On the face of it, the results of all three of the races at the penultimate meeting of the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone last weekend were nothing unusual.
Jake Hill (MB Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport) powered to an imperious victory in a wet- or dry-tyred dilemma in race one, Ash Sutton chopped through the pack from a lowly starting position in race two to add a 10th win of the season in his NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus, while Colin Turkington underlined his superstar status with a race-three win in his WSR BMW.
However, the choppy waters to get there tested the drivers’ resilience to the max. Hill claimed race one to reignite his slim title hopes before a misfire-afflicted race two crushed them just as soon as they had caught fire. In that second race, Sutton’s climb from row 12 to win was one of the drives of the season.
Race three provided Sutton with a podium charge and means he has wrapped one hand an four fingers of the other on the championship silverware with one meeting remaining.
However, reigning champion Tom Ingram will simply not roll over and give up the trophy. The Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai man’s fortunes shadowed those of Sutton and he claimed another two podiums. That means he will head to Brands Hatch in early October some 45 points adrift of his Ford Focus rival with a maximum of 67 to play for.
In any other championship, that might seem like an insurmountable gap but, don’t forget, this is the BTCC.
Race 1
The major championship players were up against it in qualifying. While the limited hybrid boost usage for the top men had not been a major factor on Saturdays leading up to this point, the challenge on the national circuit was going to be the most demanding test for those without the extra
