Throughout history, British drivers have been boasted as come of the best, and with so many disciplines of racing currently listed under the British national series and world series by the FIA we look at the most popular name of drivers through the years and identify some of the most unique British drivers.
We took a sample of drivers from the British Touring Car Championship listing all of the champions and drivers since the 2014 season. The most popular name of champions is Matt thanks to Matt Neal winning 3 BTCC championships and 3 individual championships next is Colin Turkington with 2 championships and 3 individual championships to his name. Most popular first name of BTCC champions is John with Sir John Whitmore, John Fitzpatrick and John Cleland champion in "61, "66 and "89 & "95 respectively. The most popular region for British Touring Car Champions to be born in is the West Midlands, with 3 of the 5 drivers from the region coming from Warwickshire, Jeff Uren and Bernard Unett were both born in Wolvey and went on to be British champions. Next in the table is the South West with three drivers followed by Northern Ireland.
Research into the full list of drivers on the British Touring Car Championship roster for every season since 2014 highlights the most popular name for British professional drivers in the highest national competition.
Most Common BTCC Pro Driver First Name
The most popular first name as concluded by our research is Tom, with Tom Boardman who competed in 2001, "02, "03, "10, "11 and the current season, Tom Oliphant has competed in the 2018 BTCC season for Ciceley Motorsport driving a Mercedes-Benz A-Class, the other Tom to race at the top of the national league is Tom Ingram who placed 3rd in the championship in 2017 with 311 points. Finally, our fourth Tom is Tom Chilton brother of ex-formula one driver, Max Chilton.
Most Popular British Pro Driver Surname
The Most popular surname of racing drivers since the 2014 season is Collard with Rob Collard with 19 seasons under his belt and Ricky Collard. Jackson is also the surname of two drivers Mat Jackson and Oliver Jackson are both professional drivers in the BTCC series who have both stood on the podium at a championship event. Smith is a typical British surname and racing is no different. Jeff Smith has raced in 7 seasons while his son Brett Smith has only raced for two series finishing third at Brands Hatch Circuit in 2018.