After a seven week break, the BTCC returned at the UK’s fastest circuit, Thruxton.

The opening four meetings of the season have been dominated by Ash Sutton, who held a forty-eight point lead at the start of the weekend over his nearest competitor and last year’s champion, Tom Ingram. Dan Cammish was a further twelve points behind, but realistically fourth placed Charles Rainford was too far behind to be in the championship reckoning.

Qualifying Race

After a glorious history with Thruxton, The ‘King of Thruxton’ himself, Josh Cook, powered home to win Saturday’s qualifying race with Ingram and Sutton lining up behind him on Sunday, but without Cook’s full allocation of boost. Cammish, the deputising Senna Proctor, for the ill Sam Osborne, and Adam Morgan completed the top six.

Race One: 4/10 – Josh Cook, Ash Sutton, Dan Rowbottom

• The top three got away well and were incredibly close, with Sutton being side by side with Ingram trying to gain second, but as Sutton got him, Cammish came through too and pushed Ingram wide which meant he dropped down to ninth. Dan Rowbottom made the most of the shenanigans in front of him and was third at the end of the opening lap.
• The race then really settled down into cars lapping quickly without many moves. Ingram did slowly make his way forward and after passing Morgan at the end of lap 6, he was up to sixth, while Cook was doing a good job at the front. 
• On lap 10, Cammish was struggling a little and Ingram overtook him with an excellent move and then Morgan tried to get through too and although he did so, it was only temporary, before Morgan did succeed at the end of the next lap. 
• At the front, Sutton was now much closer to Cook, but despite the pressure, Cook held on to win for the first time this season. While there was some action in the mid-pack, it wasn’t a great race.

Race Two: 4/10 – Ash Sutton, Tom Ingram*, Josh Cook*, Dan Cammish

Sutton nearly took the lead off the line, but had to wait until Cook went wide before securing first on the opening lap, while Ingram made a place off the grid. It was soon announced that Sutton would be investigated post-race for a start infringement, although this came to nothing.

After a few laps of pressure, Ingram finally took third from Rowbottom on lap 5 with a great move up the inside of him. Meanwhile, Gordon Shedden was showing impressive pace, coming from the back of the grid to thirteenth after a race one off. 

Another man moving forward was James Dorlin who took sixth after Morgan ran wide and off at Church. A lap later, there was the battle of the Dans as Cammish moved ahead of Rowbottom for fourth, although by lap 10, he was some way behind the top three.

At the end of lap 12, Ingram tried around the outside of Cook, but it ended up with Ingram going off and Cook going sideways before they both rejoined with Cammish now in the mix. That then created the next drama as in a near repeat situation, Cook then went over the grass to maintain his position of third, which was then penalised post-race, as was Ingram’s track limits, dropping him down to a finishing position of fifth. After all of this, it meant that Cammish claimed second, despite finishing fourth on the road.

Race Three: 4/10 – Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton, Dan Cammish 

• Sutton pulled out ball 6 for the reverse grid meaning the least possible disruption, promoting Dorlin to pole. He didn’t stay there for long as a better start from Ingram soon put him into the lead. Rowbottom also tried pass, but after doing so he was wide and lost positions to the NAPA pair, with Sutton moving ahead of Cammish for third. 
• At the end of lap 1, the safety car was called for as Mikey Doble started the chain of events by tapping the back of Morgan, who crashed into Cook and then Árón Taylor-Smith had nowhere to go and ended up in the barriers as well. Before this, contact between Lewis Selby and Ryan Bensley also needed recovery of the former, before after pitting Bensley’s wheel wasn’t attached properly which delayed the safety car coming in until the end of lap 8. 
• As racing restarted, Ingram cleared off into the distance, while Sutton and Cammish made light work of Dorlin with tighter lines. A couple of laps later, Ricky Collard took fourth from Dorlin, while Cook retired with a very damaged car from the earlier incident. 
• After defending for most of the race, Rowbottom lost several places towards the end of the race, but Ingram won the race by just over five seconds, which turned out to be crucial because a post race five second penalty was given to him for a start infringement of reversing back into his grid box. 

The season is now at the half way point and is there really any point in discussing who this year’s champion is going to be? It’s been pretty obvious since the opening round at Donington Park that this year belongs to Sutton. At Oulton Park he had the largest winning margin in twenty seven years and now he holds the biggest gap at the halfway point since the NGTC era began in 2011. 

Fair play to Sutton for getting the best out of the Focus and it’s something even his teammates have struggled to do, although more was surely expected of Selby this year. He arrived in the BTCC with a good record, but is currently languishing in twentieth position with just seventeen points. Perhaps a little concerningly for Selby is that Proctor turned up at Thruxton as NAPA’s reserve driver and is already a place above him in the championship with thirty one points. 

Sutton, however, has certainly had a bit of luck on his side compared to to Ingram by pulling out some relatively low reverse grid numbers, like at Thruxton, and has avoided penalties for start infringements, for example. Although, Ingram’s penalty this time didn’t change the result, Ingram has received a couple of track limit penalties that have cost him positions and points. Of course though, it can be argued that if you stay on the track, you don’t get a penalty. 

At Thruxton, it was by far Plato Racing’s best showing of the season. Jason Plato himself said there’s no point in turning up if they’re not competitive and Thruxton certainly suited the Mercedes. Their challenge now is to repeat it and gain more silverware after Rowbottom broke their duck in race one. 

If it was Plato Racing’s best weekend, it was also WSR’s worst. It seemed that all weekend the BMW just couldn’t get going and between the three cars, the best result was Daryl De Leon in twelfth. At Knockhill, next time out, they will be hoping of repeating previous successes, especially given Jake Hill’s two wins there last season, but this time championship dominator, Sutton, will be standing in their way.

2026 British touring car championship standings after 15 rounds

1.	Ashley Sutton	284 points
2.	Tom Ingram	225
3.	Dan Cammish	208
4.	Josh Cook	152
5.	Ricky Collard	144
6.	Charles Rainford	142