3 ANDREW JORDAN

CAR: BMW 330I M SPORT TEAM: WSR CHAMPIONSHIP POSITION: 2ND POINTS: 318 WINS: 6

Jordan came up two points short, and he took part in only 90% of the season. So, by rights, he should have been the champion. Jordan joined WSR to go up against Turkington in the same car, and proved that he is every bit his match.

His three missed rounds at Donington Park mean that Jordan went into a considerable portion of the opening half of the season with less weight than team-mate Turkington. He took full advantage at some of the circuits that are traditionally more favourable to the rear-wheel-drive cars, such as Croft, and he had also doubled up at Thruxton.

He appeared to click with the rearwheel-drive car straight away and got up to speed faster than his team-mates, but the damage of three missed rounds was simply too big to overcome.

He clawed his way back into the title fight and it simply didn’t roll his way at Brands Hatch, which was a shame as his long-term backer Pirtek has withdrawn from motorsport and that has left him with an uncertain future at this level.

CAR: HONDA CIVIC TYPE R FK8

TEAM: TEAM DYNAMICS CHAMPIONSHIP POSITION: 9TH POINTS: 232 WINS: 0

In the second year with the Honda Civic Type R FK8, much was expected from Team Dynamics and Neal himself.

The learning had been done throughout 2018, and those lessons should have seen the hatchback climb up the order.

In truth, the car was faster that it had been in the previous campaign, but it came up against a huge steamroller from BMW. Neal has been around the BTCC block and he knows that drivers don’t necessarily have the best car for the entire year, but the Honda wasn’t on point until right at the end of the campaign.

Neal is an experienced points collector and that helped him to run inside the top 10 for the whole season without ever troubling the top step of the podium – it was the first time since 2001 that the Midlander’s towering presence had not been felt on the summit of the rostrum. He was often put in the shade in terms of outright pace by team-mate Cammish, but proved to be a team player as the sister car fought for the overall drivers’ title. He recorded his second ninth place in the points standings in consecutive seasons.