As the teams headed to Scotland, it looked like there were four serious contenders for this year’s drivers’ championship. After another strong showing at Croft, Tom Ingram held a 21-point lead over Jake Hill, with reigning champion, Ash Sutton, a further eight points behind. Dan Cammish remained in contention, but it was a probably a stretch too far for Josh Cook and Colin Turkington before the meeting north of the border.

Qualifying

Despite the NAPA Racing Fords looking like the cars to beat in the morning FP sessions, it was Turkington that was the star of qualifying with the best time in every session, as he just edged out Árón Taylor-Smith. It was a good qualifying session for Turkington‘s teammate, Adam Morgan, as he secured third alongside Dan Rowbottom. Josh Cook and Andrew Watson completed the top six, with Hill lining up seventh. It was a poor qualifying session for Ingram and Sutton, who could only manage 15th and 12th respectively.

Race One, 7/10 – Colin Turkington, Josh Cook, Adam Morgan

• Turkington got away well, with Cook and Hill making a place each on the opening lap. Sutton moved up to 8th, but on lap 4, Ingram was languishing in 16th as Turkington started to build a comfortable lead. 
• Ingram’s luck was out even more on lap 7 as he battled with Aiden Moffat when the pair exchanged a slide into each other, but it resulted in bodywork rubbing against Ingram’s front tyre. Despite carrying on for a few laps, the damage was terminal and Ingram had to retire the car for his first DNF of the season.
• In an entertaining race, Rob Huff made a great move on Cammish over the course of a lap to move up the grid, Watson had a large scale grass cutting moment, Hill passed Rowbottom for 5th and Morgan was all over the back of Taylor-Smith for several laps, until a clever switchback on lap 18 secured him second, with an opportunistic Cook following him through. 
• Towards the end of the race, while Turkington had built himself an 8.2 second lead, Cook was trying his hardest to pass Morgan and it was nip and tuck as both were using their hybrid, but an ever so late braking move saw Cook take the position. Meanwhile, a last lap move from Sutton on Rowbottom saw him claim a top six spot.

Race Two, 6.5/10 – Jake Hill, Dan Rowbottom, Colin Turkington 

• Mikey Doble was left stranded on the grid as the lights went out, but Turkington got away well. Hill and Rowbottom, both on the favoured soft tyres made positions to be 4th and 5th respectively, but Rowbottom was found to have made a false start, incurring a five second time penalty.
• Morgan quickly started going backwards as he fell into the clutches of Hill, Rowbottom and Sutton. Hill was flying and he also overtook Cook before setting after Turkington and it didn’t take him long to be on his bumper. 
• As the cars crossed the start finish line for lap 6, Hill made his move to lead and Rowbottom repeated the trick on Turkington a lap later as the soft tyre duo headed for clear air. 
• Down the pack, Sam Osborne was all over the road holding up several cars, before Watson hit him to allow them by, before Watson went off the road himself. All of this now meant that Ingram was 13th from the back of the grid and in the remaining half of the race, he made three more gains to finish 10th.
• At the front, Hill claimed a much needed victory for his championship claim and Rowbottom edged out a 5.5 second gap to Turkington to remain in 2nd after his false start. Sutton outscored Ingram too by driving his car to a 5th placed finish.

Race Three, 7.5/10 – Rob Huff, Tom Ingram, Tom Chilton

• Hill didn’t do his championship chances much good by pulling out ball 12 for the reverse good draw. As a result, it meant that Huff was on pole alongside Taylor-Smith, with Ingram and Tom Chilton forming an all Hyundai second row.
• Huff made a great start and edged out an opening lap lead, while Sutton gained two places on the opening lap. Ingram wasn’t hanging about either, and on the second lap, he secured 2nd with a good move on Taylor-Smith.
• For the next four or five laps, it looked like Ingram was just waiting for the right time to take the lead away from Huff with the pair using their hybrid to attack and defend. However, Huff remained strong and incredibly held his lead. 
• Meanwhile, Chilton moved himself up into a podium position with a move on Taylor-Smith, but Moffat was holding up a train of cars in 5th that continued for several laps, with drivers trying and failing to change the order, including Cammish ending up on the grass before rejoining in 16th. 
• At the race mid-point, Sutton hit Cook at the hairpin, sending him sideways, but he continued, before Morgan squeezed him off and on to the grass. As he rejoined the track at speed, Hill then tapped Cook into the tyre stack protecting the chicane and while the damage ended his race, the safety car was needed to readjust the circuit furniture. 
• As the race restarted, Hill moved up to 5th on Moffat and for several laps, Ingram tried once again to make a move on Huff. However, Ingram then had to defend from Chilton to remain in 2nd, leaving Huff enough of a gap to secure his second victory of the season. 

If the championship battle wasn’t alive before, it very much is now! While nobody wants to see drivers suffer bad luck, Ingram’s misfortune in race one has really tightened things at the top of the standings with Hill now only three points behind him, and Sutton twenty. While Cammish remains in touching distance, a 42-point gap seems a lot with just nine races to go and having not won a race all season. If Cammish was to realistically challenge, he would probably need pole, a race one win and good results in races two and three at Donington Park in the next round. 

His teammate, Sutton, will also be hoping for better in the next meeting. It is now nine races since his last podium, albeit he’s finished in the top six in seven of those races. As previously mentioned in race meeting reviews, Sutton isn’t the imperious figure that he was last season, sadly for him, but thankfully for us, as it is giving us a much more entertaining championship battle. 

There could be several reasons for that. Firstly, the field is always strong, but maybe this year Ingram and Hill have raised their driving to be on a par, if not better than Sutton’s. Additionally, the BTCC regulations have undoubtedly improved the racing this year. After two years of being a total mess, hybrid is finally delivering the goods. We have now seen time after time its effect in both attacking and defending, which again has brought the field closer together, making it harder for one driver to dominate. 

Also, the tyre regulations seem to be working well. After the huge disparity between the tyres at Croft, it was similar, although to a lesser extent, at Knockhill as there was only one compound difference this time. As such, it is now without doubt harder to win the opening two races of the day, which in the previous two seasons seemed more likely than not. 

The season will certainly throw up more surprises in the remaining races, but right now it is impossible to call the 2024 champion and that in itself means it’s a great battle. 

The next stop is a return to Donington Park (where ESM will be in attendance), but this time on the Grand Prix layout. Ingram won twice there on the opening day and how he will dream of that happening once more. 

2024 BTCC Drivers’ Championship after 21 rounds

1.	Tom Ingram	278 points
2.	Jake Hill	275
3.	Ashley Sutton	258
4.	Dan Cammish	236
5.	Colin Turkington	224
6.	Josh Cook	222