Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram took a win apiece to gap the field in their chase to fit another BTCC title under their belts. Ecxelr8 Hyundai racer Ingram broke his 2025 duck with a race one win and a pair of second places to leave Thruxton nine points behind Sutton. The Alliance Ford driver had a varied day with a fourth and fifth beside a race two victory, with the duo dropping their third wheel over the last few terms – WSR BMW driver Jake Hill – down in fifth overall with Dan Rowbotton moving to third in the standings after a race three win.

Starting from second in race one Ingram challenged Sutton’s pole-sitting Focus from the opening lap as the pair went toe-to-toe in their own private up-front battle. Ingram hooked onto the back of Sutton as the pair – with two and one laps of TOCA Turbo Boost respectively- somehow managed to drop the boost laden field behind. Ingram went to the outside of Sutton at the top of Woodham Hill into the chicane and looked like he’d taken the lead but a safety car period, triggered by Max Hall having a moment in his Un-Limited Cupra at Goodwood, saw him and collected victim Sam Osborne (Alliance Ford) in the tyre barrier and out. For Hall the gearbox damage would end his day early.

When racing resumed Ingram wasted no time. The deployment of a lap of TTB allowed him to attack Sutton again. The Ford driver threw out his anchor at the very last moment and the car skittered on the brink of adhesion, and slid sideways into Ingram, sending both through the chicane in a shortcut.

Sutton, limited to one turbo boost lap as championship leader, tried to retaliate with four laps on the board but a loss of power would see first teammate Dan Cammish (let through,) then Josh Cook in his rebuilt Honda Civic – wrecked in a huge qualifying shunt yesterday – drop him to fourth by the flag.

Mikey Doble, in the sole Power Maxed Astra (teammate Nick Halstead being sidelined with a rib injury,) was continuing with form after his Snetterton win but retired with six laps to go after losing third to Cammish robbing the team of another possible podium.

Behind Sutton Dan Rowbottom claimed fifth with Hill in sixth. James Dorlin in a Speedworks Toyota bagged his first top 10 with seventh ahead of the returning Senna Proctor who’d qualified sixth in his Excelr8 Hyundai previously raced by Michael Crees and Ryan Bensley, but dropped off the pace to eighth in his first race weekend since the end of 2021. Darly DeLeon (WSR BMW) and Tom Chilton (Excelr8) rounded out the top 10.

Sutton delivered a commanding performance to claim victory in the second race. Starting fourth after a challenging opener, Sutton made a stunning move at the start, threading between Dan Cammish and Josh Cook before diving inside pole-sitter Tom Ingram into the complex at Allard to grab the lead. Capitalising on his four laps of TTB Sutton hit the button on lap two to build a 1.8-second gap lead. Ingram’s i30N clawed back a few tenths, but mid-race pressure from Cook kept him busy. Wary of track limits penalties, and unsettled by fluid spillage from Mikey Doble (having had his failed front end replaced lock, stock and barrel by the front of the Halstead machine) after an oil pipe dropping off, the One Motorsport racer couldn’t quite catch Ingram  – which would become academic after he crossed the line in third behind the championship leaders. After an early rub pulled the splitter, the car failed the post-race ride height check and was hit with a DSQ.

The mid-race spillage at Goodwood briefly disrupted Sutton’s rhythm, forcing him to manage a sideways slide. Behind the leaders Hill held fourth early but was overtaken Rowbottom at Segrave on lap seven. Hill then battled Adam Morgan’s Excelr8 Hyundai, but contact at the chicane sent Morgan wide. Morgan later faced a penalty for track-limits violations, dropping to 12^th, while Hill received a reprimand for forcing the Hyundai to crash through the chicane stacks.

A Rowbottom wide moment at Noble allowed Hill to reclaim fourth, but Rowbottom fought back, passing Hill at the chicane with five laps left. Cammish, who struggled after a poor start, overtook Hill on the penultimate lap, securing an Alliance Ford 1-4-5 finish. Cook’s post-race ride-height violation handed Rowbottom a podium. Cook attributed his car’s damage to early-race contact.

Proctor outbattled teammate Morgan for sixth, though Morgan’s penalty rendered the fight moot. Dorlin repeated a seventh once the penalties were handed out which was converted into the reversed-grid pole. Teammate Árón Taylor-Smith finished just behind with Chris Smiley and Dan Lloyd bringing the Restart Racing machines into the top 10, in what was turning into a mid-grid battle for points for the squad.

Rowbottom would take a win in race three – his second of the year – that would elevate him to third in the title fight. The reinvigorated NAPA racer, who seems to be revelling in the lighter cars this season put in a focussed drive to add to his silverware for the year. Starting fifth he would surge to third at the start and then to second when polesitter Dorlin ran a little off the line. But he had Jake Hill up front to hunt down and face-off against, which would only take two laps.

A mid-race safety car, triggered by Adam Morgan’s Hyundai crashing into a barrier after rubbing the grass, closed the order, and at the restart, Cammish took Hill at the chicane but used up his TTB, leaving him vulnerable. The field circulated and a loose Hill, with Sutton on the outside would slide wide and hit Sutton, sending the four-time champ into a looping spin, with only a loss of a couple of places down to seventh. After the Morgan incident earlier in the day, Hill would accrue four points on his license on a haphazard weekend.

Ingram, saving his TTB, challenged Cammish and took second from the Focus racer, but couldn’t close the gap to Rowbottom, who held on for the win. Proctor took fourth in his, while Sutton recovered to fifth, which could have been so much worse after the Hill incident. Taylor-Smith would take sixth ahead of Cook – who’d raced from the very back of the field after a trying weekend for driver and team. Chilton would take eighth with Lloyd ninth (after teammate Smiley was slung out for being underweight) with Gordon Shedden picking up tenth – equalling his best result of a, so far, nightmare return to the BTCC.

The points table dominance of Sutton (181) and Ingram (172) is such that after 12 rounds third place Rowbottom (132) is 40 points behind the Hyundai racer with Cammish on 128 and Hill on 114.