Gow: 2004 BTCC season 'best for many years.'

The 2004 British Touring Car Championship season was "the best we've seen for many years", according to series director Alan Gow.

The man who oversees the championship was speaking to Crash.net Radio at Donington Park at the culmination of a season that saw ten different winners, and a title battle that went all the way to the wire in front of a live television audience.

On the eve of the final round, Gow was quoted as saying that he felt the title would be decided in the final race, but he admitted afterwards that he didn't expect the finale of the 2004 season to be as dramatic as it turned out to be - with James Thompson snatching the title from Yvan Muller by just one point.

"You simply can't get better than that," he said. "For one point to separate those drivers, for it to go to the last race, last lap, last corner, and for that point to be for the fastest lap - it's just superb. When you think that we have done 30 races and it came down to that; it's just fantastic.

"The statistics will tell you what a great season this has been. We have had ten different winners, that's 50% of the grid, we've had fantastic racing, the best for many years, and we've had the championship go all the way to the wire. What more can you want? The championship has delivered anything that anyone could have asked for."

Although not popular with everybody, the introduction of the reverse grid rule for the second race at each of the meetings has been a key element in the exciting racing that fans have witnessed throughout the season.

However, Gow admitted that 2005 will have a lot to follow when asked how the series can improve again next season.

"After today it's pretty hard to imagine," he said. "The honest answer is I don't know. At the end of each season we sit down and look at what we can improve, but off the top of my head there is nothing glaringly obvious to me.

"When you come down to a season like we have just had, there isn't too much wrong with it."