[BTCC frog]

20. Steve Soper
The greatest BTCC driver never to win a championship, although this period doesn't cover some of his best seasons. Soper was the class of the field in 1991 and surely would have won the title had he done the full season. He was almost as impressive in 1992 as he again did a half-season, and put in one of the strongest ever drives at Silverstone to get back to fourth after being spun out early on. Unfortunately, he then hit Cleland (the man's an animal!) in order to help teammate Harvey win, and he loses marks for this as I believe the crash was completely intentional. 1993 saw Soper paired with Joachim Winkelhock, who surprisingly beat him to the title in the dominant BMW. Soper left the sport after a relatively underwhelming 1994 season, but returned in 2001 to drive a Peugeot and often challenged the far superior Vauxhalls at the start of the race. The final standings don't show it, but he generally got the better of Dan Eaves.
19. David Leslie
One of the mainstays in the championship during the super touring era, Leslie was another unlucky not to win a title. He began full-time in 1992 with the Ecurie Ecosse Vauxhall had perhaps his best season in 1993, winning at Thruxton and outscoring Jeff Allam. After a disappointing couple of years with an uncompetitive Mazda and then Honda, he had his other best season in 1996 in a stronger Honda and finished fourth in the points, with three wins. Leslie then switched to a Nissan, which got progressively stronger over his three years with the team. In 1998, he won a few races, but teammate Anthony Reid challenged for the title, and he finished a career-best runner up to teammate Laurent Aiello in 1999. After a couple of guest appearances, he returned full time in 2002 with Proton, which wasn't a particularly quick car but he clearly outperformed Phil Bennett. His final season in the BTCC was 2003, again comfortably beating Bennett's Proton.
18. Mat Jackson
After an impressive season in 2001 in the production class, Jackson returned to the championship in 2007 in a family-run BMW and instantly impressed with two wins and seventh overall. He finished runner-up in 2008, his best season, which really outlines the quality of his small team. A late move to Chevrolet in 2009 brought more wins but he wasn't able to challenge for the title as teammate Plato did, and Jackson returned to BMW in 2010 with Motorbase. This was his worst season and he was outdriven by Steven Kane. Over the next seven years, Jackson became a mainstay in the Motorbase Ford Focus, with particularly strong seasons in 2011, where he challenged for the title before a nightmare end to the season, 2014 where he finished fourth and dominated returning teammate Fabrizio Giovanardi, 2015 where he dominated the second half of the season with three consecutive poles after the team sat out the first five rounds, and 2016 where he outclassed Andrew Jordan and finished third. Jackson left the team for 2018 after attempting to get a drive with Team Dynamics, and Chilton's third in the standings suggests that Jackson may have been able to take that elusive title had he stayed. Attempted to return with Power Maxed for 2020 before the team pulled out, but hopefully will return fully at some point.
17. Paul Radisich
Radisich burst onto the BTCC scene halfway through the 1993 season and immediately outperformed illustrious teammate Andy Rouse. Despite only competing for half the season, he finished third in the standings after three wins and went into 1994 the clear favourite, but then Alfa Romeo entered and Tarquini dominated the championship. Radisch still finished third again, and won twice. The Ford Mondeo became progressively less competitive after that and Radisich was sixth in 1995 with one final win, then thirteenth in 1996 and 1997, ahead of Robertson and Hoy. He finally left the team in 1998 for Peugeot, but this proved to be a mistake as he finished fourteenth while former teammate Hoy came tenth and won a race in the Ford. Radisich still outclassed new teammate Tim Harvey, but left the BTCC at the end of the season. Again, deserved a BTCC championship.
16. Laurent Aiello
One of the greatest touring car drivers of all time only raced in the BTCC for one season, and the perfect way to describe his BTCC career is 'he came, he saw, he conquered.' Aiello drove the Nissan Primera vacated by Anthony Reid in 1999, and was teammate to the very quick David Leslie. He took a bit of time to adjust to the car, claiming that he was two seconds off Leslie in a pre-season test, but became a winner at only the second round of the championship at Silverstone. From then on, he was unstoppable, winning ten races including doubles at Thruxton and Oulton Park. Aiello was involved in a few too many incidents mid-season, and Leslie closed down his lead in the championship, but Aiello's title was never really in doubt. The final points gap of sixteen points between the Nissan teammates was not really representative of their pace difference, and had Aiello dedicated his entire touring car career to the BTCC he would surely be vying for number one spot on this list. But only doing one season has to count against him, so he instead he is number sixteen.