Ash Sutton arrived at Oulton Park with a massive fifty-seven point lead after just nine races this season. He has been in imperious form. His closest challenger, Tom Ingram, hasn’t exactly had a bad season, but he’s been no match for Ingram so far, but would that pattern continue in Cheshire? 

Qualifying Race 

Sutton lined up next to pole sitter Árón Taylor-Smith for Saturday’s qualifying race. After early crashes in the same spot for Tom Chilton and Nic Hamilton and the appearance of the safety car, there was a tap from Ingram on Sutton which resulted in an initial position swap.

While Taylor-Smith crossed the line first, Dan Cammish inherited the victory because Taylor-Smith was handed a five second time penalty for weaving to warm his tyres up after the safety car lights had gone out and consequently finished fifth. Josh Cook took second, Sutton third and Ingram fourth. 

Race One: 4.5/10 – Dan Cammish, Josh Cook, Tom Ingram

• Cammish zoomed off the line, while Sutton had a better getaway than Cook, but in trying to get his place back, Cook tapped the back of Sutton and he dropped down to ninth, before immediately starting his fight back. 
• On the second lap, Lewis Selby was squeezed onto the grass by Dexter Patterson and he collected lots of trackside advertising and brought it back on the track which needed the fifth safety car period of the season. 
• As racing resumed, Adam Morgan and Sutton battled all lap, but when two into one didn’t go, Sutton went over the grass and had to give the place back, but it also resulted in the Audi pair of Aidan Moffat and Mike Doble profiting too. 
• On lap 8, the top three had distanced themselves from the chasing pack, but Cook was closer to Cammish than Ingram was to him. A lap later, Morgan pitted with an engine sensor issue.
• Towards the end of the race, Cammish pulled out a bit of a gap to be victorious, as Cook held off Ingram’s challenge. Despite Sutton’s late pressure on Doble, he was unsuccessful and finished seventh. 

Race Two: 7.5/10 – Ash Sutton, Tom Ingram, Dan Cammish

• Only Morgan joined the top three from the opening race on the hard tyre, given its lack of performance. Sutton used his soft tyres to help him gain two places off the line, before overtaking Cook by the end of the lap to be fourth. Cammish retained the lead from Ingram. 
• After Taylor-Smith ran wide, Sutton climbed into the top three and by the end of the third lap, he was first and scampered off into the distance – 19.3 seconds to be precise as he won with ease. 
• However, a fantastic battle for fourth was happening behind as Taylor-Smith drove the widest Toyota we’ve seen in a long time as he held off a stream of cars. All of this helped Cammish and Ingram maintain their positions in the top three on the unfavoured tyres. 
• After eight laps of battling, Daryl De Leon finally broke out of the train on lap 12 and immediately pulled away, while Taylor-Smith fell further down. Ingram, meanwhile, used his extra lap of boost to help him overtake Cammish. 
• The final lap of the race saw a downpour hit the track, but given everyone’s tyres were warm after the race duration, everyone held on, but Sutton won by one of the biggest margins ever seen in the BTCC. 

Race Three: 5/10 – Charles Rainford, Ricky Collard, Tom Ingram

• Sutton pulled out ball 11 for the reverse grid draw which promoted Sam Osborne to pole, but that was changed to Chris Smiley as a result of Taylor-Smith receiving a ten second penalty for an incident with Chilton in the second race. Charles Rainford, Dexter Patterson and Ricky Collard competed the top five. 
• Smiley retained the lead off the line, but Rainford was straight behind him. The racing didn’t continue for long because Taylor-Smith lost control coming out of Old Hall and he collected Morgan with both cars going off and coming to rest in perilous positions. 
• As soon as racing restarted on lap 5, Rainford immediately took the lead while there were plenty of other moves behind with Ingram and Cammish moving forward and Collard made his way to second. 
• Lap 6 saw Ingram move to third by the end of the lap after moves on Osborne, Cammish and Smiley, while Cammish also moved ahead of Smiley. 
• Rainford’s lead building was soon cut short as there was another safety car period, this time for Chilton wiping out Selby, although he was launched off the kerb and this was something he had to explain to an irate Selby as he exited his car. 
• Racing restarted on lap 13, with the only real action being Dan Rowbottom struggling to pass Smiley as his Mercedes desperately lacked straight line speed, but he did finally manage to pass him for sixth as Rainford secured his second victory of the season.

The season now takes a slightly earlier than usual, due to the football World Cup, seven week summer break. Sutton couldn’t have wished for a better first four meetings, although Oulton Park was his weakest of the season, despite winning by a mega margin in race two. 

Sutton’s lead has now been cut to forty eight points, but he will still be sleeping easy. Whenever his car is on the right tyre and with a decent amount of boost, the outcome is always inevitable. How the pack are going to keep the championship alive is a mystery. 

Ingram hasn’t had a bad season, although he has suffered some bad luck and that is probably the only thing that will stop Sutton. Cammish is sixty points behind Sutton in the same machinery and he enjoyed his best weekend of the season by far. However, not many will be convinced he can win the championship on the basis of Oulton Park alone. 

No-one will be thinking of Nic Hamilton for the title, but he deserves an honourable mention for his race results on Sunday. Not only did he do well to avoid the crash between Taylor-Smith and Morgan, but he was genuinely competitive in the third race and he’ll have been delighted to secure points for the second time this season. He will be hoping that will continue next time out at Thruxton, where the series returns with four meetings in eight weeks.

2026 British Touring Championship Standings after 12 rounds:

1.	Ashley Sutton	220 points
2.	Tom Ingram	172
3.	Dan Cammish	160
4.	Charles Rainford	137
5.	Ricky Collard	124
6.	Daryl DeLeon	113