After a great weekend for championship leader, Ash Sutton, and his nearest challenger, Tom Ingram, including a win each at Thruxton, the championship was starting to look like a two horse race. Would the narrative continue at Oulton Park or would either of the NAPA Dans, Rowbottom or Cammish, be able to close the 40 point gap? 

Qualifying

It started damp and then dried before the rain came down again which made qualifying a rather intriguing session. Ingram topped the timesheets, ahead of a great performance by Chris Smiley, with Cammish and Sutton forming the second row. James Dorlin and Adam Morgan, at his home circuit, completed the top six.  

Race One, 6/10 – Tom Ingram, Dan Cammish, Chris Smiley

• The opening race of Sunday was held in dry conditions, although it was delayed by a lap after debutant Finn Leslie’s drive shaft broke at the end of the green flag lap. When the lights went out, Cammish was straight up to 2nd, while Ingram did his best to shoot off into the distance, but that was halted on lap 2 as Sam Osborne hit the barriers after a tap from Daryl DeLeon resulting in a safety car.
• On a busy restart lap, Max Hall ended up with a broken rear wheel after contact with Dexter Patterson, while Josh Cook and Dorlin rubbed before the pit lane in an incident that could have been awful had it continued. Their battle, however, did continue for several laps until Cook finally took 9th place on lap 12.
• Lap 10 saw five Hyundais in the top seven, while a lap later, DeLeon was in the wars again, this time hitting Árón Taylor-Smith, who in turn knocked into Aiden Moffat who was spun around. 
• Towards the end, the Hyundais continued to fight, but the final one of Senna Proctor lost out to Jake Hill. Meanwhile, Sutton played a tactical game by conceding the final podium position to Smiley on the final lap, which, of course, meant he wouldn’t have to start the second race on the hard tyres, while his nearest competitor Ingram would after winning his second race of the season. 

Race Two,  6/10 – Ash Sutton, Adam Morgan, Tom Chilton

• Sutton put his soft tyres straight to work by jumping two places as the lights went out with Morgan moving up several places to 3rd by the end of the opening lap. By Island Bend on the next lap, the pair were both ahead of Ingram. 
• There was then a long safety car period to recover Dan Lloyd’s car and to fix the barriers after he collided at high speed with them after something at the rear of his car seemingly broke. 
• As the race restarted, Cammish lost a load of places, while a lap later, Dorlin tapped Charles Rainford who also hit the barriers, but he was able to drive his BMW away.
• From lap 12 onwards, Ingram was the cork in the bottle in 4th, but with some great positioning and driving, he retained the place despite heavy pressure from Hill. Sutton’s gamble to drop off the podium in race one worked as he scampered off to victory. 

Race Three, 8/10 – Gordon Shedden, Ash Sutton, Dan Rowbottom

• Sutton’s gamble paid off further as rain met the drivers for the final race of the day meaning he didn’t have to use the hards at all. Sutton allowed the retiring Steve Rider to draw the ball for the reverse grid pole and he chose ball 9, promoting Gordon Shedden to the front, alongside Proctor with Cook and Rowbottom behind. 
• While Shedden retained the lead, behind him Proctor was away slowly as Hill managed to avoid the pit wall after being squeezed by Rowbottom while on his way to third. Cook was up to 2nd, but he out-braked himself at Hislops allowing Hill to take 2nd as he used the escape road. Cook tried his best to retake the position on the next lap, but only found the gravel at the end of the lap, but he was able to drive out of it. 
• Rowbottom was the next to try on Hill, but again, without success. However, without trying too hard, Sutton was the beneficiary of Cammish and Proctor battling as they allowed him by for 4th as Shedden’s lead started to diminish. 
• Just as Hill was all over Shedden’s bumper, the safety car was needed to recover Hall’s car. As the race restarted, Rowbottom tried again on Hill and after a tap, it allowed Sutton through, but Hill reclaimed his 2nd place. There was further drama a few positions behind the leaders as Chilton smashed into the back of Mikey Doble, opening his bonnet, but Doble headed straight for the barriers ahead of another safety car period. 
• Unbelievably as it went green again, Nic Hamilton was also off into the barriers, but this time it was covered by yellow flags until the end. 
• Shedden was having to defend with all his might from Hill who was sliding out of every corner. Eventually, it was a slide too many as Hill dropped to 7th giving Shedden breathing space to claim his first victory since returning to the series, while Sutton claimed 2nd to add more points to his tally. 

The season has now reached the half way point in what seems like ten incredibly quick weeks and it will now have a rest before returning at Croft. Going into the meeting, the title race looked like a two horse race and the action in Cheshire has only cemented that feeling more with second placed Ingram now over sixty points ahead of Cammish, whilst being just ten behind Sutton. 

Weirdly, despite the clear championship dominance by Sutton and Ingram, it doesn’t have the feel of a boring and predictable season. That is quite possibly because with Shedden’s win in race 15, there have been ten different winners this season, which can’t have happened for many years, if ever at the halfway point.

In addition, the disparity between the tyres this season has been seen over and over again and while it could be argued it meddles with the racing too much, it certainly has the desired effect of mixing up the grid and race order. This, in turn, naturally brings more entertainment and at the end of the day, that’s why fans turn up at the track or turn on their televisions. 

After a couple of seasons of hybrid, which in reality failed, the current boost system is much more effective to help overtaking, again adding to the spectacle.

Going into the next half of the season, is anyone going to realistically challenge Sutton and Ingram? It’s going to be a tall order even for the men in third and fourth to overturn a seventy point deficit given the current regulations with tyres and boost. As such, we need to embrace the battle between Sutton and Ingram and hope that the title isn’t lost by one of them to an unfortunate race one ride height failure demoting them to the back of the grid, for example. 

So far, the racing between the pair has been firm but fair, showing the respect they have for each other, and again, let’s hope that it continues, although secretly we all do love a bit of needle.

And finally, talking of respect, Steve Rider. It would be amiss to not have a note to give our thanks to the broadcasting great who brought his career to an end at Oulton Park. His love and enthusiasm for sport, especially motorsport, over the years will be greatly missed and we wish him a happy and prosperous retirement. 

2025 BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 15 OF 30 ROUNDS

1.	Ashley Sutton	233 points
2.	Tom Ingram	223
3.	Dan Cammish	161
4.	Dan Rowbottom	159
5.	Jake Hill	134
6.	Adam Morgan	120