The third meeting of the 2025 BTCC season was held at Snetterton, the calendar’s longest circuit, having been held at the shortest layout last time out at Brands Hatch Indy. Ash Sutton arrived in Norfolk as the championship leader, closely followed by Tom Ingram. Reigning champion, Jake Hill, was third in the standings after a complete turnaround in the fortunes of his car and those of his teammates at Brands as WSR won all three races. 

Qualifying

Although Hill may have topped FP1 in damp conditions, his BMW returned to the shell of itself we saw at Donington Park as he qualified down in 20th, while his teammates faired better, they were still outside the top ten. NAPA Racing, on the other hand, had a strong showing with Dan Cammish claiming a second pole of the season, with Dan Rowbottom 3rd and Sutton 6th after he stopped on track during the session. Ingram lined up alongside Cammish, with Mikey Doble joining Rowbottom on row two, just ahead of Adam Morgan. 

Race One, 3/10 – Dan Cammish, Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton

◦ With the exception of Doble, the drivers at the front started on the favourable soft tyre and that helped Cammish and Ingram get away well off the line, although a later jump start investigation for Cammish came to nothing. Sutton was immediately up to 3rd, while down the pack Hill was clattered by Toyota pair Árón Taylor-Smith and Gordon Shedden, resulting in damage that required treatment in the pits. 

◦ At the end of lap 3, Shedden was on the receiving end of a whack as Max Hall had lost control at the final corner and fired across the track into Shedden’s rear end resulting in one unhappy Scotsman. 

◦ There were a few overtakes happening in the top ten with Chris Smiley passing Doble, who was falling backwards on the hard tyres and Dan Lloyd moving ahead of Morgan. At the front, the top 3 were relatively equidistant apart all race until the end where Cammish, who had more boost, used it up to secure victory, and Sutton tried, and failed, with some last lap heroics to pass Ingram. 

Race Two,  6.5/10 – Dan Rowbottom, Adam Morgan, Tom Chilton

◦ It was an exciting opening lap as Sutton raced into the lead as Cammish fell backwards over the lap to 8th as he couldn’t switch on the unfavoured hard tyre. There were plenty of drivers who also made moves on the opening lap.

◦ Sutton had a small gap to Ingram, but he was having to defend stoutly from Rowbottom on the soft tyre. On lap 3, an uncharacteristic mistake from Ingram saw him slide at the first corner and hit the barriers, causing terminal damage. That meant Rowbottom was now behind Sutton, who he passed at the end of the straight for the lead. 

◦ On lap 4, Sutton couldn’t compete with the hard tyres for much longer and was passed by Lloyd, Morgan, Tom Chilton and Smiley, meaning it was four Hyundais chasing down Rowbottom. 

◦ However, it took until lap 8 for Lloyd to take the lead, but it only lasted for half a lap, with Rowbottom reclaiming the spot. However, his victory was not secure as Morgan overtook Lloyd and with more boost remaining, he hunted down Rowbottom, but could not secure the coveted top spot as the NAPA driver won for the first time this year by 0.3s.

◦ Sutton finished 10th, Cammish 20th and Ingram was out as this race really showed the difference in the tyres and effect of the boost. 

Race Three, 7.5/10 – Mikey Doble, Ash Sutton, Josh Cook

◦ There was minimal disruption to the race three grid as ball six of Doble was drawn on pole by Rowbottom. Favourably for Doble, he was on the soft tyre and the remainder of the top six starters were all on the hard tyre. 

◦ It was a dramatic first lap as behind fast starting Doble, Morgan was briefly ahead of Chilton before he was shuffled down the pack, while in reverse, Sutton was up to 4th and Ingram 13th, but the safety car was called for as Stephen Jelley was fired out of the pack and into the barriers. 

◦ Racing resumed on lap 6 where Charles Rainford was hung out to dry by the NAPA cars and Hill, while Cook moved ahead of both Morgan and eventually Lloyd for 2nd with Sutton also making his way through. 

◦ Ingram continued his progress on lap 7, taking seventh place using his soft tyres and full boost allocation. Eventually, Ingram made it up to 4th in a fantastic recovery drive. 

◦ At the front, Doble soon had Sutton right on his tail after he passed Cook with six laps remaining and with an extra lap of boost. Despite Sutton being all over his rear end, Doble brilliantly held on to secure his first and deserved BTCC victory. 

After Doble’s victory in the final race of the day, it now means there have been eight different winners in nine races, with only Sutton doubling up. It has been a long time since we’ve had such a situation and it is greatly refreshing for the championship. Incredibly, Ingram, second in the standings, hasn’t won yet, but has secured four runners up spots. 

In addition, the fact that a third of the races have been won by first time winners also shows how competitive and open the races have been. Why? Great credit must go to Alan Gow and his team because he has always wanted to create more drama and overtakes and this season’s tyre and boost regulations seem to be working extremely well to achieve his objective. 

Yes, in the last two meetings, the opening races have been pretty dour, but the subsequent races have been relatively good. The introduction of forcing the finishing top three to use the hard tyres in the next race has worked a treat and again was highlighted here by the race one winner, Cammish, finishing 20th in race two. 

In addition to this, the top three are compounded by a lack of boost and given its effectiveness in races this season, it is making the races much more enjoyable to watch. On that note, both Aiden Moffat in race one and Shedden in race two were both disqualified for over using their boost. How? You would surely assume it is limited to 15 seconds automatically, so it will be interesting to see if this proves to be a problem in the future. 

Going forward too, is the Snetterton 300 layout too long for BTCC with the cars going around just 12 times per race in normal conditions? There was a little bit of discussion surrounding this during the meeting, but nothing will change for next year with the calendar already confirmed, but this could be something that might be looked at for 2027 and beyond. The 300 circuit does offer a range of challenges, whereas the 200 layout may not be seen as challenging enough. 

The next meeting will be held at Thruxton, where the drivers love the challenge of the UK’s fastest average speed circuit. Unfortunately, after praising the new tyre regulations, due to Thruxton’s surface, they won’t be in use next time out. Hopefully, the racing will still live up to the action seen in the meetings so far this season. 

2025 British Touring Car Championship After 9 of 30 Rounds

1.	Ashley Sutton	132 points
2.	Tom Ingram	117
3,	Jake Hill	92
4.	Dan Rowbottom	85
5.	Dan Cammish	83
6.	Adam Morgan	80