Three drivers, seven points between them, three races to go. That’s the tantalising prospect at Brands Hatch this weekend as the British Touring Car Championship heads for what has become its traditional nail-biting season finale.
Ash Sutton leads the way as he chases a record-equalling fourth crown, but Jake Hill and Tom Ingram both want to be champion for the first time, and with so little between the trio, predictions are futile.
What about Colin Turkington? The man who shares the record of four titles with Andy Rouse is a prime (and painful) example of the fine margins that can decide BTCC fates.
The Northern Irishman headed into the penultimate meeting at Silverstone on top of the standings, but a disastrous first race in which he was in the wrong place at the wrong time not once but twice left him on the back foot.
He has slumped to 27 points off Sutton’s tally, and although there are 67 still to play for at Brands, his hopes for a fifth crown must now be considered a long shot. Then again, to borrow from the late, great Murray Walker, anything can happen in the BTCC, and it usually does.
Sutton's hopes for the future
Before the season began, Sutton made it all too clear to Autocar where his racing priorities lie. “To come away with the most championships to my name at the end of my career would be the ultimate goal,” the 28-year-old told us. “We’re a long way down that path already, six years in and three championships down. It’s not a bad percentage. As long as we can maintain that, we’re on.”
If Sutton does join Rouse and Turkington this weekend as a four-time champion, there’s little doubt that it will be his finest achievement so far. Last winter, he sent shock waves through the BTCC by switching from the Laser Tools Infiniti Q50 in which he had just won consecutive titles to a new challenge with Motorbaserun Napa Racing’s Ford Focus ST.
New team, new car – and, more significantly, a switch from the rear-wheel-drive power delivery that he had mastered so completely to front-wheel drive. That’s a huge challenge in touring car terms, and to become champion – and at the first attempt since making the switch – would elevate Sutton from his already rarefied status as one of the BTCC’s best.
He probably wouldn’t need the fifth title for most people to consider him the series GOAT – greatest of all time. But given how much he has achieved already, few would bet against him clocking up five and more.
Naturally, Sutton took time to adjust and get into his full swing this season – although he still scored a podium at the first meeting of the year. It’s his relentless consistency and focus on the bigger picture, of nearly always scoring decent points even when victory is out of reach, that’s key to his fantastically effective approach. He has won three races since Knockhill at the end of July, but the Silverstone performance exemplified why he’s leading the way into the final knockings. Sixth, fourth, second: on a day when his car wasn’t the quickest in the field, he stuck to his long-game mission.
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