Championship dominator, Ash Sutton, arrived at Croft with a massive ninety-eight point lead, although the previous meeting at Donington Park was the only time he hadn’t won a race on a weekend so far this year. The battle for second was much closer as Tom Ingram held a slender five point gap over Sutton’s teammate, Dan Cammish.

For Croft, the track limit infringement rule was tightened, with drivers now getting just one warning before a five second penalty and then one more warning before a ten second penalty. This would prove to be an interesting change!

Qualifying race

Josh Cook led from lights to flag on Saturday as most of the action happened early on in the race. 

Race One: 7/10 – Tom Ingram*, Josh Cook, Ash Sutton

• Several drivers in the field completed the green flag lap on hard tyres, meaning they’d run them for the weekend, before pitting ahead of the start to match their fellow drivers on wet tyres who were sitting on the grid waiting for the lights to go out. 
• When they did, the field with lots of gaps, saw Cook get away well, but after initially getting ahead of Sutton, De Leon went off and lost places down to eighth. Ingram was tucked in behind Sutton at the end of lap 1. 
• After Ricky Collard overtook Moffat for fifth, he found himself quite adrift of the top four who were already well clear of the others. At the end of lap 4, places six to eleven were all close to each other, with a bit of bumping in between. This then involved Dexter Patterson being tapped by Moffat into a spin, and although he recovered, he had lost almost a whole pack’s worth of places. 
• On lap 7, Ingram and Sutton touched at the end of the lap and this continued into the next one, but the main drama was Lewis Selby turning his Ford Focus into a combine harvester as he went straight on at Tower. 
• As the race reached the latter stages, the top four were still all close together and Sutton started to try on Cammish, but after sliding onto the grass, it let Ingram through.
• Ingram then showed his true pace, passing both Cammish and Cook for the lead, with Cammish also allowing Sutton through. However, although Ingram crossed the line first, a five second track limits penalty, for him and several others, meant that he dropped to third in the results behind Cook and Sutton.

Race Two: 6.5/10 – Ash Sutton, Dan Rowbottom, Ricky Collard

• It was a poor start from Cammish, but a much better one for Sutton who went around the outside of Cook to lead at Tower corner. He then started to make use of the clear air to pull out a gap to those behind him, while Cook held up the queue of cars. 
• On lap 4, Ingram overtook Cook for second and Dan Rowbottom, who’d started eighth, was third at the end of the lap after Cook had hit De Leon. A couple of laps later, Rowbottom moved up to second on the inside of Ingram, but he was tapped off and into the barriers in a move that brought Rowbottom a reprimand and two penalty points. 
• Although Ingram reversed and carried on for a lap, he then retired complete with his latest track limits penalty, along with five others, including for second and third placed Rowbottom and Collard.
• Like earlier in the race, there was another queue behind Cook and this time he was hit by Dan Lloyd and sent down the pack, but he had to retire due to a broken toe link. 
• At the front, Sutton cruised home, on the unfavoured hard tyre, to become more successful than Shedden with his 55th BTCC victory and moved up to fifth in the all time list of winners.

Race Three: 7/10 – Mikey Doble, Tom Chilton, Gordon Shedden

• The reverse grid draw was completed by former double champion James Thompson and he pulled out ball ten belonging to Mikey Doble. He was joined on the front row by Moffat, with Tom Chilton and Lloyd in behind.
• At the start of the race, separate incidents brought out the safety car. Initially, Collard was clipped by Cammish, who had launched it over the kerbs, and into Sutton and Rowbottom, while Árón Taylor-Smith also pulled over after being hit. Cammish and Sutton headed for the pits.
• When racing restarted on lap 7, Moffat was much slower than Doble and he immediately eked a 1.4 second lead within a lap. Chilton and Shedden soon overtook Moffat, who was then tapped by Charles Rainford, but he held position for a little while before falling further back. 
• However, Ingram joined the battle, and after a touch, he then went off before having to pit with damage. The drama allowed Cook to move up to fifth, with Adam Morgan in fourth.
• Sutton reappeared on lap 12 to set the fastest lap, while further contact in the field saw Rainford well-hit by Sam Osborne in what was a very poor move. More contact in the field followed before the end of the race, as did more track limit penalties with Morgan losing fourth to Cook as a result. 
• There were no such issues for Doble, who controlled his pace and the race well, as he won for the first time since the opening race of the season. 

Over the three races, an astonishing eighteen penalties were given for track limits. There are clearly arguments to be had on both sides, but eighteen penalties is a stupendous number. Clearly, drivers need to stick within the limits, but when cars are receiving a strike for being pushed wide or off and in the conditions seen, especially in race one, it seems excessive. We want to see cars on the very limit and as such, there will be occasions where driving on the limit means going slightly wide. A more sensible approach needs to be taken, but it might take a few more meetings for it to be discussed. 

As for Sutton, nothing needs to be discussed about him possibly becoming champion this year, despite his third race retirement, but his nearest contender is now Cammish after a disastrous weekend for Ingram with his two retirements following contact. It summed up Ingram’s season in reality, where nothing has really gone his way. If things go to plan, Sutton could easily be champion by the of the next meeting at Silverstone. 

Sutton will also no doubt help his NAPA companion, Cammish, to be runner up to prove how dominant the saloon version of the Ford Focus has been in 2026. 

However, no longer challenging will be Collard, who has confirmed he will be leaving the series for the final two events due to budget issues. It is a real shame that someone who is fourth in the UK’s premier motorsport competition has to leave before the end of the season. It raises more question marks about the costs of the series as has been recently documented by the plight of Plato Racing. 

His former cars didn’t have the best of weekends after performing brilliantly at Knockhill and Donington Park GP, but they will be hoping the long straights of Silverstone will once again suit their machines. One car it is sure to suit, given the season he’s had, is Sutton’s as he aims to complete his fifth drivers’ championship.

2026 british touring car championship standings after 24 rounds