BTCC Thruxton 25th & 26th July 2026
COOK SHARES SWEET TASTE OF SUCCESS WITH SUTTON AND INGRAM
The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship rocked up to the ultra-fast Thruxton in Hampshire after its summer break for Rounds 13, 14 and 15 over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of July.
The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship rocked up to the ultra-fast Thruxton in Hampshire after its summer break for Rounds 13, 14 and 15 over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of July.
The Entry: 2025 Constructors champions Xcelr8 Hyundai fielded ‘Team Tom’ again in the Vertu backed i30 Coupes after Tom Ingram became a two-time champion in 2025 and Tom Chilton showed race-winning speed once more. They were joined at the squad by Ricky Collard making a surprise return and Nicolas Hamilton, Collard feeling that he had unfinished business in the championship after a frustrating couple of years with Toyota before moving away to win the British GT championship. Meanwhile, Hamilton was relishing the opportunity to drive a proven chassis. New rules brought in for this season allowed models not currently sold in the UK to be used as the basis of their entries and saw Napa Racing UK running Focus Titanium saloons as opposed to the hatchbacks of yore. Having lost his crown to Jake Hill and Tom Ingram in the previous two years, Ash Sutton had just one aim which was to win a record fifth BTCC drivers championship. Like Sutton, Dan Cammish has been with the Napa squad since the start in 2022 and was gunning for a maiden BTCC title of his own after coming oh-so close in 2019. Sam Osborne scored his first BTCC race victory at Silverstone last year and hoped to add to that success this term but Senna Proctor would substitute for Osborne at Thruxton after the latter became unwell, the reserve driver only finding out that he would be driving at 07:00 on the morning of practice and qualifying. Ex-Mini racer Lewis Selby took the leap into touring cars this season in the seat vacated by Daniel Rowbottom. The crack West Surrey Racing squad now runs among the ranks of the Independents and had pared down to a pair of 3 Series BMWs accordingly for the start of the 2026 season. Returning drivers Charles Rainford and Darryl De Leon both won races overall in 2025 as they fought for the Jack Sears Trophy, which the latter won. The line up expanded to three cars in Hampshire as successful karter Lewis Gilbert joined the squad, having only taking the first steps of his career in cars at the start of 2026. A start-up team put together by 97-time BTCC race winner Jason Plato over the winter would field two RML-built Mercedes A35 saloons for Napa Racing UK refugee Daniel Rowbottom and Adam Morgan. Rowbottom left the Ford outfit under a cloud at the end of 2025 to join Plato Racing and hoped the fresh start would propel him to the front, whilst Morgan was a race winner in the past aboard a Mercedes with Ciceley Motorsport. When 2024 title holder Jake Hill departed the championship at the end of 2025, the MB Motorsport and Laser Tools support also moved on to a new home at Speedworks Motorsport. The Toyota outfit would run a pair of Corollas in the blue of Laser Tools for team returnees Gordon Shedden and Árón Taylor-Smith, whilst Thruxton king Josh Cook returned to the team along with Max Buxton in the other two Speedworks Corollas but the last named would be replaced by sometime TCR UK racer Ryan Bensley for the balance of the season from Thruxton. After a devastating fire at their Worcestershire headquarters caused the destruction of their Vauxhall Astras towards the back end of the 2025 season, Power Maxed Racing rose from the ashes to field three new-build Audi A3 saloons for Independent championship hopefuls Mikey Doble, Aiden Moffat and fellow Scot Dexter Patterson. A fourth car for Nick Halstead is scheduled join the championship from Knockhill. Chris Smiley was back in the Restart Racing Hyundai i30 Coupe for this year as he chases the Independents’ crown and the Northern Irishman was joined by James Dorlin, who contested a part-season with Speedworks Toyota in 2025.
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The Season So Far, Part One
Rounds 1, 2 & 3 Donington Park ’National’ 18th & 19th April 2026: Reigning champion Tom Ingram secured top spot for the maiden Race to Pole and crossed the line first after the 13 laps but he had been pinged five seconds for a false start. Remarkably, the Hyundai only lost the win by just 0.024 seconds after a mighty last couple of laps. Ingram’s loss was Daniel Rowbottom’s gain as he took a debut victory for the fledgling Plato Racing team. Ingram sped away in Round One as Rowbottom fluffed his lines from pole position to cross the line first again but this time the two-time champion lost all his points after being excluded for ‘significant overboosting’. Mikey Doble was there to profit and gave his Power Maxed Audi its first victory, with the A3 saloon also making its first appearance. After coming to grief in the frantic opening stages of the Race to Pole, Ash Sutton flew through the field to take second after Rowbottom’s Mercedes copped a ten-second penalty for track limit abuse. Sutton cut inside a fast-starting Charles Rainford exiting Redgate and survived an early Safety Car to draw away and win Race Two from teammate Dan Cammish, who deposed Rainford six laps from home. The expected march through the field from 2025 champion Ingram never happened after the Hyundai pitted on the warm up lap with alternator failure. The top eight were reversed for Race Three, with Ricky Collard drawn on pole from Dexter Patterson as Ingram lined up last on grid for what was to be a busy race. Collard led out of Redgate as the two WSR BMWs led by Charles Rainford got around Patterson’s Audi. Rainford took the lead at the Old Hairpin on lap two but Collard dived inside the BMW at Redgate for the third time to regain the lead before Rainford fought back down the Craners Curves. However, the Hyundai held its ground at the Old Hairpin and Sutton pulled alongside Rainford up to McLeans but it took until the Exhibition Straight for the BMW to TTB ahead again, with Patterson also sniffing around third-placed Sutton. The Audi tapped the Focus sideways at the chicane but Sutton held firm and teammate Cammish soon passed Patterson into the Old Hairpin. A queue began to form behind Rainford as the BMW started to struggle and the Napa Racing UK pair of Sutton and Cammish got past at the chicane, with Sutton closing on leader Collard afterwards. The pair were together on lap eight but the Hyundai had much more boost available. The pressured Collard ran wide at Redgate on lap nine and relinquished the lead to Sutton, the Hyundai stayed close to the Focus for a lap or two but Sutton was able to pull away to record BTCC win number 49. The sister Napa Focus also closed in on Collard and Cammish moved past at the Old Hairpin on lap 13, The Hyundai boosted back ahead as a flying Ingram reached them. Collard drove a very wide Hyundai to hold the hold pair off as Xcelr8 stablemate Ingram grabbed third at McLeans on lap 14 before lunging inside Collard at Redgate on lap 15 for second. Cammish used a great run onto lap 17 to go third but within a lap it was announced that he’d incurred a ten-second track limits penalty so Collard was classified third as the Focus fell to tenth.
Rounds 4, 5 & 6 Brands Hatch ’Indy’ 9th & 10th May 2026: Darryl De Leon flew off the line from third at the start of the Race to Pole to split polesitter Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish into the first corner. The BMW barged by the Hyundai at Graham Hill Bend to briefly lead but Ash Sutton led by Surtees after De Leon lost momentum, whilst Ingram fell to fifth after a trip down the grass. Sutton belied his one lap of TTB to keep De Leon at arm’s length throughout and take pole for Sunday’s opener. Round Four started with drizzle in the air but Sutton made a great start from pole as De Leon spun his BMW’s wheels from the outside of the front row. Ricky Collard ran in an early second as a result after Cammish ran wide at Graham Hill Bend. After a lengthy Safety Car period to recover Adam Morgan’s Mercedes, the Plato Racing car having plunged into the Paddock Hill Bend tyres on lap two, a feisty Collard nudged Sutton wide at Clearways but the Focus elbowed the Hyundai onto the grass at Clark Curve to retain the lead. Collard used his TTB to power into the lead at the end of lap 11 but slid wide at Graham Hill Bend and Sutton sailed back through at Surtees for the 12th time. The four-time champion opened up a gap with a new fastest lap, setting off to his landmark 50th BTCC victory. Collard led a four car train from Cammish, Ingram and a charging Chilton, who’d started 15th. Ingram passed Cammish for third at Paddock Hill Bend with four laps to go as Collard escaped in second. Heavy rain was forecast to arrive during the second race but Sutton was unconcerned as he converted his pole position to lead Collard into Paddock Hill Bend. The soft-tyred Ingram had made an iffy start but held third when the Safety Car was called into action after Lewis Selby embedded himself in the Druids tyre wall. The restart came on lap seven with the sky becoming ever greyer and Collard again pushing Sutton. The leading Focus was slow out of Graham Hill Bend for the eighth time and the top three were almost abreast as Collard grabbed the lead. Charles Rainford moved into third starting lap 11 before Sutton squeezed the BMW a lap later defending second and Ingram snuck back into third at Paddock Hill Bend as the spitting rain intensified. It was still close at the front as Collard skated wide at Clearways for the 13th time but Sutton couldn’t capitalise. Ingram gave Sutton a tap on the following tour but was unable to pass and they were joined by a flying Arón Taylor-Smith, who’d charged up from 13th on the grid. Collard had opened a gap out front of around one-and-a-half seconds by lap 16 after slides for Ingram and Sutton allowed Taylor-Smith into second. The pursuing Toyota caught Collard’s Hyundai within a lap and dived ahead into Paddock Hill Bend for the race lead, with Sutton taking back second place into Surtees later that same lap. Taylor-Smith was away and gone on his soft tyres and was set to seal his first BTCC win in a decade. Two of the Power Maxed Audis were going well and Aiden Moffat took fourth when Ingram slewed very sideways in the greasy conditions at Clearways before coming under fire from Rainford and the second A3 saloon of Mikey Doble. The trio ran three-wide up the hill to Druids and contact turned Rainford’s BMW across the front of Ingram’s Hyundai and into the gravel, the 3 Series was then collected by Sam Osborne after the Focus ran wide at the bottom of the hill and Daniel Rowbottom potted him under the yellow flags as he tried to take advantage. The race was stopped and not restarted, with the results counted back to lap 20. Taylor-Smith was able to celebrate his victory as Sutton and Collard completed the podium but Ingram regained fourth place ahead of Moffat. As at Donington Park, the top eight were reversed for Race Three. The draw moved James Dorlin onto pole position from Josh Cook. A mostly dry track was in situ for the bout and the polesitter would be starting alone on the medium tyres among the top ten but Dorlin still led into Paddock Hill Bend as Cook was swamped off the line. Sutton made an amazing start from seventh to push Dorlin for the lead but Ingram slid by the Focus at Clearways before divebombing Dorlin from a long way back into Paddock Hill Bend and took up the running at the start of lap two. Ingram was unable to pull away initially but eventually eased clear as Dorlin became the cork in the bottle from Sutton, Mikey Doble and Cook. The Audi of Doble got past Sutton’s Focus and started to press Independent rival Dorlin’s Hyundai as the train grew to ten cars. Doble breezed into second with the TTB heading onto the ninth lap and Sutton dived inside into Clearways later in the lap but it took until Paddock Hill Bend for the Focus to complete the pass. The race settled down with Ingram well clear but Doble would come under increasing pressure from Sutton later on, who was carrying more of the tactical boost. Sutton used the extra power to draw alongside Doble before using the switchback exiting Paddock Hill Bend to take second at Druids on lap 20. Ahead of them, Ingram sealed his win first of the year in dominant fashion from Sutton. The Focus driver completed a fruitful weekend with three podiums, bagging a win and two seconds. Independent winner Doble followed Sutton home in third.
Rounds 1, 2 & 3 Donington Park ’National’ 18th & 19th April 2026: Reigning champion Tom Ingram secured top spot for the maiden Race to Pole and crossed the line first after the 13 laps but he had been pinged five seconds for a false start. Remarkably, the Hyundai only lost the win by just 0.024 seconds after a mighty last couple of laps. Ingram’s loss was Daniel Rowbottom’s gain as he took a debut victory for the fledgling Plato Racing team. Ingram sped away in Round One as Rowbottom fluffed his lines from pole position to cross the line first again but this time the two-time champion lost all his points after being excluded for ‘significant overboosting’. Mikey Doble was there to profit and gave his Power Maxed Audi its first victory, with the A3 saloon also making its first appearance. After coming to grief in the frantic opening stages of the Race to Pole, Ash Sutton flew through the field to take second after Rowbottom’s Mercedes copped a ten-second penalty for track limit abuse. Sutton cut inside a fast-starting Charles Rainford exiting Redgate and survived an early Safety Car to draw away and win Race Two from teammate Dan Cammish, who deposed Rainford six laps from home. The expected march through the field from 2025 champion Ingram never happened after the Hyundai pitted on the warm up lap with alternator failure. The top eight were reversed for Race Three, with Ricky Collard drawn on pole from Dexter Patterson as Ingram lined up last on grid for what was to be a busy race. Collard led out of Redgate as the two WSR BMWs led by Charles Rainford got around Patterson’s Audi. Rainford took the lead at the Old Hairpin on lap two but Collard dived inside the BMW at Redgate for the third time to regain the lead before Rainford fought back down the Craners Curves. However, the Hyundai held its ground at the Old Hairpin and Sutton pulled alongside Rainford up to McLeans but it took until the Exhibition Straight for the BMW to TTB ahead again, with Patterson also sniffing around third-placed Sutton. The Audi tapped the Focus sideways at the chicane but Sutton held firm and teammate Cammish soon passed Patterson into the Old Hairpin. A queue began to form behind Rainford as the BMW started to struggle and the Napa Racing UK pair of Sutton and Cammish got past at the chicane, with Sutton closing on leader Collard afterwards. The pair were together on lap eight but the Hyundai had much more boost available. The pressured Collard ran wide at Redgate on lap nine and relinquished the lead to Sutton, the Hyundai stayed close to the Focus for a lap or two but Sutton was able to pull away to record BTCC win number 49. The sister Napa Focus also closed in on Collard and Cammish moved past at the Old Hairpin on lap 13, The Hyundai boosted back ahead as a flying Ingram reached them. Collard drove a very wide Hyundai to hold the hold pair off as Xcelr8 stablemate Ingram grabbed third at McLeans on lap 14 before lunging inside Collard at Redgate on lap 15 for second. Cammish used a great run onto lap 17 to go third but within a lap it was announced that he’d incurred a ten-second track limits penalty so Collard was classified third as the Focus fell to tenth.
Rounds 4, 5 & 6 Brands Hatch ’Indy’ 9th & 10th May 2026: Darryl De Leon flew off the line from third at the start of the Race to Pole to split polesitter Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish into the first corner. The BMW barged by the Hyundai at Graham Hill Bend to briefly lead but Ash Sutton led by Surtees after De Leon lost momentum, whilst Ingram fell to fifth after a trip down the grass. Sutton belied his one lap of TTB to keep De Leon at arm’s length throughout and take pole for Sunday’s opener. Round Four started with drizzle in the air but Sutton made a great start from pole as De Leon spun his BMW’s wheels from the outside of the front row. Ricky Collard ran in an early second as a result after Cammish ran wide at Graham Hill Bend. After a lengthy Safety Car period to recover Adam Morgan’s Mercedes, the Plato Racing car having plunged into the Paddock Hill Bend tyres on lap two, a feisty Collard nudged Sutton wide at Clearways but the Focus elbowed the Hyundai onto the grass at Clark Curve to retain the lead. Collard used his TTB to power into the lead at the end of lap 11 but slid wide at Graham Hill Bend and Sutton sailed back through at Surtees for the 12th time. The four-time champion opened up a gap with a new fastest lap, setting off to his landmark 50th BTCC victory. Collard led a four car train from Cammish, Ingram and a charging Chilton, who’d started 15th. Ingram passed Cammish for third at Paddock Hill Bend with four laps to go as Collard escaped in second. Heavy rain was forecast to arrive during the second race but Sutton was unconcerned as he converted his pole position to lead Collard into Paddock Hill Bend. The soft-tyred Ingram had made an iffy start but held third when the Safety Car was called into action after Lewis Selby embedded himself in the Druids tyre wall. The restart came on lap seven with the sky becoming ever greyer and Collard again pushing Sutton. The leading Focus was slow out of Graham Hill Bend for the eighth time and the top three were almost abreast as Collard grabbed the lead. Charles Rainford moved into third starting lap 11 before Sutton squeezed the BMW a lap later defending second and Ingram snuck back into third at Paddock Hill Bend as the spitting rain intensified. It was still close at the front as Collard skated wide at Clearways for the 13th time but Sutton couldn’t capitalise. Ingram gave Sutton a tap on the following tour but was unable to pass and they were joined by a flying Arón Taylor-Smith, who’d charged up from 13th on the grid. Collard had opened a gap out front of around one-and-a-half seconds by lap 16 after slides for Ingram and Sutton allowed Taylor-Smith into second. The pursuing Toyota caught Collard’s Hyundai within a lap and dived ahead into Paddock Hill Bend for the race lead, with Sutton taking back second place into Surtees later that same lap. Taylor-Smith was away and gone on his soft tyres and was set to seal his first BTCC win in a decade. Two of the Power Maxed Audis were going well and Aiden Moffat took fourth when Ingram slewed very sideways in the greasy conditions at Clearways before coming under fire from Rainford and the second A3 saloon of Mikey Doble. The trio ran three-wide up the hill to Druids and contact turned Rainford’s BMW across the front of Ingram’s Hyundai and into the gravel, the 3 Series was then collected by Sam Osborne after the Focus ran wide at the bottom of the hill and Daniel Rowbottom potted him under the yellow flags as he tried to take advantage. The race was stopped and not restarted, with the results counted back to lap 20. Taylor-Smith was able to celebrate his victory as Sutton and Collard completed the podium but Ingram regained fourth place ahead of Moffat. As at Donington Park, the top eight were reversed for Race Three. The draw moved James Dorlin onto pole position from Josh Cook. A mostly dry track was in situ for the bout and the polesitter would be starting alone on the medium tyres among the top ten but Dorlin still led into Paddock Hill Bend as Cook was swamped off the line. Sutton made an amazing start from seventh to push Dorlin for the lead but Ingram slid by the Focus at Clearways before divebombing Dorlin from a long way back into Paddock Hill Bend and took up the running at the start of lap two. Ingram was unable to pull away initially but eventually eased clear as Dorlin became the cork in the bottle from Sutton, Mikey Doble and Cook. The Audi of Doble got past Sutton’s Focus and started to press Independent rival Dorlin’s Hyundai as the train grew to ten cars. Doble breezed into second with the TTB heading onto the ninth lap and Sutton dived inside into Clearways later in the lap but it took until Paddock Hill Bend for the Focus to complete the pass. The race settled down with Ingram well clear but Doble would come under increasing pressure from Sutton later on, who was carrying more of the tactical boost. Sutton used the extra power to draw alongside Doble before using the switchback exiting Paddock Hill Bend to take second at Druids on lap 20. Ahead of them, Ingram sealed his win first of the year in dominant fashion from Sutton. The Focus driver completed a fruitful weekend with three podiums, bagging a win and two seconds. Independent winner Doble followed Sutton home in third.
The Season So Far, Part Two
Rounds 7, 8 & 9 Snetterton ‘300’ 23rd & 24th May 2026: Charles Rainford got by the aggressively defending polesitter Tom Chilton on lap one to win the Race to Pole from Josh Cook, after the Hyundai was hung out to dry in the aftermath of the BMW’s pass at Oggies. Some bump draughting from teammate Dan Cammish down the Bentley Straight on lap one pushed Ash Sutton between Tom Ingram and Chilton into an early third but the Focus’ tenure of a top three placing wasn’t to last as a puncture at Coram pitched Sutton off, with title rival Ingram taking third after the eight laps. Rainford flew off the line to lead Round Seven from pole and was never headed. Ingram immediately pressed Cook for second and the Hyundai got by at Hamilton for the first time but never threatened the leading BMW, despite setting the fastest lap, to trail in second by close to four seconds. Darryl De Leon was on the move during the race and used his boost to pass Cammish and took third off Cook during lap nine to give West Surrey Racing a 1-3 result. Sutton quickly charged from 21st to 11th but plateaued on the medium tyre to finish just outside the top ten. The top three all had to start Race Two on the medium tyre, with Cook the first soft runner in fourth. Rainford leapt away again at the start and led stablemate De Leon into Riches but Ingram grabbed back second place at Wilson. Rainford couldn’t make his escape in this bout and Ingram lunged into the lead at the Wilson hairpin on lap two. Sutton had started tenth after teammate Sam Osborne was disqualified for overboosting and the Focus was up to eighth after lap one. Front row man Cook had started dropping down the order and Sutton claimed seventh on lap two before boosting past Daniel Rowbottom’s Mercedes for sixth going onto lap four. The top six were still in contact and Cammish used his TTB to take third from De Leon down the Bentley Straight on lap five, with both WSR BMWs out of the extra boost already. Sutton passed both Ricky Collard and De Leon starting lap six and charged into third along the Bentley Straight for the sixth time. Second-placed Rainford fell victim to Sutton at Riches on lap seven and the Focus faced a deficit close to one-and-a-half seconds to bring down in the last six laps to catch Ingram. The gap was already down to 0.3 seconds starting lap eight but the leading Hyundai suffered a huge lock up braking for the Wilson hairpin and Ingram dropped to fifth as he skated wide, with a grateful Sutton hitting the front. The four-time champion drew away to his 51st career victory and fourth of the season by just over six seconds on-the-road but the margin was reduced to a little over one second after five seconds were added to his race time for overtaking off track. Cammish moved back onto the podium during lap seven but had used up all of his TTB so Collard’s Hyundai powered past into second after Ingram’s slip before Chilton went third on lap nine. Ingram held fifth but suddenly stopped during lap ten at the Bombhole with alternator trouble and failed to score. Three-time BTCC champion Gordon Shedden was drawn on pole position for the Round Nine finale after ball seven was pulled. The poleman led from the two Plato Racing Mercedes, with Rowbottom ahead of Adam Morgan initially before the pair swapped places at Agostini for the second time. The Napa Fords of medium-shod Cammish and Sutton followed the A Classes in fourth and fifth before the Focuses switched order at Palmer on lap four. A feisty Sutton made a committed move around the outside of Riches to take third from Rowbottom on lap five and the top three were soon together, with the next seven cars all in touch over fourth. Sutton grabbed second from Morgan at the Wilson hairpin on lap seven before the Focus made a bid for the lead in the same spot a lap later but Shedden’s Toyota fought back into Palmer. Shedden had more boost in his pocket than his challenger but Sutton drove around the outside of Riches to briefly lead again on lap nine before the tenacious Shedden again took the lead back at Wilson, with Sutton exhausting his one lap of boost. Shedden went on to claim his 54th BTCC win and his first for the Laser Tools with MB Motorsport outfit. Ingram started dead last in 21st but the reigning champion was up to 15th after one lap and inside the top ten after two. The Hyundai elbowed aside Rainford for sixth at the Brundle/Nelson complex on lap six before taking Cammish for fifth at Agostini on lap seven. The Mercedes of Morgan fell into the clutches of Tom Chilton and his teammate Ingram before the Hyundais swapped positions on lap nine and Ingram immediately started to push the Mercedes, moving into third during lap ten and chased down second-placed Sutton. The Hyundai boosted alongside Sutton onto the final lap but was forced to the outside of Riches before the Hyundai drew up to Sutton again down the Bentley Straight. However, the Napa Ford covered off Ingram’s advances and the Hyundai man still took a remarkable podium finish with third.
Rounds 10, 11 & 12 Oulton Park ’Island’ 6th & 7th June 2026: Arón Taylor-Smith converted pole position into the Race to Pole lead but the Irishman illegally weaved when the roof lights were extinguished to end an early appearance by the Safety Car. The Toyota subsequently copped a five-second penalty, meaning that the closely following Dan Cammish and Josh Cook were now scrapping for honours. Taylor-Smith remained at the head of the field and took the chequered flag a few car lengths clear of Cammish, who held off Cook to secure the Round Ten pole spot. Championship chasers Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram both made good starts to sit fifth and sixth before the Hyundai tried a bold move on the opening lap down the outside of the Focus and Mikey Doble‘s Audi but ran wide. After the restart, Sutton got around Doble, with Ingram following suit at Lodge. A couple of laps later, Ingram tapped Sutton wide at Lodge again but redressed at Old Hall as he fought to keep the rest behind. Sutton opened up a small margin to beat Ingram to the flag and seal third place on the grid for the opening race on Sunday, with the penalised Taylor-Smith dropping in behind them. Sutton made a great start to Race One and threatened Cook for second place behind teammate Cammish but contact between the pair at Cascades dropped the Focus to eighth. Sutton was back up to sixth by the time the Safety Car came out on lap three to clean up the mess from Lewis Selby’s crash approaching Lodge. Cook had latched onto Cammish before the pause but the Focus opened up a gap after the restart as Ingram started pushing Cook’s Toyota but, like during the opening stages, Cook gapped the Hyundai again and caught Cammish with a new fastest lap. Cammish staved off the onslaught and broke away in the second half of the 16 laps to win from Cook and Ingram. Sutton fell back to eighth behind Power Maxed Audi twins Doble and Moffat on the restart lap and struggled to regain ground with his limited boost allocation but the Focus was gifted one spot with the exit of Adam Morgan’s Mercedes and Sutton finished on the tail of the pair of Power Maxed A3 saloons in seventh. The top three were required to start Race Two on the hardest available tyre, with the remainder of the top ten all on the softs. Cammish led into Old Hall from Cook, Ingram and Taylor-Smith, whilst Sutton made another flying start to go fifth. Ingram grabbed second from Cook down The Avenue before the soft-tyred Taylor-Smith went around the outside of his Speedworks stablemate at Cascades and eventually took away third place at Hislops, with Sutton also up moving up to fourth by the end of lap one. Taylor-Smith looked to the outside of Ingram for second at the Island hairpin on lap two but was elbowed wide by the Hyundai and Sutton nipped through into third. The championship protagonists then went into battle and Sutton sped into second along The Avenue for the third time. Cammish had opened a few lengths advantage while they squared up to each other but Sutton took less than a lap to catch him and the teammates switched places towards Lodge. Sutton raced away to a crushing victory by more than 19 seconds as Ingram closed in on Cammish, with the Hyundai soon pressing the Focus and had two laps of boost in hand. Ingram dived down the inside of Cammish at Lodge to claim second place with just over three laps to run. The hard-tyred pair’s cause was helped no end by a huge scrap going on over fourth, won by Darryl De Leon. Chris Smiley was drawn on pole for Race Three from Sam Osborne after the first 11 cars were reversed but both would be running the hard tyres. The soft-tyre shod Charles Rainford made a good getaway from third on the grid but found himself pinched between the front row pair as the polesitter held onto the lead into Old Hall from the BMW. The Safety Car was soon required after a first corner incident when Taylor-Smith got sideways and was collected by Adam Morgan, the Mercedes fortunate not to be poleaxed by Nicolas Hamilton as he spun back across the circuit. The race distance was upped to 18 laps behind the Safety Car and Rainford pounced down The Avenue at the restart to swing into the lead at Cascades for the fifth time. Ricky Collard was the next driver on softs and the Hyundai moved up to third at Hislops and was into second before the lap was done but trailed Rainford by one-and-a-half seconds. Cammish and Ingram were sixth and eighth in the queue behind the Safety Car but were fourth and fifth by the end of the restart lap. Ingram barged down the inside of Cammish for fourth starting lap six at Old Hall and got by Smiley at Lodge to be third going onto lap seven. Cammish used an excellent run out of Druids to bag fourth but Ingram was already up the road after Smiley’s defence of the place cost the Focus time. Ingram chased down his stablemate Collard with the fastest lap but the Hyundai’s charge was temporarily halted by a second Safety Car period, after Lewis Selby and Tom Chilton came to blows at Cascades. Six laps remained when the action got underway once more and Rainford was undeterred by Collard’s flashing of the headlights to continue to hold sway. The BMW edged away as Ingram and Cammish started to press Collard for second, whilst Josh Cook climbed into the top five during the restart lap and closed in on trio ahead. Rainford broke away from the opposition in the closing stages and won his second race of the season by close to one-and-a-half seconds from the line of four cars fighting for second as Collard held on to the runner-up position, with Ingram third ahead of Cammish and Cook in fourth and fifth. Race Two winner Sutton was unable to make much progress from 11th on the harder tyre and finished ninth.
Ash Sutton’s ominous 2026 form saw him leave Oulton Park as the championship leader by a healthy 48 points from current title holder Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish sat 12 points further back in third. Charles Rainford’s two wins in his sophomore season helped him to fourth in the standings heading to Thruxton, some 83 points behind Sutton, with Ricky Collard enjoying his comeback in fifth from Rainford’s WSR teammate Darryl De Leon in sixth. Round One victor Mikey Doble lurked only three points behind the BMW in seventh and was five points clear of Josh Cook in eighth. The West Countryman sat eight points ahead of another race winner in Gordon Shedden, with fellow Scot Aiden Moffat completing the top ten. The Independents’ title chase was led by Doble but the top three were within seven points of each other and the top five were within twenty points of the Audi pilot. De Leon sat five points down in second, with BMW teammate Rainford a further two points behind in third. The second Audi of Moffat sat 18 points adrift in fourth and led three-time overall title winner Shedden by another point. Chris Smiley wasn’t out of touch in sixth either, trailing Doble by 24 points.
Rounds 7, 8 & 9 Snetterton ‘300’ 23rd & 24th May 2026: Charles Rainford got by the aggressively defending polesitter Tom Chilton on lap one to win the Race to Pole from Josh Cook, after the Hyundai was hung out to dry in the aftermath of the BMW’s pass at Oggies. Some bump draughting from teammate Dan Cammish down the Bentley Straight on lap one pushed Ash Sutton between Tom Ingram and Chilton into an early third but the Focus’ tenure of a top three placing wasn’t to last as a puncture at Coram pitched Sutton off, with title rival Ingram taking third after the eight laps. Rainford flew off the line to lead Round Seven from pole and was never headed. Ingram immediately pressed Cook for second and the Hyundai got by at Hamilton for the first time but never threatened the leading BMW, despite setting the fastest lap, to trail in second by close to four seconds. Darryl De Leon was on the move during the race and used his boost to pass Cammish and took third off Cook during lap nine to give West Surrey Racing a 1-3 result. Sutton quickly charged from 21st to 11th but plateaued on the medium tyre to finish just outside the top ten. The top three all had to start Race Two on the medium tyre, with Cook the first soft runner in fourth. Rainford leapt away again at the start and led stablemate De Leon into Riches but Ingram grabbed back second place at Wilson. Rainford couldn’t make his escape in this bout and Ingram lunged into the lead at the Wilson hairpin on lap two. Sutton had started tenth after teammate Sam Osborne was disqualified for overboosting and the Focus was up to eighth after lap one. Front row man Cook had started dropping down the order and Sutton claimed seventh on lap two before boosting past Daniel Rowbottom’s Mercedes for sixth going onto lap four. The top six were still in contact and Cammish used his TTB to take third from De Leon down the Bentley Straight on lap five, with both WSR BMWs out of the extra boost already. Sutton passed both Ricky Collard and De Leon starting lap six and charged into third along the Bentley Straight for the sixth time. Second-placed Rainford fell victim to Sutton at Riches on lap seven and the Focus faced a deficit close to one-and-a-half seconds to bring down in the last six laps to catch Ingram. The gap was already down to 0.3 seconds starting lap eight but the leading Hyundai suffered a huge lock up braking for the Wilson hairpin and Ingram dropped to fifth as he skated wide, with a grateful Sutton hitting the front. The four-time champion drew away to his 51st career victory and fourth of the season by just over six seconds on-the-road but the margin was reduced to a little over one second after five seconds were added to his race time for overtaking off track. Cammish moved back onto the podium during lap seven but had used up all of his TTB so Collard’s Hyundai powered past into second after Ingram’s slip before Chilton went third on lap nine. Ingram held fifth but suddenly stopped during lap ten at the Bombhole with alternator trouble and failed to score. Three-time BTCC champion Gordon Shedden was drawn on pole position for the Round Nine finale after ball seven was pulled. The poleman led from the two Plato Racing Mercedes, with Rowbottom ahead of Adam Morgan initially before the pair swapped places at Agostini for the second time. The Napa Fords of medium-shod Cammish and Sutton followed the A Classes in fourth and fifth before the Focuses switched order at Palmer on lap four. A feisty Sutton made a committed move around the outside of Riches to take third from Rowbottom on lap five and the top three were soon together, with the next seven cars all in touch over fourth. Sutton grabbed second from Morgan at the Wilson hairpin on lap seven before the Focus made a bid for the lead in the same spot a lap later but Shedden’s Toyota fought back into Palmer. Shedden had more boost in his pocket than his challenger but Sutton drove around the outside of Riches to briefly lead again on lap nine before the tenacious Shedden again took the lead back at Wilson, with Sutton exhausting his one lap of boost. Shedden went on to claim his 54th BTCC win and his first for the Laser Tools with MB Motorsport outfit. Ingram started dead last in 21st but the reigning champion was up to 15th after one lap and inside the top ten after two. The Hyundai elbowed aside Rainford for sixth at the Brundle/Nelson complex on lap six before taking Cammish for fifth at Agostini on lap seven. The Mercedes of Morgan fell into the clutches of Tom Chilton and his teammate Ingram before the Hyundais swapped positions on lap nine and Ingram immediately started to push the Mercedes, moving into third during lap ten and chased down second-placed Sutton. The Hyundai boosted alongside Sutton onto the final lap but was forced to the outside of Riches before the Hyundai drew up to Sutton again down the Bentley Straight. However, the Napa Ford covered off Ingram’s advances and the Hyundai man still took a remarkable podium finish with third.
Rounds 10, 11 & 12 Oulton Park ’Island’ 6th & 7th June 2026: Arón Taylor-Smith converted pole position into the Race to Pole lead but the Irishman illegally weaved when the roof lights were extinguished to end an early appearance by the Safety Car. The Toyota subsequently copped a five-second penalty, meaning that the closely following Dan Cammish and Josh Cook were now scrapping for honours. Taylor-Smith remained at the head of the field and took the chequered flag a few car lengths clear of Cammish, who held off Cook to secure the Round Ten pole spot. Championship chasers Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram both made good starts to sit fifth and sixth before the Hyundai tried a bold move on the opening lap down the outside of the Focus and Mikey Doble‘s Audi but ran wide. After the restart, Sutton got around Doble, with Ingram following suit at Lodge. A couple of laps later, Ingram tapped Sutton wide at Lodge again but redressed at Old Hall as he fought to keep the rest behind. Sutton opened up a small margin to beat Ingram to the flag and seal third place on the grid for the opening race on Sunday, with the penalised Taylor-Smith dropping in behind them. Sutton made a great start to Race One and threatened Cook for second place behind teammate Cammish but contact between the pair at Cascades dropped the Focus to eighth. Sutton was back up to sixth by the time the Safety Car came out on lap three to clean up the mess from Lewis Selby’s crash approaching Lodge. Cook had latched onto Cammish before the pause but the Focus opened up a gap after the restart as Ingram started pushing Cook’s Toyota but, like during the opening stages, Cook gapped the Hyundai again and caught Cammish with a new fastest lap. Cammish staved off the onslaught and broke away in the second half of the 16 laps to win from Cook and Ingram. Sutton fell back to eighth behind Power Maxed Audi twins Doble and Moffat on the restart lap and struggled to regain ground with his limited boost allocation but the Focus was gifted one spot with the exit of Adam Morgan’s Mercedes and Sutton finished on the tail of the pair of Power Maxed A3 saloons in seventh. The top three were required to start Race Two on the hardest available tyre, with the remainder of the top ten all on the softs. Cammish led into Old Hall from Cook, Ingram and Taylor-Smith, whilst Sutton made another flying start to go fifth. Ingram grabbed second from Cook down The Avenue before the soft-tyred Taylor-Smith went around the outside of his Speedworks stablemate at Cascades and eventually took away third place at Hislops, with Sutton also up moving up to fourth by the end of lap one. Taylor-Smith looked to the outside of Ingram for second at the Island hairpin on lap two but was elbowed wide by the Hyundai and Sutton nipped through into third. The championship protagonists then went into battle and Sutton sped into second along The Avenue for the third time. Cammish had opened a few lengths advantage while they squared up to each other but Sutton took less than a lap to catch him and the teammates switched places towards Lodge. Sutton raced away to a crushing victory by more than 19 seconds as Ingram closed in on Cammish, with the Hyundai soon pressing the Focus and had two laps of boost in hand. Ingram dived down the inside of Cammish at Lodge to claim second place with just over three laps to run. The hard-tyred pair’s cause was helped no end by a huge scrap going on over fourth, won by Darryl De Leon. Chris Smiley was drawn on pole for Race Three from Sam Osborne after the first 11 cars were reversed but both would be running the hard tyres. The soft-tyre shod Charles Rainford made a good getaway from third on the grid but found himself pinched between the front row pair as the polesitter held onto the lead into Old Hall from the BMW. The Safety Car was soon required after a first corner incident when Taylor-Smith got sideways and was collected by Adam Morgan, the Mercedes fortunate not to be poleaxed by Nicolas Hamilton as he spun back across the circuit. The race distance was upped to 18 laps behind the Safety Car and Rainford pounced down The Avenue at the restart to swing into the lead at Cascades for the fifth time. Ricky Collard was the next driver on softs and the Hyundai moved up to third at Hislops and was into second before the lap was done but trailed Rainford by one-and-a-half seconds. Cammish and Ingram were sixth and eighth in the queue behind the Safety Car but were fourth and fifth by the end of the restart lap. Ingram barged down the inside of Cammish for fourth starting lap six at Old Hall and got by Smiley at Lodge to be third going onto lap seven. Cammish used an excellent run out of Druids to bag fourth but Ingram was already up the road after Smiley’s defence of the place cost the Focus time. Ingram chased down his stablemate Collard with the fastest lap but the Hyundai’s charge was temporarily halted by a second Safety Car period, after Lewis Selby and Tom Chilton came to blows at Cascades. Six laps remained when the action got underway once more and Rainford was undeterred by Collard’s flashing of the headlights to continue to hold sway. The BMW edged away as Ingram and Cammish started to press Collard for second, whilst Josh Cook climbed into the top five during the restart lap and closed in on trio ahead. Rainford broke away from the opposition in the closing stages and won his second race of the season by close to one-and-a-half seconds from the line of four cars fighting for second as Collard held on to the runner-up position, with Ingram third ahead of Cammish and Cook in fourth and fifth. Race Two winner Sutton was unable to make much progress from 11th on the harder tyre and finished ninth.
Ash Sutton’s ominous 2026 form saw him leave Oulton Park as the championship leader by a healthy 48 points from current title holder Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish sat 12 points further back in third. Charles Rainford’s two wins in his sophomore season helped him to fourth in the standings heading to Thruxton, some 83 points behind Sutton, with Ricky Collard enjoying his comeback in fifth from Rainford’s WSR teammate Darryl De Leon in sixth. Round One victor Mikey Doble lurked only three points behind the BMW in seventh and was five points clear of Josh Cook in eighth. The West Countryman sat eight points ahead of another race winner in Gordon Shedden, with fellow Scot Aiden Moffat completing the top ten. The Independents’ title chase was led by Doble but the top three were within seven points of each other and the top five were within twenty points of the Audi pilot. De Leon sat five points down in second, with BMW teammate Rainford a further two points behind in third. The second Audi of Moffat sat 18 points adrift in fourth and led three-time overall title winner Shedden by another point. Chris Smiley wasn’t out of touch in sixth either, trailing Doble by 24 points.
Practice and Qualifying
Restart Racing got their weekend off to a great start with the first and second fastest times in the single 50-minute free practice session on Saturday morning. Chris Smiley topped the timesheet from James Dorlin as just 0.093 split the teammates, whilst championship leader Ash Sutton took third from Independent title chase leader Mikey Doble, Thruxton maestro Josh Cook was fifth quickest ahead of his Speedworks Toyota stablemate Árón Taylor-Smith in sixth. Dan Cammish was seventh ahead of Sutton’s chief championship protagonist Tom Ingram in eighth. Adam Morgan and Gordon Shedden completed the top ten. The West Surrey Racing BMWs toiled lower down the order, with fourth-in-the-championship Charles Rainford the quickest of the trio in 13th. The classification was divided down the middle for qualifying, with the odds and evens in the classification forming groups one and two respectively. Qualifying would take place on the medium compound tyres for the first time, with one set of new tyres available before racing exclusively on the hards. The faster qualifying group starts from the pole side for the immediately following Race to Pole.
Group One: Chris Smiley, Ash Sutton, Josh Cook, Dan Cammish, Adam Morgan, Daniel Rowbottom, Charles Rainford, Tom Chilton, Ryan Bensley, Lewis Selby, Lewis Gilbert.
Josh Cook’s time from his first run held as the fastest of the group by 0.189 seconds despite an improvement by Dan Cammish on his second go, whilst Adam Morgan sealed third with a time also from his opening salvo. Ash Sutton ended the 15 minutes in fourth with his sole second of boost as the championship leader. The second Mercedes of Daniel Rowbottom and Tom Chilton’s Hyundai made up the top six but the latter had a two place grid drop to carry over from Oulton Park. Charles Rainford endured a difficult session, the BMW pilot lost his opening attempt to track limits before encountering yellow flags for a spinning Lewis Selby at Church and also dropped the BMW himself at Village to end the session in tenth.
Group Two: James Dorlin, Mikey Doble, Arón Taylor-Smith, Tom Ingram, Gordon Shedden, Ricky Collard, Senna Proctor, Darryl De Leon, Aiden Moffat, Dexter Patterson, Nicolas Hamilton.
Tom Ingram belied his three seconds of availabile boost to be quickest by 0.304 seconds from Napa Racing UK stand-in Senna Proctor and Mikey Doble. Gordon Shedden had an awkward start to the session when his Corolla’s bonnet flew open on the out lap, the panel was held down with tape for the remainder of the session but the triple champion recovered to set the sixth fastest time behind Ricky Collard and James Dorlin.
The first group to qualify were faster so the Toyota of Cook would start the Race to Pole from the head of the grid after the Corolla’s 1:15.219 time was some four tenths faster than Ingram’s marker of 1:15.671. In fact, the top three from Group One were all faster than the reigning champion and the Hyundai was a mere 0.016 seconds ahead of his nemesis Sutton.
Restart Racing got their weekend off to a great start with the first and second fastest times in the single 50-minute free practice session on Saturday morning. Chris Smiley topped the timesheet from James Dorlin as just 0.093 split the teammates, whilst championship leader Ash Sutton took third from Independent title chase leader Mikey Doble, Thruxton maestro Josh Cook was fifth quickest ahead of his Speedworks Toyota stablemate Árón Taylor-Smith in sixth. Dan Cammish was seventh ahead of Sutton’s chief championship protagonist Tom Ingram in eighth. Adam Morgan and Gordon Shedden completed the top ten. The West Surrey Racing BMWs toiled lower down the order, with fourth-in-the-championship Charles Rainford the quickest of the trio in 13th. The classification was divided down the middle for qualifying, with the odds and evens in the classification forming groups one and two respectively. Qualifying would take place on the medium compound tyres for the first time, with one set of new tyres available before racing exclusively on the hards. The faster qualifying group starts from the pole side for the immediately following Race to Pole.
Group One: Chris Smiley, Ash Sutton, Josh Cook, Dan Cammish, Adam Morgan, Daniel Rowbottom, Charles Rainford, Tom Chilton, Ryan Bensley, Lewis Selby, Lewis Gilbert.
Josh Cook’s time from his first run held as the fastest of the group by 0.189 seconds despite an improvement by Dan Cammish on his second go, whilst Adam Morgan sealed third with a time also from his opening salvo. Ash Sutton ended the 15 minutes in fourth with his sole second of boost as the championship leader. The second Mercedes of Daniel Rowbottom and Tom Chilton’s Hyundai made up the top six but the latter had a two place grid drop to carry over from Oulton Park. Charles Rainford endured a difficult session, the BMW pilot lost his opening attempt to track limits before encountering yellow flags for a spinning Lewis Selby at Church and also dropped the BMW himself at Village to end the session in tenth.
Group Two: James Dorlin, Mikey Doble, Arón Taylor-Smith, Tom Ingram, Gordon Shedden, Ricky Collard, Senna Proctor, Darryl De Leon, Aiden Moffat, Dexter Patterson, Nicolas Hamilton.
Tom Ingram belied his three seconds of availabile boost to be quickest by 0.304 seconds from Napa Racing UK stand-in Senna Proctor and Mikey Doble. Gordon Shedden had an awkward start to the session when his Corolla’s bonnet flew open on the out lap, the panel was held down with tape for the remainder of the session but the triple champion recovered to set the sixth fastest time behind Ricky Collard and James Dorlin.
The first group to qualify were faster so the Toyota of Cook would start the Race to Pole from the head of the grid after the Corolla’s 1:15.219 time was some four tenths faster than Ingram’s marker of 1:15.671. In fact, the top three from Group One were all faster than the reigning champion and the Hyundai was a mere 0.016 seconds ahead of his nemesis Sutton.
Race to Pole
Josh Cook converted pole when the lights went out for the start of the 12 laps but the Toyota was forced to defend very hard at the exit of Allard to hold off Tom Ingram. Adam Morgan’s Mercedes made a good getaway to follow Dan Cammish past Senna Proctor into fourth but the Focuses of Proctor and championship leader Sutton bullied the Plato Racing car back to sixth at the Complex. Sutton then got round his stablemate Proctor for fourth place by Seagrave. The Safety Car was required before the end of the opening lap after a visibly frustrated Ricky Collard’s Hyundai shut down through Allard before coming to rest at the Complex. The field spent two laps behind the Safety Car before being released but it wouldn’t be long until an incident occurred in the pack at the restart after Cook brought the field slowly through the acceleration zone. All three WSR BMWs were involved along with Nicolas Hamilton and the contretemps also eliminated two of the debutants in Ryan Bensley and Lewis Gilbert. As the front of the train hadn’t accelerated as much as those at the back were expecting, Rainford was hit from behind by Selby in the concertina before Gilbert clattered into Hamilton to leave the 3 Series looking very second hand. Selby, De Leon and Rainford continued, the latter after pitting, but Gilbert, Hamilton and Bensley were all out. Cook quickly opened a one second buffer after the resumption from Ingram but the Toyota driver wasn’t able to relax for the remainder of the extended 14 laps as the ten-time Thruxton victor secured pole for first race on Sunday and a trifle from his team owners! Cook also became the fifth different winner in the five Race to Poles contested so far, Sutton pounced on Cammish for a place in the top three at Seagrave during lap five and had closed in on Ingram starting the last lap but had to settle for third behind his title rival. Cammish and Proctor made it three Napa Racing UK Fords finishing in third to fifth, whilst Gordon Shedden made waves to finish sixth on-the-road after starting 11th but attracted a five-second penalty for weaving just before the restart. Morgan slipped behind Shedden with a grassy moment at Allard beginning lap six before Rowbottom demoted him further heading onto lap eight. However, Morgan got back ahead of his teammate for sixth with Shedden’s punishment when the sister Plato Racing car ran wide at Church on lap 11, with Shedden’s Toyota dropping behind the two Mercedes to eighth. Tom Chilton had given chase to the Mercedes pair but was forced out with alternator trouble late in the day so Mikey Doble and James Dorlin completed the top ten.
Josh Cook converted pole when the lights went out for the start of the 12 laps but the Toyota was forced to defend very hard at the exit of Allard to hold off Tom Ingram. Adam Morgan’s Mercedes made a good getaway to follow Dan Cammish past Senna Proctor into fourth but the Focuses of Proctor and championship leader Sutton bullied the Plato Racing car back to sixth at the Complex. Sutton then got round his stablemate Proctor for fourth place by Seagrave. The Safety Car was required before the end of the opening lap after a visibly frustrated Ricky Collard’s Hyundai shut down through Allard before coming to rest at the Complex. The field spent two laps behind the Safety Car before being released but it wouldn’t be long until an incident occurred in the pack at the restart after Cook brought the field slowly through the acceleration zone. All three WSR BMWs were involved along with Nicolas Hamilton and the contretemps also eliminated two of the debutants in Ryan Bensley and Lewis Gilbert. As the front of the train hadn’t accelerated as much as those at the back were expecting, Rainford was hit from behind by Selby in the concertina before Gilbert clattered into Hamilton to leave the 3 Series looking very second hand. Selby, De Leon and Rainford continued, the latter after pitting, but Gilbert, Hamilton and Bensley were all out. Cook quickly opened a one second buffer after the resumption from Ingram but the Toyota driver wasn’t able to relax for the remainder of the extended 14 laps as the ten-time Thruxton victor secured pole for first race on Sunday and a trifle from his team owners! Cook also became the fifth different winner in the five Race to Poles contested so far, Sutton pounced on Cammish for a place in the top three at Seagrave during lap five and had closed in on Ingram starting the last lap but had to settle for third behind his title rival. Cammish and Proctor made it three Napa Racing UK Fords finishing in third to fifth, whilst Gordon Shedden made waves to finish sixth on-the-road after starting 11th but attracted a five-second penalty for weaving just before the restart. Morgan slipped behind Shedden with a grassy moment at Allard beginning lap six before Rowbottom demoted him further heading onto lap eight. However, Morgan got back ahead of his teammate for sixth with Shedden’s punishment when the sister Plato Racing car ran wide at Church on lap 11, with Shedden’s Toyota dropping behind the two Mercedes to eighth. Tom Chilton had given chase to the Mercedes pair but was forced out with alternator trouble late in the day so Mikey Doble and James Dorlin completed the top ten.
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Round 13: Showers of rain had peppered the morning of race day but had cleared by the time the first of the 16 laps that made up Round 13 came around. Polesitter Josh Cook just held off the threat of fellow front row man Tom Ingram up to the Complex for the first time, with the 2025 champion having to get his elbows out to fend off Ash Sutton towards Noble but the Hyundai couldn’t stop the Ford getting through on the inside of Goodwood. Ingram was in danger of being bundled further down the order by Sutton’s stablemate Dan Cammish when the Hyundai was squeezed off at Village after Cammish’s Focus got sideways and fell to ninth by the end of the opening lap. Ingram’s loss was Daniel Rowbottom’s gain as the Mercedes moved into third at Church after the fraught tussle ahead cost them momentum and Senna Proctor also demoted his teammate Cammish. The gap among the top two remained elastic but Cook used his remaining TTB in the final couple of laps to edge away from Sutton and win by 0.653 seconds, his 11th BTCC ‘main game’ victory at the Hampshire speedbowl. Rowbottom was pleased with third as he sealed Plato Racing’s maiden 'proper' podium finish and felt that the Mercedes’ handling was much improved after driving a ‘kangaroo’ on Saturday. Napa Racing UK reserve driver Proctor repaid his team’s faith in him with fourth. Ingram’s recovery from his trip down the grass started with a pass on James Dorlin up Woodham Hill on lap two before arrowing around the outside of Gordon Shedden into seventh at Noble for the fifth time. Adam Morgan fell victim for sixth place with a well-judged move around the outside into the Club Chicane next time around. Cammish was the charging Hyundai’s next target for fifth and Ingram took the place at Seagrave on lap ten, with the 2025 champion finishing 0.671 seconds behind the sister Focus of Proctor. Morgan was at the wheel of the second Plato Racing Mercedes to finish inside the top six after attempting to follow Ingram past the Focus at Noble but ultimately vanquished Cammish on the run up Woodham Hill on lap 11. Eighth-placed Mikey Doble was victorious in the Independents by 1.392 seconds from the Hyundai of James Dorlin. Dorlin’s Restart Racing teammate Chris Smiley was third in the category and rounded out the top ten.
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Round 14: Josh Cook made a decent start to the second 16-lapper but Ash Sutton drew alongside around the outside of Allard to briefly nose ahead before the Toyota regained the lead into the Complex. Fourth starter Senna Proctor had a difficult opening lap and was pushed back to eighth by Tom Ingram off the line and Adam Morgan at the Complex before Dan Cammish passed his teammate at Noble and James Dorlin got through at Church. The top four went into the countryside together but Rowbottom and Ingram lost ground through Goodwood and Village. Ahead of them, a slip from Cook at Church gave Sutton the run into the lead up Woodham Hill for the first time but news soon appeared that Sutton’s start would be investigated after the race. The Focus maintained a small gap out front from Cook before Ingram powered past Rowbottom on lap five towards Noble and the Hyundai started to reel in the Toyota. Cook also began edging back towards leader Sutton until the Toyota started to defend from Ingram’s Hyundai, with the second moment of controversy coming on lap 12. Ingram boosted alongside Cook up Woodham Hill and a little contact was made when the pair played chicken on the brakes and the upshot was that the Hyundai missed the chicane, whilst Cook was delayed after half-spinning but stayed ahead of Cammish. Ingram raced away after Sutton but was unable to seriously threaten the Focus before the chequered flag. Subsequently, Ingram was penalised ten seconds after using up his final track limits warning for cutting the chicane so dropped to fifth. Sutton survived the investigation into his start and the punishments dished out to others gave Napa Racing Uk a 1-2 result. Cook fell back into the clutches of Cammish after his skirmish, who briefly got ahead at the chicane on lap 13, and staved off the Focus after saving his one lap of usable boost to the final tour but the Toyota pilot was docked one position to third after short-cutting the chicane exit regaining the place from the Focus. Cammish had grabbed fifth from Morgan into the chicane on lap three before taking the other Mercedes of Rowbottom the long way into the same sequence on lap seven for fourth. Rowbottom crossed the line fifth on-the-road but was classified fourth officially after Ingram’s penalty. James Dorlin was the leading Independent and finished ahead of Adam Morgan in sixth, with the Hyundai getting ahead of the Mercedes when it took a high-speed thrill ride down the grass at Church on lap six. A multi-car scrap behind Mikey Doble was resolved in favour of the Audi with some robust defending from Arón Taylor-Smith at the final chicane, with Doble having earlier clashed with Proctor in the middle of the Complex. Gordon Shedden drove a strong race from the back of the grid to finish tenth after pulling off a last-gasp pass on Tom Chilton, having pitted to have grass cleared from the air intakes following a high-speed excursion at Church during the opener.
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Round 15: Race Two winner Ash Sutton pulled out ball number six in the reversed grid draw to place James Dorlin onto pole position and would share the front row, ironically, with Tom Ingram after his earlier penalty. Daniel Rowbottom and Dan Cammish were next, with Josh Cook and Sutton on the third row. Adam Morgan’s Mercedes and Dorlin’s nearest Independents competitor Mikey Doble were on the fourth row, with teammates Arón Taylor-Smith and Gordon Shedden completing the top ten. The pair of Hyundais on the front row ran side-by-side through Allard, where the pair rubbed panels, before Ingram took the initiative at the Complex and led after the first lap but a tangle between Cook, Morgan and Taylor-Smith brought out the Safety Car. Cook and Morgan were door-to-door through the chicane before the Race One winner was turned across the nose of the Mercedes and cannoned into Taylor-Smith, who’d already cut the chicane before ricocheting off the sister Speedworks Toyota into the tyres. Morgan’s Plato Racing car was then spun by Mikey Doble’s Audi in the aftermath. Further down the field, Charles Rainford tangled with Chris Smiley approaching the chicane, whilst Ryan Bensley and Lewis Selby came to blows at the Complex and also pitted. The Safety Car period lengthened to eight laps when Bensley’s right-front corner gave up on the Toyota after rejoining from the pitlane. Ingram led from Dorlin, Sutton, Cammish, Rowbottom and Shedden among the top six in the queue after the two Napa Focuses of Cammish and Sutton pounced on Rowbottom’s opening lap slide at Seagrave to take third and fourth before switching places themselves up Woodham Hill. The restart came on lap nine and the new race distance would be 19 laps. Ingram cleared off at the resumption as he sought to overcome the threat of a five-second false start penalty, having reversed on the grid, and the Hyundai man achieved his aim to triumph by 0.663 seconds once the punishment was applied. The reigning champion had cancelled out the penalty going onto the final lap on his way to scoring win number two of the season. Sutton sped up to second with a rapid run out of Church during the restart lap but couldn’t make an impression on the leading Hyundai as the championship leader claimed the runner-up spot. Cammish ran with his Ford stablemate after demoting Dorlin through Allard starting lap ten but fell away towards the finish and was close to being caught by Ricky Collard as just 0.564 seconds separated them at the line. Collard was seventh in the Safety Car queue after starting 11th and made a great fist of the restart to quickly move up two spots into fifth exiting the Complex. Collard then passed the similar Hyundai of Dorlin with a spectacular move through Church on lap 11, with Collard needing all of his car control to hang on to the sideways i30 Coupe. Senna Proctor finished next up in fifth, the substitute driver having climbed from 15th to record his second top five finish of the the day. The Focus picked its way through the carnage at the chicane to sit eighth in line at the restart before grabbing seventh from Shedden during lap ten coming into the chicane, Rowbottom was dealt with a lap later at Church and Dorlin fell for fifth up Woodham Hill on lap 12. Polesitter Dorlin took his second sixth place finish of the meeting to win the Independents again. whilst Shedden won a battle with Rowbottom through Allard on lap 16 for seventh. The two Power Maxed Audis of Doble and Dexter Patterson plus Tom Chilton’s Hyundai were involved in the multi-car scramble too. Chilton got by the three German saloons heading onto the last lap for eighth place, whilst Patterson bagged his stablemate Doble and Rowbottom in one go exiting the Complex for ninth before Doble forced Rowbottom out of the top ten by the chequer. Aiden Moffat put in a noteworthy charge from the back of the grid to reach as high as tenth before a holed radiator put the Audi out with five laps remaining and finished a miserable weekend for the Scot.
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Ash Sutton’s championship lead grew to 59 points from Tom Ingram leaving Hampshire. Dan Cammish trailed Ingram by 17 points in third, whilst Josh Cook leapt up to fourth from eighth starting the weekend. Charles Rainford’s tricky meeting saw him drop to sixth place behind Ricky Collard but the BMW driver was only ten points adrift of the fourth-placed Cook. Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble continued to lead the Independents race, with Darryl De Leon 23 points adrift in second and De Leon's West Surrey Racing teammate Rainford sat another six points back in third.
The Kwik Fit BTCC heads off to Knockhill in Scotland next for Rounds 16, 17 and 18 on the 8th and 9th of August.
The Kwik Fit BTCC heads off to Knockhill in Scotland next for Rounds 16, 17 and 18 on the 8th and 9th of August.