British Touring Car Championship outfit West Surrey Racing had their recent success honoured at the annual BMW Sports Trophy Awards in Munich last Friday [9th December].
After claiming the Teams’ and Constructor’s titles in this year’s championship with the BMW 125i M Sport, the team was celebrated along with it’s three drivers – Sam Tordoff, Rob Collard and Jack Goff, who were also on hand to pick up accolades.
Established in 1962, the BMW Sports Trophy is awarded annually to the best-performing non-factory BMW driver. A separate award for Teams was introduced in 2013.
WSR’s success in the award caps off a silverware-laden season including four race victories and seventeen podium finishes in the category for Dick Bennett’s outfit, a fitting tribute to their tenth anniversary of running with BMW machinery.
Sam Tordoff, who narrowly missed out on a maiden title to Gordon Shedden by two points in the series finale, and who also announced his switch to GT racing from next season recently, placed 11th in the Global Driver rankings.
Team-mate Collard’s two victories delivered him to 13th, whilst Goff’s table-topping four fastest laps and two podiums ranked him 22nd among the contingent.
Mike Ewan, Director of the BMW Sports Trophy, paid tribute to WSR’s ability in ranking second overall, and paid tribute to BMW for their contribution as a manufacturer.
“The BMW Sports Trophy is a global competition between the world’s very best privateer BMW teams. It’s incredibly tough to win, so to be ranked second is a great testament to the truly exceptional performance by everyone at WSR during 2016 and gives us great confidence heading into the 2017 season. BMW is a fantastic manufacturer to be involved with and recognition like this shows how seriously they take competition and the teams that represent them on the track.”