BTCC Croft 2026: Is Ash Sutton Now Britain's Greatest Touring Car Driver?
Drew Bentham · 7 min read
Croft has a habit of throwing up the round nobody quite predicts, and the championship's return to the circuit for rounds 22 to 24 kept that reputation fully intact, not least because Tom Ingram arrived as the reigning lap record holder in both qualifying and the race itself.
The circuit had already hosted the series twice before a wheel turned in competitive anger this weekend, with free pre season test days back in March and a further dedicated test day on the Friday before the triple header began, so nobody was short of track time going in. None of that stopped a weekend that opened under rain, moved through a title contender being put into the barrier, and closed with a safety car and a lone, costly spin from Ingram himself, the very driver those lap records belong to. Drew and Chris pick through all of it on this week's episode of The Motorsport Files.
Saturday brought the format change introduced for 2026, a single 40 minute free practice session followed by two part qualifying that set the grid for a new Saturday afternoon qualifying race, rather than deciding Sunday's order outright. Josh Cook took that race in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport, converting pole into a win by a little over a second and holding off the two NAPA Racing UK Fords of Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton in the process. It was a tidy way to open a weekend that was about to get considerably less tidy.
Rain fell for Sunday's opening points race and turned Croft into exactly the kind of afternoon it is known for producing. Tom Ingram crossed the line first on the road, only for a five second penalty for exceeding track limits to drop him to third once the stewards had reviewed it. That promoted Josh Cook to the win instead, after he had spent the closing laps fending off a last corner attack from Ash Sutton. Sutton took second, Ingram settled for third, and Dan Cammish, Ricky Collard, Daryl De Leon and Charles Rainford filled out the rest of the top seven at the first round of the BTCC at Croft. For a reigning champion who needed a strong weekend at Croft, losing a win to a penalty in changeable conditions was about as unhelpful a start as it gets.
Race two is where the weekend's real headline came from, and it arrived in the opening seconds. Ash Sutton went around the outside of pole sitter Josh Cook at Tower on the first lap, a move that needed both nerve and an accurate read of where the grip had gone, then simply eased away from the field for the rest of the race. It was his 55th career BTCC win, enough to move him past Gordon Shedden and into fifth on the sport's all time list, behind only Jason Plato, Colin Turkington, Matt Neal and Andy Rouse. Coming from a driver already sitting on four championships, that is the kind of milestone that turns a good season into a genuine conversation about where he belongs among the best the series has ever produced, which is exactly where Drew and Chris end up taking things on the podcast this week. Daniel Rowbottom and Ricky Collard both took five second penalties of their own for track limits but had banked enough of a gap to hold second and third regardless. Dan Cammish endured a miserable start to his race, recovered hard, made contact with Tom Ingram that sent the reigning champion into the barrier, and still came away with fourth. Charles Rainford took fifth ahead of Gordon Shedden, Dan Lloyd and Tom Chilton, while Aiden Moffat and Mikey Doble rounded out the top ten, which under Croft's reverse grid rule handed Power Maxed Racing the front row for race three.
The finale did what Croft finales tend to do and tore up the form book completely. Mikey Doble held off an early challenge from teammate Moffat to lead away from reverse grid pole, while further down the order a first lap clash between Dan Cammish and Ricky Collard set off a chain reaction that also swept up Ash Sutton and Daniel Rowbottom. A separate coming together between Lewis Selby and Aron Taylor Smith added to the mess and brought out the safety car. Tom Ingram, starting from 23rd after retiring from race two, had actually fought his way back into contention for a top five finish before spinning out on his own exiting Tower, closing out a weekend in which he scored points in only one of the three races. Sutton, caught up in the first lap incident, pitted for repairs, rejoined just long enough to pick up the fastest lap point, and then retired for good. Doble controlled the race from the front for his third career win and second of the season, with Tom Chilton and Gordon Shedden completing the podium. It was a dismal way for Ricky Collard to end his weekend, and it continues an unusually hard stretch for a driver whose funding situation was already touch and go coming out of Thruxton. This time the team have opted for a change rather than another extension, bringing in Japanese driver Osamu Kawashima for the final two rounds at Silverstone and Brands Hatch.
The bigger story of the weekend sits in the standings rather than any single race. Tom Ingram arrived at Croft still holding second in the championship and left having been overtaken by Dan Cammish, a direct result of scoring points in only one of three races while Cammish kept collecting them steadily across all three. Ash Sutton added another 17 points to his lead across the meeting. The table heading into the final two rounds now reads Sutton on 424, Cammish second on 309, some 115 points adrift, and Ingram third on 301, just eight further back. Two rounds remain, at Silverstone on the 26th and 27th of September and Brands Hatch on the 10th and 11th of October, and on this form it would take a serious swing from either Cammish or Ingram to catch a driver who just moved into the top five race winners the championship has ever had.
Round 22
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
1 | Josh Cook | Speedworks Corolla Racing | Toyota | — |
2 | Ash Sutton | NAPA Racing UK | Ford | +0.377s |
3 | Tom Ingram | Team VERTU | Hyundai | +2.416s |
4 | Dan Cammish | NAPA Racing UK | Ford | +6.711s |
5 | Ricky Collard | Team VERTU | Hyundai | +15.164s |
6 | Aiden Moffat | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi | +26.558s |
7 | Charles Rainford | WSR | BMW | +18.509s |
8 | Daniel Rowbottom | CPRL | Mercedes | +29.202s |
9 | Mikey Doble | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi | +29.461s |
10 | Lewis Gilbert | WSR | BMW | +29.815s |
15 laps. Ingram and Cammish both received five-second track-limits penalties; Daryl De Leon also received a 60-second penalty, while Charles Rainford was given a one-place penalty.
Round 23
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
1 | Ash Sutton | NAPA Racing UK | Ford | — |
2 | Daniel Rowbottom | CPRL | Mercedes | +6.073s |
3 | Ricky Collard | Team VERTU | Hyundai | +7.165s |
4 | Dan Cammish | NAPA Racing UK | Ford | +9.778s |
5 | Charles Rainford | WSR | BMW | +10.856s |
6 | Gordon Shedden | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | Toyota | +18.581s |
7 | Daniel Lloyd | Restart Racing | Hyundai | +20.335s |
8 | Tom Chilton | Team VERTU | Hyundai | +22.246s |
9 | Aiden Moffat | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi | +23.197s |
10 | Mikey Doble | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi | +23.657s |
15 laps. Sutton's victory was his 55th BTCC win, moving him ahead of Gordon Shedden and into fifth on the all-time winners' list. Rowbottom and Collard both retained their podium positions despite five-second track-limits penalties.
Round 24
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
1 | Mikey Doble | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi | — |
2 | Tom Chilton | Team VERTU | Hyundai | +2.502s |
3 | Gordon Shedden | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | Toyota | +4.420s |
4 | Josh Cook | Speedworks Corolla Racing | Toyota | +5.880s |
5 | Adam Morgan | CPRL | Mercedes | +10.316s |
6 | Aiden Moffat | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi | +20.221s |
7 | Daniel Lloyd | Restart Racing | Hyundai | +26.408s |
8 | Dexter Patterson | Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing | Audi | +27.703s |
9 | Daniel Rowbottom | CPRL | Mercedes | +28.483s |
10 | Ryan Bensley | Speedworks Corolla Racing | Toyota | +29.191s |
18 laps. Doble took his third career BTCC victory, with a first-lap incident involving Dan Cammish and Ricky Collard bringing out the safety car.
Championship standings after Croft
Pos | Driver | Points | Wins | 2nds | 3rds |
1 | Ash Sutton | 424 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
2 | Dan Cammish | 309 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
3 | Tom Ingram | 301 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
4 | Ricky Collard | 234 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
5 | Adam Morgan | 232 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
6 | Daniel Rowbottom | 232 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
7 | Josh Cook | 227 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
8 | Mikey Doble | 213 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
9 | Charles Rainford | 213 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
10 | Gordon Shedden | 211 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
Standings after Round 24. Sutton leads Cammish by 115 points, with Ingram a further eight points behind in third.
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