BTCC Masters  The BTCC Masters was a one off race organised between TOCA director Alan J. Gow and SEAT. The race took place at Donington Park on September 26, 2004 at the end of the final race of the 2004 British Touring Car Championship season. The idea of the race was to find the "BTCC Master"" from sixteen past and present drivers from the British Touring Car Championship. The total number of drivers was sixteen, the line up including eight former champions was the largest number of BTCC title winners to take place in one race. The rest of the grid was made up of race winners and former stars from the past twelve years. Only two drivers were unable to race, Yvan Muller and James Thompson due to their contracts with Vauxhall. Car numbers related to the year they won the BTCC championship, for example John Cleland in car number 95 because he won in 1995. With non championship winning drivers given single numbers. The drivers would all take two timed free practice sessions in the cars but the starting grid would be drawn randomly from a hat. The cars were all identical SEAT Leon Cupra R's, as driven in the SEAT Cupra Championship which was part of the TOCA tour. As the cars were front wheel drive, older drivers such as Gravett and Sytner said they did struggle to drive as they were used to driving rear wheel drive touring cars. All cars were painted in the same grey colour except for SEAT driver Jason Plato, who drove a blue car. Below is a table which shows all the drivers who took place in the order they were drawn for their grid positions. As all the drivers took their places on the grid and waited for the starting lights, Anthony Reid, who was on the front row, jumped the start as the lights were on red. Reid went forward a few feet and as he realised his error and stopped, the lights had gone green and he'd lost several places. On the whole, the race was fiercely contested by all competitors with much panel bashing throughout. This was evident as early as the second corner as Jason Plato pushed past Patrick Watts for second place sending him onto the grass and dropping him down the field. Making the most progress on the first lap was Tim Harvey. Starting in tenth, he'd managed to make his way up to third by the time the cars had started lap two. At the front the battle was between John Cleland and Plato. Plato took the lead on lap four but Cleland stayed close and got his place back again two laps later.