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The touring car great who never won the BTCC

Steve Soper is one of the greatest names in touring-car racing, yet he never (for keeps) won the BTCC crown. Autosport looks back at his career on home soil

BTCC60

Celebrating 60 years of the BTCC As it marks its diamond jubilee in 2018, read the best of Britain’s most popular motor racing championship

The history books do not record Steve Soper as a British Touring Car champion. His 14 victories don't put him into the top 20 on the winners' list either, and yet the 66-year-old is a tin-top legend. Rather like Stirling Moss in Formula 1, Soper isn't just one of the best drivers not to have won the title, he's one of the greatest to have appeared in the category.

Soper played pretty much every role in the BTCC: the young champion stripped of the crown through a technicality; a supersub wreaking havoc on the regulars; a serious title challenger who narrowly missed out; the veteran persuaded out of retirement in an attempt to bring success to an uncompetitive car.

Previous article Carl Boardley replaces Team Hard's Michael Caine for BTCC Knockhill
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