1999 British Touring Car Championship season

The 1999 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship season was won by Laurent Aïello in his debut season driving for the Nissan works team, with team mate David Leslie in second place. Rickard Rydell, the 1998 champion came third, with James Thompson and Jason Plato coming fourth and fifth.

One of the big stars and big surprises was the independent driver Matt Neal. Driving for his father's Team Dynamics in a 1998 Nissan Primera, Neal became the first independent driver to win a championship race in the feature race of the first Donington round; had put up a reward for £250,000 for this achievement.

For the 1999 season both the works teams of Peugeot and Audi had departed since competing in the previous year. Indeed, this would prove to be the last year for Renault, Volvo and Nissan, the three previous champions from the last three years. The BTCC would not see more than four works teams together in one season until the 2017 season.

Night racing was introduced to the BTCC for the first time for the rounds at Snetterton in July. The pit lane and main spectator areas were floodlit, whilst other parts of the circuit were in total darkness. To aid the drivers eyesight for the sharp changes from light to dark, the cockpits had a soft red light glowing inside.

Defending champion Rickard Rydell came into the 1999 season with a new Volvo team-mate, Belgian Vincent Radermecker. Radermecker had spent 1998 driving in the Belgian ProCar series, and he replaced Italian Gianni Morbidelli.

Nissan had arguably the best car over the whole of the 1998 season. The defending manufacturers champions retained veteran Scot David Leslie, and after Anthony Reid decided to leave the team and sign for Ford, he was replaced by STW Championship Winner Laurent Aïello for his first BTCC season.

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