The British Touring Car Championship returned to Donington’s GP layout for the first time since 2002, with Ashley Sutton looking to cement his championship lead.
A crash in practice for Dan Cammish forced him to withdraw from the weekend, taking him out of the championship battle. In qualifying, Sutton pulled out a mega lap to take pole position with Tom Ingram in second and Ricky Collard in third. Jake Hill qualified sixth but started ninth due to a grid penalty for his collision with teammate Stephen Jelley at Knockhill.
Race 1
Ingram’s title chase got off to the best start he could have hoped for, as Sutton suffered from wheelspin on the wet side of the track to fall to third behind Ingram and Collard. However, this would not last for long as Sutton picked off Collard and made an impressive move on Ingram that started at the Melbourne hairpin to take the lead, before roaring off into the distance. Sutton would eventually win by seven seconds and take the fastest lap, extending his championship lead.
Meanwhile, Hill came from ninth on the grid to take third after a series of impressive moves; his BMW 330e M Sport proved to be imperious in sector two as he made most of his moves into McLeans, Coppice and the Fogarty Esses. He would come close to taking second off Ingram with a move around the outside of the final corner on the final lap, but was forced onto the slippery kerb and had to settle for third on track as the two crossed the line side by side. After the race, he was promoted to second as Ingram incurred a penalty for his move at the last corner, leaving him third. Collard held on from Colin Turkington’s race long pressure to take fourth as the four time champion did not have the pace of his BMW teammate.
Aron Taylor-Smith took sixth place and with it the victory in the independent’s championship in his Vauxhall Astra, holding off Josh Cook for the length of the race in the leading Honda Civic Type R. In the Jack Sears Trophy, Andrew Watson took the win with ninth place overall to take the lead of the championship from his Vauxhall teammate Mikey Doble, making this a fruitful race for the CarStore Power Maxed Racing team.
Race 2
There were battles up and down the field as Ingram made up a precious few points on Sutton’s championship lead. Starting third, Ingram dived down the inside of Old Hairpin at the bottom of the hill to take third away from Hill, and set about chasing Sutton. On lap four, Ingram dived down Sutton’s inside at Redgate and completed the move at Old Hairpin, with the two running side by side down the Craner Curves. Ingram showed solid place as he held on to take his second victory of the year by almost three seconds, while Sutton spent the rest of his race defending from the BMWs of Hill and Turkington. Hill tried and tried again to get past the Ford Focus ST, but Sutton placed his car in all the right places and remained unfazed even as Hill drew alongside on multiple occasions. They crossed the line bumper to bumper, with Sutton second, Hill third and Turkington fourth.
Josh Cook got past Aron Taylor-Smith and Collard in the early stages of the race to take fifth place, and with it another independents’ win for One Motorsport. Taylor-Smith fell down the order as he was unable to repeat his impressive pace in race 1, finishing 10th after an almighty battle with Adam Morgan, who finished ninth, and Tom Chilton who ended up 11th. The Vauxhalls of Doble and Watson battled hard during the race in their battle for the Jack Sears trophy, making contact multiple times and allowing Dexter Patterson to take advantage and sandwich the pair. Watson won the battle to finish 16th overall, extending his lead in the Jack Sears Trophy to just 10 points.
In preparation for race 3, Ingram pulled 12 for the reverse grid draw. This means that Dan Lloyd will start on pole after his 12th place in race 2 in front of Chilton and Taylor-Smith. Ingram, Sutton and Hill have it all to do from 12th, 11th and 10th on the grid, and all have teammates in front who may be looking to help them out and hinder their rivals in the championship.
Race 3
A dramatic race 3 saw Rory Butcher take his first win of the year in the Toyota Corolla GR Sport, having taken the lead on the final lap from Dan Lloyd. Lloyd started on pole and led most of the race, soaking up Butcher’s pressure, before a rear suspension problem left him stranded in the gravel at Coppice and unable to continue. Aron Taylor-Smith capped off a strong weekend for Vauxhall with second and another win in the independents’ championship, holding off Adam Morgan’s BMW.
The drama began before the race even started, with Tom Chilton being handed a five second penalty for being lined up incorrectly in his grid box. Chilton would then gradually fall down the order, eventually being classified in 12th having started in second. Butcher picked off Morgan and Taylor-Smith to take second in the early stages of the race, while the title rivals of Sutton, Ingram and Hill battled hard for every position. Sutton and Ingram in particular shared an intense battle in which Ingram won out, with Turkington and Hill in front of the pair.
Jake Hill hit the tyre barrier on the inside of the Fogarty Esses on lap 6, damaging the BMW and leaving debris strewn across the track. Lloyd made a good restart but Butcher continued to apply the pressure throughout the rest of the race. Behind him, a puncture on Daniel Rowbottom’s car caused carnage behind as Ingram was caught out by the damaged Ford, allowing the opportunistic Sutton to overtake the pair and the BMWs of Hill and Turkington.
Sutton would eventually finish fifth behind Ricky Collard, with Turkington in sixth and Ingram seventh. Hill managed to finish eighth while missing half of his bumper, giving Sutton an even larger championship lead. Sam Osborne took the win in the Jack Sears Trophy with ninth overall.
If all goes well for Sutton while Ingram and Hill are hit with a torrid weekends, he could potentially wrap the championship up at the next round at Silverstone. He currently leads the championship by 42 points from Ingram and with only 67 points available each weekend, a gain of 26 points on Ingram and 6 on Hill will see him become champion for a record-equalling fourth time. Turkington is realistically only mathematically in with a shout, as he will need to gain 33 points on Sutton to have a chance going into the season finale at Brands Hatch, and even then will need to overturn a further 66 point deficit. After Cammish’s withdrawal from the weekend, those four are the only ones with a mathematical chance of the title. It is advantage Sutton then after Donington Park.
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