Champion-in-waiting Sutton set to make history at Silverstone

One of the redeeming features about the BTCC is how competitive it is. Sure enough, not since Alain Menu in 1997 has someone clinched the championship before the final weekend of the season, but that could change this weekend.

Ash Sutton has had an impeccable season. With the already good NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus seemingly taken as far as it could be, the team opted to rework it into the Focus Titanium Saloon this season. While a car not sold in the UK – a rule change permitting such cars being brought forward to this year – it’s given NAPA Racing UK the final piece of its puzzle.

The improved aerodynamic performance of a sedan rather than a hatchback has paid dividends this season with Sutton winning eight of 24 races so far and teammate Dan Cammish adding another two. NAPA Racing UK is the only team that has won at every track this year and the only team with two drivers holding multiple victories.

Of course, the adjusted shape of the car hasn’t been a silver bullet. The team is a perennial contender, so anything less would raise eyebrows. Plus, reigning champion Tom Ingram has had torrid luck all season, while Sutton himself has performed outstandingly.

The Ford Focus Titalium Saloon has built on the venerable hatchback's success.

Each race weekend consists of three championship rounds. Sutton has won at least one race at every weekend but one so far – that outlier being the Donington GP layout in August, where he still took two second places. He won twice on the shorter National layout at the start of the year, anyway, the only weekend where he has won twice.

All of that transpired to give Sutton a 115-point lead in the championship heading into this weekend’s penultimate trio of races on Silverstone’s National Circuit. After finishing 14th in the "Race To Pole" qualifying race, that gap over teammate Dan Cammish still sits at 115 points. Ingram, in third, is a further seven points back, with the rest of the top-10 separated by 22 points (although fifth placed Ricky Collared is not set to compete in the final two events/six races of the season).

But what does that mean?

Well, counting points for the qualifying race, each of the three Sunday races – plus points for fastest lap and leading a lap in Sunday races – a maximum (albeit unlikely due to results-dependent boost restrictions and tire allocations, and reverse grids) haul is 76. So if Sutton heads home with a 77-point lead on Sunday night, the title is his.

It could come before Sunday night as well. If Sutton gains five points on Cammish by the conclusion of Race 1, the title is his. A 98-point lead after Race 2 would secure it, too.

It’s a done deal, right? It might look that way to us on the outside, but speaking after Race 3 at Croft Circuit three weeks ago, Sutton refused to see it as a foregone conclusion.

“There's loads of scenarios that people don't actually take into consideration,” he stressed. “Everyone's sat there saying, ‘the championship this, championship, that’ but I'm still trying to keep myself grounded.

“Don't get me wrong, the points gap is almost like I've got one hand on a trophy, but anything can happen, and I genuinely actually mean that.

“Anything can happen still, so I can't count my chickens just yet.”

Sutton in first: something we've got very used to over the last decade

Nevertheless, a Sutton title is a familiar tale in recent seasons. His four previous crowns came in just the last nine seasons. In that time only two drivers have gone back-to-back – fellow-four-time-champion Colin Turkington in 2018/19 and Sutton the two years after that. This time, though, it’ll be truly historic.

Andy Rouse became the BTCC’s first four-time champion in 1985, 10 years after his first, when he won a third championship in a row. That had been done before (by Bill McGovern in 1970/71/72 and Win Percy in 1980/81/82), but nobody had done it in three different cars as Rouse had done. Rouse’s record stood alone until Turkington matched it in 2019, and it was only four more years before Sutton joined that very exclusive club. Now he’s on the verge of standing alone as the series’ first five-time champion in its 68-year history.

Sutton’s legendary status is already pencilled in, and this will undoubtedly score it in permanent ink. But while the championship record will be his and his alone – at least for now – the race win record is still one he’ll have to chase.

At 55 championship round wins, Sutton has the most of all active drivers, one ahead of Gordon Shedden. He's five behind fellow Rouse though, eight behind Matt Neal, 22 behind Turkington, and a distant 44 off race win record holder Jason Plato.

Some say that with the BTCC clearly cracked, Sutton should broaden his horizons and showcase his talent on the world stage. GTs and Australian Supercars have been touted as ideal potential destinations for the 32-year-old, although there’s nothing more to that than fans’ tongues wagging. But if he stays, championship titles might not be the only ‘most’ record he holds when he looks back on his career in years to come.

You can watch all three of Sunday’s races at Silverstone, and Sutton no doubt making history, live on RACER Network and RACER+.