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TouringCarTimes 2010 Awards: BTCC

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The TouringCarTimes Awards for the 2010 BTCC season are here…with one team in particular winning in every category they were in contention for.

Considered a ‘love him or hate him’ driver, it turns out a lot more people love Jason Plato than rumours would have you believe, as the two-times BTCC champion was voted the best driver with a staggering 45% of the public vote – the biggest winning margin in any of this year’s polls.

In second place, a strong run by Arena’s driver Tom Onslow-Cole saw him finish second to the champion with 13% of the vote, with fellow independent driver Paul O’Neill in a good third place with 9%.

Just one race didn’t stop you from voting for Fabrizio Giovanardi. The former champion from Italy winning the first two races of the year earned him fourth place in the vote.

Fan friendly driver Shaun Hollamby came in fifth place after his debut season, with the two Honda drivers following and Tom Chilton rounding out the top seven.

In the teams’ awards, Silverline Chevrolet were voted top with 27%, with the series champions, the Honda Racing Team in second place just 5% behind. Team Aon’s strong championship season saw the Littlehampton based squad close behind in third.

AmD Milltek Racing did a great job to be voted the fourth best team, just ahead of Tech-Speed with Sunshine.co.uk.

Tom Onslow-Cole was voted the top independent driver. The Ford driver who went into the final round with an outside shot of the overall title topped the poll for the independents, despite losing out on the trophy to team-mate Tom Chilton. Paul O’Neill was a close second place after a strong run in the ageing Honda Integra.

Shaun Hollamby was voted into third place, just ahead of Fabrizio Giovanardi, who was independently entered with Triple Eight at Thruxton. Indie’s champion Tom Chilton and NGTC powered driver Andrew Jordan rounded out the top six.

Team Aon’s strong second season with the Ford Focus ST earned the squad your vote as the best independent team in 2010, with a strong majority of the vote of 39%. In joint second place was Tech-Speed & AmD Milltek Racing, with Airwaves BMW just 0.2% behind in fourth.

Silverline Chevrolet driver Alex MacDowall was voted the best rookie in a season with few full-time newcomers. Shaun Hollamby, the team owner/driver who brought Volkswagen back to the BTCC was in second place.

Ben Collins, despite only competing in one race weekend with a troublesome gearbox picked up third place, just 1% of Phil Glew, who competed in two race meetings with two different teams due to sponsorship troubles at Triple Eight.

The result for the manufacturers award is the series result reversed, with RML/Chevrolet winning the award for the best car with a dominant 48% of the public vote. Arena’s controversial LPG and turbo powered Ford Focus was in second place with 29%, with the championship winning Civic of Team Dynamics in third place.

The winners from all of the categories in each championship will now be pitted against each other to see who you believe was the best of the best in 2010 shortly.