1998 British Touring Car Championship

The 1998 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship featured 26 races across 13 rounds, it commenced at Thruxton on 13 April and ended at Silverstone on 20 September.

[1] The championship was won by Rickard Rydell in a Volvo S40, the runner-up was Anthony Reid in a Nissan Primera and James Thompson finished in third driving a Honda Accord.

1997 champions Williams Renault, now in their fourth year of partnership in the BTCC, retained their driver line up of Alain Menu and Jason Plato once again driving the Laguna.

Nissan were another team to retain their driver line-up with the experience Scots David Leslie and Anthony Reid racing a pair of RML prepared Primeras.

TWR Volvo had also changed their lineup with former Ferrari, Footwork and Sauber F1 driver Gianni Morbidelli replacing Kelvin Burt, who switched to JTCC, to partner Swede Rickard Rydell who remained with the team for a fifth season.

Switching from Ford Paul Radisich joined Tim Harvey at Peugeot whose 406's were again run by Motor Sport Developments (MSD).

Mardi Gras Motorsport entered a Honda Accord for Norwegian Roger Moen until team and driver went their separate ways after the Croft rounds.

But the star of the season would be Anthony Reid, picking up eleven pole positions and seven victories, the most of any driver, and allowing Nissan to claim both the manufacturers and teams championships ahead of Volvo and Renault.

New team leader Bintcliffe was virtually non-existent all season, whilst British championship rookie Yvan Muller showed glimpses of pace throughout the year, although it was only enough for a handful of podium finishes.

Cleland was forced to miss a round due to injury, and was replaced by Brazilian Vectra challenge driver Flavio Figueiredo.

Kiwi Craig Baird was largely disappointing, whilst Nigel Mansell thrilled the crowds by nearly winning in the pouring rain at Donington Park, but would also voice his frustrations regarding the series’ driving standards following an incident-filled round at Brands Hatch.

Despite all the promise surrounding the team, with a strong driver line-up and the car’s success in the German championship, Peugeot would again fail to deliver.

Radisich and Harvey could not keep the team off bottom place in the manufacturers race, and the French marque would be another to withdraw from the series come the end of the year.