Famous five: West Surrey Racing’s BTCC winners

Jordan, who has 16 BTCC race wins to his name, as well as the title in 2013 in a family-run Honda Civic, will tackle the 30-round BTCC in one of West Surrey’s front-running BMW 125i M Sport racers, with backing from long-time sponsor Pirtek.

And that got us thinking: how many drivers have won races for one of the series’ most successful squads? The answer is 12 – Will Hoy, James Thompson, Peter Kox, Tom Kristensen, Anthony Reid, Warren Hughes, Colin Turkington, Rob Collard, Tom Onslow-Cole, Stephen Jelley, Sam Tordoff and Andy Priaulx. It’s a list of great names that Jordan will be keen to join once the series gets underway at Brands Hatch next April.

So which of those drivers has done the most winning for WSR aboard Ford Mondeo, Honda Accord, MG ZS, BMW 320si and 125i M Sport machinery since the Sunbury-on-Thames outfit first struck big in the BTCC in 1998?

These five, in reverse order, are WSR’s biggest winners…

Sam Tordoff – 4 wins

The former Renault Clio Cup and Porsche Carrera Cup GB race winner joined the BTCC in 2013, winning in year one in a Triple 8 MG. A move to WSR for 2015 yielded two wins. More consistency in 2016 – nine podiums, including two wins – brought him to within two points of the drivers’ title. 

James Thompson – 5 wins

‘Thommo’ was a superstar of the Supertouring days in Vauxhalls and Hondas during the mid-’90s. He gave WSR immediate success when it switched from Ford to Honda for 1999, taking four wins in the Accord and fourth place in the points. He won once more in the Japanese machine over the next two seasons.

Anthony Reid – 6 wins

The Scottish single-seater and sportscar veteran came close to the title for Nissan and Ford at the end of the hi-tech, big-budget Supertouring days and continued that winning streak in the first year of the cheaper and, for a while, less cheerful BTCC in 2001 – in a WSR MG ZS. Five more wins across the next three seasons puts him third in WSR’s winners’ league.

Rob Collard – 11 wins

West Surrey’s longest-serving and second-most successful racer, Collard first tasted the winner’s champagne in 2005 aboard a WSR MG ZS. It would be another four years before he added to his two wins of ’05, the gritty Collard running at the front again in a Motorbase-run BMW 320si. He moved back to WSR for 2010 and over the past seven seasons he’s stretched his tally to 11 wins, all in rear-drive BMWs, and secured a best championship finish of fifth in 2012 and 2016.

Colin Turkington – 30 wins

The Northern Irishman is way out front in this company, with 30 victories for WSR. First winning at Brands Hatch in 2003 in an MG ZS, the 34-year-old is fifth on the all-time BTCC winners’ list with 41 victories, behind only Jason Plato, Andy Rouse, Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden. Turkington is also the only driver to have delivered a drivers’ title to Dick Bennetts' team – in 2009 and 2014, the latter after eight wins in the second year of the 125i M Sport.

The other seven winners have, between them, taken 13 of West Surrey Racing’s 69 BTCC wins to date and it’s surely only a matter of time before Andrew Jordan gets on that scoresheet.

Photography courtesy of LAT.