Top 10: Ranking the greatest BTCC Scots

Gordon Shedden is back in the British Touring Car Championship for 2025 after two years away, at the wheel of a Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Gazoo Racing Corolla.

The Scottish three-time champion is one of the standout greats of the NGTC era, and he’s far from the only driver hailing from north of Hadrian’s Wall to make his mark in the BTCC.

We’ve had a delve into the history books – and Autosport back issues – to bring you our take on the top 10 Scots from the BTCC’s past.

10. Dave Newsham

BTCC seasons: 2011-2017
Race wins: 2
Titles: 0

Even though he was born in South West Wales, this 2010s BTCC regular regards Inverness as home and raced under the Saltire.

With a successful vending-machine business, Newsham was a late starter in the ‘professional’ classes of motorsport, and was 43 when he dominated the 2010 Renault UK Clio Cup against opposition that included future BTCC runner-up Sam Tordoff.

He used that as a springboard to the BTCC, and it was Newsham’s second season that was his best. At the wheel of an ex-Triple Eight Super 2000 Vauxhall Vectra, powered by the new NGTC customer TOCA engine and run by the small Team ES Racing squad, he claimed pole for the opening round at Brands Hatch and was battling for the win before a collision with Jason Plato put him out.

With wins at Snetterton and Knockhill, Newsham went on to claim ninth in the standings, and was 10th in 2013 when he switched to Speedworks Motorsport to race a Toyota Avensis. Speedworks was in just its third BTCC season at the time, and its new discovery – a young man by the name of Tom Ingram – effectively replaced Newsham as team leader for 2014.

After this, Newsham battled on with AmD Ford and Power Maxed Chevrolet weaponry – via a sojourn in rallycross – before taking a podium finish during his final campaign in 2017 with a BTC Norlin Chevrolet.

9. Jonny Adam

BTCC season: 2009
Race wins: 0
Titles: 0

Given the Fife man’s record as a Clio Cup and SEAT Cup champion, it was logical that Adam should graduate to the BTCC for 2009. Perhaps less so that he should do this with a rear-wheel-drive Super 2000 BMW run by Motorbase Performance.

There was briefly a victory first time out at Brands Hatch, only for Adam to cop a penalty for his ill-gotten gains in getting past Plato. And by mid-summer, Motorbase boss David Bartrum was confidently predicting that the 24-year-old would be an “absolute star of touring cars for many years to come”.

He was correct about the “absolute star” bit, but had the wrong discipline… Adam couldn’t find a budget to continue beyond his first BTCC season, but moved into GTs, got his feet under the table with Aston Martin, and became an established top-line professional, with two GTE class wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours to his credit.

But Adam’s brief spell in the BTCC should not be overlooked. Although he was outscored by Motorbase team-mate Rob Collard, and never won a race ‘properly’, his run of 15 top-10 finishes from the final 16 races suggested that he could have been a real contender had he stuck around.

8. Gerry Birrell

BTCC seasons: 1971-1972
Race wins: 2
Titles: 0

Ford never really got behind the single-seater category that bore its name in the UK until the 1990s, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But it did throw its support into the inaugural European series for Formula Ford in 1969, and this was won by a promising young Glaswegian.

Birrell moved up to Formula 3 in 1970 and then graduated into F2 in 1971, when he was also signed up by the Blue Oval to race one of the first iterations – the RS2600 – of what would become colloquially known as the ‘Cologne Capris’ in the British Saloon Car Championship.

After finishing third on his first outing in the Race of Champions support round at Brands Hatch, Birrell suffered unreliability that meant he usually failed to make it to the chequered flag, and sometimes didn’t even get to the starting grid.

He was effectively single-handedly taking the challenge to the rumbling V8 Americana in the top class, and a third-place finish in the British Grand Prix support at Silverstone was a step in the right direction. Birrell was then promoted to victory a couple of weeks later when the Chevy Camaros that had finished 1-2 were thrown out due to technical infringements. A sweet result overall for the Birrell family, since elder brother Graham had won the two-litre class in his Escort.

A ferocious three-way fight for victory in the season finale at Brands led to a massive shunt between Frank Gardner’s Camaro and John Fitzpatrick’s Escort – and, at last, a win on the road for the Birrell Capri.

Birrell had a couple more UK outings in the Capri in 1972 but by now had bigger fish to fry. As well as Ford, he had caught the eye of Jackie Stewart and the future was rosy. He seemed destined for Formula 1, until his fatal F2 crash at Rouen in June 1973.

7. Rory Butcher

BTCC seasons: 2017-2023
Race wins: 11
Titles: 2019 Independents, 2019 Jack Sears Trophy

It’s often forgotten that the son of Knockhill circuit owner Derek Butcher had become nicely established in endurance racing – runner-up in the 2016 European Le Mans Series LMGTE class – when his career changed direction with a call-up to replace the injured Luke Davenport at the Motorbase Ford BTCC team in mid-2017.

Butcher then embarked on his first full campaign in 2018 with AmD’s ageing MGs, before the team acquired the still-potent Honda Civic Type R FK2s for 2019. Butcher became a race winner – three times – on his way to fifth in the championship and the Independents crown.

Fifth was as good as it got though. He emulated this on his move back to Motorbase for 2020 and its first season with the fourth-generation Focus ST and, in 2022, his second campaign with Speedworks Motorsport and its Toyota Corolla GR Sport. Butcher had a habit of coming on strong towards the end of seasons leading to great hopes for the next term, and this was again the case heading into 2023. But a disappointing campaign led to this very likeable and understated driver deciding on a sabbatical from the BTCC.

Butcher returned to the paddock in late 2024 in a coaching role to Sam Osborne and back with his old Motorbase pals (now known as Alliance Racing), leading to a marked upturn in form from his protege.

6. Tom Walkinshaw

BTCC seasons: 1972-1988
Race wins: 9
Additional class wins: 14
Titles: 1974 Class B, 1979 Class B

The late, granite-faced Midlothian is better known for controversy as well as his TWR team’s running of the Jaguar Group C and Volvo BTCC efforts, and it’s unfortunate that his driving exploits can be overshadowed.

Even here, Walkinshaw’s grandest achievement was arguably his European Touring Car Championship crown in 1984 with the Jaguar XJS, but he was an absolute force in the British Saloon Car Championship through the 1970s.

Walkinshaw won the 1970 Scottish Formula Ford title and seemed set on a path in single-seaters when he made his BSCC debut in September 1972 with a Ford Escort at Oulton Park. One week later, he took a single-handed class victory in the four-hour (over two parts) Tourist Trophy at Silverstone, a race that doubled up as rounds of the European and British championships.

With the switch to Group 1 regulations in 1974, Walkinshaw embarked upon his first full tin-top season, and a run of six class victories over the final seven rounds shoved him to the title in the four-litre division over Opel Commodore pilot Peter Hanson. On home ground at Ingliston, where the two smaller-engined classes ran in a separate race, he took overall victory not only in his regular Capri (over the V8 Camaros) but also in an Escort RS2000 – on the same day!

An even more impressive feat came in May 1976 when, as the head of his new TWR operation, he won the BSCC round at Thruxton in his Capri in between helicoptering to and from Silverstone to share a BMW CSL to victory with Fitzpatrick in the six-hour world endurance round…

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TWR developed a BMW 530i for 1977 and Walkinshaw was a frontrunner against the Capri hordes. Plans to move into a management role for 1978, with driving shared by Gunnar Nilsson, Dieter Quester and Rad Dougall, were scuppered – partly by Nilsson’s worsening cancer – and Walkinshaw found himself back in the driving seat, taking victory at the Oulton Park finale. For 1979, he dropped into the 2.3-litre set with the shrill, rotary-engined Mazda RX-7. The machine was controversial – was it really a saloon car? – and Walkinshaw dominated the division, only for a couple of mid-season glitches to deny him the overall title.

That was it for Walkinshaw in the BTCC, apart from a one-off at Brands Hatch in 1985 in one of his Rover Vitesses – he won – and qualifying a Holden Commodore for the 1988 Birmingham street race, which was cancelled due to crash delays from the headline F3000 event.

5. David Leslie

BTCC seasons: 1987-2003
Race wins: 9
Titles: 0

The bearded Lowlander was regarded more as a sportscar ace through the 1980s, when he formed his enduring relationship with RML team boss/driver Ray Mallock for Ecurie Ecosse Group C2 success in the world sportscar arena.

Leslie was a BTCC bit-part player when, with RML’s sportscar activities on ice due to Aston Martin’s pullout, the company identified the BTCC as its new ambition and Leslie was the obvious choice. Ex-works Vauxhall Cavaliers run under the Ecosse title were acquired for 1992, before RML built its own version of the model for 1993. Leslie’s form, including a win at Thruxton, was key to RML winning the works contract for 1994, but Vauxhall already had its own drivers…

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For 1994, Leslie had a disastrous half-season with Mazda before the plug was pulled on that programme, and landed at BTCC newcomer Honda for 1995. Three wins with the Motor Sport Developments-run Accord in 1996 showed the model’s promise, but Leslie was on his way back to RML, which was to mastermind the effort for series returnee Nissan from 1997.

Leslie’s best season was 1999, when he completed a Nissan 1-2 in the championship behind Laurent Aiello, but that was also the swansong in the BTCC for the Japanese manufacturer. A full-time return in 2002 came with the Proton Impian – not exactly a car to get the heart racing – from which Leslie wrung four podium finishes. When that project ended after 2003, he moved back into sportscar activity – he was a formidable test driver – before his fatal plane crash in 2008.

INSIGHT: Ranking the greatest BTCC drivers not to be champion

4. Anthony Reid

BTCC seasons: 1997-2009
Race wins: 15
Titles: 2004 Independents

Glasgow-born Reid was the other Scot chosen by RML boss Mallock to partner Leslie in his BTCC Nissan team for 1997-98, but the two couldn’t have been more different.

While Leslie grew up around the family garage – the mechanicking and engineering skills of he and his father easing the path into motorsport and running their own successful team – Reid was educated at boarding school, where the deeds of Old Boy Jim Clark inspired him. But like many of his generation, he was granted no family money for his chosen occupation, and Reid worked on North Sea oil rigs – he wasn’t drilling; he was cleaning the toilets – and bedded down in a Brands Hatch pit garage to fund his obsession.

A nomadic career took Reid to Japan’s Super Touring series, where he impressed Mallock with his feedback on the RML-built Vauxhall Cavalier he campaigned there, and then to Germany, where he drove for Nissan, so he was a perfect fit for the marque’s return to the BTCC. This paid off in 1998, when Reid’s late-season winning spree meant he ran Rickard Rydell close for the title.

A big-money move to Ford for 1999 meant a year of marking time before Prodrive reworked the Mondeo for 2000. In an epic three-way fight for the title against team-mates Alain Menu and Rydell, Reid scored the most points, but on dropped scores he narrowly conceded the title to the Swiss.

Reid was the only one of this trio to transition into the new BTC Touring era of the BTCC for 2001, but even that was belated. West Surrey Racing and the new MG ZS appeared late in the season, and Reid took a win at the Brands Hatch finale before becoming a mainstay of the squad until the end of 2004, with future four-time champion Colin Turkington citing the veteran as playing a key role in his apprenticeship, and Reid winning the Independents crown.

With commercial realities (plus ca change…) forcing WSR to slim to a single car for Collard in 2005, Reid was out of the BTCC, but did return to the squad in late 2009 to play a cameo role in support of Turkington’s successful title bid with Super 2000 BMW machinery.

3. Gordon Shedden

BTCC seasons: 2001-2022
Race wins: 52
Titles: 2012, 2015, 2016

Edinburgh-born Shedden won the BTCC-supporting Ford Fiesta title in 2000 but, unlike his successor Turkington, he couldn’t convert this into a full-time graduation. Instead, he was limited to a BTCC one-off in 2001 on ‘hame’ ground at Knockhill, where he piloted a GR Motorsport Ford Focus to a class victory in the Super Production division.

Next came a year in the doldrums before competing in the 2003 SEAT Cupra series, with its prize of a full-time seat in the BTCC. In a sliding-doors moment, Rob Huff pipped Shedden to the crown; the Scot stayed on in SEATs for another year – and missed out again.

Shedden finally got his BTCC break in 2006 with Team Dynamics and, barring a brief demotion in 2009 owing to commercial issues, became a fixture of the squad over the following decade. At the wheel of the Midlands squad’s Honda Civics, he went on to win the championship in 2012, 2015 and 2016, the second of these after an absolute epic of a final-round decider in which he charged through the field from 19th on the grid to fourth to wrest the crown from Plato.

After a spell in the World Touring Car Cup in 2018-19, Shedden returned to the comforting environs of Dynamics in 2021. Over the following two seasons, he took his BTCC wins tally to 52, only for the late pullout of sponsor Halfords to sideline him again for 2023.

He is so close to our number two in this list and, if he manages to propel the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla into title contention on his latest return in 2025, then ‘Flash Gordon’ could easily move up one spot…

2. John Cleland

BTCC seasons: 1989-1999
Race wins: 17
Additional class wins: 15
Titles: 1989, 1995

…but for now, a decade of competitiveness in the BTCC’s peak Super Touring era and the snaring of the 1995 crown against international stars including Menu and Rydell keep Lanarkshire’s finest in that coveted second spot.

Cleland, of course, is a two-time BTCC champion, but the first of those crowns pretty much proved the wisdom in the series moving to the single-class rules through which it transitioned in 1990 before full-time adoption in 1991. As a star in General Motors machinery in Production Saloons and Thundersaloons, he was chosen to pilot Vauxhall’s 16-valve Astra GTE in the two-litre class in 1989.

As brilliantly as Cleland drove the car, he had a motley collection of class rivals – and Vauxhall even had to enter a converted rally car for Louise Aitken-Walker to push up the numbers and guarantee its lead driver full points. While the Sierra RS500s fought it out up front and the BMW M3s battled behind, Cleland whirred around to become champion.

He stayed on board at Vauxhall for the first season of what became known as Super Touring in 1990, finishing runner-up in class, and over the first five Super Touring-only seasons was never outside the top four in the championship. Initially this was with Cavaliers run by Dave Cook, before RML won the deal for 1994. When RML revamped the car for 1995, Cleland couldn’t believe the lap times he was posting in testing, and a mid-season flurry of four consecutive wins cemented the crowning achievement of his career.

The switch to the Vectra for 1996, and then to the newly established Triple Eight for 1997, did not go smoothly for Cleland – or indeed anyone else around Vauxhall. But an Indian Summer in 1998 featured two wins at Donington, including the infamous wet-weather ‘Mansell’ race, before he bowed out at the end of 1999.

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1. Jim Clark

BTCC seasons: 1963-1966
Race wins: 8
Additional class wins: 9
Titles: 1964

For all his acerbic comments and loud proclamations, which made him a celebrity of 1990s BTCC, Cleland is at heart a very decent and kind chap, and we know he certainly won’t complain about being placed second in our list behind the man who all Scottish racing drivers worship as a hero.

Clark was on his way to his first Formula 1 crown in 1963 when he made his British Saloon Car Championship debut at Brands Hatch on 5 August in a monstrous Ford Galaxie. He won that, took another class victory on his second outing at Snetterton, this time in a Lotus Cortina, and dovetailed a full BSCC season with all his other activities in 1964.

That season, Clark won his class in all eight rounds – including two overall successes at Oulton Park where he vanquished the V8 ‘Yank Tanks’. Somehow, there were no clashes with F1, although he had to hotfoot it back from the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring for the early-August Bank Holiday Monday round the following day at Brands. Oh, and before he hopped into his Cortina, he just happened to win the F2 race and drove the Lotus 30 in the headlining sportscar event…

Clark also appeared in Cortina machinery for most of the 1965 races and some of the 1966 rounds. Out of 21 events, it’s a mark of the greatness of the man that, when he finished, only once was he defeated in his class. That honour went to Gardner at Snetterton in April 1965, and even then there were question marks raised over the competitiveness of the new BRM-tuned engines in the works Cortinas and their Dunlop tyres. And no one other than Clark won a BSCC round overall against the big-class cars in the legendary Lotus Cortina.

INSIGHT: Ranking the greatest BTCC champions