The top three from this season’s British Touring Car Championship have all received nominations for ‘National Driver of Year’ at the prestigious Autosport Awards.
Recently-crowned three-time champion Gordon Shedden is one of the favorites to retain the award, which he took last year after securing his second crown. He will be joined by fellow title rivals Sam Tordoff and Colin Turkington.
With an ominous sense of deja vu, the Honda ambassador put a disappointing triple header at his home circuit of Knockhill behind him before clawing back the deficit to eventual runner-up Sam Tordoff in the standings, and in doing so pulled off a similar comeback to the one he staged in the dying embers of the 2015 season to pip Jason Plato to the spoils.
For Tordoff, the nomination is the crowning jewel on a breakthrough year of sorts for the JCT600-backed driver. Though he lost the race for a maiden crown at the very last, an air of unerring confidence hung around the 27-year old throughout the campaign despite his precarious position at the top of the points table. Tordoff has never gone a season in the BTCC without winning a race – now it seems hard to imagine a championship battle without him as he considers his options moving forward.
Colin Turkington is no stranger to writing history – his victory in the opening contest at Oulton Park was not only the first win for Silverline Subaru BMR Racing – but the first for a Subaru competition model in the championship. The Levorg GT may have experienced it’s fair share of teething issues in the opening nine races, but with meticulous attention to detail, strong qualifying performances and racecraft as sharp as ever, Turkington came within a shout of an unlikely third crown, and was arguably the story of the finale behind Shedden.
The trio will face off against George Russell, Phil Keen and former BTCC entrant Jonny Adam in December. Autosport subscribers can cast their vote now at the following link; http://awardsvoting.autosport.com/?_ga=1.157166335.538489968.1444157779