The youngest of our veterans at 24, Andrew Jordan’s also the current title holder, having swept to victory in the series in an emotional final round at Brands Hatch last year. Jordan’s big win was a family affair, with dad Mike, a former racer himself, running the Pirtek team his son races for.
Jordan started his racing career in rallycross, before graduating to the Renault Clio Cup. From there, it was a short hop into his father’s BTCC team for the 2008 season, first racing in a Vauxhall Vectra, before switching to a Honda Civic for 2012. This year, it’s once again a Civic he’ll be campaigning, once again in the now-familiar Pirtek colours.
Scotsman Gordon Shedden’s always maintained that the pinnacle of motorsport for him is touring car racing, and with his 2012 championship win, he managed to reach the very top of the tree in this discipline. He’s had a taste for it now, though, so he’ll be looking to recapture the title from Jordan this year.
Shedden started racing in various one-make championships before graduating to a seat driving a Honda Integra in 2006. Since then, and with the exception of a brief spurt driving a SEAT Leon in 2009, he’s always driven Hondas in the series, and when the manufacturer entered as an official works team in 2010, he signed for them. This season, he’s still in one of the Honda Racing Civics.
At 47 years of age, Matt Neal’s one of the elder statesmen of BTCC racing, but his age doesn’t mean he’s any less drive to finish first. He last did took the title in 2011, his third time of doing so, making him the driver with the most championships under his belt on the grid.
Neal started racing in motocross before moving to the BTCC in 1991, as one of a new group of privateers racing for independent teams (as opposed to the manufacturer-backed teams that were common in the ’90s). He won the Independents’ title three times in 1995, 1999 and 2000, before a brief hiatus in 2001. However, he returned to BTCC racing in 2002, before taking overall title wins in 2005 and 2006 in a Honda Integra. With the exception of a year spent racing a Vauxhall Vectra in 2008, he’s raced Hondas alongside Gordon Shedden ever since, and he’ll be in the other Honda Racing Civic this year.
Another of the older drivers in British touring cars, and arguably the best-known thanks to his position as one of the presenters of Channel 5’s Fifth Gear, 46-year-old Jason Plato’s a controversial figure in touring car racing. A gung-ho driving style has sometimes led him into contact – and conflict – with other drivers. It can’t be denied, however, that with the car working well, Plato’s a tough man to beat.
After a spell driving single-seaters, Plato switched to touring cars to partner Alain Menu at Renault in 1997. Since then, and with the exception of a hiatus in 2002 and 2003, Plato’s become one of the top drivers, winning championships first with Vauxhall in 2001, and then again driving a Chevrolet in 2010. Since last year, he’s been driving an MG 6 for the KX Momentum team.
Hailing from Northern Ireland, Colin Turkington’s a fast driver on the right day, but has sometimes struggled with consistency. Nevertheless, a title win in 2009 proved he has what it takes to challenge the very best – and if he could do it then, there’s no reason why he can’t do so again.
Turkington raced in autograss and single-make series before moving into the BTCC in 2002, driving an MG. Two more seasons in the MG followed, before he moved to Vauxhall for 2005. However, a sixth-place finish wasn’t enough for the manufacturer team, so Turkington went back to MGs, and then into BMWs, in which he promptly won three Independent titles. After a three-year hiatus to race World Touring Cars from 2010 to 2012, he returned to the series in 2013, finishing 5th in the championship. This year he’ll drive a BMW 125i in eBay Motors colours.
There’s no doubt that Italian racer Fabrizzio Giovanardi can drive fast – he’s won no less than eight touring cars titles around the world in his time, two of those here in Britain. And at 47 years old, he’s a similar amount of years’ racing behind him as Matt Neal. But will that be enough to hold his own against the younger contenders here? We’ll have to wait and see!
Giovanardi’s racing career started in single seaters, before he moved into tin-tops in 1991 in his home country. He mainly competed there for the next 10 years, with occasional appearances in Germany and a year spent racing in Spain, in parallel with his Italian commitments. Stints in the European and World Touring Car Championships followed before he moved to the BTCC in 2006 where he raced for Vauxhall, winning titles in 2007 and 2008. In 2010, though, he left, beginning a four-year hiatus which ends this year with his drive in an Airwaves Racing Ford Focus.
Fans of the Supertouring era of BTCC racing will know this name. 50-year-old Swiss driver Alain Menu was one of the stars of the series in the late 1990s, when he raced first for Renault and then for Ford. However, when the blue oval left at the end of 2000, so did Menu, and with the exception of a brief, one-race appearance for Vauxhall in 2007, that’s the way it’s stayed – until now.
Menu’s career started in single seaters, before he graduated to the BTCC in 1993. When he left the series, he moved on to race in the DTM – the German touring car series – before taking a year out in 2004, and then switching to the World Touring Car Championship in 2005. He raced Chevrolets there until 2012, before moving to the Porsche Supercup for 2013, but this year he’ll be back in the BTCC in a Team BMR Volkswagen CC.