Three victories and three second place finishes for Ash Sutton in the opening six races of the season meant that the four time champion had a stupendous forty-seven point lead over his nearest competitor, Tom Ingram, going into the meeting at a very hot Snetterton. Surely he couldn’t continue such form, or could he? 

Qualifying Race 

Sutton couldn’t continue his form in the qualifying race as a puncture meant that he finished last after running well. Charles Rainford won the race and subsequent pole position after an ‘elbows out’ manoeuvre on Tom Chilton, who was a little less than impressed.

Josh Cook joined Rainford on the front row, with Ingram and Dan Cammish behind them. Dan Rowbottom’s Mercedes and Rainford’s WSR stablemate, Daryl De Leon, completed the top six.

Race One, 4/10 – Charles Rainford, Tom Ingram, Daryl De Leon

• The leading quartet zoomed away as per grid order, although De Leon moved up a spot and Ingram found a way by Cook half way around the opening long lap. Sutton was making up for Saturday’s poor result by jumping eight places after just one circuit. 
• The next couple of laps saw a few passes here and there as the race quickly settled down and by lap 4, Chilton was the only driver in the top ten on the less favoured medium tyre. Ricky Collard was continuing his impressive start to the season by running in eighth, having made up four positions. 
• Rainford continued to build a gap at the front, while Mikey Doble had quite a queue behind him in thirteenth. 
• De Leon was pressurising Cammish for fourth, but the pair were catching Cook as well. With Rowbottom catching all of them, a move on the boost moved De Leon forward and it wasn’t long before he was ahead of Cook too. 
• Rainford comfortably took the chequered flag to mean every make of car has seen the flag first across one of the race weekend formats, while Sutton’s early progress stalled as he crossed the line in eleventh.

Race Two, 6/10 – Ash Sutton, Ricky Collard, Tom Chilton

• Rainford reacted well to the lights and although Ingram temporarily lost second to De Leon, he quickly reclaimed it as De Leon had his mirrors full from Cook and Cammish. 
• Ingram took the lead on lap 2, while Cook was struggling and falling down the order. Over the next few laps, Collard and Sutton moved forward with moves over the start-finish line to be fifth and sixth, while Cammish moved to third with a similar move on De Leon. 
• Lap 6 saw Collard and Sutton sandwich De Leon over the start line, while Sutton moved further ahead, to third, with a boost move on teammate Cammish. It didn’t take long for the NAPA pair to move ahead of Rainford either with their superior tyres and boost. 
• Sutton was soon pressuring Ingram and after the latter locked up into a corner, first place was soon the championship leader’s. Ingram’s Hyundai colleague, Chilton, then moved to third ahead of Cammish, but Ingram had to pull over with an alternator failure, meaning another DNF for the reigning champion.

Race Three, 7/10 – Gordon Shedden, Ash Sutton, Tom Ingram*, Daryl De Leon

• Ball 7 was drawn by Sutton for the reverse grid pole and therefore Gordon Shedden jumped to the front where he was joined by Mercedes pair, Rowbottom and Adam Morgan. Cammish, Chilton and Collard completed the top six as the grid was disrupted to a minimum. 
• Despite Rowbottom trying hard when the lights went out, Shedden retained the lead as the front pack were incredibly close together, although Collard received a ten second penalty for a false start. 
• On the second lap, Morgan, on the soft tyres, swapped places with Rowbottom on the mediums and Sutton was now fifth after a move on Chilton. Ingram, incredibly, was tenth by the end of lap too. 
• The pair continued moving forward and Sutton soon took third from Rowbottom, despite driving around the outside of him while Rowbottom was on the boost. 
• Lap 6 saw the Hyundais of Chilton and Ingram both make moves at the end of Bentley Straight to move up to fourth and sixth respectively and Ingram moved another place up on the next lap just as Sutton was taking second from Morgan. 
• As expected, Sutton was all over the back of Shedden and temporarily twice took the lead, but Shedden used his extra allocation of boost to get back ahead quickly on both occasions. Shedden then turned his car into the widest Toyota Snetterton has seen in a long time. 
• Shedden’s cause was helped when Ingram caught up to the back on Sutton and despite giving it his best effort, Ingram had to settle for third, until a post-race track limits penalty dropped him to eighth, promoting De Leon to the podium for the second time on the day.
• A special mention must go to Nic Hamilton who won his first ever Jack Sears Trophy race as well. 

Sutton’s record of finishing first and second came to an end in round 7 after starting from the back of the grid, but his recovery, especially in races two and three from his setback was something quite special. We have seen it before with Sutton that when he is at one with his machinery, he is unstoppable and the 2026 season is looking like it is going the same way. He now holds a fifty-seven point lead over Ingram, his closest challenger, after just nine races. Fifty-seven! 

Sutton could probably take the next meeting at Oulton Park off and still come out of the meeting in the lead, such is his dominance. It isn’t like Ingram has driven badly either, although a disqualification and two race two retirements clearly haven’t helped. Race two probably is the worst race to retire from as at least if it is race one, you have two chances to move forward throughout the day and in race three, you could already have achieved two good results. 

Rainford is a further eleven points behind Ingram, but given the first nine races, it’s hard to say he’s a championship contender, such has been Sutton’s form, and if it wasn’t for Ingram’s misfortune, his. Snetterton was clearly WSR’s best weekend of the season so far with a win for Rainford and two podiums for De Leon. The BMW has come to the fore in the past in hot conditions thanks to its use of tyres and the same could be said here. The team will certainly be looking for further hot weather to take advantage of for the rest of the season, having had a quiet start by their standards. 

A team on the up, however, has to be Laser Tools Racing having secured a victory in the last two meetings through Árón Taylor-Smith and this time, Shedden. Both are experienced drivers and although the Corolla seems to be lacking a little bit of outright pace, their experience has really helped the team push forward and get the most out of the car. 

Snetterton was probably the weakest meeting of the season so far, but the weather and long laps probably contributed to that. The next meeting is at Oulton Park and not so long ago, it had a reputation for it to be difficult to overtake at, although the last few years seem to have bucked that trend. 

Let’s hope we have another meeting like Donington or Brands Hatch, plus a full twelve place grid reversal in race three!

British Touring Car Championship Standings after 9 rounds:

1.	Ashley Sutton	174 points
2.	Tom Ingram	117
3.	Charles Rainford	106
4.	Dan Cammish	99
5.	Ricky Collard	94
6.	Daryl De Leon	92