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About this episode
The Driver Grades Podcast wraps up the 2025 BTCC season with a detailed analysis of driver performances. The hosts assign grades to each driver based on their season-long efforts, discussing notable performances, struggles, and the impact of various incidents. Key debates arise over drivers like Nick Hamilton and Dexter Patterson, with insights into how team dynamics and car performance influenced their results. The episode also touches on the implications for next season and the potential for driver changes, making it a comprehensive review of the season's highs and lows.
WE TAKE A LOOK AT EACH DRIVER THIS SEASON AND EVALUATE HOW THEY HAVE PERFORMED ACROSS THE SEASON, GRADING EACH AND EVERY ONE.
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Brand
Toyota
"Cook in with Toyota because that's where he finished the season. We'll quickly touch on Jelly."
Toyota is a car company from Japan that makes many popular cars, known for being dependable and economical.
Toyota is a well-known automotive manufacturer based in Japan, famous for producing reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles.
Car
Porsche
"...and he didn't go and do much in Porsche either. No, it was a really quite lacklustre season from Jelly."
Porsche is a car brand from Germany that makes fast and luxurious sports cars, like the famous 911 model.
Porsche is a German automotive manufacturer known for its high-performance sports cars, including the iconic Porsche 911.
Term
front wheel drive
"...especially after the Trivails that he's had this season and where he seems to almost have that ability to be able to drop into Porsches when he wants..."
Front wheel drive means that the front wheels of the car receive the power from the engine, which helps with traction but can change how the car handles on the road.
Front wheel drive (FWD) is a vehicle configuration where the engine's power is directed to the front wheels, which can enhance traction but may affect handling compared to rear wheel drive.
Car
Opel Astra
"..., he had to deal with the fact that they lost the Astra due to the fire. He had taken the race win in th..."
The Opel Astra is a small car that many people in Europe drive because it's reliable and good for everyday use. It's also used in racing, which is why it was mentioned in the podcast, especially when something unexpected happened, like a fire.
The Opel Astra is a compact car produced by the German automaker Opel since 1991. It has been significant in the European market for its practicality, efficiency, and performance, often being a popular choice among families and young drivers alike. The mention of the Astra in the context of a race win highlights its involvement in motorsports and the impact of unexpected events, such as a fire, on racing outcomes.
Car
Astra
"Obviously, he had to deal with the fact that they lost the Astra due to the fire."
The Astra is a small car made by Vauxhall, often used for everyday driving and sometimes in racing. It’s known for being reliable and efficient.
The Vauxhall Astra is a compact car that has been popular in Europe for many years. It is known for its practicality and performance in various racing formats.
Car
Cupra
"managed to get the Cupra competitive enough to still be competing in the independence right till the last."
Cupra is a brand that makes sporty cars, originally part of SEAT. They are designed to be faster and more fun to drive than regular models.
Cupra is a performance-oriented sub-brand of SEAT, known for producing sporty versions of their cars. They focus on enhancing performance and driving experience.
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Who is top of the Pops and who is bottom of the Knots? This is the Driver Grades Podcast.
Hello and welcome back to the British Touring Car Podcast. We are going to bring you the
Driver Grades from the 2025 season. We obviously bought you a mid-season update on these.
So now through with the whole season we can finalise our grades and see who's the top of the
class. Yep as usual there is some housekeeping this being an admin-based podcast. We have not
given grades to people that didn't compete the second half of the season. We will mention them
and remind you of what our mid-season grade was for them and also people that only did one round
such as Finn Leslie or Ryan Benzley having been graded at all because you can't really have an
insight into a season over three races. There are some drives that didn't compete the second half
of the season. There's quite a few actually since they will mention them but weren't going to any
great detail because we covered their main parts of the season on the mid-grade podcast we dropped
in the summer. Yeah we're going to go through them in sort of like reverse team order as to how
they finished in the championship. So we're going to build up to the big boys at the end
but I think we'll kick it off with the unlimited motorsport with Nick Hamilton and also Paterson.
Yep and just before we go into any further we haven't agreed these grades there may be some
discussion along the way as well which I think is going to happen with the first one because Nick
Hamilton I have gone for a C. Okay I've gone for a D. Okay can I argue my yes by all means.
When we went to watch live which we all do respect is the only time you really see
Nick Hamilton. Yeah from the final round. He wasn't a million miles off the pace like he
has been in previous seasons. Yeah there have been parts of the season where he has been racing
people that aren't Nick how said and making good moves such as the last part of the season.
This sounds a bit condescending I don't mean it to be but he also managed to compete the whole
season as well without any budgetary issues and I just felt that he looked quite comfortable this
season and okay obviously he had that really good result at Donnington a couple of years ago
but I mean take that away because that was a circumstance and again that's not taking away
from what he did but obviously the circumstances. Yeah exactly. All things being equal in the dry
I thought he had a decent season I don't think he was a mile off the pace like he has been
like somebody else who will get to has been so yeah see for me. The reason that I've gone for a
D is although we have seen that sort of better pace from him this season unfortunately he still
hasn't managed to score points which I think is really unfortunate especially as we mentioned how
he was racing in that that final race of the season especially he was looking competitive and
was one to think okay he can fight for some points here. Yes the reduced grid is going to help that
but he wasn't that far off but I'm still slightly disappointed that he didn't manage
to pick up a point or two. Fair enough, fair enough. So we've on to Dexter Patterson next
I think we've got more further disagreements. He finished 20th overall. I have gone for a D.
I've gone for a C. Okay. I think it was always going to be a tricky season. We didn't know how
unlimited we're going to deal with going to a three car lineup. He's not shown brilliance anywhere
I don't think he's just been fairly consistent with the few points that he's picked up here and there
only four DNFs throughout the season he's done okay but not brilliantly. Okay my reasoning for
this is that in the first half of the season he had too many tangs of his own teammate which is not
an ideal place to be. He did. In the second half of the season when Max Hall dropped out
I don't really think Patterson went on to maximize having the more resource in the garage or that kind
of side of things. I don't think there was any race where I thought really that the Cooper and
him were working particularly well together. Yes, he scored points throughout the season. Yes,
he got a couple of top 15s here and there. However, I think his best result came in the first half
of the season which was on 9th and he never really got close to that again in the second half of the
season. I just feel that after the summer break he didn't particularly kick on and I do think that
the Cooper has his limitations as a car. However, Mikey Doble was able to get into a Cooper and
okay I would say he set the world on fire. That's a terrible, terrible analogy given what happened but
I think he made it work a lot better than what other people have gone out of it
for a full season so that's why I've gone for that. I can understand that point of view.
You mentioned he had a ninth year that was on the opening round of the season at Donnington.
His next best round was Croft, the first one back after the mid-season break
where he had a 12th, 11th and 11th and actually in the second half of the season he didn't have
a single non-finish. Which is good but equally he wasn't really close to the
sharp part of the grid either. No, he scored 42 points all season.
What was his average finishing position? Average finishing position of 15th
so just picking up those individual points here or there. I think that's really my point
to be honest with you. Right, okay next up we will touch on one motor sport so I'm going to do
Cook in with Toyota because that's where he finished the season. We'll quickly touch on
Jelly. He only did contest one further round following the summer break with Croft.
I've gone for a D. Nothing particularly exciting. I thought Croft was going to be difficult because
he was in the Coupre rather than the Honduban in all season. Quite a bit too many incidents
throughout the year. Didn't look fast. A very unexciting return and he didn't go and do much
in Porsche either. No, it was a really quite lacklustre season from Jelly. We thought he may
struggle going to front wheel drive and I think he certainly did. I'm not sure I can see him coming
back next season. No, I completely agree. Especially after the Trivails that he's had this season
and where he seems to almost have that ability to be able to drop into Porsches when he wants
and when he likes just because of the history that he's had with that sport. What was his average
finishing position? 17th. Yeah, not great. Okay, we'll move on to PMR then next. I'm going to
start with Nick Halstead. I'm going to get out of the way early. He finished 27th overall.
Yes, he did score some points. I've gone for a D better than the E at the first part of the season
because he had to say he did manage to go and get some points in the second half. However,
the blue flag incident and not kill is really, really poor off the pace far too often in the pits
more often than he wasn't. He's not going back next year and with all the respect in the world,
I just don't think he's at a level to compete in the Turin cars. Simple as that.
Yeah, so of all the drivers that competed this season fully, he had the most non-finishes or
non-classifieds with nine, an average finishing position of 20th. I've given him a D as well.
Yes, he did have two point scores with two 14ths. But the rest of the season, he really didn't show
anything of note, really. And this is the difference between him and Nick Hamilton.
Is that Hamilton was at least more often than not, I think, on the tail of the points playing
positions. Whereas whenever at the events, Halstead just seemed to be half of that down
within two, three laps of the race started. Too many incidents, too many errors.
Yeah, it's a D. Doble on the other side of the garage. I've given a B for, so he finished 18th
overall. Obviously, he had to deal with the fact that they lost the Astra due to the fire.
He had taken the race win in the first half of the season as well and managed to get the
Cupra competitive enough to still be competing in the independence right till the last. So,
for that reason, I've given him a B. In other scenes, it might have been a C because I do
think the second half of the season did drop off, but I think there is real mitigation to why that
happens. Yeah, I have given him a C. I think actually considering the circumstances that
they were put in, that second half of the season is actually quite impressive. Being able to jump
into a completely unknown car, not just for PMR as a team, but Doble as well, never raced that car
before, to be able to go and almost get on the pace fairly quickly. I mean, scored a point up at
Knock Hill, getting into that car in the first weekend, and then followed it up with several
points finishes after that. I don't think he could have asked for too much more, and obviously,
that made him win this season. Yeah, an average position of 13th, which is about where you'd
expect Mikey to be, sort of firmly in the points. Obviously, some weekends would be close to the
10th, other weekends a bit close to the 15th, but yeah, I think I would have probably gone for a C
had it not been circumstances that ended up playing out. Didn't actually have a non-finishing
second half of the season, so some reliability in that Cooper as well. No, he did drop it once in
qualifying, I think, on his own, but yeah, it was a decent effort in the end by Mikey, so I've gone
for a B. WSR were next in the championship, would you believe, in 7th, so we'll cover there three
4 drivers off, actually. Now, we'll start with the lone ranger that was
Daryl de Leon, so he finished 13th overall, Jack Sears champion, average finishing position of
11th, took wins this season and two polls, so I have gone for an A. I think this was a real
season where the pressure was on. He'd gone from being a relative nobody in a team that was not
expected to be competing at the front to one of the most prestigious and well-known teams on the
grid. A lot of pressure was on, I think, was put on him to perform, being in with the team,
and he did just that. As I say, he took polls, two of them. He took race wins,
he took podiums, and he won the Jack Sears. I don't really see what more he could have done.
He eased himself into the car quite nicely, didn't he? I think when we came to the
second weekend of the season at Browns, all of the BMWs were looking fairly well on it,
including him. Taking those two polls right at the end of the season really cements his one lap
pace, being able to pull it out at an important time, especially looking towards that Jack Sears
championship. I think he'll be a little bit disappointed that he hasn't been in Rainford
in the main championship, although he has taken the Jack Sears title off of him.
I think Rainford will be more disappointed than De Leon.
Do you think?
Yeah, absolutely. De Leon has got a trophy in the cabinet at the end of the season.
With all respect to Rainford, you don't get any trophies of finishing eight.
No, no, that is true. I've given De Leon a B overall.
That's harsh, man. What do you have to do to get an A out of interest?
Really out of interest?
To finish probably top 10 in the championship.
But you look at who's beaten him in the top 10. Is there any real surprise
when you think that the BMW has not been particularly strong this year as well?
I'm surprised that Moffat's beaten him.
Moffat isn't top 10.
No, but I'm surprised that Moffat has beaten him.
A more experienced driver in real-world drive machinery and has got
near enough 10 years experience in the touring cars now.
Yeah, but you know my feelings on Moffat.
I do understand and I do agree.
Statistically, he's the worst performing BMW.
Which is mad.
I know.
But I do.
Considering the season we believe they've had as well.
I do agree with you to an extent that I would perhaps have expected to finish
higher in the championship overall.
I do agree with you on that.
However, let's not forget that when he took pole at Silverstone,
the car gave a honing on the way to the grid.
Let's not forget Croft that he had nodded on finish to the point of Croft
and then the Camish and Raymond Inston wiped him out.
So I don't think it's all of his own making either.
I just say, I've been really impressed with him.
You've got to remember this is only his second full season in the touring cars
and he had a very quick promotion to a very big team.
And we've seen it in other motorsports when that happens,
the pressure is on you and not everybody can deal with that pressure.
And I think he's dealt with it pretty well.
There is no doubt that that boy's got speed.
It'll be interesting to see whether he does actually stay in the championship
for the 26th season.
There are plenty of rumours surrounding his whereabouts for next year.
But I think wherever he goes, he will make a good fist of it.
And I will last point on him.
I will agree with you that I think that his one lap pace is stronger than his Sunday pace.
I think that is something he will need to work on.
However, let's not forget he is still 20 under 20.
He's got time on his side to perfect that side of things, shall we say?
Yeah, yeah, I suppose.
Right, let's go to the LKQ part of the WSR setup.
And that was Moffat and Househead.
Moffat and Rainford, thanks very much.
We'll start in Moffat as he finished 11th overall.
Average finishing position of 11th.
Bang on average, that's what I've always said about him.
Still hasn't managed to really get grips with qualifying.
Maybe the new format will suit him better.
I've gone for a C overall.
It was just a season of fine is basically how I'd term it.
So this may surprise you.
I've gone for a B for Moffat because he's performed better than I expected him to.
Yeah, but you expect him to do nothing because that's probably why.
Yeah, okay.
I didn't expect him to be challenging for the top 10 in the championship.
In all honesty, I thought he would be probably 14th, 15th.
So to be there, only one non-finished this season as well.
Pleasantly surprised and he'd done it quietly.
There hasn't been any big moments where we've gone at high as Moffat's fault
or he's been involved in something.
I agree.
He has us in rotten luck this season as well.
I would count your B slightly with no podium.
No, no, that is true.
Which you would expect.
I know the car wasn't perfect at all times.
However, a relative of the rookie took a podium and Jake Hill's Jake Hill.
Yeah, the fact that he's the only BMW driver that hasn't taken a win this season
is slightly disappointing.
Well, even a podium.
Kind of where I thought he would be.
Yeah, for me to say it's fine, but it's not terrible.
It's not spectacular.
It's kind of a Moffat's bin for the last couple of seasons.
A stall of the championship.
Yes, a good driver.
Yes, not a bottom tier, not a top tier somewhere in the middle.
Let's move on to Rainford then who was his teammate and into the season for the first
time in his career.
We also did an interview with him.
If you're listening to the channel for the first time,
so go and dig that out on YouTube Spotify and all of the good places.
Eighth overall in the championship did take his maiden win, his maiden poll,
and compete the Jack Sears right to the end and potentially had Aaron Taylor Smith,
had different ideas, may have took the championship.
I've gone for a B overall.
I think him and De Leon have had very similar seasons.
I can't rate him higher than De Leon because De Leon ultimately won what
the target would have been at the start of the season.
And Rainford's done really well to finish top 10.
However, I'm confident if he did something at the start of the season,
what his aim would have been, it would have been the Jack Sears.
And ultimately, it sounds really harsh for this way, but he failed into that objective.
I was going to say, we know what his objective was at the start of the season,
and he's coming under on the points total as well that he set himself.
So yeah, I think I might actually adjust that.
I will go for a B.
Have you gone for an A?
I had.
That's because he likes us and likes us in the trailer.
He had an average finishing position this season of 10th with three non-finishes along the way,
which is probably what just swung it in the Jack Sears.
I would just say as well that obviously these grades are A, a little bit of fun,
but he has had a really good season as a rookie.
This is probably the best rookie season I can remember for a long time.
Yeah, to finish eighth in the championship.
Any other year he'd have won the Jack Sears at a canter,
it just so happens that he came up against a really quick guy in the car of equal ability as his.
He had that been a year otherwise, he'd have walked it.
But I think a really strong year, and I hope to see him back next year.
Three fastest laps throughout the season as well.
Again, we said about Darryl, this boy's got speed as well, and he's a very good wheel-to-wheel racer,
and he's only going to get better the longer he's in the series for.
So hopefully we see him back as well.
Moving on, Jake Hill's next in the final part of the WSR Stable.
I've actually gone for with Jake Hill a B, so the car wasn't with him all year.
Finished fourth overall.
We know the car wasn't with him all year.
Obviously he did have to withdraw from a round as well.
He was ill, you know.
Do you know what?
I might need to push that to an A.
I've gone for an A, considering how poor the car was at that opening round.
The fact that he's missed a weekend through being withdrawn
has still been challenging for third in the championship.
After that opening weekend, he's not going to be anywhere near this championship.
And okay, he wasn't in the end.
But I don't think we were then expecting him to finish or try and finish third overall.
No, second half, Jake, I think was a lot stronger than the first half, Jake.
Do you know what?
I could be persuaded into an A on that one, actually.
What was his average finishing position?
Sixth, which is exactly the same as Camish.
That's actually slightly surprising.
It's that high, given how some weekends the BMW just was absolutely nowhere.
How many wins did he take in the end?
I haven't got wins.
I've got four DNFs, which again is the same as Camish, and he took three wins in total.
So he had that one at Brands where we thought, okay, the car is spot on.
It's right back on it.
He also took another podium that weekend.
And then he had that really good weekend at Knock Hill.
After the weekend, he got withdrawn at Croft.
Yeah, no, I can be persuaded into an A for Hill.
Ultimately, it wasn't a particularly strong title of defense.
However, I think as we said, the car had clear limitations this year.
And there's two other drivers in the championship that were on the song.
Yeah, like I said, both those teams have really kicked on their development as well.
Obviously, we know Jake's not going to be back next year, which is a blow for the sport,
but I completely understand why he wants to go and try his hand at something new.
And I'm sure he'll be very good at it.
Yeah, no, I can be persuaded into an A. I can be persuaded into an A.
Blimey, I've convinced him.
Yes.
Yeah, no, I can be convinced.
Right.
Do let us know your thoughts and feelings down in the comments.
You can grade all the drivers.
You can grade the drivers that you like.
Tell us how you think their seasons have gone and do let us know throughout this.
Right.
We'll do the Toyota boys and that's where we started with Toyota.
And that will end the first half.
Which ones?
We'll do...
Let's start with Darlan.
That's like Darlan, he's top of my list, basically.
Didn't compete the full season.
What was the merry-go-round that has been Toyota this year?
To be fair, he only missed the last three rounds and that was due to drivers getting swapped
about and a better driver being on the market at that point.
It's harsh on Darlan, though.
It is really harsh on Darlan because I think he performed nicely up until then.
I've given him C overalls.
If he was 19th overall in the championship, I thought that he...
Did he take a Jack Sears win over the weekend?
Yes.
Like a whole outright weekend?
Because he was your changed driver.
That's right.
Yeah.
So, I thought he performed pretty well coming in midway through the season.
I've gone for a C overall.
Solid, if not spectacular, but certainly not off the pace either.
In a car that was absolute dog beep whilst he was in it.
Yeah.
Didn't get to experience that M Sport engine, did he?
So, it would be interesting to see what he would have achieved with that.
He had an overall finishing or an average finishing position of 14th, actually,
which in that car and the driver that he is being new to the championship,
I think he's really respectable.
I completely agree with you.
What was your grade?
A C.
A C as well.
Pearson didn't compete the second half of the season.
So, we've put him down for what he had for the first half of the year, which is a C from me.
Again, we won't repeat what we said in the first part.
Just to say it's a shame he couldn't compete the full season.
However, his goal was a Jack Sears and let's be frank,
he was nowhere near it in the car.
Let him down along the way.
No, definitely not.
Who next in that team we shall go for?
We're not going to do Leslie's only one round.
Buxton will do.
He finished 20 seconds in the championship and I've gone for a C.
Yeah, I've gone for a C as well.
Didn't do too much wrong.
I only had one non-finish in the rounds that he competed in.
I'm not sure we'll see him back.
Depends what Toyota are going to do with their driver line-ups.
We know they chop and change quite often.
So, we will see.
Yep.
We will then quickly touch on Aaron Taylor Smith.
Yep.
Next.
Four seasons for me.
Yeah, look, I don't know whether it's just because I've compared it to last season
and he was best of the rest in the PMR and what should have been a lesser car
and then gets an upgrade into a Toyota to finish 17th overall in the championship.
It must feel like a real letdown.
Yeah, and driving standard, I've gone for a D as well.
I've gone for a C, but driving standards.
Okay, there's a bit of recency bias because we remember the last weekend the best,
but he was involved in I think in every race.
But I just feel like he's just not had the confidence in the car, the speed in the car.
We know there's been problems with the car, of course,
and we know it's always been difficult to compare yourself to a multiple champion in Sheddon.
However, there were times where if you'd asked me who the rookie in the team was,
it would have been Aaron Taylor Smith, not a Dorling or a Buxton.
I think that only speaks volumes to the difficulties he's faced this season.
I don't think he'll be at Toyota next year, I have to say.
Yeah, I've gone for a D overall.
What was it overall finishing?
I've gone for a D overall.
His overall finishing or average finishing position was actually 11.
But the big kicker to that is he had the most DNFs of all the people that competed
every round of the season.
It's seven, sorry, outside of Halston Hamilton.
A driver of his caliber and of his standard,
and with the team that is behind him,
you should be maybe looking for maybe three or four DNFs at most.
Yeah, I'm going to also beam a little bit of no podium because,
okay, look, the car wasn't really capable of taking a podium in the first half of the year.
We know that.
However, they all got the engine and two of the drivers then did get further podiums
and actually took race wins, not just podiums.
And one of those wasn't brand new to the car for a couple of rounds.
Okay, he raced it last year.
But yeah, it wasn't a great showing from mountain Smith.
Talking out of that driver, Mr. Josh Cook stepped into the car for the final three rounds of the
season and was lucky enough to step into the car at probably his best point of the season.
Having missed two rounds, three rounds, two rounds with one motorsport,
pulling out with the illness of Steve Dutman.
Yeah, so he took a win in that final round or race of the season.
He also took another podium in the final race at Silverstone as well,
which was a fairly good showing and kind of the showing that we would expect from Josh.
Yeah, had it been a microcosm of those rounds in the Toyota, I'd be looking at a B possibly an A.
I have to look at the seasons as a whole.
The first half, he was nowhere really, to be honest with you.
The car was poor.
The car was poor.
Obviously, we then had two rounds.
He wasn't there.
So I've gone for a C because he's difficult to grade because of that.
Because I say the Toyota side of things, yeah, he was really good.
The Honda side of things in the car he knew and loved.
Wasn't so good.
So I've gone for a C overall.
Agreed.
He had one non-finished in the season that was in the Honda.
He's got an average finishing position in the races that he finished of.
I've gone for a C as well.
Yeah, as I say, next year, if he can get a good team from the off and a car that's decent,
I think we'll see Cookie back towards the front of the grid for sure.
For sure.
And then finally, I think the standout driver at Toyota this year is Gordon Sheddon.
So he finished ninth overall, top 10 of the championship.
Which I'm slightly surprised about in some ways, given the caliber of drive we have in the series now.
I think midway through the season, if we'd have said that Sheddon was going to be in
the top 10 of the championship at the end, I'd have probably laughed just because of how the car
was performing and how the Toyota drivers were performing.
He'd only taken one win at all, but that was heavily affected by the weather.
And don't get me wrong, he made the right call when he did well.
But that is the great leveler.
And that's where great drivers like Sheddon will earn their corn.
But second half of the season, particularly when they switched to the new engine,
he was a different man, was they took a further race win?
And I think a couple of podiums along the way as well.
Yeah, I mean, for the last three rounds, his lowest finish was the 16th at Silverstone.
Apart from that, he had two-thirds, two-fourths, three-sevenths.
Do you want to take a further win?
No.
Oh, I apologize. I thought we took a further win.
Apologies.
So yeah, it was a good end to the season from him.
He's only had two non-finishes across the season.
I'm actually giving him a B.
I got for an A purely because of the second half turnaround.
I mean, very easy to lose interest in the project, I think.
And I think some drivers of the past who have driven to it
may have lost interest in the project when it's not been going well.
I think he showed his professionalism in carrying on
and trying to find ways to extract the best from the car.
Make sure he would have gotten himself back on the podium at different times throughout the season
and kept plugging away.
And to get a top 10 finish overall, when you look at the drivers he's edged out,
I think he's done pretty damn well.
So I can understand a B, but I've gone for an A just because I think the turnaround
and the mood that affect that had on the team as well is to his credit.
Do you think we'll see him back next season?
I think the recency bias and the hyperbole of the way the season finished,
he'll want to come back.
I think had you called it halfway, he might not have bothered.
I think he'd have walked it halfway.
But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if we did see him.
Look, Toyota need to keep for me at least two of the drivers that they finish the season with
because they can't keep having this chopping and changing because it doesn't give any,
there's a reason in my opinion that Napa and Hyundai are so far ahead of the rest of the field.
Because they're able to develop.
And they've had two A-star drivers in their both teams.
I've got two A-star drivers who have been able to develop that car over a number of years.
That's why they're so far ahead.
And if Toyota want to get there, they need to start keeping good top tier drivers like a Shedden,
like a Cook in the car to keep developing.
So yeah, I think we will see him back.
I think if we don't, then I think Toyota really are in trouble.
Okay, that's fair enough.
Where are we moving on to next then, mate?
I think next we have restart racing.
You finished 4th overall because we've covered ladies' tools under WSR.
So we'll start with Chris Smiley who finished 14th overall.
I've gone for a C and I'll tell you why I've gone for a C.
I'll tell you for why.
People might think that's quite harsh, but really,
no, with three rounds to go, the independence was all but one for Chris Smiley, I think.
And then those last few rounds, just the wheels fell off and it allowed Lloyd in.
And I think that the car has been very good for the season.
I think as a team, they've really kicked on from last year.
Give the team enormous credit.
But I am stunned that we've come to the end of the season
and they've only taken one podium, which was obviously Lloyd's win.
And I'm stunned that Smiley hasn't taken the podium.
And there's been at least once, if not twice,
he's had the reverse grid pole and he's fallen apart.
Yeah. The speed that Smiley showed at the start of the season,
we thought, okay, we're getting a good Smiley season here.
We're getting a good competitive driver and a good competitive car
that's going to start to kick on and maybe take some podiums
and maybe even nick a win before the end of the season.
And then it really did not quite capitulate,
but it certainly took a downward turn.
I've given him a C overall, so I agree with you on that.
Apologies, he did take a podium.
He took a third earlier in the season just before.
And he had six non-finishes across the whole season.
Which is what perfectly curtailed that independent championship test.
Because if you don't finish in those sort of championships,
you don't score any points.
Yeah. And the last sort of few rounds,
it just seemed that all the speed had gone from his car,
not the cars as a whole.
It was both of them, you go, okay,
they just dropped off or ever teams had developed around the season.
But it was just him.
There's a set of four results in there that span across the Donnington
and Silverstone race weekend, where Smiley started with the non-finish,
followed by 21st, followed by 15th, followed by 15th.
Now, in those same rounds, Lloyd finished 10th, 8th, 1st and 6th.
On the road, that is not just in the independence.
Yeah. Which I think really switched that season around.
Finishing, average finishing position of 11th,
which is the same as his teammate, quite fun.
And to be fair, that's probably why I've given him the C as well,
because they have been nipping tuck for most of the season.
They've been quite level with each other.
But one of them's got a trophy.
Yeah. And I'd argue, with all due respect to Lloyd,
who took the trophy in a win,
he kind of stole it from the jaws of defeat.
Yeah, especially with halfway through the season,
with that engine failure that he suffered at Croft,
knowing that he was almost going to be on the back foot,
looking for extra funding, having a sponsor dropout on him.
Sorry, I'm moving on to Lloyd now, by the way.
And to then come back at the end of the season and go,
yes, I've achieved it.
I've done what I wanted to do at the start of the season.
Importantly, I've beaten my teammate.
Yes.
Although not in the championship, but in the championship,
that means a little bit more to them, quite possibly.
Well, as you said, the Jack Sears, as I say,
Reinfeld did really well for his N8, but he ain't got a trophy to show that.
Yeah. I've given Lloyd a B for this season.
I've gone for an A. Again, on the similar logic,
I've went with De Leon.
He has won the championship.
He was setting out to win.
And again, perseverance would have been easy to see Smiley getting so far ahead
in the same machinery and get quite downbeat and think,
I just can't get close to him.
But ultimately, he's taken the win for restart,
their first win in the series.
And he's taken the home that an independent trophy
and contributed in them winning the independent teams at an absolute canter.
So for Lloyd, there were a few low moments in there.
Obviously, Alton Park with the crash he had wasn't a particularly high moment for him.
But I can't give him any lower than an A
because he's achieved what he would have wanted to achieve
and taken an outright win along the way.
Yeah. That's fair enough.
Who are you moving on to?
We'll go on to Team Virtue next because we've had both WSR cars.
The Virtue did finish behind Napa.
Well, do you want Napa to give an Ingram won the championship?
What do you want? Do you want to break?
I don't mind.
We'll break routine and go Napa next.
And just because Ingram is the championship winner.
We'll start off with Osborne, who finished 16th overall.
Did take an outright race win his first of his career at Silverstone.
However, I've gone for a C based on him being so far off in the Jacks.
Again, which is what he's, you know,
yes, the one who's ever going to be able to take away from him.
He's a race winner in the Turbine cars.
But you can never win the Jacks.
Is now.
So I've gone for a C overall.
An average finishing position of 13th,
which I think isn't good enough in that car.
I'm going to be brutally honest.
I will say that there were points this season where you thought,
Blimey, he's racing really well.
This is some real nice stuff from him.
But there's other weekends where he just went completely missing.
And that is the Osborne problem.
The win that he took at Silverstone.
Now, yes, it was a reverse grid win.
They all count.
But as you say, they all count.
But the way that he drove that win,
he was out front.
He was commanding.
He was consistent as well and not making any mistakes in that race.
It's what we need to see more of if he's going to possibly push towards
getting into the top 10 championship, breaking into the top eight,
being one of those drivers that you can look at and go,
is it going to take a win this weekend or pick up a podium,
take a poll or something like that?
That, I think, needs to be where he's next got to develop to.
Yeah, I would agree with you on that.
I would agree with you.
OK, let's go for row bottom, finished fifth in the championship.
He did.
Let third really slip from his grasp, in my opinion.
Average finishing of seventh at times was brilliant.
And then it seems to me, the Donnington incident with Sutton
just sapped all of his confidence from him.
And it all fell apart a bit from there.
Ending up with him spearing Camish into a wall at Brown's Hatch.
Potentially cut that cost.
Well, there's no potential value.
That did cost Napa the manufacturers award.
I would have seriously, at a halfway point in the season,
I had him as an A and I had him as one of the drivers of the season.
At the full point of the season, I've relegated him to a C.
What's harsh about that?
He's lost to Jake Hill, who missed an entire round, Sam.
What I would say is that his only two non-finishes have come
right at the end of the season at Silverstone and at Brands.
He's had an average finishing position of seventh,
which is only one place down on Hill and Camish.
His speed certainly dropped off in the second half of the season.
I agree with that.
I've gone for a B because I think this is his best season to date.
It is, but it should have been even better.
That's why I've dropped to the C. He should have been finishing
minimal fourth.
At one point, he was almost guaranteed to have third,
but he was really making a strong fist to third.
Okay, things can happen and you don't finish third.
What I would say is that things happened because he made them happen.
You can't say, point, I just got so unlucky with a tire blowout.
I'm not blaming Sutton's championship loss on the incident at Donnington Park,
but it was clumsy.
It was clumsy.
And then, but you give him the benefit of the doubt.
Okay, it's restart.
That can happen.
Fine.
Brands hatched one on count.
I'm still sitting here wondering what the heck he thought he was doing.
He gave Camish a much harder time than he ever gave Ingram,
trying to get past him.
I just don't understand that weekend period from Robot.
I don't really understand how he's finished fifth from where he was.
I can't believe that he's allowed Hill to get back in front of him.
I really can't.
In the off season, he's going to need to improve possibly a little more in his race craft
because we have seen this season that he's been a little soft at times.
But other times he's been brilliant.
Thruxton, he was fantastic.
Those those overtakes he set up through Thruxton complex.
Go even forward.
I don't think he's got an issue.
I think it is the defending aspect of things,
especially when you're trying to back up a teammate like Sutton,
possibly Camish, if he goes for it next season,
to win a title, you need to be that that period's for this to happen.
You need to be that driver that's going to hold him back to the last death.
I also think that he potentially, this is potentially harsh to say,
because I don't know him, but a bit more steeliness, maybe it does feel that
I could be wrong, but it does feel that incident was certain.
Just was the turning point where conference really got sapped from him.
And I think we saw you can correlate the drop off to there.
There seems to be a decent amount of speculation to suggest that
he will probably be back in the series for next season.
But where?
But not necessarily with Napa.
Now, Bridges may well have been burned due to the incidents that have happened,
but we certainly know that he carries a decent amount of backing,
so we should expect to see him somewhere.
I completely agree with you.
Right, Camish, his teammate then who finished third overall,
a good season on the whole, I'd say, from Camish.
Average finishing position of sixth, which is perhaps a little bit lower than you expect,
but there have been some non-finishes in there.
And of course, he forgot to turn the car back on after the safety car brand's hatch.
He'd gotten a bit of beef with Ingram, which is quite fun to see on Twitter.
That's always nice to see.
Third overall, look, he was legitimately best of the rest.
So I've gone for a B, took some race wins along the way.
I would say that ultimately, if he wants to become a British Touring Car Champion,
he needs to get that little bit quicker and little bit more consistent.
That's something Ingram have.
I will just say, though, that the consistency and the level they're at is just an insane level.
And there's no shame in not being able to reach that level,
because you are seeing two of the greats of their sports operating at a level
that I think we've really seen before.
So I've given Camish an A for this season just because Ingram and Sutton are that step above.
And I think behind them, he has definitely been the best driver after that.
And I know the points back it up.
He's had four non-finishes across the season.
And two of those were really late on where Robotom happened.
But he's taken more wins this season, which is encouraging.
And I think it's the best we've seen him since he was in the Honda.
Yeah, I'd probably agree with that.
I probably agree with that.
But one goes far as an A.
OK, that's fair enough.
But that's fine.
Right, Sutton then.
And this is why I haven't gone for an A for Camish,
because I've gone for an A for Sutton.
Drove really well, overtook like Sutton does.
Got me out my seat, got me.
Sutton is one of the drivers why I like touring cars.
It's simple as that, because he does stuff that nobody else can do.
And he does outlandish moves.
He goes, how on earth have you done that to the position you've managed it?
Lost out to an insanely good driver and an insanely good team.
I don't think Sutton could have done a great deal more.
I don't think the car was there all season.
I certainly think it tailed off towards the end as well.
Average finishing position of fourth.
Yeah, that's about right.
Finished every single race.
Every single race.
Model wins.
Yes, he had a race where he finished down in 20th because of an issue.
But he was still running there at the end.
And that's what really counts.
Yeah, as I say, I was a bit disappointed that towards the end of the season,
that the car couldn't hold a candle to the Hyundai.
But Sutton, for me, certainly got I think he could out of that car.
And obviously, I can't give an A-star because not with the championship,
but I can't do any lower than an A either.
Yeah, I've given him an A as well.
He was unlucky to miss out, but he's come up against a tight and an Ingram.
Agreed.
Right, let's finish off then with Virtue.
We'll quickly touch on Michael Crease who, due to the administrative error,
if you want to put people light, was unable to do any more racing in the season.
So his race grade from the first half stands with a D.
Wasn't overly impressed with the speed.
I can't see a world in which he's back next year.
And there's Jason Plato's offing him a lifeline.
Possibly.
But I doubt it.
I very much doubt it.
Right, we'll crack on then with...
Let's go Proctor, who was Crease's replacement.
So obviously, he came in around early and he would have anticipated being.
Finished 10th overall, did pick up a podium as well.
I've gone for a B.
I think that his raw pace is incredible.
I think he did a fantastic job coming in.
I think if you're a teammate who's going for a championship,
if it would pick somebody to defend for you, you probably want Proctor in that category
because he's a hard, fast racer.
It was ridiculous how pivotal he became in that championship challenge for Ingram
and how he was near enough consistently the driver that was there to back Ingram up,
to be able to be the driver fighting off Napa teammates, WSR laser tools.
He was the driver that you won.
The thing is, they're two of them, didn't they?
If you're a driver, do you want a tangle with Adam Morgan?
Not really.
Do you want a tangle with Proctor?
Not really.
Chilton's a bit less so because he's...
I think that is where Napa have a slight problem is that do you want a tangle with Kamish?
He's a hard racer, but you also know he's a fair racer.
I'm not saying Proctor's not fair, but what I'm saying is that you can trust potentially
going wheel to wheel more of Kamish than you can Proctor.
That's not a negative on Proctor's part.
It's just a difference of racing styles.
Yeah, I've given him an A because I thought when he came in this season,
I really wasn't expecting much.
He's been out of the touring cars for a little while.
I thought he was going to take a little time to settle in, but he was right there,
right on the pace, felt really comfortable as well.
And to finish in the top 10 of the championship, where could he have been?
That's a great question.
The only reason I've not gone for an A is because I think that Kyle's
capable of taking a win and he didn't take a win, which part of that is because Ingram
was going for all the wins, but equally we knew that their stance was if a win's on the line,
we don't take it off you.
So slightly surprised that he, in fairness, he didn't ever look like taking a win either,
which I think is another reason I've gone for B.
It's not like he was battling second at one point and just lost out.
And to be fair, that's a quite a niche criticism because you say he came in half
of the season and really hit the ground running, finished at all but one race,
I think, average finishing position of...
So the races he competed in, it was eighth and that's probably where you would have
put him in the championship if he'd have been competing all season.
Yeah, I hope to see him back next year in the same team for the whole season because I think
that Senna is an incredibly talented and quick driver who we need to see more of in the championship.
Yeah, moving on to his teammate then, Tom Chilton, the other driver to take wins for
Virtue this season, finished seventh in the championship overall.
I'm giving him a B.
Yeah, I'm giving Chilton a B as well.
I think that's the best season we've ever seen from Tom Chilton.
Oh, I'm not sure I'd agree with that.
That's why I think on terms of pace, I think on terms of consistency,
I think on terms of being able to take multiple race wins, I can't think of a better season
personally. Now, I know you might go back to the shred of weekdays or finish third.
I would also argue that the grid was a lot less competitive in that season.
I think when you put in where, say, if you compare this grid and how good this grid is
and the fact that he was able to take multiple wins along the way, multiple podiums,
I think this is the best race we've seen from Chilton personally.
What lets it down slightly is the six non-finishes that he's had this season.
But that's Chilton.
I think if you start to tighten that side of things up,
he could have been challenging for third in the championship.
I agree with you.
That's why he's only got a B and not an A from me.
But I do think that, again, there's probably a bit of a reasons he buys, as I say,
but it's certainly his best season at Virtue, in my opinion.
I will take a debate on whether it's his best season of all time,
and there's arguments he made for the shred of week era.
However, for me, this is the most comfortable and quickest and consistent he's looked
in a very, very, very long time.
That's fair enough. Fair enough.
Moving on to Morgan, his teammate, didn't manage to take a win this season somehow
and just felt like he didn't have quite enough, despite finishing
higher in the championship than both Proctor and Chilton.
I've given him a B overall.
I agree.
But it was a really quite quiet season.
It was, however, you got to factoring that this was a switch back to the front wheel drive
after driving a BMW for three seasons, four seasons.
Was it two at Cargo or some two at?
A while.
Yeah. He'd been away from front wheel drive for a while, let's put it that way.
Also, to re-calibrate himself with that, get himself into a team where he wasn't going to be
number one, or I could be even number two driver.
And I thought he did really well.
I think he did take a couple of podiums along the way.
I think he raced well.
I think it's not a great surprise he wasn't up to the speed of Chilton and Ingram,
who had last year in the car as well.
Yeah.
Yeah, slightly disappointed he didn't take a win.
That's why I've gone for a B rather than A.
However, solidly in the top part of the championship,
solid, no real instance this year, even.
I think it's fair to say in the WSI era,
he was involved in one too many incidents, wasn't he?
Often involving a robot, if memory serves me right.
However, this year, I don't really remember Morgan being involved in anything particularly dodgy.
No, he only had three non-finishes across the season.
He actually took four second places overall.
He just didn't quite have enough to go and take that win, unfortunately.
And I think that's something he'll be aiming for next season.
I've got to assume that he's probably going to be back.
He's probably going to be back with Accelerate.
I don't see Accelerate going out to get a better driver
than him for the quality he gives.
All things being equal.
We know that Chilton's extended anyway.
All things being equal and money not being a factor,
they'd be crazy to change that form, in my opinion.
They work so well as a unit.
They'd be crazy to change it.
Right, then Tom Ingram then will finish off the grades here.
Obviously, it's an F, rubbish, rubbish.
No, it's an A star, isn't it?
He was fantastic throughout the season.
He took only wins along the way.
That car and him were in...
Some weekends, it was poetry in motion.
They were just so at one of each other.
It was ridiculously quick.
He took two pole positions, nine fastest laps across the season.
Only one non-finish, an average finishing position of third.
Just third.
You can factor how the reverse quids in that work.
I know.
Yeah, it's nonsense.
Yeah, it's crazy.
What is there to say about Tom Ingram?
We know he's quick.
And this year, he worked really well with the car.
The car worked really well with him.
And I have to say, from about halfway on,
we both thought Sutton had it in the bag.
I think it's fair to say.
The second half of the season,
Virtue didn't half-step it up with the car.
And I think the turning point for me where I thought,
maybe, although it was maybe one off,
was Alton Park on the wrong tyre,
where he was still able to do really well.
But look, that car just got stronger and stronger
throughout the season.
Apart from that non-finish,
his lowest other finish was 11th.
Yeah.
And that happened at once.
Again, you've got a fast, ridiculous, reverse grids
and stuff like that.
Yeah, look.
When you're going up against the driver of that quality
and consistency for Sutton to come as near as he did,
we know how good the driver's Sutton is.
But no one else had a hope in hell, did they?
No.
No.
I think the other thing for both of those drivers
was that they've triumphed very good teammates.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, but back next season.
I'd be surprised if he wasn't.
Now he's got the double.
He's got to want to go for the treble on the court, isn't he?
He wants to kick on now, I think.
He wants knowing that he's in the car that he's in.
He looks as comfortable probably as he's ever been
with the team that he's situated in.
He's got his engineer there that he has such a good working
relationship.
Yeah.
They almost work telepathically.
They don't really have to talk to each other at times
to know what needs changing and what needs working on.
And he's never really shown interest in going elsewhere,
like GTs or anything.
I know he likes the Historix, but to be honest with you,
you can do that alongside touring cars.
And there's not necessarily the age barrier in Historix
as there is some of the other series.
Obviously we know that Hill's always had interest in other
bits, Sutton's already in GT.
Ingram to the best of my knowledge hasn't.
So I don't see him stepping away from the touring cars for a while.
I think it'll be interesting to see whether he can defend the title
next season.
Obviously he struggled, but he did come up against quite a good
competitor when trying to defend his last title.
But yeah, I think he'll be there and he'll be looking to do a double.
Part of me, and this is going to sound bonkers,
part of me would like Sutton and Ingram not to be back next year
just to see who, you probably put the money on Camish.
However, there's still some very good drives in there.
Well, if people want to hear it, there is an alternative
championship table for a completely non-Sutton, non-Ingram
championship to see how it would figure out,
along with my other alternative championships,
which if you want to hear about them, let us know down in the comments.
Otherwise, you're not going to get to see it, basically.
There you go.
The alt-mater was on you guys.
But yeah, drive grades done for this season?
Thoughts?
No great surprises I don't think in there.
I mean, there'll probably be some people arguing a C to a D or whatever,
but I think overall fairly happy with our grades.
We've agreed a fair amount in there as well.
Again, just before people start shouting and popping off,
it's a bit of fun.
It means nothing.
None of this means anything.
Yeah, that's why we want to hear your grades as well.
Plenty of discussion down in the comments,
and do keep an eye on all our social media platforms
for any updates during the off-season.
We will, of course, bring you up to date with any news snippets,
normally at the end of every month,
as long as there is enough news to bring you.
We're obviously still waiting on Jason Plato's announcements.
We are, we are.
Bring those when we have them.
Yep.
Let us know your thoughts on how is that going to be announced
and who's going to be there, what they're going to be racing.
Obviously, we've seen a little bit of information
regarding the logo and stuff like that, but yeah, we'll see.
Until we speak again, goodbye for now.
Bye-bye.
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