Can Plato's BTCC star power be replaced?

While old hands Colin Turkington and Matt Neal will (at the time of writing) be lining up on the grid, the departure of two former champions means the lowest number of previous title winners on the grid for eight years, with 2017 champion Ash Sutton bringing the number up to three. Not only do Jordan and Plato take their championship pedigrees with them, but also two of the loudest voices and biggest characters in the paddock.

That leaves a void to be filled, and serves as a preview to life once Plato (who hopes to return in 2021), Neal and Turkington all hang up their overalls. With that in mind, 2020 gives an opportunity to see who’s ready to step up to the plate and become BTCC’s next flagship star.

Dan Cammish

Let's start with the obvious one. Dan Cammish came oh-so-close to winning the 2019 title and even the coldest of hearts would have broken watching his Honda Civic Type-R fly into the barriers in the final race of the season while in a championship winning position.

There’s no denying Cammish has the talent – this is the man who didn’t turn up to the final two meetings of the 2013 Formula Ford season and still won by 105 points. He even consistently outperformed someone called Nicholas Latifi in the 2015 Porsche Carrera Cup, a season he won by a similarly impressive total. Not only has Cammish proven he knows how to put together a title winning campaign, he’s also shown that he isn’t one to shy away from something every BTCC fan loves: drama. An incident with Jordan, a fellow title contender, under safety car saw both, in true racing driver style, lay blame at each other’s feet. Cammish has all the ingredients to make up the next big BTCC star, especially with his current position firmly in the Team Dynamics camp. All he needs now is a little bit of luck to get across the line.

Ash Sutton

At 26 years old, Ash Sutton has plenty of time left in his BTCC career to add to his 2017 triumph, but there seems to be a bit of a Jean Alesi vibe here. Sutton has proven time and time again that he can drag anything up to a top position, but a driver of his quality should not be dragging cars up to the top, he should be in a car capable of being there. Instead, he seems to always be left wanting more from his machinery. Yes, the Subaru was brilliant in 2017, but when Jason Plato could only finish 27^th the following year, it shows just how quickly that car dropped. Now free from the Subaru, Sutton has moved across to Laser Tools Racing and their revamped Infiniti Q50s from the ill-fated Support Our Paras Racing campaign of 2015. A reversed-grid second for Moffat was the highlight of the Q50’s half season in 2019, but it just feels like it’ll be another year of hustling a car to its absolute limit for not enough reward for Sutton. Clearly a very capable driver, the fear is that lacklustre equipment could put the brakes on Sutton becoming a long-standing BTCC legend.

Tom Ingram

A driver on the fringes of greatness over the past couple of years, Tom Ingram took the well-aged Speedworks Avensis to the runners up spot in 2018 (having finished third 12 months prior), and all eyes were focused on the return of a works Toyota package last year, with the all new Corolla. As with any new car, there was a quick learning curve for Christian Dick’s Speedworks outfit, and one they attacked very impressively. Four victories, including a double at Silverstone en-route to sixth in the overall standings is not to be sniffed at, and now with the support of Gazoo Racing, if Ingram isn’t in your shortlist to win this year’s title, frankly, you’re wrong. Ingram may not have the oversized personalities of a Plato or a Jordan, but the emotion is there, and he already has the support of many a BTCC fan. If not this year, he is certainly in the running to be the next big thing once the likes of Plato and Neal hang up their race suits for good.

Josh Cook

If you’re looking for a big character, then look no further than Josh Cook. He certainly isn’t one to shy away from a fight, or to cracking a joke with Louise Goodman on the grid. You could even say he’s the Daniel Ricciardo of the BTCC as, even when the odds are stacked against him, there always seems to be a smile on his face. That smile isn’t without substance, however, as Cook has visited the top step of the podium no fewer than five times over the past two seasons and has featured in some of the best on-track battles to grace a BTCC track in recent memory (see Cook vs. Sutton at the season-closing Brands Hatch race in 2018 for evidence). The one concern when sizing up Cook as a potential future champion is looking at someone like Adam Morgan. In 2015 and 2016 you could easily have seen a future where Morgan was a real championship contender, but now he’s always just there, and you just don’t really think of him as a genuine contender. The next two seasons will be very important in deciding which path Cook will find himself on.

Rory Butcher

Rory Butcher may be the least expected on this list, but he really came alive in 2019 as a true BTCC top dog. While it was clear the AmD Tuning team had a great season, and had it not been for Sam Tordoff having to understandably step back from racing mid-season, both drivers would have been in the hunt come Brands Hatch. Butcher has been very slowly, slowly, catchy monkey in his two and a half BTCC seasons to date, gradually working his way up the field and proving he has the pace to be a force to be reckoned with in the BTCC. Pre-season testing (which would normally be the mid-season test) has seen Butcher top the time sheets in his new Motorbase Ford, another team who certainly have the potential to be up the front, but sadly always seem to fall short, a trend the Knockhill native will be looking to overthrow. While Butcher may have the on-track talents, he’s not really the most exciting man in front of a camera, and rather than filling a Plato void, we could see a more Gordon Shedden-style character from Butcher, who, ironically enough, is his brother-in-law.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.