Jake Hill led the championship heading into the penultimate meeting of the season at Silverstone by nine points from Tom Ingram. Reigning champion, Ash Sutton, was twenty points behind, while the remaining top six of Colin Turkington, Dan Cammish and Josh Cook were still mathematically in the hunt, but had a gap of over forty points to the leaders. Would they be able to bring themselves back in to contention? 

Qualifying

Saturday’s qualifying session originally brought about a one-three for Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith and Mikey Doble, but they were disqualified for failing the ride height, along with Dan Zelos who had also made the top six. As a result, Ingram was promoted to pole with Turkington joining him on the front row. Cook and Cammish completed the second row, while the third row was an all BMW affair with Hill edging out Adam Morgan. Sutton initially qualified in 17th, but was helped by the disqualified trio. 

Race One: 5.5/10 – Tom Ingram, Jake Hill, Dan Cammish

• The opening race of the day started on a wet, but drying, track. The top two started well, with Hill moving up to third. Cook and Cammish had a good opening battle, while Sutton was already eighth by the end of lap 2, which soon became seventh with an ‘elbows out’ move on Morgan. 
• His progress didn’t stop there as his teammate Dan Rowbottom crashed into the back of Cook, allowing him and several others by. 
• On lap 7, Ingram had a three second lead from Turkington, but a lap later, team orders meant that Turkington moved over to allow Hill to chase after Ingram. In the same place on consecutive laps, Turkington lost out to both Cammish and Sutton with hybrid passes. 
• While the middle of the race was relatively settled, Hill was hunting down Ingram and with a few laps to go, he was just 0.6s behind. Although Hill tried his best, Ingram just held on and as the pair held each other up, Cammish was also on their tails. 

Race Two: 5.5/10 – Jake Hill, Colin Turkington, Josh Cook

• The second race started on a damp track and the top two got away well, with Sutton immediately jumping up to third after passing Cammish and he nearly lost fourth to Turkington too, but after a bit of back and forth, he remained in position. 
• A big call was made on lap 2 that would have championship implications as Sutton was given a drive through penalty because the mechanics were working on his car after the allotted time on the grid. Despite some team arguments, Sutton took the penalty at the end of lap 5 and rejoined last.
• Turkington finally secured third on lap 6 from Cammish, while Hill was not letting Ingram get away and a lap later, with the help of hybrid, Hill took the lead at the end of the Wellington straight.
• Turkington and Cook both chased down Ingram and overtook him, as Ingram finished fourth. While Hill took the chequered flag first, Sutton made some late moves and with the help of some driver penalties, he finished 12th, which wasn’t what he needed in his championship battle. 

Race Three: 6.5/10 – Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton, Josh Cook 

• Hill aided his championship chances by drawing ball 6 out of the bowl, somewhat questionably, and it promoted Chris Smiley to pole alongside Cammish with Ingram and Cook on the second row. 
• On a very wet track, Smiley tried to hold off Cammish as the lights went out, but as he had moved so far over, it allowed Ingram to go around the outside of both of them to take the lead. 
• It soon became apparent on lap 2 that the drivers and cars were seriously struggling with aquaplaning, such was the amount of water on the track, with pole sitter Smiley being one of several casualties. Sutton, meanwhile,  kept it on the track and he was already up to third.
• On lap 4, Turkington, who had struggled all race, couldn’t survive with the track lakes anymore and ended up beaching his BMW in the gravel, which naturally brought out the safety car, before the race conditions meant the red flag was called for at the end of lap 8. 
• Following a stoppage of around half an hour, the race re-started behind the safety car and after four laps, the cars were set free to race with Sutton immediately jumping Cook and Hill was under pressure from Cammish. 
• Sutton put Ingram under intense pressure, but that eased when he ran wide to give Ingram breathing space.  However, it didn’t take long for Sutton to catch him back up as they resumed battle. After several laps of cat and mouse on the hybrid, Sutton was on the back of Ingram for final laps with Sutton smashing into Ingram at the final corner on the final lap, but luckily both were able to cross the line.
• Behind them, Cook was third, but Hill made an important move to secure fourth on Cammish, but a post race penalty meant the positions were reversed.

After the wet action at Silverstone, the top two of Hill and Ingram are tied level on points at the top of the standings. What a final weekend we will have! Sutton remains in the hunt, but it is going to take something special for him to retain his crown as he sits 33 points behind the top two. Mathematically, Cammish, Cook and Turkington could win it, but you would be foolish to waste your money at a bookmaker on them. 

Who will win? Who knows. It is great to have a real battle once again after last season’s poor show. It is impossible to even say who might edge it given how close Hill and Ingram have been all season, with the momentum swaying back and forth. Both had such a strong weekend at Silverstone that you can’t even say one of them is going into the final round with the bit between their teeth. The final meeting is going to epic. 

The weather at Silverstone was awful all day on Sunday and while wet races often bring more drama, the decision not to bring out the safety car, or even the red flag, earlier in race three was somewhat questionable. It was clear that there was going to be some sort of incident and in the end, Turkington was the unlucky party to aquaplane off the track. Fortunately, nobody was injured.

We now head to Brands Hatch on the Grand Prix layout, the scene of many great championship battles over the years, for the final hurrah of the season. It is one that you will not want to miss. 

2024 BTCC Drivers’ Championship Standings after 27 rounds

1.	Jake Hill	365 points
2.	Tom Ingram	365
3.	Ashley Sutton	332
4.	Dan Cammish	309
5.	John Cook	302
6.	Colin Turkington	301