible improvement in 2021, he inexplicably went considerably backwards this year, taking just one podium, at Croft, and being generally outperformed all season by Gordon Shedden.

15. Aiden Moffat – Considering how uncompetitive the Infiniti seemed, Moffat could drag a few impressive results out of it, including a podium at Oulton Park and eighths at Croft, but it was a far cry from their brilliant 2021 season.

16. Ash Hand – Another impressive rookie, who outperformed his teammate Crees and was particularly quick at Thruxton, taking three points finishes on the first visit, and fifth on the second, but he did also seem a little incident-prone.

17. Ricky Collard – In his only full season in the BTCC, he was rarely a match for Butcher but was far stronger than predecessor Smelt, and looked on for a podium at Snetterton before a penalty. He was also a little incident-prone.

18. Jason Plato – A very underwhelming final season for this BTCC great, struggling along with all the Hondas, the car not as good as previous seasons, but he was also some way behind Cook. The exception was Snetterton, a fantastic weekend rewarded with a podium.

19. Tom Chilton – Always seemed to have bad luck whenever he was having a good weekend, and on other occasions struggled for pace. He did score good points at Croft, Knockhill and Silverstone, and will hopefully win again next year.

20. Michael Crees – Appears to have made progress since he was last in the championship but generally was slightly behind Hand. He scored very good, consistent points at both Thruxton meetings, but ended the season on his roof.

21. Aron Taylor-Smith – Expected to lead the team but was totally outperformed by Thompson at almost every meeting. Silverstone and Donington were strong weekends, as he scored points in each race and was close to his teammate.

22. Ollie Jackson – Maybe the Ford wasn’t particularly quick but it was surprising to see him stuck among the backmarkers all season, but he scored good points at Snetterton and Silverstone and is still outstanding on opening laps.

23. Dexter Patterson – A disappointing season in terms of results, and he was usually slower than Moffat, but did so some potential with great overtaking at Oulton Park and Croft and seventh on the grid at Brands Hatch.

24. Sam Osborne – The points tally makes his season look worse than it was as he was generally quite evenly-matched with Jackson, but was unable to break into the points on more than one occasion.

25. Jade Edwards – More competitive than 2021, but she was still generally among the backmarkers and much slower than Cook and Plato, with Brands Hatch Indy and Oulton Park her most impressive meetings.

26. Jack Butel – Behind Edwards because the Hyundai was better than the Honda, and he showed little signs of improvement, a long way behind his teammates and ending up behind Gornall in the standings.

27. Rick Parfitt – Ahead of Hamilton and Powell because he did well at Knockhill, but he had numerous problems with the car and never broke out of the backmarker group, failing to score a point.

28. Nic Hamilton – Looked slightly quicker than Powell, and also made fewer mistakes, but was still at the back of the field despite the Cupra being better than last season.

29. Will Powell – This might be slightly harsh considering Jack Goff is said to have left the team because he didn’t want to drive Powell’s Cupra, the one that was damaged in Geddie’s accident last year, but he made more mistakes than Hamilton.

Awards

Best Driver – Ash Sutton

Most Improved Driver – Bobby Thompson

Best Team – Excelr8

Most Improved Team – Team HARD

Best Car – BMW 3 series

Best Race Drive – Dan Lloyd, Croft race one

Best Overtake – Ash Sutton on Jake Hill, Knockhill race one

Best Race – Brands Hatch Indy race two

Best Moment – Tom Ingram winning the championship

[S griffin]

Very good analysis as ever BTCC Frog. I'm too glad Tingram finally broke his BTCC title duck. If he missed out again, he would have probably started wondering if it would ever happen

I too was impressed by Bobby Thompson, he's really come on leaps and bounds this year. Hopefully he can continue this form

Good awards you've got there. Not sure I agree with Team HARD as the most improved team, it seemed Thompson was the only one who regularly did anything with the Cupra. I'd go with Cicely as the most improved team

Disappointment of the year has to be Rowbo. Even if the Honda wasn't the best car, he seemed at sea most of the team, big contrast with last year