The top 10 BTCC drivers of 2024
Another classic BTCC season is in the books, with a barnstorming finish for the ages putting the exclamation point on one that many will remember for years to come. And now that it’s over, that can only mean it’s time for our annual delve into the 30-race calendar and come up with who we felt impressed the most across the year. So, let’s take a look at our top ten drivers of 2024…
10. Mikey Doble
Championship: 12th, 148 points
Wins: 2nd
Perhaps one of the most noticeable upturns in form throughout the 2024 season came from both Vauxhall Astras of Power Maxed Racing. We’ve already mentioned Aron Taylor-Smith, but it’s impossible not to give a nod to Mikey Doble as well. While his points tally may have only seen him reach 12th in the table with just a single visit to the podium across the 30-race season, Doble certainly enjoyed a better year than 2023’s debut performance.
Scoring 148 points over the year compared to the 63 of last year, Doble also only failed to score on four occasions - two of them being non-starts as opposed to non-finishes. That’s compared to 14 pointless races last season, showing a vast improvement in terms of consistency from the 25-year-old. He was virtually unchallenged in the Jack Sears Trophy this year, winning 15 of 30 races and the only one of the seven Jack Sears contenders to achieve an overall podium result. If the Vauxhalls can continue with their pace into 2025, ATS and Doble could well be a thorn in the sides of the works teams next season.
9. Tom Chilton
Championship: 10th, 187 points
Wins: 1
It was a strange year for Tom Chilton, as while all the Hyundai limelight was taken by teammate Tom Ingram, Chilton was steadily plodding along in the background. There was nothing particularly bad about Chilton’s year, but similarly there was nothing to make you shout about how good it was, either.
The reason Chilton gets the nod here over Adam Morgan (the only driver to finish in the top ten of the points table but not feature in this list) is down to the fact that he made it to the podium twice rather than just once – and one of those visits included a victory. Chilton also did a good job of backing up Ingram when needed, helping Team Bristol Street Motors secure ‘best of the rest’ status in the Teams’ Championship (another reason for leapfrogging Morgan here) ahead of Team BMW – no-one was ever going to beat NAPA Racing UK.
The 2024 season marked the third for Chilton in a Hyundai, and when compared to his title protagonist teammate Tom Ingram, it’s easy to write him off. However, it was his best season with the Excelr8 squad to date, earning himself his first top ten finish at the end of the year since 2020.
8. Rob Huff
Championship: 9th, 195 points
Wins: 2
The prospect of former World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff returning to the BTCC paddock for a first full-time campaign in 20 years got many people excited in the lead up to the 2024 season. It was also a signal of intent from Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, who replaced their outgoing driver trio of Ricky Collard, Rory Butcher and George Gamble with two hotly anticipated names in Huff and 2023 Jack Sears Trophy winner Andrew Watson.
As was to be expected, it took Huff a little time to reacclimatise to the BTCC, having only competed in two race weekends since 2004 and never got behind the wheel of the Corolla before. Once he’d reacquainted himself with the BTCC, the results started to show and two wins (albeit courtesy of the reverse grid on both occasions) was a good tally for a first year back.
Huff went a little under the radar in 2024, but when he was able to work his way to the front he proved he very much belonged there.
7. Dan Cammish
Championship: 5th, 346 points
Best result: 2nd
Following the dominant performance of Ash Sutton in the Ford Focus in 2023, it was hard not to include Cammish in the title picture ahead of the 2024 campaign. Only bad luck got in the way of a proper title challenge last year, a theme that seems to have followed Cammish throughout his career.
There wasn’t much in the way of headline grabbing from the Yorkshireman in 2024, with only one reverse grid victory to his name at the Donington Park Grand Prix layout. What he did achieve, however, was a 100 per cent finishing record – one of only two drivers to do so. He only just missed out on scoring points in all of those races, too, finishing just three places outside the points in the first race at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
A run of five podiums in six races across Snetterton and Thruxton was a high point of the year for Cammish in a season that saw him finish in the top ten no fewer than 27 times. It all added up to his best result since joining the Ford Focus squad, ending the year inside the top five for the first time since leaving Honda in 2021.
6. Colin Turkington
Championship: 4th, 346 points
Wins: 5
The season began with Colin Turkington looking like he’d be chasing Ash Sutton in a race to become the first ever five-time BTCC champion. Unfortunately for the Northern Irishman, a slight slump in form in the early stages put him on the back foot and he never fully recovered.
A pair of wins around the Brands Hatch Indy circuit left Turkington just two points behind Sutton after six races, but Turkington would then go on a ten race run without a top five result, with four seventh placed results being the highlight of that run. Turkington left Oulton Park having dropped down to sixth in the standings, facing a mammoth 65 point deficit to fellow BMW driver Jake Hill over the summer break.
A huge surge in form came to Turkington in the second half of the year, visiting the podium at every round for the remainder of the year, including wins at Croft, Knockhill and the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit. It was very much a tale of two halves for Turkington, who would go on to play the ultimate team-mate role for Jake Hill at the season finale. While it wasn’t a classic year for the four-time champion, there were reminders of why he’s regarded as one of the very best, and why you still can’t count him out in future years.
5. Aron Taylor-Smith
Championship: 7th, 224 points
Best result: 3rd
Since his return to the BTCC in the post-pandemic era, Aron Taylor-Smith has struggled to reach the heights he enjoyed in the first half of the 2010s. Two seasons with Team HARD not only left him without a podium, but only three top ten finishes to his name. A switch to Power Maxed Racing last year gave the popular Irishman a welcome return to the podium with a brace of runner up finishes.
Funnily enough, if you just take podiums into account, Taylor-Smith had a worse year in 2024 than he did in 2023. On the face of it, only two third placed trophies doesn’t usually warrant a spot in the top five of this list, but in the context of the season as a whole, it’s hard not to put ‘ATS’ in this position. Not only was he the only driver to score points in every single one of the 30 races in 2024, but he is the other driver to boast a 100 per cent finish tally.
As a result of this consistency, Taylor-Smith racked up his highest ever points haul and his best ever finish of seventh in the overall table. In the latter stages of the season, Taylor-Smith was a regular fixture at the head of the field, and cruised his way to his first BTCC crown in the Independents standings.
4. Josh Cook
Championship: 6th, 327 points
Wins: 2
Sooner or later, Josh Cook is finally going to get a season together that allows him to fight for overall honours. Year after year the two-time Independents champion has had moments of inspiration and bursts of momentum, only for something to get in the way of a genuine title challenge.
Having switched to the Toyota Corolla for 2024 in the new satellite LKQ Euro Car Parts outfit, Cook (and team-mate Aiden Moffat) had to learn their way around a new car before transferring them to results. They didn’t have to wait long, though. Moffat would take a reverse grid win on the opening weekend, and Cook would eventually notch up a pair of race two victories and seven further podium visits across the year on his way to sixth in the points table.
The Somerset native has never quite been able to match the third place he achieved in the 2021 season, but he’s always there or thereabouts, and seems to perpetually be one of those drivers who just needs ‘something’ to get himself to the next level. Even factoring that in, it’s noticeable that Cook was the highest ranked Toyota of the year – outscoring both works Toyotas by well over 100 points. You could argue it’d be better for the Japanese marque to move Cook to the black and white factory colours for 2025, as it’d be their best chance by far of championship success…
3. Ash Sutton
Championship: 3rd, 365 points
Wins: 3
It was always going to be difficult for Sutton to follow up his performance in 2023, with everyone effectively saying you could give him the trophy at the end of August. While trips to the top step of the podium were lacking at the start of the 2024 campaign, Sutton seemed to be in prime place to become the first ever five-time champion in the opening rounds.
Top three finishes at the first seven races and holding the championship lead until Oulton Park had all signs pointing towards another Sutton success, albeit a more restrained and calculated one when compared to twelve months prior. Two non-scores at Cheshire’s Oulton Park meant the reigning champion lost his grip at the top of the standings on the eve of the summer break, and would never manage to claw his way back.
The Ford driver was the only realistic outside challenger at Brands Hatch, but even that was a stretch at best. A trip into the Druids gravel trap quickly ended his title aspirations. Not one to go out on a whimper, Sutton reminded everyone why he’s regarded as one of the best in the very final race of the year – romping home to take only his third win of the year with the fastest lap as the perfect full stop.
2. Tom Ingram
Championship: 2nd, 413 points
Wins: 6
Season’s seldom start as well as they did for Tom Ingram in 2024, as he took a Donington Park double to open his points account for the year – as well as pole position and fastest lap in the only race of the year with an equal amount of hybrid boost. Bragging rights firmly claimed, the 2022 champion made it clear from the off that he didn’t want a repeat of chasing Sutton’s rear bumper as he’d done for the majority of 2023.
When wins weren’t available, Ingram would hunt for what he would dub “pointsy weekends” and play the long game. After his strong start at Donington Park, Ingram slipped down to third in the points by the time the series had racked up 12 races, but was never any more than 14 points away from the leader. A strong second half of the season saw the Hyundai i30 man leap to the head of the standings after trips to Croft and Knockhill, despite a retirement in Scotland. Another non-finish at the Donington Park return gave Jake Hill a sniff at the head of the field – one he didn’t pass up, and the two would remain locked tightly together for the rest of the season.
Ingram has firmly become a mainstay at the top of the BTCC in recent years, and with his on-screen personality is perhaps beginning to fill the void left by series legend Jason Plato in recent years. It’s always dangerous to count out Ingram, no matter what he drives.
1. Jake Hill
Championship: 1st, 421 points
Wins: 8
It’s always easy to say the champion sits at the top of this list, but there’s a reason Hill was champion. He was the best over the course of a season. Simple. In stark contrast to last year when Ash Sutton effectively cruised his way to a fourth title, Hill scrapped and clawed his way to the championship in 2024.
Hill has regularly been one of those drivers bursting with potential, and this was the year where he finally staked his claim at the top of the mountain. Racking up eight wins across the season – the same tally he had made in his two years behind the wheel of a West Surrey Racing BMW 3-Series, he was a serious contender right from the off. One failure to finish plus an additional non-score, combined with only two finishes outside the top five were enough to ensure Hill had momentum heading into the blockbuster Brands Hatch finale.
The head-to-head with Tom Ingram at was always going to be a close fought contest, but when the chips were down, Hill didn’t blink. A win and a pair of second places under the immense pressure of a championship showdown proved his mettle, as he walked away with a hugely popular first (and probably not last) BTCC crown.
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BTCC 2024
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