The Villeneuve-esque 'engineer's dream' who lit up BTCC 2020

The Infiniti Q50 was completely redesigned, redeveloped and revamped by BMR and Laser Tools Racing for 2020. And the flamboyant brilliance of the driver behind the wheel was enough to snatch the title at the last gasp…

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The Gilles Villeneuve of the British Touring Car Championship took home the ultimate prize in 2020 after a sensational display throughout this oddest of seasons, his otherworldly natural talent, car control and racecraft allied to an insatiable appetite for overtaking. And he did so at the wheel of a completely redesigned and re-engineered car that had a total dry-weather mileage still only in double figures when the action kicked off.

Ash Sutton, Laser Tools Racing, BMR Engineering and the Infiniti Q50 pulled off a smash-and-grab heist from under the noses of the acknowledged BTCC standard setters: four-time champion Colin Turkington, West Surrey Racing and the BMW 330i M Sport. It appeared to be a season-long performance of fizzing opportunism and audacity - far removed from the softly-softly Turkington/WSR approach - but in reality you have to delve much further back even than the coronavirus-extended 2019-20 off-season to discover the roots of what transpired.

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Author Marcus Simmons

Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.

Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.