MoM 8 BTCC Finale

January 13th 2020

Author

Motor Sport

The finale of this year’s British Touring Car Championship will go down as the most dramatic in history, according to former champion Tim Harvey.

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington secured his fourth crown in the most unlikely of circumstances after three races on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit, each of which changed the title picture.

Turkington secured pole and led the opener until a mid-race downpour left him on the wrong tyres and he slumped to fifth. In contrast his rival Dan Cammish, driving for Team Dynamics Honda, performed brilliantly, climbing up the order to win.

Turkington was then hit by Cammish’s team-mate Matt Neal at the start of race two, spinning the BMW out in what many – including Turkington – saw as a cynical move. Cammish finished that race third to grab the championship lead.

Turkington had to fight from 25th in race three, with Cammish just needing to bring the car home in the points to secure his maiden BTCC title in his second season. However, brake failure into Hawthorn sent the Honda into the barriers with a lap and a half of the season to go, with Turkington’s charge to sixth securing him the crown by two points.

“In terms of entertainment, nothing can touch the BTCC“

Until that point, Cammish had finished every race this year. The DNF dropped him to third in the standings, with Andrew Jordan tying on points but being classified ahead courtesy of his six wins.

Harvey, who lifted the BTCC title himself in a thrilling conclusion to the 1992 season and now commentates for ITV, said: “There hasn’t ever been a season like it in terms of drama or entertainment. People talk about my 1992 race, but that was just one race; here we had three outings, each with their own individual twists. In my mind it’s been the most dramatic ending to a year ever. Poor Cammish – he’d had the best finishing record of anybody over the last two seasons, so to lose the title in that fashion was heartbreaking. But Colin put in the drive of a champion. In terms of drama and entertainment, nothing can touch the BTCC right now.”