The top 10 BTCC support drivers of the past 10 seasons

There have been 258 drivers who have triumphed in a race in one of the support categories at a British Touring Car Championship event in the past 10 seasons. That’s a truly staggering number and certainly makes picking the best 10 of these a very tricky task.

Given that 39 of those 258 drivers also won one of the regular TOCA championships, Autosport has decided not to include anyone who failed to win a title in the final 10. But that still leaves a significant number to choose from (and some talented racers on the sidelines, see below).

This is very much a personal selection of the drivers who have stood out the most from their time on the BTCC undercard and does not reflect what they have gone on to achieve. It has also been a tricky balance to strike between those who rapidly rose the ladder and those who spent several seasons racing in the TOCA categories.

But here are the 10 we feel are the most exciting, impressive and successful drivers from the 2015-24 timeframe.

10. Jamie Caroline, 2015 Ginetta Junior champion, 2017 British F4 champion

Choosing who should get the 10th spot was one of the trickiest decisions of this entire ranking since there were so many drivers who deserved a mention. Ultimately, it boiled down to a battle between Caroline and Kiern Jewiss. Both won two titles, each prevailing in British Formula 4, while Caroline pipped Senna Proctor to the 2015 Ginetta Junior crown and Jewiss secured 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup GB honours.

But Caroline gets the nod because he delivered some truly standout performances en route to 2017 F4 glory and faced greater opposition than Jewiss, including future F1 racers Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant.

It was Caroline’s sophomore season, so he understandably began as favourite, but the Carlin driver was dominant during the first half of the campaign. “At Thruxton when he came from nowhere to win [he fell to seventh in the opener before charging back to become the first driver to take an F4 hat-trick] it was almost like a man-against-boys scenario,” recalls team boss Trevor Carlin. “He didn’t hit anyone or push them out of the way, but his sheer presence scared the living s*** out of the kids! Just his force of nature, people seeing that shiny blue car coming up behind them, they panicked and got out of the way.”

What Caroline achieved on that Hampshire weekend was all the more impressive as it came just a couple of weeks after his great friend Billy Monger suffered a devastating crash at Donington Park that resulted in the amputation of his legs. Caroline therefore paid tribute to his mate after sealing his treble triumph.

Although not all of Caroline’s seasons have had such happy endings, Carlin still rates him highly. “Jamie is one of my favourite drivers because of his personality and character,” adds Carlin. “He didn’t quite have the funding to go all the way. He was a brilliant team player and he’s still a great personal friend.”

9. Deagen Fairclough, 2024 British F4 champion

Fairclough destroyed the opposition in British F4 this year

Photo by: JEP

There is a strong argument that Fairclough was the most dominant of all the 39 drivers to have won BTCC support series titles in the past decade. He was victorious in 14 of this year’s 20 non-reversed-grid British F4 races, won by over 200 points, and the Hitech teenager achieved it all in a crushing manner.

Yet, he finds himself only ninth on the list because of his limited opposition. This was not a strong year for British F4 and Fairclough was a class above. In reality, he was ready for the step up to GB3 before this season, but still delivered on track and continued to break records long after sewing up the spoils.

He matured during the course of a maiden single-seater campaign in 2023 that ended with him third in the standings for JHR Developments. Fairclough was only on the grid at all after winning ROKiT’s Racing Star sim competition and was eager to impress. Too eager, in fact, as repeated clashes when trying to bounce back from poor qualifying performances put him at risk of losing his licence when he quickly accrued penalty points.

“The biggest stumbling block was how much the kid wanted to win,” says JHR boss Steve Hunter, who describes some “brutal” lessons being taught. “His raw pace was fabulous. If you look at where he ended up on Friday, Deagen was never out of the top three in testing but qualifying was an issue for him. The want to do so well, he overdrove too much. Once we found a way to control that [results came].”

The message was heard loud and clear and, by the season’s end, he was already providing glimpses of the domination that was to follow. “I think he’s developed into a bloody good little racing driver,” Hunter concludes. Spend any time trackside watching Fairclough to witness his spectacular driving style and there can be no denying that.

8. Luke Browning, 2020 British F4 champion

Browning won a stunning British F4 title battle against O’Sullivan in 2020

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There are several similarities between Browning and Fairclough. Both came from humble backgrounds to compete in the expensive single-seater world. And both excel in wet weather, consistently demonstrating supreme car control. But the way their British F4 titles were achieved could not be more different.

While Fairclough’s success never looked in doubt, Browning prevailed in the most dramatic of finales in 2020 when he spun on oil before a mid-race deluge prompted red flags that meant half points were awarded, and he therefore just defeated Zak O’Sullivan. How he was able to triumph, despite his tiny budget when battling fellow Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award winner O’Sullivan, is what ultimately elevates Browning ahead of Fairclough.

“It was a tough one because it was on a shoestring,” reflects Fortec chief Richard Dutton. “We didn’t have a lot of testing – he only did a couple of pre-season tests. He had a sponsor pull out as they couldn’t bring guests because of COVID. But he got through it and won the championship.”

Browning had shown flashes of pace the previous year with the small Richardson Racing squad, while one of the memorable moments of his two Ginetta Junior campaigns beforehand was a storming drive to fourth in the Knockhill rain in 2018 despite pitting mid-race to have his car checked. Being disqualified from an Oulton Park win for failing to have sufficient oil in his differential was the only reason he eventually missed out to Adam Smalley and was unable to claim that title, too.

“He’s a standout star and I would love to see him in F1,” adds Dutton of the Williams academy member. “It’s good to show people you can still do it with little budget. He’s a great guy and one of my favourite all-time drivers we’ve run. I rate him really, really highly.” Considering Fortec’s illustrious roll call of alumni, that is high praise indeed.

7. Adam Smalley, 2018 Ginetta Junior champion, 2021 Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion, 2023 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion

Smalley has taken a hat-trick of TOCA titles

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Any driver who achieves the unprecedented feat of winning titles in three different BTCC support series is clearly pretty good. And Smalley has shown over the years that his consistent performances are more than just pretty good.

Smalley’s success started with Elite Motorsport in Ginetta Junior in 2018, helping to put the team on the national racing map. After a season in the GT5 Challenge, he was then a regular GT4 Supercup contender over the next two years and netted the title in 2021, again with Elite. And he completed his treble with Porsche Carrera Cup GB glory for Team Parker Racing as the Porsche GB Junior driver in 2023. That last crown is the perfect example of his ultra-consistent results – he only finished off the podium twice all year.

“Adam’s always had a very mature head on him,” says Elite principal Eddie Ives. “He’s very calm, very good on feedback and very good at pulling the team together around him. He could be extremely quick in certain conditions on certain days, and we had some very nice steady championship wins with him because his average positions were so much higher than anybody else.”

TPR chief Stuart Parker concurs with that assessment, adding: “Adam was the consummate professional with us last year. He just knew exactly what he had to do. He focused on the job in hand and didn’t get distracted by anything else and did a fantastic job.” Clearly it is therefore no coincidence that Smalley is still involved in both the Elite and Parker operations, helping to coach the next generation of talents.

But, although Smalley scored 24 wins in the TOCA support categories, and sits third on the 2015-24 list, they came across five frontrunning seasons and there were not always oodles of top-quality opposition in the GT4 Supercup. That, combined with fewer standout moments of brilliance than some of the other drivers featured here, is why he is not even higher in this ranking.

6. Ash Sutton, 2015 Renault UK Clio Cup champion

The BTCC all-time great made his name in the Renault UK Clio Cup back in 2015

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Considering the Renault UK Clio Cup’s reputation for producing close, entertaining racing and attracting some of the most highly rated talents attempting to climb the tin-top ladder, it is perhaps surprising that just one driver of the French hatchbacks has made the final 10. But what a driver that one is.

Sutton arrived in the Clio Cup in 2015 fresh out of single-seaters, having put in a couple of starring performances in British Formula Ford. But instead of the fascinating prospect of him racing against Lando Norris, Colton Herta, Dan Ticktum et al in F4 – when Sutton had a deal provisionally in place with James Mundy’s MBM squad to tackle the relaunched category – there was instead a change in direction. Warren Scott, boss of the front-running BMR BTCC outfit, had spotted Sutton’s talent and facilitated a move into tin-tops. And Sutton instantly looked at home.

At the very first race of the season, he challenged Ant Whorton-Eales, someone who already had three years of Clio experience under his belt, in an aggressive style that would become synonymous with Sutton. Although he had to settle for second on that particular day, Sutton had laid down a marker.

He continued to impress across the rest of the year and just pipped Whorton-Eales and Pyro team-mate Ash Hand to the title, while Clio master Paul Rivett was relegated down to fourth by the youngsters.

Sutton may have the fewest TOCA support wins (six) of any driver on this list, but it was still a very noteworthy season. The fact that he then graduated to the BTCC and could not add further success in the supports means he cannot really be ranked any higher. But his 2015 performances had clearly marked Sutton as a star of the future and hinted at the ability that would make him now one of the BTCC’s all-time greats.

5. Dan Zelos, 2021, 2023 & 2024 Mini Challenge champion

Three Mini Challenge titles in four years have powered Zelos into this list

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Next up is another driver who has impressed in the tin-top ranks. Zelos has won three Mini Challenge titles in the past four years and has developed into a very accomplished racer.

The first of the Excelr8 driver’s triumphs in 2021 came in hard-fought fashion after a season-long battle with team-mate Max Bird. It went right down to the wire, but Zelos did just enough to finish second in the nervy finale and beat Bird by seven points. In contrast, his other titles could not have been more different, with Zelos displaying utter domination, albeit against weaker fields.

He dug deep to bounce back from a tough 2022 campaign – in which he scored just three podiums – to qualify on pole for all bar one race the following season. And then this year he capped off his Mini career with another storming set of results to seal the title in August and be able to finally make his long-awaited BTCC debut.

“Sometimes you get a driver who just clicks with a car, and I think Dan is certainly one of those drivers,” says Excelr8 boss Justina Williams. “When he first got into the Mini Challenge car for a one-off outing in 2018, he was right on the pace and he carried that into 2019 when he joined us full-time – although I don’t think any of us could have expected to enjoy the levels of success that have followed since then.

“Success hasn’t come easy though, and people don’t really appreciate all the hard work that Dan has put in in order for him to become the most successful driver in JCW history. His drive and determination to be the best has not only been reflected in his results on track, but also in the way he helped the team around him to grow.”

Yet Zelos cannot be any higher than fifth in this ranking because of a few distinctly average Renault UK Clio Cup campaigns he endured upon graduating from Ginetta Junior.

4. Lando Norris, 2015 MSA Formula champion

Teenager Norris was an unassuming character with a car down on top speed, but he still charged to the 2015 MSA Formula title

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Of all the drivers to appear in this list, none has seemingly been more destined for future stardom than Norris. Even before his maiden single-seater campaign began in 2015, there was already talk of him having the backing and the ability to be a future Formula 1 contender. And Norris duly delivered upon such high expectations.

That he won the 2015 MSA Formula (British F4) title was no surprise, not least with his sizeable budget, but the manner in which he prevailed certainly caught the eye. The series featured the strongest driver line-up in its 10 years as an FIA F4 championship, including the likes of future IndyCar victor Colton Herta and Autosport Award winner Dan Ticktum, yet Carlin racer Norris never qualified outside the top two all season. And he sealed the crown despite having a disadvantage compared to many of his rivals.

“The biggest thing that stood out was it was quite obvious Lando didn’t have the best engine that year, even in our team,” says squad supremo Trevor Carlin. “It pissed him off a little bit, but it made him even more driven to perform. He was always down on the straights compared to his team-mates, so he won the title despite not having the best kit – he outperformed the car. You could always count on him to deliver a lap time when it mattered and that went through the whole season.”

But Carlin says achieving such success and being so highly rated early in his career did not go to Norris’ head and describes him as being “very unassuming”. “Lando was everything we expected and was a very quiet and shy young man,” he recalls. “After his debriefs, he would just sit in the truck with his hoody up and play on his phone, like any 15-year-old.” However, when it came to his on-track ability, it was certainly clear Norris was anything but an ordinary 15-year-old.

3. Harry King, 2019 Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion, 2020 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion

King has been a must-watch driver during his time in Porsches

Photo by: Motorsport Images

King achieved something remarkable in 2020. He single-handedly changed the reputation of an entire championship. The Porsche Carrera Cup GB may have previously been renowned for attracting talented drivers, but it was not known for the most exciting racing. Enter King. The way in which he drove the car on the ragged edge and completed breathtaking passes won the series a new fanbase. Team Parker driver King even defeated the BTCC boys to be voted Autosport’s National Driver of the Year.

“To me, Harry is the real deal,” says team boss Stuart Parker. “That year was nothing short of phenomenal. The way he made the car dance – that win at Knockhill, where he lost a belt in the first race so had to start 10th and came through to win, it was sublime and showed people you can overtake in the car. He just made it exciting and Carrera Cup has had a buzz about it ever since.”

King had been crowned Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion with Elite Motorsport the previous year and team founder Eddie Ives is also full of praise of a driver who continues to coach for the squad. “Harry’s just super-fast,” says Ives. “Whatever he jumped in, whether it was a Ginetta Junior, whether it was the GT4 Supercup, whether it was a Porsche or even in an F3 car he drove for me recently, in whatever he gets in, he needs a lap and by the second or third lap he’s really quick out of the box. He’s as good as you get.”

But King could not make it a hat-trick in 2021. He only finished fourth in the Carrera Cup standings following what Parker describes as a “compromised” campaign, when he also tackled the Porsche Supercup in a newer iteration of the 911 GT3 Cup. The not insignificant differences between the cars and the still-complicated travel situation amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic all added up to a challenging season. That result, combined with 2020’s Porsche line-up not being the strongest, explains why King topped the past decade’s wins list but is not at the head of our ranking.

2. Dan Harper, 2019 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion

Harper may only have one title in this list, but stands out on pure driving ability and talent

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Someone who ‘only’ won a single title may seem a surprising choice for such a high position on this list. And it was very difficult to separate King from Harper. But, in the end, the Northern Irishman gets the nod for second place because he achieved his Porsche Carrera Cup GB championship in 2019 in just his second year out of junior racing.

It’s only when you stop to think about it you realise how impressive that achievement is. When Harper was selected as the Porsche GB Junior, he was just 16 years old and could not drive on a trackday in the car without an instructor. Yet Harper belied his lack of experience to instantly get on the Carrera Cup pace, qualifying third for his first race in 2018 with JTR.

“He didn’t get a lap together so he qualified third, which is pretty spectacular for a 17-year-old rookie,” says team boss, 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Nick Tandy. “We looked through the data and, even on Brands Indy, he could have been on pole by a couple of tenths. We didn’t have to teach him how to drive – he worked that out faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

From that promising start, Harper – who also headed King in the two seasons they raced together in Ginetta Junior – got better and better, and it was no surprise when he comfortably won the title the following year.

“It was a pleasure to work with him and watch what he could do in one of my racing cars,” Tandy adds. “I watched his progression from a junior driver and witnessed the transformation into a proper factory-ready race driver. It was just amazing to see. He’s a one-of-a-kind talent.”

Harper may have not always been as spectacular to watch as King, but achieving what he did without years in sportscars beforehand was a remarkable feat.

1. Dan Cammish, 2015, 2016 & 2021 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion

Cammish’s dominant 2015 and 2016 titles coupled with his 2021 triumph puts him at the top of this order

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There was no contest about who would end up on top. It simply had to be Cammish. He was an unstoppable force in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB in 2015 and 2016, the Redline racer winning 23 of the 32 contests to serenely glide to a title double. And he could easily have made it a hat-trick without a Porsche Supercup clash and a fire at Silverstone costing him dear in 2017.

“From having driven against him, his biggest asset is his pace on a qualifying lap,” says Dino Zamparelli, who finished runner-up to Cammish in 2016. “He had the ability to just put a lap together when he needed it, which meant he was always top two on the grid. Very rarely you would see him outside of the top two and he gave himself a much higher chance of success in the races.”

Although the title always eluded Zamparelli, he still has fond memories of his Porsche days and now runs his own team in the series. “We had some really good battles and good races,” he recalls of his years racing Cammish. “There were a couple of times where I outfoxed him!”

While those initial triumphs were impressive against strong opposition, perhaps Cammish’s 2021 success was his best. He made the bold move to step back to Porsches after losing his Dynamics BTCC drive shortly before the season. He risked ruining his wonderful Carrera Cup legacy and the decision could have backfired spectacularly, especially when battling the likes of King, Jewiss and rising star Lorcan Hanafin. Yet Cammish dug deeper than ever before to just get it over the line. He only won thrice but the old master reminded everyone who was top dog and he was quickly snapped up by the NAPA BTCC powerhouse for 2022. A class act.

Cammish has become a BTCC regular after his Porsche successes

Photo by: JEP

The F1 drivers and other notable names who missed out

Inevitably, there are plenty of impressive drivers who failed to make the cut – including four who went on to race in Formula 1. McLaren star Oscar Piastri and Williams reject Logan Sargeant were both outpaced by Jamie Caroline in British Formula 4 in 2017, while new Alpine recruit Jack Doohan was a distant fifth to Kiern Jewiss the following year.

Elsewhere, Nicholas Latifi’s unconventional path to F1 featured an unimpressive half-season in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB in 2015, where he achieved only one podium.

Alongside Jewiss, other British F4 champions who performed admirably but did not quite make the grade include Zane Maloney in 2019 and Matthew Rees, who starred in 2021 to win the title in his first season in cars. Alex Dunne was also dominant in 2022 but made too many clumsy errors to feature here. Another dominator that year was James Kellett, but a lack of Ginetta GT4 Supercup rivals snuffed his chances.

Perennial Renault UK Clio Cup frontrunner Paul Rivett was also considered as he was such a useful benchmark for young hotshots to measure against. And, although he took a very hard-fought crown in 2018, only six wins in a four-year period were not quite enough.

One of his 2018 foes was Max Coates, who has consistently fallen just short of title success – including in the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB this season – but he can take comfort from sitting fourth on the winners’ list. He was defeated by Jack Young in 2019, another teen who impressed but was a little too wild to dislodge any of the 10 ultimately selected.

Piastri just misses out on making the cut

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