SAM WELLER TOPS AUTOSPORT RANKINGS

Sam Weller has been named as the top driver from the British Touring Car Championship support package in the annual top ten list put together by Autosport magazine.

Weller enjoyed a fine season in the Quaife MINI CHALLENGE to secure the championship title in his second year in the JCW class, wrapping up top honours with two races to spare during the season finale at Brands Hatch.

The Hybrid Tune driver grabbed four wins over the course of the campaign but more impressively, never finished lower than sixth – which proved to be key in him beating the likes of Alex Denning, Jack Mitchell and Ronan Pearson to the title.

Weller’s performances on track drew praise from Autosport at the end of a season where there were dominant title wins in all five of the BTCC support championships, and saw him head the top ten list ahead of Ginetta Junior champion Josh Rowledge and British F4 title winner Alex Dunne.

“When there were five such dominant champions, all heading to the Brands Hatch finale on the brink of their respective titles, it makes it unbelievably tricky to rank them,” the rankings read.

“However, Autosport has attempted to and Weller may be a slightly surprising choice as number one. But the MINI CHALLENGE conqueror faced the largest field of all, packed full of potential title contenders, and never finished outside the top six.

“Considering that includes partially reversed-grid races, his consistency is very impressive.”

Graves Motorsport driver Denning also made the top ten, being placed in seventh spot as the second highest non-champion on the list.

Denning was praised for being ‘undoubtedly the championship’s form driver’ thanks to his impressive run of results in the second half of the year, where he scored seven wins from ten starts to grab second in the standings after an inconsistent start to the campaign.