6 – Sam Tordoff
The 2013 season saw many rookie drivers enter the fray, including the youngest ever BTCC driver take to the grid in 16-year-old Aiden Moffat. Many appeared, some impressed – such as Jack Goff – but rookie stood out significantly.
That man was Sam Tordoff, the KX Akademy-backed former Porsche Carrera Cup race winner introducing himself to the tin-top stage in fine style by challenging his illustrious team-mate Jason Plato all season.
Joining Plato at the MG KX Momentum Racing squad, the pressure was there in spades for the Leeds driver, but he quickly got up to speed and often matched Plato’s pace during the season, the pair making up the front row of the grid on five occassions in 2013 as Tordoff revelled in the MG6.
Tordoff was by no means the whipping boy within the squad, and by the second half of the season soon began to even topple his more experienced team-mate before his successful breakthrough emerged at the sixth meeting of the year at Snetterton.
A maiden pole position saw him get the better of Plato in qualifying, before he drove a calm performance to lead home an MG one-two for his first ever BTCC win in just his 16th race, unlucky to add any more after an inconsistent spell towards the end of the year cost him any chance of joining the championship fight.
With 13 top five finishes and six visits the podium in 2013, Tordoff ended an encouraging first season as top rookie and sixth place in the championship as the end result, one any BTCC rookie would be content with.
